Third Wave Feminism In Television Shows: A Case Study on ‘Friends’ and ‘Modern Family’
Feminism is the belief that man and woman should be equal (IWDA, 2024). Studies have shown that media, specifically television shows can influence the way a person perceives the world (Entman, 1989). Due to this, it is vital to promote the causes that we believe in, in the media that we produce. For this essay I will be developing an understanding on what feminism is and how is it portrayed in the television shows that we consume. I will be discussing all four waves of feminism, with a close lens on the third wave. The third wave was from the 1990s to the 2010s (MasterClass, 2022). While all four waves are vital to comprehend feminism as a whole, I will be focusing on this wave in particular and its theme in television shows. The two television shows I have chosen to do a case study on is ‘Friends’ and ‘Modern Family.’ I have chosen this specific era as this is the wave that most of my generation will have grown up during and therefore understand the effects of such. The television shows chosen, were picked due to their popularity as well as being produced during or immediately after the third wave. The third wave of feminism puts forward argument that anyone can be a feminist and being a feminist can mean a number of different things. The characters and themes in the television shows chosen reflect this ideology.
Feminism first attracted the worlds media in the late sixties and seventies and this attention generated change for a lot of women. That being said, feminism as a concept has been around for much longer (Osborne, 2001). Women’s Liberation,’ what it used to be known as, goes back as far as the eighteenth century. ‘Vindication of the Rights of Women’ by Mary Wollstonecraft (1792) is often seen as the first influential piece of writing that pushed the feminist movement (Osborne, 2001). Feminism can be defined as ‘a belief of movement advocating the cause of women’s rights and opportunities, particularly equal rights with men, by challenging inequalities between the sexes in society’ (Chambers, 1996). The term ‘feminism’ came from Charles Fournier, a philosopher and radical socialist (Malinowska, 2020).
The feminism movement can be split into four parts, known as waves. In each wave there is a clear cultural period which defines it. The first wave of feminism was the longest, lasting between the early 1800s and the early 1900s. This wave, although being international, was most prominent in the United States and most of Western Europe. Political writers began publishing women’s issues and limitations in a male dominated society. This first wave primarily highlighted the social campaigns such as the right to work, to education, property, reproduction rights, and marital status (Malinowska, 2020). When considering the first wave, it is associated heavily with women’s suffrage and women gaining the right to vote in 1918 and then later amended to have the same criteria as men in 1928 in the United Kingdom (Parliament, 2023).
The second wave focused more on the gender roles of women as well as women’s sexuality. It ran from the early 1960s to the late 1980s and underlined the woman’s lived experience (National Women's History Museum, 2020). While the first wave relied on newspapers, the second wave had the advantage of television. There was a large emphasis on women’s representation on television shows, or lack thereof. From behind the scenes to main characters on the screen, men dominated the television world, creating a power struggle for women (Malinowska, 2020). A study completed in the late 1980s show that for every 5 women working in the BBC, there were 150 men (Calvert et al., 2007). There was a massive push to amend this and legal regulations were even put in place to promote women in media. The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action of 1995 promotes the participation and the ability for women to access decision making roles through media. They acknowledge that media can have a massive role in developing people’s thoughts and even promote stereotyping (UN, 2023).
The fourth wave of feminism, from 2010 to present day, is sometimes considered as an extension to the third wave as it very similar with similar aims. This wave is promoted through social media primarily, using hashtags such as #HerForShe and #MeToo *. These hashtags each have a separate meaning but all fall under the feminism and equality umbrella. The use of social media platforms has spread the feminist movement faster then ever and created a community of sorts with all feminists across the world, leading to the most inclusive feminist wave to date. Fourth wave feminists stand for the rights of all women, not just white middle and upper class women (Malinowska, 2020). Television programmes have the ability to reflect societies values, beliefs and understanding of the world. So by the television shows being produced in modern day having feminist values, it could suggests that so does society (Cabrera et al., 2021).
