Carrie Goes To Paris

The other day I was watching an episode of Sex and the City. In this episode, the Russian asks Carrie to move to Paris with him. This requires her to leaver her job, her friends, and her entire life in New York. Carrie takes a good amount of time to give the Russian her answer, which is yes. Her friends are not thrilled with the fact that Carrie is moving half way around the world, especially Miranda. Miranda give Carrie a lot of grief about her decision to move to Paris with the Russian, and Carrie's response was that she could not be alone anymore. Carrie made the decision to move to Paris solelyon the fact that if she stayed in New York she would lose her boyfriend and may not find another man to spend her life with. Whenyou zero in on the fact that this is why Carrie makes her decision to leave with her boyfriend is it very sad. Women think that to have a full and successful life they need a man in it. The objective from a young age is for the girl to get married and spend therest of her life with her husband. Carrie is willing to give up everything in her life for this one man she is getting pretty much nothing from in return.

Sex and the City

Carrie is constantly struggling with her relationship with Big in the series Sex and the City. It seems as if Big is always in control of the situations. In a recent re-run that I saw Carrie was trying to avoid Big entirely, because she was in a relationship and did not want to mess things up with her new boyfriend. Big continually called Carrie and was portrayed as very pathetic. However, whenever Carrie calls Big and wants to spend time with her we accept it, because society leads us to believe that the women should completely put themselves out there for the guys, but the guy is never supposed to make himself completely emotionally available unless he wants to be viewed as less of a man. This is a complete double standard. The men and women should be seen as equals in every relationship. The women should not have to put themself out there for the men when the men are not doing the same.

Queens At Work

One thing that I have recently noticed in the television sitcom, King of Queens, is that Carrie is often depicted as miserable in the workplace. She has a job which differs from most of the stay at home wives in popular sitcomes; however, she is not happy with it. This proves the subliminal message that is given to the viewers is that women are not supposed to be in the workplace. Their place is at home taking care of the house and family. Carrie constantly has trouble juggling work and home life. She has to take care of Doug and her father on top of staying ahead at work. Doug has a job as well but he is never depicted as struggling to balance his career and his home life. Men are expected to have careers and work to provide money for the household, and women are expected to not be able to do the same. Men in sitcoms never have an issue working, and more and more frequently I am noticing that women do.

King of Big Screen Televisions

In an episode of King of Queens that aired the other night, Doug got a huge big screen television that he was in love with. All of his friends came over to watch it in the garage. Carrie had asked Doug to go pick up her father's prescription earlier in the day, and Doug had forgotten because he was so wrapped up in watching his huge television. Carrie ended up having to stop the work she was doing that was due the next day at her job, and had to go out to get the prescription because Doug was glued to the television. On her way out, Doug even had the nerve to ask her to pick up in-soles for him. Carrie got home after driving to multiple drug stores without the prescription but with Doug's request. The next day, Doug realized that Carrie had left the garage door open and his new television was stolen. He sulked around like a baby until finall Carrie decided to surprise him with a new television. It was not Carrie's responsibility to go out and buy Doug a new t.v. to replace the one that was stolen but he guilted her into it. In all actuallity it was Doug's fault for making Carrie have to go out so late because he forgot to pick up the prescription.

Everybody loves Raymond

While watching an episode of Everybody Loves Raymond, I noticed something about the scenes in the episodes that I have never realized before. Most episodes take place within Ray and Debra's home or Ray's parent's house. However, Ray is constantly seen coming or going to work or a game. Debra on the other hand is hardly ever coming or going from the house to do anything other than chores for the family or house. The creators want to make it evident that Ray is out in the workplace regardless of the fact that we always see him at home. Debra on the other hand has hardly any life outside the kids and Ray. She is either going or coming from the grocery store or a P.T.A. meeting for the children. Her life revolves around the children and Ray. Ray has a life outside the house that we are aware of, but Debra does not. Her place in the show to the home.

That 70's Show

In a recent episode on That 70's Show, Donna and Eric have a fight about Eric leaving Donna and not returning until hours later at a car show. Eric's mother is along side Donna when this occurs. She tells Donna not to worry this kind of thing always happens and there is nothing she can do to prevent it from occuring. Donna is very upset by Eric's actions and decides to not let him get away with it. Eric's mother, from an older generation, thinks this is a horrible idea and that is only going to make the situation worse. This reflects the mind set that women should allow men to run the relationship and put their wishes second to their man's. This is a mindset that many women and men from previous generations have about relationships. In these times, it is outragous to think that women should come second to men in a "mutual" relationship. This show subtly relays the message to it's audience that men are still dominant in a relationship.

Giving it up

On a episode of Gilmore Girls the other day, Rory and her mother discussed Rory's decision to have sex with her boyfriend, Jess. Her mother refered to it was losing her virginity, and she stated it was something she could never get back. I thought this was very interesting considering if Rory was a boy the conversation would have gone a completely different route. We do not consider it giving it up when a boy loses his virginity. They are praised for conquering a woman, and praised even more if that woman is a virgin before them. Why is it considered losing their virginity for girls and finally getting some for guys? This does not make sense. It is a complete double standard that exists in society today.