Primary Research

Surveys

In order to get a better understanding of how Friends' audience perceives the gender representations that the TV show constructs, I thought it would be a good idea to carry out some primary research asking various members of the audience their thoughts on the topic. Click here to see a blank copy of the survey.

Unfortunately, due to the length of the survey and the detail required, I only managed to get 3 participants to answer it. This is also partly due to the knowledge of the TV show needed in order to answer it. Because of this, I am also going to carry out another primary research task. Below are scanned images of the completed surveys.

Participant 1

The results from this survey are:

1. The participant does think that there are gender stereotypes represented in Friends
2. The participant does not feel that the representations makes them "feel more in touch with the characters", but they do make the show more enjoyable to watch
3. Both genders are equally stereotypically represented. (Participant has given the example of the character's reaction to after Rachel and Ross kiss - "The one with the List" 2.08)
4. The participant feels that the gender roles established are not stereotypical of other sitcoms at the time of the show.
5. (After watching a clip from "The one with George Stephanopoulous) The participant made two lists - one with the title "Girls" and one with the title "Guys" as a way of listing any gender related comments or remarks in the clip. Under Girls, she wrote: girly screaming, overreacting, shopping and body image as gender related comments made in a 1 minute 30 clip. Under Guys, she wrote: hockey/sport. 
6. (After watching a clip from "The one with the East German laundry detergent"). The comments she listed were: argument of boys v girls, girls = sensitive "how men can say so many mean things and not care" and guys = more sexually oriented.
7. (After watching a clip from "The one with the List") The participant made another list with the same girls vs guys title again. Girls: overreacting, girly & high pitched and wine. Guys: "under" reacting and pizza & beer.
8. (After watching a clip from "The one with the Holiday Armadillo") The gender related remarks the participant picked up on were: Joey using the bathroom, his lack of respect for others' homes and that this was a rather masculine thing to do. 
9. (After watching a clip from "The one with Ross' tan") The gender related remarks that the participant listed were: abnormality of Chandler getting a pedicure, Monica getting a spray tan - beauty/image and Ross getting a spray tan & then doing it wrong = men can't do "beauty" things right.
10. The participant felt that gender stereotypes did change over the decade of the show's production, however there isn't a massive difference. She said this is because in the last clip, the gender stereotypes were more equal and it was acceptable for Ross to get a spray tan without ridicule from his male (or female) Friends - the ridicule actually came from him getting the tanning process wrong.
11. The participant also thought that the stereotypes presented were used as a source of comedy because when a joke referring to gender came up, it was funny - and not uncomfortable etc.
12. Finally, she said that she feels the change of gender stereotypes in the decade of the show could be because of a greater change in American society at the time.

Conclusion from these results (this participant's views):

• Gender stereotypes are represented.
• They are not used for viewer identification.
• Both genders are represented equally.
• Genders are not represented stereotypically of that of the time of the show.
• Yes, the gender stereotypes shown have changed over the time of the show, however not in a massive way. 
• The gender stereotypes are a source of comedy for the audience.
• The change in representations could be due to a greater change in American society - this is a possibility.

Participant 2

The results from this survey are:

1. The participant does think that gender stereotypes are commonly represented in Friends.
2. The participant doesn't feel that the gender stereotypes were used to encourage viewer identification.
3. The participant felt that both genders were portrayed as stereotypically as each other.
4. In terms of how similar this show represented stereotypes, this participant felt that it was typical of the time period of the show as well as the genre of sitcom.
5. (After watching a clip from "The one with George Stephanopoulos") The participant made a list of the gender remarks relating to only girls. They listed: shopping, caring about weight, screaming about something silly and that they conform to already constructed stereotypes for women to have.
6. (After watching a clip from "The one with the East German laundry detergent") The participant said that when the men talk about the women, they only refer to their appearance. But, when the women talk about the men, they only discuss how men can ignore affection.
7. (After watching a clip from "The one with the List") The participant did feel that the clip represents a difference between men and women and that it is a fair representation. She went onto explain that this is because the women talk about the Ross and Rachel's kiss in detail, whereas the male characters keep it short and simple, then go back to what they were doing before.
8. (After watching a clip from "The one with the Holiday Armadillo") The participant referred to the fact that Ross is excited to look after his son, as the mother of the son usually looks after him, and this follows the stereotype of the woman always looking after the child.
9. (After watching a clip from "The one with Ross' tan") They referred to how this clip subverts normal male stereotypes as Chandler gets a pedicure and Ross gets a fake tan, which are stereotypically feminine things to do.
10. The participant felt that the gender stereotypes changed during the production of the show due to a change in society  at the time. She went onto say that towards the end of the series, there were still some gender related remarks, but they had reduced.
11. She felt that gender stereotypes were used a lot for comedy purposes.
12. They said that during the time of the show's production, to begin with the men were referred to as strong and seen at work, whereas women cared more about their appearance. But as society changed you got to see the women at work and the men caring more about their appearance.