The third wave of feminism is the wave that this essay will be focused on. Starting in the 1990s, it held the concept of cyberfeminism which argued that even online there is a gender gap (MasterClass, 2022). This wave encouraged professional and social independence for women and the idea of welcoming LGBTQ+ and race minorities began to be suggested and held up for debate. This is due to The Spiral of Silence Theory which suggests that when a person believes that their opinion is popular then they are more likely to speak up, where as if a person believes that they are the only one with that thought then they will typically keep it to themselves and not speak up. This theory was very prominent in the second wave of feminism and maybe for the first time house wives realised that they were not the only one feeling the way that they did. We see it in the third wave through social media and a connection of women worldwide realising that feminism is also a community of sorts and they will stand up together (Johnson, 2017). During this period, there was a lot of discussion from the media that we as a society didn’t need feminism anymore and even suggested that we lived in a post-feminist world. This can be linked to the Cultivation Theory which suggests that the overconsumption of media, television in particular, can taint the audiences perception of reality and can alter their opinion on ideas and views (Shrum, 2017). The ‘feminism’ label that people once wore proudly has slowly become seen as a negative way to identify. This can lead to diminishing numbers of people identifying as feminists despite their belief system and their values being in line with the feminist movement. The media has turned feminists into threats, as they question the very foundation that the patriarchal society is built on (Beck, 1998). This led to a lot of cinema and television tropes depicting women going so far in the opposite direction that it left women still not feeling represented (Malinowska, 2020). It has even been seen that feminists are dismantling feminism themselves. McRobbie claims that feminism is becoming destructive and could lead to undoing what has done by the previous waves (McRobbie, 2004). The accurate representation of women on screens is vital for improving feminism in today’s society. Older television programmes and films pushed misrepresentation and stereotypes onto their audiences and the third wave insists that modern television and cinema do better (Smelik, 2016).
The television show ‘Friends’ started in 1995 and went on for nine years before ending in 2004. The show follows the lives of six characters and the audience watches as the characters try and navigate life as young adults. The main characters consist of three men and three women (IMBd, 2023). This in itself displays equality amongst the genders and therefore feminism. From the start it is clear that this show isn’t going to be centred around men and only have women in it as their spouses and partners but rather as their equals. The three women in it are very close friends and this again is a change to what was being shown in the early to late 19th century. Typically, women in television shows and films are fighting and seen as ‘catty.’ Meanwhile ‘Friends’ is the complete opposite and highlights how close the female characters are (Melcher, 2017). The ‘Friends’ franchise is one that despite airing the last episode twenty years ago, it is still a massive hit. Some critics even state that the show has somewhat of a ‘cult status.’ It was shown in over sixty countries and was UK’s most streamed television show in 2019. It influenced fashion and even inspired a hair style called ‘The Rachel’ (Ghosh, 2023). The show averaged at twenty-five million viewers per week during the years it was originally aired (Carter, 2004). Needless to say, the show had a very impressive reach and large audience, but with that there is a responsibility to break stereotypes and promote forward and progressive thinking. There has been many moments that make the television show a feminist one and that perhaps is why it had such a large viewing and is still popular to this day. ‘Friends’ shattered many stereotypes such as Monica being the one to get down on one knee and propose to Chandler (Reich and Cohen, 2000)
. In addition to that there was a full episode dedicated to Rachel insisting that hiring a male nanny was perfectly normal (Kauffman and Crane, 2004). This episode depicts Sandy, a male nanny, who is very sensitive, plays the flute and performs puppet shows and makes Ross uncomfortable. Ross takes on, albeit the more popular train of thought at the time, the sexist approach When Ross and Rachel were arguing about whether it was strange to have a male nanny, Ross makes the comment “what kind of job is that for a man? A nanny? It’s like if a woman wanted to be…”. Joey later says the same thing, but in both cases the women in the scene call them out for their sexist remarks (Kauffman and Crane, 2004). Eventually Ross does get his way and they fire the male nanny, but it is definitely an episode that highlights that sexism goes both ways as well as opening the floor for conversations about men working in women dominated fields. Another example is when Ross’ son plays with Barbie dolls and Ross insists that he plays with ‘boy’ toys instead. He displays traits of toxic masculinity as well as a fragile ego. However, once more the three women, Monica, Rachel and Phoebe, call him out for this behaviour and for not teaching his son more progressive lines of thinking (Kauffman and Crane, 2004).
