Season 2 Episode 5

 

Summary:

In episode 5 of season 2, Abbi and Ilana have a night out at several parties. The night begins with Abbi’s boss, Tre, at his apartment, moves to Lincoln’s, followed by a rooftop party, and a jazz club.

 

Masculine Traits:

  • Leadership ability: Abbi trained another person at her job and taught the new girl all of the ropes. She leads her strongly and hopes to do it well.
  • Aggressive: Ilana addresses a man who is going out with her roommate, but before introducing herself, she asks to officiate their wedding. Bringing up marriage is already a risky question, and when you don’t know who you are asking, it proves to be aggressive.
  • Independent: Abbi and Ilana are the only ones dancing while they are at Lincoln’s party. They don’t pay attention to how they are being perceived. The only thing that matters is that they are having fun.
  • Individualistic: The jazz club is a secret that Abbi has not revealed to anyone. She goes by an alias and performs for the whole night. Her individuality shines through and is highlighted in this episode.

 

Feminine Traits:

  • Traditional: Ilana spent a day at home to deep clean up her apartment. In the media, women are typically seen in a domestic environment and seeing a female cleaning at home is not very surprising.
  • Wardrobe: Throughout the night, Abbi and Ilana wear nice dresses and present themselves very feminine. They dress very classy and have a full outfit and makeup which adds to their feminine appearance.
  • Eager to soothe hurt feelings: Abbi and Ilana want to leave Tre’s party, but Abbi doesn’t want to hurt Tre’s feelings. Instead of telling him they have somewhere else to be, she tells him that she has a tapeworm and needs to go to the hospital. This makes her seem like it’s an emergency and diverts the attention away from a bad party.

 

Sex role perspective:

This episode demonstrated the resistance of several feminine stereotypes. Most of the feminine traits I noted were simply based on appearance. On the contrary, the masculine traits were in regards to who Ilana and Abbi are as people and at the root of their identities. Broad City demonstrates that women can ditch traditional roles and labels and do things that they want to do.

 

Shared by: Meghan Lowery
Image Credit: https://www.insider.com/broad-city-best-outfits-2018-10