Random stuff (plus tagged book)

F•r•i•e•n•d•s is getting on my last nerve (rant)

I finished watching Friends about a year ago. And now that I've been watching it again, I noticed some things.

In Friends, there's this lesbian couple, Carol and Susan. They have a baby together and it's so amazing. There's also an episode where Pheobe sees a beautiful girl who is Ross and Monica's cousin and she thinks, "Ask her out, she's not YOUR cousin."

(Also a girl falls in love with Rachel.)

But here's the thing that's weird to me. They'll have this amazing couple, but they continue to make jokes that make me, a member of the lgbtq+ community, feel so uncomfortable.

For example: During Carol and Susan's wedding reception, Chandler finds this girl who is a lesbian also. He tries to get with her, and eventually, he says to her, "Penis smenis! We're all people, right?!" And of course, she just ignores it and walks away.

But, that's really not an okay thing to say. That woman clearly doesn't like boys, so leave her the fuck alone! You can't just change someone's sexuality like that.

Here's another example: Pheobe gets asked to play her guitar for a group of kids at a library, and she sings, "Sometimes women love women, sometimes men love men, and then there are bisexuals, but some just say their kidding themselves."

That made me so uncomfortable.

Okay, here's another thing that Friends did. Monica, one of the main characters, grew up overweight. In late Highschool, she finally made the choice to loose weight.

But, here's the issue. There's an episode where it's kind of an alternate universe. It was, what if Rachel stayed married. What if Carol and Ross were still married (Carol married Ross before she realized she was into women). What if Joey became FAMOUS, and what if Monica didn't loose weight.

The thing about this episode is that Monica's a virgin (I get it, your a virgin. This is your first play rehearsal!). And I don't think that this is what the story was saying, but it made me feel like Monica was a virgin because she was overweight, not because she was nervous and was waiting for the perfect guy.

Also, instead of calling Monica overweight or obese or something like that, they refer to Monica as FAT. And, throughout the episode, Monica is seen eating. She bets Chandler and looses her kit kat, but refuses to give it up. Later, Monica's boyfriend has to leave their date because of a work emergency. Monica had made a big fancy meal. Her boyfriend says, "I'll be back. Save some for me." And Monica responds, "I can't promise anything."

Then something in my brain clicked. Monica is usually never eating anything in the episode, besides major meals. But when there are flashbacks where Monica is overweight, she's eating all the time.

So the story was basically saying that overweight people eat a lot. Do you know how offensive that is? Some people are born overweight, and it's hard to loose all that weight.

(There's also a episode where Monica gets cornrows, and everyone makes fun of her for it. That triggered a bunch of people, too.)

So in conclusion, Friends has some issues.