In addition to storylines with feminist undertones, the characters in the show itself are very feminist centric. Monica is a very competitive and hardworking woman, with characteristics that are not traditionally feminine. The audience sees episodes of Monica playing various games with the rest of the characters and she is overly competitive to the point that the other characters get scared by her aggression and trash talk. However, while being intense she is also a very feminine character and is depicted as ‘girly.’ She wears dresses and also has traits that are traditionally feminine, which shows the audience that you don’t need to choose to be feminine or masculine and can be both. In addition to this, she is a very accomplished in her career and is head chef in a restaurant, highlighting her driven nature. That being said, the show doesn’t exclusively make Monica a working woman but instead underlines her desire to be a mother. The audience even follows her and Chandlers heart breaking storyline of not being able to have children and then eventually adopting. This image of a career driven woman who also wants to have the traditional family life, highlights that women can want and have both and that they are actually two sides of the one coin. This links into the third wave of feminism as this is when there was a massive push for women to pursue their careers if that is what they wanted.
Rachel is another character who comes into question when discussing the television show through a feminist lens. On paper, it may seem as though Rachel is the traditional damsel in distress, portrayed as a run-away-bride and hopeless without her father’s credit card, it would be very easy for the writers of the show to box her character into a stereotype. But instead, the audience see’s Rachel become a very successful business women working in fashion and then becoming a mother and a working mother. She is the opposite of a weak damsel and instead is potentially the biggest feminist in the group and isn’t afraid to call out Ross on his toxic masculinity.
Another vital angle that ‘Friends’ took on when writing the television show was the idea that all three women in the show would give birth or become mothers in different ways. Rachel became pregnant by a one-night-stand with her long term, on and off relationship with Ross. Due to the pair not being married or even in a relationship at the time, there is a lot of questions from the parents of Ross and Rachel who are not happy with the arrangement. The show highlights the taboo of having a baby out of wedlock and shows the social judgement that comes along with that but it never outlines the situation as negative and instead celebrates it. Phoebe became a surrogate for her brother and his wife. Episodes showed the realistic side of surrogacy and mental and physical toll that it takes, in addition to the reward. Monica on the other hand was a woman who was unable to get pregnant and while there can be some judgement surrounding women unable to do so, the show depicted it as heart breaking for the couple but also showed that adoption is an option. These three different routes to take towards achieving motherhood was a strong representation- and a change from the traditional route.
Monica, Rachel and Phoebe are key characters when discussing feminism in television shows. From the way they dress to the way the act. They teach young women and girls that there is no ‘right’ way to act in order to be a girl. They teach the audience that there aren’t rules and there doesn’t have to be gendered roles. These women are open to talking about sex and let the audience know that it is okay to do so. It is not seen as something dirty and a taboo subject, but rather a normal and human activity. By them simply existing, it gives women and girls permission and awareness that they too can do it.
Another key example when discussing third wave feminism in television shows is ‘Modern Family.’ ‘Modern Family’ started in 2009 and aired for eleven years before ending in 2020. It follows one large family and how they navigate everyday life. It is what the title says- a modern family. Featuring three different nationalities, gay parents and a complicated family tree (IMDb, 2023). ‘Modern Family’ highlights women in various roles and challenges traditional gender roles. The women on the show are strong, independent and not defined by their relationships to their sons, fathers or husbands. This television show shows four very different women and yet they are all feminists and push feminist ideals. This promotes the notion that feminism doesn’t fit into a box, it can look like a number of things while still being the same.
