The episode i chose to analyze comes from a TV show that's been on air for quite a while. "Friends". To give a little background on this show and episode that i watched it comes from the first season. There are six character who are all connected over a small period of time. The two characters Ross and Rachel tend to be two of the most important characters to me because of their background history. Rachel has moved into an apartment with her friend Monica because she recently divorced her husband. Ross is very attracted to Rachel and he continues to try and tell her how much he loves her but he also has an ex-wife who is now a lesbian that is having his baby. This shows displays a lot of heterosexuality couples or groupings. Carol, Ross' wife, is sometimes considered to be out of the ordinary because she is lesbian but none of them make a big deal about it.
The Episode I am analyzing Focus mainly on one seen out of the episode. In this scene Joey is trying to teach Ross how to talk dirty to a female. While Ross is in the act of talking dirty to Joey, Chandler happens to sneak in from behind and catch the last of Ross' words. They all find it funny but with Chandler not knowing whats going on, it puts a bad look on Joey and Ross. This draws from minoritizing discourses because everyone is considered to practice hegemony unless they come out and say otherwise (Lull "Hegemony"). The only character in 'Friends" that is known to be lesbian is Ross' ex-wife, so everyone Else is considered straight. This scene also draws from minoritizing discourse because while Joey is pretending to be Ross' female friend, Ross has to perform in a feminine way as if Joey is a girl standing right in front of him. Joey begins to act overly feminine while Ross takes his time to tell "her" how he wants to corress her butt and body. I found this to be one of the most important parts in the episode but i don't want to leave out the way they displayed their minoritizing sexuality.
Each time i watch "Friends' i always typically see the guys competing for masculinity. Whether is Joey and Chandler, Chandler and Ross or Ross and Joey they all seem to have a desire to impress women by either how strong they are or how women would react to them fixing on things. In this episode Ross and Chandler meet two very beautiful ladies who happen to be their next door neighbors. Their refrigerator happens to break and Joey and Chandler end up arguing over who can fix it better just so they would have a chance to enter the women's home. Eventually they get tired of seeing both men argue and shut the door. Joey and Chandler argue a lot about who has more masculinity and most of the time this stops both of them from succeeding in anything.
This show did not show much of any universalizing discourses because everyone represented their sexuality, race and gender in the same way. The only one who would have been different from any of them was Carol Ross' ex wife who didn't play a part in this episode at all. For the most part i observe how the men and women on Friends express their sexuality, gender and race so this is how i observe the minoritizing discourses.
Overall in this show I see that the friends tend to perform to outside the norms. Joey and Ross acting out a sexual conversation is not something that men, masculine men would normally do, at least I don’t think so. They are all very different from each other, and the show focuses on those differences and how they use discourses to except or reject others. All of the friends are white, middle class, and fit. How they act is what is so different and how they approach sexuality. I agree that all of the guys try to be overly masculine; however I don’t believe they succeed. Ross and Chandler are both guys who never say the right thing, admitting to hobbies that are not masculine, such as Ross’ studies of dinosaurs. To most people he is a “geek”, and Chandler never says the right things to girls and in other episodes mentions his parent’s queer lifestyle.
ReplyDeleteTrue, Ross’ wife is a lesbian and this hurts his pride as a man, though she is pregnant with his child. Carol being a lesbian is acting outside the norm, but for the most part is accepted. There is not any exclusion of her based on her new lifestyle. "All soap opera marriages have within them the seeds of their own distruction" (Fiske, 470). Marriages are not good plotlines, and though this is not a soap opera it does show ended marriages multiple times, so that most people view it.
Rachel being newly divorced at her age is true of the 90s. Many women were getting divorced, and is something we talked about in class as the historical timeline of women and wives. Rachel now must find a way to adapt to having less and being alone. This is the norm for women as we know it, but most women who find themselves divorced are usually pictured with minorities. Maybe because she has no children and was at one point wealthy, she is shown as white, middle class.
The majority of the friends fit the norm and there is not a need for Universalizing discourses, except with Carol who is accepted. The rest of the friends show doesn’t show too many minoritizing discourses of the friends, but they are at times judgmental of people who are different in other episodes. Phoebe is usually the one that intentionally acts outside the norms, and so over all there are times when minoritizing discourses are used in this show, one episode was when Rachel and Phoebe go running and Phoebe doesn’t run gracefully, Rachel intentionally tries to get away from her.
Fiske, John. 'Gendered Television"
I think that your blog brought up alot of good points about the show. While, the show does use a lot of minoritizing discourses, such as the main characters all being heterosexual, I think the show also uses quiet a few universalizing discourses. I have only seen a handful of episodes of Friends, so the small things that I have seen that show universalizing discourses might be one time things only.
ReplyDeleteFor the most part the men in the show are the stereotypical males. They are strong, masculine characters. However, there have been a few instances where Chandler has been overly emotional and open about his feelings, which is not considered a typical male trait. The other characters accept this because that is Chandler's personality. This would fall under a universalizing discourse because it is outside of the normal male characteristics.
I do agree however that the show is mostly full of minoritizing discourses. The main cast of the show are all white, middle class, heterosexual characters, and universalizing discourses are not touched on too frequently.