Friends: The One with The Mask

Have you noticed or you already realized that in each season of Friends, there is always one episode talking about Thanksgiving. Today, we are looking into the one in season 3 -- The One with The Football (Episode 9). Yes, it is the one when Ross and Monica restart the annual GELLER CUP!

(It disturbs me somehow...)

 

Gender Dynamics

• Men act, Women are
• At one moment of their football game, their ball is thrown too far away that a Dutch girl, Margha, who is at the side of the field stops the ball for them. Then, Chandler and Joey start talking with her. Both of them have the thoughts of hitting on her. This is the example of Margha being the pretty special girl while Chandler and Joey are trying to act tough during the football game to win her heart and attention. (Boys need actions to make themselves special.)

• Men are strong, women are pretty
• When girls are in the same team, Ross says something like "We are not going to fight girls." It implies that they think men are stronger and it would be unfair for them to compete with girls. On top of that, later on at the game, girls use their physical attraction to distract boys as one of their strategies, such as Phoebe flashing Chandler with boobs to get the ball from him. Even at the end of the episode, when Monica and Ross are fighting over the ball while everyone as already left, She says "Let go, I'm a tiny little woman!" This also indicates the ideology that women are physically more vulnerable.

Gender Tropes

• Gender-equal ensemble
• As we all know, Friends is a comedy depicting the life of 3 male and 3 female characters. Among the 6 protagonists, they are equally important to the show with a similar amount of plots going on. As a result, it is an example of a gender-equal ensemble. However, one of the drawbacks of the characters is that there is lacking race diversity; all of them are white.

• Cannot talk to women
• If you are an old fan of the show, I think the answer to this type of trope definitely pops out of your mind right away. Without a doubt, it is definitely Chandler! When he starts talking to Margha, he becomes this quirky, shy, embarrassing guy who talks in a weird way. This has been one of his main feature as a character. On the other hand, Joey is a womanizer who hits up on girls as if it is as easy as breathing the air!

• I have boobs, you must obey!
• Continuing form example of Men are strong, women are pretty, Phoebe shows her boobs by lifting up her top while all Chandler does is just being dumbfounded and stops all the movements. This scene objectifies women's breasts and also have the stereotype that men love boobs, so women can use it as a tool to get men's attention.

(Here it comes AGAIN!)

Friends being a classic show in American TV history, it has been almost everyone's all-time favorite. However, a show like this also addresses the ideology and the standard of "how boys or girls should be/act like". In the short film, The Mask You Live In, it discusses

1. how boys are "trained" and "taught" to be tough with displaying their emotions been seen as weakness.

Being tough has also been considered as a way to get girls. Otherwise, you will be treated as a more "feminine" guy. In this episode, Chandler and Joey demonstrate the ideology perfectly, since they are always showing off and trying to impress Margha during the game.

2. Women have defaulted as physically weaker ones comparing to men.

In the short film, they mention a sentence while shooting the scene related to basketball -- "don’t play like a girl." It is similar when Ross, Joey, and Chandler are in the same team competing with girls. Ross is complaining and the unfairness and inequality of the game because "MEN ARE STRONGER THAN WOMEN."

Our parents taught us how to "properly behave according to our physical genders", so that we can "fit in" to our society. We treat this as something natural that everyone follows as if this rule has been here since the appearance of human cultures. What we never think of is that this ideology has been embedded within our daily lives through something as common as media, which we encounter and use every day. And step by step, the idea becomes part of our society.