F.R.I.E.N.D.S is a popular American tv sitcom created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman. The story revolves around a group of six friends named Monica, Chandler, Ross, Rachel, Joey and Phoebe. This is a comedy which is well received and appreciated by my generation ,
Chandl er’s sarcasm, Joey ‘s humour, Monica ‘s obsession with cleanliness, Ross ‘s mistakes and lastly phoebe’s soothing yet hilarious music is how we identify FRIENDS in today’s world.
FRIENDS has taught us how adults are progressing in the world in a very comical way. This tv sitcom is considered a very progressive one for its ‘s generation as it highlighted problems which we re consider ed not normal to be discussed on a national platform like television at that particular time. However , through this assignment I intend to highlight the social issues that I observed in FRIENDS.
Written below are the social issues I feel the tv sitcom highlighted.
Six friends named Joey, Rachel, Chandler, Monica, Ross and Phoebe were dependent on themselves.
By watching F.R.I.E.N.D. S. we can observe that the young people in the show were dependent on themselves. They are not dependent on their parents. They do jobs and earn their daily bread. Although they did face problems such as unemployment, not having sufficient money but we need to understand that being independent is not only limited to earning money, being independent is also about learning to make your own decisions, facing difficulties and being both mentally and physically at peace with oneself.
Being independent is a social issue because it comes with a lot of challenges which in this tv series was highlighted in a comical way.
Carol was the first wife of Ross, they were divorced because Carol was a lesbian. Carol was in a relationship with a girl named Susan, we even witnessed their wedding. But what was more interesting was that Carol and Susan were raising Ben on their own. This particular incident is a social issue because belonging to a different sexual orientation is not accepted well in our society, because the mindset of our society is limited only to hetrosexual relationships but through this show the stereotype was broken as it was the first time a lesbian wedding was shown in television.
In this point we are talking about how Rachel left her fianc? at the altar as she wanted to live alone and away, although she did face difficulties like finding a job and handling her expenses as she came from a very rich household where servants were always around her and whatever she desired was available but now, when she left her life of comfort and went to earn a living herself. We observed her progress in every season of the show including her ups and downs, we saw how Rachel became independent in every aspect. W e can say that Rachel was a portrayal of how a women of this era should be.
In this tv series we observed that Rachel was bearing Ross’s child Emma. Rachel turned down proposals of both Ross and Joey as she wanted to do so. Rachel raised Emma on her own by co -parenting with Ross. Being a single mother in our society is considered a taboo as nobody expects a woman to raise a child alone because the mindset of people in our society is limited to thinking that a woman can’t raise a child and manage herself alone. It is also seen in our society that a single mother has to face harsh judgements of society as people have already started thinking that she is weak but Rachel proved that she was strong and very cooperative with Ross as they were raising Emm a together.
Joey in a particular episode is seen wearing a shoulder unisex bag for which he was mocked and judged as people assumed him to be “gay ” or “girly ” this happened bec ause society has a particular mindset of how a man should be or act like which is sexist. We have also seen how Joey expresses his liking towards applying makeup for which he became a laughing stock for his friends. This is a very important social issue highlighted in this tv series as a viewer we may laugh through out the episode but if we introspect, we understand how liking more feminine things does not make one less or more “manly “.
In a particular episode we see that Rachel hires a male nanny who ‘s extremely well qualified but this does not go well with Ross . Ross basically represents a typical mindset of a stereotypical society where men are supposed to do the work which requires extreme labour and women are supposed to be more homely or do work which does not require much of the physical labour. In this episode viewers observe how Ross is very adamant about removing the nanny from his job by mocking him and it was done on purpose by Ross as he knew that nanny was sensitive.
In an episode audience we see how Ben is playing with a barbie to which Ross reacts in a very abrupt manner which can be defined as a male chauvinist and a very sexist behaviour. Upon seeing barbie in the hands of Ben, Ross in shock and angrily asks “why is my son playing with a barbie? “, Ross even blames Carol and Susan for making Ben play with barbies, it is also seen that Ross tries to incline Ben towards more “boyish ” toys. During the end of the episode we see how even Ross was playing with barbies and holding a kitty party in his garden. W e can clearly observe an ironic and hypocrite behaviour.
Throughout the ten episodes of FRIENDS one thing that was consistent was fat shaming Monica. It was obvious that Monica was fat during high school but it became a relentless punchline which was very offensive. It was extremely embarrassing when Joey shouts and says that “some girl ate Monica ” when they were watching a video of Monica preparing for her prom while eating a sandwich. In all the ten seasons Monica ‘s friends never let her forget about the time when she was fat. This is a social issue because even in our society we have few people who keep reminding us about how we look and how we should try and be more “appealing “.
It’s no secret that there was an underlying homophobic and transphobic tone to FRIENDS, but particularly with the character of Chandler. Chandler ‘s mom played by Kathleen Turner was a transgender Vegas drag queen, something of which Chandler was constantly embarrassed. Chandler’s dad was always a butt of jokes for his sexual orientation who is never referred with right pronouns . The gang does n’t hold back questioning the genitalia chandler ‘s dad has which is super invasive. This is a social issue as it creates significant stresses for transgender people which can lead them to feel ashamed, low self-esteem, alienation and inadequacy. Transgender youth often try to cope with the stress by running away from home, dropping out of school, using drugs or self harming.
Ross became an obsessive and controlling boyfriend to Rachel, which was an extremely toxic trait. He was so obsessive that he didn’t even trust Rachel when she went out for dinner with her friend Mike and stalked her completely. Although it was hilarious to watch back then but if you watch it with a perception in your mind you happen to feel extremely uncomfortable and toxic.
Initially when Rachel was finding a stable job for herself she had to work in a coffee shop called central perk. Rachel thought her job of being a waitress at the coffee house extremely small compared to her friends who were all doing a well to do job. It was then Rachel’s friends made her realise that her job was not small as she was doing it for herself and not to appeal the masses. Through this episode we can also observe how difficult it is to adjust in a new surrounding and starting from a scratch, and all the jobs should be well appreciated in this society.
This point highlight s the relationship shared between Monica and Richard. Often society view s the relationship between lovers who share a huge age difference in a very pessimistic manner as they think that one or the other is either a gold digger or for some other personal reasons they are together. However, FRIENDS showed the relationship between Richard and Monic an in a very mature manner which is indeed commendable.
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