Conclusions from these results (these participant's views):

• There are gender stereotypes represented in Friends.
• These gender stereotypes were not used to encourage viewer identification.
• Both genders were portrayed equally stereotypically.
• Similar gender roles to other sitcoms at the time of the show.
• The gender representations did change a lot over the time that the show was on due to greater changes in society.
• They were used a source of comedy.

Emails to experts

As a way of gathering highly accurate and interesting research, I thought it would be a good idea to sends some emails out to some experts asking if they could share any knowledge or opinions they have on the topic of gender representatios and Friends.

The first person I emailed was the head of the Media school as Southampton Solent Uniersity, Paul Marchbank. I chose to email Paul because during my visit to the university for an open day, I attended a course talk he was leading where he mentioned having done some research on different representations within Friends. I emailed him the message below:

He responded within the same week with this message:

The rest of our email conversation is shown below:

I have made a few blog posts about our discussion on the homepage, but to finish off the discussion and to put it all in one place, I will post about it here.

During the discussion, I realised that my project so far and at the moment has been mainly focused on the representations in Friends and not American society even though I have tried to research these two topics in relation to each other. Because of this, I believe that maybe this means that there isn't much of a link between the two and I need to discuss this further with my supervisor. This may lead me to re-evaluate my question.

Paul said that Friends' representations were and are extremely typical of the sitcom genre as this is both a way of adding to the comical element of the show and also a way of encouraging viewer identification. This reinforces my own opinions and thoughts as I was thinking this too, and he also added that this is very important in terms of viewer demographics of Friends and why this was chosen/why it works.

Another interesting point he also raised was that gender representations (although having minor changes) have been pretty much the same for at least 100 years in popular media platforms and that it may be highly unlikely they will change over the course of Friends, however may still be possible. We also discussed how the female characters are represented it a far more stereotypical way than the male characters (this may point to the main demographic being a female audience - having mostly feminine characters to relate to, even the men themselves). This also could suggest that even if there are an even split of male/female viewers (need to research demographics), this is likely to show that male stereotypes are difficult to enjoy watching on a unisex level and that they are more strong when represented.

A further interesting point that Paul made was the relation of the storyline's to classic fairytales that people tell their children and that everyone is forced to conform to. He pointed out that, as all show's do, Friends ends when Monica and Chandler have had a baby CHILDREN, Ross and Rachel get back together LOVE/MARRIAGE, and Phoebe and Mike get marriage LOVE/MARRIAGE. This is a classic way of ending a series and it is done because the audience is made to feel as if that love, marriage and children are the only goals in life - especially for women (proposed demographic) - and this makes the show more satisfying and fulfilling in their eyes.

The overall tip was to basically focus my hypotheses and conlcusions around typical "childhood fairytales we tell our children". What he meant by this was that in terms of gender representations and the evolution of them, one could say they have never really completely changed. For example, Monica in Friends can be seen as the mother and caregiver of the show and Rachel can be seen as the daughter. And also that the series ends once Monica and Chandler have children, Rachel and Ross get back together and Phoebe is married to Mike. Likewise, fairytales always end with their "happily ever after" of marrying "Prince Charming". The reason for Friends to end in this way could be because of this happily ever after and the satisfaction this kind of ending would give to the target audience. 

This brings me to another one of Paul's points about who the target audience of the show actually was and knowing this will then show me why a fairytale ending works. Paul also said that including actual facts and satistics about the show would help create a good essay. Because of these things I am planning to do some internet research about the actual viewer numbers and demographics for Friends and I will write a blog post about it for my reference.

I have also emailed a lecturer at Bath Spa University of a similar background, Rebecca Feasey. She was mentioned in a course talk there and I recognised the name from being the writer of the book "Masculinity and Popular Television" which I research previously. I wanted to see if she would share any additional thoughts or information on the topic of Friends and gender.

Mini-Survey

After not receiving many responses to my original survey, I have decided to make a very short, 1 question survey. The question I will ask the participants is: "Which character from Friends do you see yourself most similar to?" I will then create one tally chart for male participants' answers and one for females'. This is because the aim behind the survey is to find out whether the gender stereotypes encourage viewer identification and if this is gender specific. For example, if the male participants choose male characters as most similar to themselves and same for females. View my pre-study aim and method below:

Aim: To find out whether the gender stereotypes represented in Friends encourage viewer identificiation and also to see if this is gender specific.

Method: Ask different male and female viewers of Friends which character they feel they are most similar to.