Claire is a wife and mother of three. She starts off the series as a hectic stay at home mother rushing around after the kids and maintaining the household. She is constantly busy and we soon learn that despite her husband, Phil, being the breadwinner Claire is very much the boss of the house. While it becomes clear that Phil never really grew up and acts similar to their son, Luke, Claire is the head of the household. She is seen in numerous episodes handing out advice, organising events for both her immediate family as well as extended. She is a headstrong, fierce woman, all while putting her children first. In later seasons, Claire takes on different tasks and jobs as her children become less dependent on her. She starts out by flipping a house and soon runs for city council. While she doesn’t win the campaign, she does show determination and drive; she did however get win her fight to get a stop sign outside of her house which was the entire reason she began to run for councilwoman in the first place. Furthermore, in later seasons she takes over her father, Jay’s, company when he retires. She becomes a full time working mother. She still is the head of the household, and while it does unintentionally highlight the disproportionate workload in her and Phil’s relationship, it does prove how diligent she is. Although having a million different tasks she now has to focus on, she stretches herself impossibly thin to balance her work life and family. She is a strong and capable woman who did not let her role as a mother put a stop to any of her dreams.
Gloria is an extremely attractive woman who married Jay, the father of Claire. Due to Jay being wealthy and Gloria coming from Columbia, it seems at first that she is a gold digger. Claire vocalises this in many of the earlier episodes, voicing what the audience is thinking but it is soon obvious that Gloria is with Jay for love and nothing more. While at first glance it may seem as though Gloria has an easy life due to her looks, it becomes more transparent that that is not the case. While she is now very comfortable, living in a huge house with Jay and her son Manny, that has not always been the case. Before Gloria and Manny moved to America, she worked extremely hard to provide as she was a single mother. She would work as a hair stylist during the day and then as a taxi driver at night with her son sleeping in the seat beside her (Gibbs, 2020). There is some tension between Claire and Gloria due to Claire being jealous of Gloria’s looks in addition to being wary of her intentions with her father, however this is resolved over time and the two become close friends. Gloria even admits to Claire that due to her beauty she finds it hard to make female friends as they are always jealous of her (Wernick, 2010). She works with Phil in later seasons as a realtor (Gibbs, 2020). Similar to Claire, Gloria is a strong assertive woman who challenges the stereotypes that are thrust upon her.
Haley is Claire and Phil’s first daughter and she starts off as a ditzy teenage girl. She drinks too much, eats too little and always has relationship drama. She is the butt of the joke in the family as she is not smart and she gets kicked out of college when she gets drunk at a party *. Haley is seen as reckless and proceeds to live in her parents basement for a while. However, as Haley matures she realises that while she doesn’t have any ambition in a traditional career, she is does have skills and interests that she could turn into a career. Hayley then goes on to become a successful influencer for a while before securing a career in fashion. This displays determination, ambition and highlights how it is never too late to start fresh. While Hayley did have a good character arch in her maturity, many fans are disappointed with her outcome. In season ten, she gets pregnant with twins with her on and off boyfriend throughout the whole show, Dylan. Fans were disappointed as they wished something more from Hayley. They claim that she had such a brilliant character arch only for her to end up with a boy she had broken up with numerous times in the past. When Hayley was dating Dylan, her life was put on pause and she didn’t push herself the way she did when she was dating someone else. She returns to her original ditzy teenage self and isn’t driven at all when she is with him. Some audience members argue that Hayley and Dylan wouldn’t have ended up together if Hayley hadn’t gotten pregnant and they ended up together due to commitment. It is easy to draw up similarities between Hayley and her mother, Claire. Since the first season, Claire has warned Hayley not to end up like her- pregnant at a young age and have to give up everything. Claire wanted Hayley to be self-sufficient and independent before considering relationships and a family (Gibbs, 2021). That being said, it cannot be denied that Hayley becomes a wonderful mother and she, like her own mother, is absolutely dedicated to her children. It is inspiring to watch a young woman get pregnant and her life not become a disaster. While the show acknowledges Hayley and Dylan’s struggles as young parents, Hayley definitely makes the best of the situation.
