I will be focusing on gender roles. Men are always seen as the dominant person, the head of the household meanwhile women are expected to depend on men and be a stay at home wife who only enjoys the money and socializes with friends.
The artifact for analysis that I will be using is the show “F.R.I.E.N.D.S”. I will mainly be focusing on Season 1 and a little on Season 8. I will be focusing on how Rachel was someone who did not work, was not independent and who was going to marry Barry simply because he was a professional and wealthy. At some point in the show Rachel’s sister Amy talks about marring and older guy because of his wealth. When Rachel decides not to get married her father makes it seem as Rachel wont make it out alone without his money. Rachel is forced to live without the luxury she was used to and is forced to live with Monica and get a job. Through out the seasons Rachel evolves and she gets her dream jobs. Another example of gender roles in this show is when Rachel gets pregnant and Ross offers to marry her because he does not believe she would be able to do it a lone without him by his side. This is a great example as to how men feel as if women will not be able to accomplish being financially stable for their children without their help.
OK – you will need to use some course concepts, which you have. You might think about class and whiteness/race as things to discuss. While Rachel is “independent” she is also very privileged with lots of resources available to help her.
Thank you for your feed back Professor.
Hi Ligia, thank you for sharing. You really made me want to watch this show ” F.R.I.E.N.D.S” because I believe It shows how women can also be independent and be something without the help of any man. I Can wait to read your draft.
I love the show F.R.I.E.N.D.S and I think it is a great example of gender roles. I think you can dive deeper into all the relationships between the core set of characters. Their relationships show a variety of complex interactions and reversals of gender roles. An example is Joey and chandler, they have a interesting ‘husband and wife’ set up but they are two males.