Gender in Sitcoms - Friends

Gender in sitcoms focuses on the stereotypical view of women and men which they then extend and exaggerate. This is for the humorous side of television as well as the controversial views.

Males tend to be strong and powerful as well as being represented as being wealthier and dominant, with better cars, jobs and clothing. Females are then secondary characters and not equal to male characters, they are viewed as less humorous and there to be mocked. Many sitcoms use women's sexual power to attract both male and female viewers because men will want to watch and women are watching for escapism and influential.

Male - stereotypically attractive for the women to want to watch/ diversity in the male characters/ metrosexual and then masculine/ joey is seen as the most masculine/ sexist jokes are also used throughout the sitcom which would go against what feminist feel is appropriate/ 'crying' shows a more metrosexual approach to the male stereotype/ feminine clothing which is contradicting the strong side of men/ men wearing suits/ one dumb male and then the smart ones are still being seen as stupid/ metrosexual sides are shown/ other man is seen as strong and wealthy/ vulnerable/ mocking femininity/ maternal side is seen as humorous because its a male doing it/ mocking the women's role in the relationship between Joey and Chandler/ mocking women's response to fashion/ stupid/ doesn't know what to do with female things/ weak and love women/ refer to women as 'chick'/ has feelings for her/

Female - attractive/ long hair, make up/ slim 8-10/ easily hurt/ clumsy - but also sexual connotations that leads to male fantasy / dumb and not knowing they are/ making fun of men and getting away with it/ women knows about maternal information/ clever and read men easily/ argumentative/ given a bad name/ strong/ weak and need help/ hooker reference/ stupid and keeping things from each other/ in the dark/ annoying/ need males help and need them there are all the time/ need a man to giver her a good job/ falls in love with men for different reasons - power and loyalty.

MALE GAZE THEORY

3 female characters giving the false idea of self and the ideal women image. stereotypically beautiful and because they all have different colour hair they hit the different looks of a woman. very attractive and typically styled and perfection is key. Anything that is made popular from the women's look - hair cut and colour and fashion. All the ideas are either being constructed by the television makers or the public.

ALTHUSSERS INTERPELLATION

it is keeping people in their place during the whole stereotype, because we want the things that we are seeing, the three male characters are also stereotypically attractive as well. Sex and the city - women are told they want something so they begin to believe that they want it. even talk about men,

CONSTRUCT -

all the stereotypes shown of women are unrealistic and lean towards the stereotypically view of a women and idealize the view, women aren't getting the ideal view of life that they want but that is unable to get.