4.2.6

Friends 2

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Gender Stereotypes

Gender stereotypes are utilised in Friends.

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Rachel

  • Rachel can be seen as the stereotypical female as she is attractive and is seen to be financially reliant on men in the first episode: her father and her to-be husband.
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Monica

  • Monica can be seen as a stereotype in some ways as she seems maternal as she attempts to care for each character, particularly Ross and Rachel in this episode.
  • However, Monica can also be seen as a countertype in this episode as she is a strong woman who is sexually liberated shown through the involvement of Paul ‘the wine guy’ in the narrative.
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Phoebe

  • Phoebe can be seen as a stereotype of a hippie during the 90s period as she is interested in reflexology and dresses in a quirky way.
  • However, she does not suit the conventional stereotype of a woman as she doesn’t seem to care about her appearance or rely on men to be happy.
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Joey

  • Joey can be seen as a stereotypical man as he is shown to be hyper masculine through the choice of his costume including a black leather jacket.
  • This is furthered through the language he uses when referring to women as ‘ice cream’.
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Ross

  • Ross can be seen as a metrosexual man as he is very in touch with his emotions, shown immediately in the opening scene where he describes the hurt he is feeling after his wife has moved out.
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Chandler

  • Chandler can also be seen as a metrosexual man as he engages with the women in the narrative as easily as the men and shows an interest in others emotions.

Uses and Gratifications

Friends can offer audiences uses and gratifications pleasures.

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Diversion

  • Friends can offer audience members diversion as the narratives are presented as being realistic, however nothing too serious ever happens as it is a comedy.
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Personal relationships

  • Audiences can gain personal relationships through watching Friends as it was such a huge, global hit the majority of people will have some experience of Friends and so will act as a point for conversation.
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Surveillance

  • Friends can offer the audience a sense of surveillance as the comedy is supposed to be realistic and follow the same characters in similar locations.
  • In the case of Friends, audiences will gain an understanding of shared living spaces and be able to see how the characters react and deal with different events in life.
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Convergence

  • As Friends was released in 1994, technology was not as developed and so they were unable to utilise convergence when the programme first aired.
  • However, there is now a Facebook page for Friends which is liked and followed by thousands of audience members globally.
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Netflix

  • Friends is also now available on Netflix which offers opportunities to appeal to younger audience who may not have been alive at the time of first broadcast.

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