FRIENDS, Machista and homophobic? 🤔🤨
So I will explain a little the context of the series and draw our own conclusions. FRIENDS is a series of 20 years and is humorous. We all know that humor, specifically satire, does not always fit the right tone and may be offensive because of cultural or circumstantial issues of time.
I do not say that some jokes of FRIENDS may be out of place with the information and learning that you have today of certain topics, but from there to brand the whole series of Homophobic and Machista is illogical and very unfair.
To begin with, much of the argument falls on the women in the series. The story of it begins with Rachel fleeing from a marriage without love and a comfortable life to make his own as she wants, leaving the limitations of belonging to a wealthy family and with certain rules when it comes to relationships and up to look for the love of your life. She has no studies (her previous life allowed her to do so), works as a waitress at the popular café in the area and from there goes with effort to a high position in the world of fashion.
The other girls in the series are also strong, independent and totally essential for the plot of the series. If you want to refer to machismo in this sense because they can very well refer to another type of series for example "Two and a half men".
Something I've seen that refer to is that the character of Joey is sexist, as it coaxes women to take them to bed. Apparently they have not seen more than 1 or another chapter in a random way. The character is about a man a little silly and with problems of attention and retention (for me of the male characters this is my favorite hahahaha), and clearly it is so because the type of joke for the series is a satire.
As for sexual freedom (and machismo) female characters are equally liberal. Phoebe (especially) and Monica have countless couples even from one chapter to another and based on American culture is something totally normal. They are their bodies, their lives and their stories.
Within the series you can find dialogues about "think about the future" or "settle head", and it is something that not only falls on the girls but also on the characters of the guys who do not have close relationships.
Labeling Phoebe of "Silly" is not the most successful, the girl has loves at the same time with two very beautiful guys both and loses them, so silly and clueless would not be.
On the other hand what of Homophobic. In the series from the first season gives visibility to an LGBT character: Carol Ross' ex-wife, lesbian. It presents a relationship between her and Susan by which leaves Ross and in addition to everything have a good relationship between all parties and all for the sake of his son (Ben) and themselves.
And if that were not enough we have the case of Chandler's father, who has not been clear if he is transsexual / transvestite, but what he does make clear is that although the divorce has traumatized Chandler (obviously because of the attitude of his parents (mothers haha) there is a reunion chapter of Chandler with his father / mother where he asks Chandler for forgiveness for what happened and he accepts it and lives with his new facet of the character.
In those times, playing these delicate songs with little acceptance (not as much as these times) was a delicate thing, but they were framed by tender scenes, full of emotions, affection and positive messages of acceptance. At no time, according to my assessment, is it necessary to humiliate a sector of humanity.
The characters are very wrong, learn from their mistakes and evolve over the years, all this is done with the help of their "FRIENDS". The key to the success of this series is the naturalness of a group of friends that may well be our group, that is outside the screens of our phones, far from the social networks, with which we live and support each other on a daily basis. The truth is that no one is perfect, and it is something that is seen season after season and chapter after chapter.
The truth is that for that we should sit down and analyze the series "How I met your mother", it is more contemporary, and it is full of sexist scenes, where the character of Barry is dedicated to finding a way to get drunk women and take them to bed, they even have a manual for that hahahaha. I love this series but if we talk about homophobia and machismo, it goes beyond the barriers.
FRIENDS teaches and contributes many good things as well as hours and hours of laughter and tears, I can see it a thousand times, know the dialogues and even laugh like the first time I saw.