Alex is the youngest woman in ‘Modern Family,’ I will not be including Lily due to her young age and therefore not having that big of a role in the television series. Alex is the ‘nerd’ of the family. Since the first season, she has been an ambitious, hardworking and determined young girl. She puts nothing above her studies and strives to achieve great things. While she is portrayed as a bookworm who has little to no downtime, she is inspiring as she won’t let comments from even her family stop her from reaching her dreams. Hayley, her older sister, constantly makes fun of her for the way she dresses and insists that she dresses like a boy. However in an episode in season (Zucker, 2011), Alex ties up her hair and demands some boys who are bulling her little brother to stop. She uses her femininity and attractiveness to get the boys to do what she wants. The boys, clearly starstruck that she is even talking to them, oblige. This short clip, displays that although she doesn’t come across stereotypically feminine, she still has a feminine side. In later seasons, Alex is shown going to therapy for stress and anxiety. This is possibly one of the most emotional storylines within the show. Throughout the show, Alex is the polar opposite to her fashion obsessed emotional sister and in turn appears robot- like. As the series progresses, more of Alex’s anxieties are explored. It features a breakdown where Alex destroys her own birthday cake, shouting that the party is a waste of time and she should be studying for her SATs (Suffield, 2015). This is a refreshing change and a realistic one for this character. She becomes more human and fans relate to her deconstructive behaviour. She becomes a character that fans are able to see themselves in and identify with (Suffield, 2015). Typically in television shows, the smart character is seen as a comedic device and is portrayed as a robot with no emotions and the audience has no relation to them. Alex provides an insight to the reality of being that smart character. She reflects the pressure that teenagers have and yet doesn’t let it define her. This highlights that even though she is portrayed as a headstrong woman, she is still getting stressed out by the workload. The scenes of her struggling with this stress and immense pressure normalises this feeling to the audience. Alex admits that she feels extremely different to the rest of her family and she voices her concerns. She is a visualisation that a woman can be both strong and vulnerable at the same time.
In conclusion, feminism can mean and look like many different things. This is evident in the four different waves from the early 1800s onwards. Feminism cannot be put in a box and easily labelled as it can be a vast array of things. The television shows discussed portray this well. The characters in ‘Friends’ prove that you can display both traditionally male traits as well as being traditionally feminine. The show brings to light many unspoken subject and conversations and normalises different aspects of a woman’s day to day life. It is one of the first shows that female friends are close and don’t have fights every episode but rather deeply care for one another. The second television show discussed, ‘Modern Family,’ is similar in the sense that the show uses it’s wide audience reach to promote the ideals of feminism. Each female character in this show is so different from the next and yet they all have core feminism beliefs and undertones. Claire is a hardworking mother while being a career driven woman, Gloria transcends the stereotypes of beautiful women and is an equally hard working individual. Hayley starts off the show being a more traditional female character that we are used to seeing on our screens but we soon learn her ambitions and watch her blossom into a young woman. Alex is extremely smart and driven when it comes to her studies, but still is seen in relationships and has a vulnerable side. In all, the television shows perfectly represent the ideologies of third wave feminism.
Words Cited:
Entman, Robert M. “How The Media Affects What People Think: An Information Processing Approach.” The Journal of Politics, vol. 51, May 1989, pp. 347–370.
Fandom, Modern Family. “Dance Dance Revelation.” Modern Family Fandom, 2010, modernfamily.fandom.com/wiki/Dance_Dance_Revelation.
IWDA, IWDA. “What Is Feminism.” IWDA, 2024, iwda.org.au/learn/what-is-feminism/.
Melcher, Kelsea. “The One About Gender and Sexuality.” Department of Communication and Journalism, 2017.
