With my final blog post, I am choosing to do option 3, a Queer Analysis on a TV show episode. Yet again, I will be attempting to expose another one of my favorite shows and today's choice will be, Friends. If you have never watched the show, it revolves around a group of friends that all live in New York and the series lasted throughout the 1990s. Now for the sake of the show, I do believe that a lot of the shows most non popular gimmicks, were due to the TV show being a product of its time. But the show and the popularity it carries will definitely be worth the analysis.
The episode that I will be analyzing, "Barbie & G.I. Joe & "Bea," included a conflict of interest with one of the main characters and his sons mothers. Key character, Ross, was the father to a toddler son and co-parented with his Ex-wife and her now girlfriend. When they came to drop their son off to Ross, the kid was playing with a Barbie doll and it caught Ross's attention. He began to question why his son was playing with a Barbie doll and the two mothers began to question his insecurity with the toy. They continued to ask him what the real issue was and if it had anything to do with the son having two mothers. Of course with Ross not wanting to look like a terrible person, he claimed that he had no issue with it but once the mothers left, Ross tried over and over again to convince his son to play with a G.I. Joe toy instead (as seen in the picture above). Ross's friends would ask him what the problem is but he would just continue to pop up with more masculine toys and try to get him away from the Barbie. Later in the episode when the mothers came to pick the kid up, Ross insisted that his son wanted the G.I. Joe toy instead but Ross's very own sister called him out. She asked him why he cared so much about the toy, when he would dress up as a girl when he was little and sing all day.
Looking at this in a Queer response, you could see that Ross is attaching sexuality to his sons doll of choice. It is obvious that he does this because he gets scared of his son playing with the dolls and immediately tries to get him to like different toys that have been traditionally given to boys because of the masculinity attached. This is not something that has disappeared as it is not only attached to toys but it is attached to colors as well. Boys wear blue and girls wear pink. Or boys wear jeans and girls wear dresses. You will also see examples of heteronormativity as Ross is afraid that his son playing with a barbie doll will sway his sons sexuality. If this was his daughter, he would be completely ok with the doll but he isn't viewing different sexual preferences as on the same level as being straight. He is an afraid father who wants his son to fit in to the traditional boy role. Ross is very scared of being called anything but straight as you see towards the end of the episode where he runs to the bathroom when his sister teases him for dressing like a girl in his childhood days. These insecurities were tools used by a lot of the shows in the 90s to create content.
While I love the show Friends, they too leave the door open for analysis. When reviewing the episode from a Queer Analysis, you could see the issues within the episode. Weather their agenda was to promote equality or tease other sexuality with this episode, it still leaves a great room for observation and it allows us to point things out. It gets scarier and scarier when watching some of our favorite TV shows and Friends hold no exception. It is ok to enjoy it while still looking deep into is, just like everything else considered media. Friends just happened to have some not so great parts.
This was a great analysis and you chose a great episode that I am pretty sure a lot of guys can relate to because we were all little kids that played with anything so I almost positive that we ran into an altercation like this one with our parents. I agree that we have these traditions that have been followed for years and even though we might say it is okay to do something in front of other people, we still rethink that and usually the answer is no. At least now we are starting to evolve. -Christian
I never watched all of friends, but I am surprised this was included in an episode. I completely do not agree with the whole gender roles and stereotypes. We are in a time now where a lot of parents let their children decide exactly who they want to be, aside from gender norms. I hope that the world also decides this is the best thing for children, and do not act like Ross in this episode.
Its interesting how gender roles play such a large part in the kind of toys that children play with. From a psychoanalytic perspective, it would seem that Ross's reaction to his sons choice to play with dolls stems from his own deeply entrenched sexual insecurities.
This was a great analysis and you chose a great episode that I am pretty sure a lot of guys can relate to because we were all little kids that played with anything so I almost positive that we ran into an altercation like this one with our parents. I agree that we have these traditions that have been followed for years and even though we might say it is okay to do something in front of other people, we still rethink that and usually the answer is no. At least now we are starting to evolve.
ReplyDelete-Christian
I never watched all of friends, but I am surprised this was included in an episode. I completely do not agree with the whole gender roles and stereotypes. We are in a time now where a lot of parents let their children decide exactly who they want to be, aside from gender norms. I hope that the world also decides this is the best thing for children, and do not act like Ross in this episode.
ReplyDeleteIts interesting how gender roles play such a large part in the kind of toys that children play with. From a psychoanalytic perspective, it would seem that Ross's reaction to his sons choice to play with dolls stems from his own deeply entrenched sexual insecurities.
ReplyDelete