“Aged like milk”

The lessons older serial dramas tell us about gender politics

By Sarah Arnold, February 10 2025

While there are plenty of contemporary serial dramas that offer valuable lessons in gender representation and gender equality, older serials provide interesting insights into gender politics and offer points of comparison to today’s gender topics and issues. For example, it is possible to compare what gender roles are represented, what narrative and visual function the genders play in the serial drama, what gender issues and concerns are addressed and how, and what kind of gender tropes are common. Because older serial dramas’ representations and gender politics may seem to have “aged like milk”, they are useful pedagogic tools for educators to help students to understand how to analyse gender representations and how to critique them.

As part of the GEMINI project, the Irish research team held focus groups with secondary school students to understand what serial dramas and wider media they viewed and consumed, and how they approached or made sense of gender representations in those serial dramas. Much to the surprise of the researchers, older serial dramas and comedies proved very popular among the students. Many of the shows they discussed had been broadcast or released before they became adolescents.

Breaking Bad, for example, was popular among the students, despite it having finished when they were only infants. US shows were very popular and many students said that they had watched most of the show, Friends. While the students enjoyed Friends, and spoke highly of it, they also emphasised its outdated gender politics and were very conscious of the limited gender roles available to the six main characters. They pointed to the show’s heteronormativity and also extended this discussion to racial and class normativity. The show is, after all, predominantly concerned with the lives of middle class, white, cis-gendered and heterosexual people. In fact, students were much more confident in discussing gender issues related to these older shows, rather than more contemporary ones.

So, what are the available gender ‘lessons’ in the show that can be used by educators?

There are many of examples of these throughout the show. For example, a comparison between the women’s apartment and the men’s apartment – the primary settings for the drama – evidence stereotypes regarding domesticity. The women’s apartment is lighter in tone, is tidy, has plants and soft furnishings. Monica, who lives in this apartment is constantly referred to an extremely tidy person.

In contrast, the men’s apartment is more cluttered and untidy, with far less soft tones and furnishings. It could be described as a ‘bachelor pad’. When Chandler, who lives in the men’s apartment moves out and is replaced by a woman (Janice), Joey – the other resident – is disgusted at the ‘feminine’ decoration that Janice brings to the apartment.  Educators can use selected clips of the apartments to encourage students to identify these gender stereotypes.

Stereotypes in romantic relationships

Further stereotypes arise in the representation of romantic relationships between men and women. Throughout the series, a romance develops between two characters, Monica and Chandler. These represent stereotypes again related to men as self-made bachelors and women as domestic homemakers. Monica seeks commitment, marriage and children and longs for the traditional characteristics of a romantic relationship.

Chandler is stereotyped as the aloof, commitment-phobe, who resists ‘settling down’ and is not as concerned with marriage and family. Throughout the series, Monica must encourage and convince Chandler to be in a relationship with her. Monica’s desire for marriage and children is also reinforced by her family. Her mother jokes to Monica about her failure to achieve this. Selected sequences and storylines can be used by educators to demonstrate how heteronormative conventions materialise through the narrative arcs of the characters.

Screened homophobia and transphobia

Finally, homophobia and transphobia are evident in the show. The characters Ross, Joey and Chandler oftentimes fear being associated with feminine pursuits and ornamentation. For example, Ross is concerned when his young son plays with a Barbie doll and he attributes this to the influence of his ex-wife and her partner who are gay. When male characters are feminine, the show plays this for laughs.

When Joey, for example, receives a handbag from Rachel and wears it regularly, he becomes the butt of many jokes from the friends, who call the bag a purse, inferring that it is a feminine accessory, which therefore makes Joey feminine. In other words, the show makes it a joke that a man might like accessories. It suggests that bags should only be worn by women.

A final example is the representation of Chandler’s transgender mother, Helena, who is regularly referred to as his father. In the clip below, all of the other characters deadname and misgender her, something many of the actors have since apologised for.

Gendered gazes in historic series

Historic and older serial dramas and television shows can represent problematic gender stereotypes that were accepted during their time period. Because these gender stereotypes are no longer evident to the same extent in contemporary shows, and because these gender representations have “aged like milk”, it may be easier for educators and students to identify and discuss gender in these shows.