Beck, D.B. (1998) ‘The “F” Word: How The Media Frame Feminism’, NWSA Journal, 10(1), 139–151.
Cabrera, M.S., Belloso, M.L., Prieto, R.R. (2021) ‘The Fourth Wave in Audiovisual Content: A True Achievement of Feminism?’, International Journal of Communication, 416–438.
Calvert, B., Casey, N., Casey, B., French, L., Lewis, J. (2007) Television Studies: The Key Concepts, 2nd ed, Routledge: London, UK.
Chambers, D. (1996) Chambers Dictionary, available: https://chambers.co.uk/search/?query=feminism&title=21st# [accessed 29 Dec 2023].
Fields, N. (2021) ‘Opinion: Inaccurate Film Representation Reinforces Stereotypes, Spreads Misinformation’, The Reflector.
Johnson, T.B. (2017) ‘Waves Of Feminism And The Media’, Lewis Honors College Capstone Collection, 2–13.
Malinowska, A. (2020) ‘Waves of Feminism’, The International Encyclopedia od Gender, Media and Communication, 1–6.
McRobbie, A. (2004) ‘Post-Feminism and Popular Culture’, Feminist Media Studies, 4, 255–260.
Osborne, S. (2001) Feminism, Hardpenden: Pocket Essentials: Hardpenden, UK.
Parliament, U. (2023) Women Get The Vote [online], UK Parliament, available: https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/transformingsociety/electionsvoting/womenvote/overview/thevote/ [accessed 29 Dec 2023].
Shrum, L.J. (2017) ‘Cultivation Theory: Effects and Underlying Processes’, The International Encyclopedia of Media Effects, 1–12.
Smelik, A. (2016) ‘Feminist Film Theory’, The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Gender and Sexuality Studies, 2–4.
UN, U. (2023) The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action of 1995 [online], The Beijing 12 Critical Areas of Concern Deconstructed, available: https://www.unwomen.org/en/news/in-focus/csw59/feature-stories#:~:text=The%201995%20Beijing%20Platform%20for,countries%20to%20bring%20about%20change. [accessed 29 Dec 2023].
Volkova, I. (2014) ‘“I Have Looked Steadily around Me”: The Power of Examples in Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman’, Women’s Studies, 43(7), 892–910.
Carter, Bill. “‘Friends’ Finale’s Audience is the Fourth Biggest Ever.” New York Times, 8 May 2004.
Ghosh, Sudeshna. “How The TV Show Friends Influenced An Entire Generation.” Women’s Weekly, 30 Oct. 2023.
Gibbs, Lynn. “10 Things Fans Forgot About Gloria Pritchett.” Screen Rant, 26 Oct. 2020.
IMBd, IMBd. “Friends.” IMBd, 2024, www.imdb.com/title/tt0108778/.
IMBd, IMBd. Modern Family, 2024, www.imdb.com/title/tt1442437/.
Kauffman, Marta, and David Crane. “The One With The Male Nanny.” Friends, season 9, episode 6, NBC, 7 Nov. 2002.
MasterClass, MasterClass. “Third-Wave Feminism: A History on Third-Wave Feminism.” MasterClass, 7 Oct. 2022, www.masterclass.com/articles/third-wave-feminism.
National Women’s History Museum, National Women’s History Museum. “Feminism: The Second Wave.” Women’s History, 18 June 2020.
Suffield, Lydia. “Why Alex From ‘Modern Family’ Is Important To Teens Struggling With Anxiety.” Hello Giggles, 25 Aug. 2015.
Wernick, Ilana. “Dance Dance Revelation.” Modern Family, season 2, episode 10, ABC, 8 Dec. 2010.
Zucker, Danny. “After The Fire.” Modern Family, season 3, episode 8, ABC, 16 Nov. 2011.
Reich, Andrew, and Ted Cohen. “The One With The Proposal Part Two.” Friends, season 6, episode 25, NBC, 18 May 2000.
