Friends Characters Portrayed Negatively

In the episode of Friends titled The One With Five Steaks and an Eggplant, Chandler gets a call from a girl who has the wrong number. She thinks she is talking to a guy named Bob who she might have dated in the past. She says how she misses Bob, and wants to meet up. Chandler pretends to be Bob and says to meet at the coffee house. She goes to the coffee house and Chandler makes it look like she got stood up. He goes up to her and comforts her, with the intention to hookup with her. After that happens she calls “Bob” again and was upset for how he did not show up to the coffee house. She then begins to say how she met a guy (Chandler). In that moment, Chandler was bragging to Ross about how he had sex with her. In this episode of Friends, straight males are portrayed as pigs because of the way they act and talk about women.
This episode sends an enforcement of norms about men. They emphasize the stereotype that men are above women, and they are only good for sex. They make their point by how Chandler does not feel bad about lying to the women over the phone. He talks to her at the coffee house when she is clearly upset. He uses her to have sex. This seems to be very common in all forms of media around the time this show was made. Not only in Friends, but other television shows and movies, men feel no shame in taking advantage of women. Men who watch this can get the idea that it is fine to talk about women that way and doing types of things like that. The girl never found out that Chandler was the one she was talking to on the phone. If she did find out, she would obviously be upset and embarrassed. That would be a normal reaction to anyone in that situation.
The episode ends with Joey alone at the apartment. She calls again and it goes to voicemail. In the voicemail she again thinks she is talking to Bob, and begins to explain how she wants “one hot night”. Joey hears this and falls out of the chair as he tries to answer the phone. That scene in the episode portrays men as desperate. Joey did not react at all when the phone was ringing, but as soon she began talking he sprung up out of the chair and falls over trying to run to the phone. Joey’s character is shown as a player throughout the entire series. He is known to be good with girls and always has a new girl with him in almost every episode. This gives viewers to think of men in a negative way, making them think that men should get with many characters based on Joey’s character and how he is portrayed in the show.
Viewers may perceive straight males as insensitive and immature. Throughout the entire episode, Chandler is looked at as only caring about sex. Viewers may get the impression that all women are good for is sex. This can potentially be dangerous because men can change their thoughts about how women should be treated.