Friends

        Unfortunately the episode I decided to watch was one about an engagement so obviously there was a lot of talk about guys with the girls. There are three girls in the show and they all do talk so it passes two of the three criteria and as many episodes as I have seen they do talk about things other than men but it is definitely one of the most popular topics. 

This assignment has definitely surprised me more than expected. When reading the instructions for what we are supposed to be paying attention to and the criteria for the Bechdel test, i honestly thought it was going to be bogus. I thought it was one of those things where people had only looked at a couple different examples and came to the conclusion of how shallow some women characters could be. But after trying my hardest to pay attention I have noticed a pretty sting theme. Of course there are the crime shows and others of those sorts that the women characters are actually productive and don't talk about men all the time, however if you look at the popular sitcoms shows there is hardly anything else that they do talk about. 

Whether they are talking about shopping or boys it is always very materialistic and almost prissy. There are times in Friends that they do talk about things like their jobs and family but it is definitely the minority and rarely does it get much deeper than the surface. With this assignment I tried to look at the whole show remembering everything I have learned thus far in my two education classes and began to notice a couple other things. For one thing the personalities of the six main characters. Two of the men are very successful and with minor exceptions pretty normal. While the girls are have huge extreme personalities. Rachel is all about boys and shopping and is supposed to be considered spoiled, Phoebe is dumb and just in her own world and Monica is very OCD and bossy. The writers made the woman actors very stereotypical which i had not noticed until now. 

Having to view media in these ways this week has kind of made it hard to view it in any other way. I have started looking at every thing including commercials, shows, movies and advertisements and have noticed how girls are made to look on them which I don't think i have before. There are always exceptions but for what i have seen, most women are portrayed very dependent. Im sure that is a huge impact on how young girls are brought up and what they are made to think of themselves.