Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica & Women

Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica & Women

Besides being my all-time favorite television show, The Office has been recognized time and time again for its outstanding characters and comedic writing. The Office is extremely satirical in the way the script is written, which sometimes impacts the way it’s viewed. An issue that has been recognized is that it can be very offensive to certain audiences and things written in the script can be stereotypical. The past few years that I’ve been watching the show, I haven’t ever personally been offended by anyone’s actions. I take everything as a joke (as its meant to be of course) and ignore Michael when he makes his usual absurd remarks. I decided to pretend this wasn’t my favorite show in the universe (I’m a diehard fan, this was virtually impossible to do) and look at The Office from an outsiders’ point of view to see if I could pick up on anything.

When looking at it from a more critical standpoint, and without understanding the characters, it can be seen as a pretty sexist show. Over Steve Carells’ six years spent on the show, his character Michael Scott managed to offend every gender, race, class and sexual orientation that he possibly could. There’s two ways that The Office can be taken, both containing very conflicting points of view. If you watch it at face value you will be offended and taken aback by the remarks made by Michael Scott. But if you view it as a satirical comedy you will see the irony in all the situations and manage to laugh at them.

One of the most beneficial things about television is that it fosters discussion. Television as a cultural forum tries to reflect different ideologies and viewpoints in order to attract a large amount of viewers. The women in the show are all given pretty different roles in order to represent many populations watching. Although many of the women are a bit crazy, most of us can find humor in the situations they are put in. One thing that I didn’t make a point to recognize earlier is that none of the females have strong leads. Their characters seem to be weak and at times broken. “It's no secret that women are underrepresented in TV and other media. The women portrayed on the small screen seldom appear in roles of leadership and are routinely exploited in the workplace, the study says” (Justine Constanza). The one time a woman is put in charge of the office, chaos ensues. It’s unfortunate that The Office never made an effort to show the success of a woman on the show.  In one particular episode titled “Women’s Appreciation” Phyllis falls victim of a flasher outside the office. The women of the office are very upset about the flashing and Michael tells them that the office is too much of a masculine environment and he wants to take them somewhere where they feel comfortable. So he takes them to the mall. Not only is he demeaning in telling them that the office is a masculine environment, but he buys them all Victoria’s Secret panties because he assumes that will make them feel better. The only example of a non-gender stereotype was when Pam changed the tire instead of Michael. But if you’re familiar with the show you know that’s of no surprise due to Michael’s lack of incompetence in most of the things he does. To top the episode off, the very last words said in the episode were Michael re-capping his day spent with the women of the office and what he got out of it. He said, “How can I be so illogical, flighty, unpredictable and emotional? Well maybe I learned something from the women after all.” This being the last sentence said makes it very difficult to think that they were trying to teach the audience anything. The negative gender stereotypes were reinforced by the end of the episode instead of being resisted in order to leave a more positive message.

Another problem that many seem to have with The Office is that none of the women ever seem to have any great successes. One of the main characters Pam is only interesting because of her relationship with Jim. Pam is a receptionist in the office, while also seeming to have an interest in the art world. She attempts to go after her dreams during season four, but eventually ends up flunking out of art school. Angela is also portrayed in a similar light in that she’s only of any interest when it’s relating to her husband or secret lover. In an article I read on the show, it was stated “Basically, I’m noticing an unwelcome pattern with all the women: they are one-notes, without depth, defined only as they relate to males” (Sarah Rulu). There is never a time in the show when a woman has a great success and goes after her dream. The men in the show have these epiphanies but there are no examples of strong female characters. Unfortunately this only supports the ideology that men are more successful than women, instead of resisting the dominant stereotype.

In light of all the stereotypes reinforced throughout the episodic series, I did come to one conclusion in favor of The Office and their antics. Most of the inappropriate and stereotypical comments are made by the extremely ignorant boss Michael Scott. Throughout the entire series Michael is constantly making remarks that are extremely offensive and stereotypical and not supported by the rest of the characters. The fact that these stereotypical comments are made by such a character show that only a moronic individual who has no sense of self-awareness could think these things. A meaningful message that can be taken from The Office is that you have to be an extremely ignorant person to believe in the negative stereotypes Michael Scott put forth.

Works Cited 

Costanza, Justine A. "Sexist Portrayals of Women Still Dominate Prime Time TV."International Business (2012): n. pag. Web.

Rulu, Sarah. "Thanks for the Somewhat Sexist Memories." The Happenings of an American in Germany. N.p., 14 May 2013. Web.