Following Stereotypes

Kelly’s dad finds Carl trying to sneak into Kelly’s bedroom. He threatens him and grounds, Kelly. This is stereotypical for a dad to protect his daughter from boys especially previously being in the military.

Tami’s old boyfriend comes home to do a charity 5K and Lip gets jealous because he is trying to flirt with Tami. Someone suggests that they should race each other to see who wins and whoever wins can “have” Tami. I feel like it is stereotypical to have men assert dominance over a girl they are interested in especially when there is another man trying to flirt with them.

Debbie is now the head of the house because Fiona is not making good decisions. Debbie is taking care of the bills and making sure that the family doesn’t have to pay more than they need to on bills. It is stereotypical for women to take care of the bills and paperwork, but most of the time it is the man paying for the bills, but this is not a typical household.

Ingrid is pregnant with sextuplets and she is told by the doctor that she can only keep three of the embryos because she got pregnant through in-vitro fertilization. She is worried that she is going to get rid of the three embryos that are the strongest and not have any more babies if the other weaker ones die. Frank is not concerned at all because he doesn’t want to take care of any more kids, he already has six. It is stereotypical for the woman to care more about her pregnancy and how she is going to do throughout the pregnancy and for the man to not worry as much.

Fiona is going through a lot of financial burdens and a new breakup and she copes with it by drinking. She then gets very angry and overreacts about everything. It is stereotypical for people to say “stop acting like a girl” when someone is overreacting over small things, which is exactly what she is doing.

Not Following Stereotypes

Kelly gets mad at Carl because he tells her that he wants to break up with her because she is not pretty enough, but he actually thinks that he is weighing her down. She gets mad and starts to beat him up. Lip walks in and asks Carl if he is getting beat up by a girl again. Kelly is also bigger than Carl and stronger which is not stereotypical in a relationship.

Lip gets jealous that Tami’s old boyfriend comes home and is trying to get back together with her. Usually, men are not portrayed as jealous. Men are supposed to act like they do not care, but it is noticeable that he does care.

Kelly is sick of her dad trying to control her life and snaps one day and sits him down to lay ground rules. She sits both Carl and her dad down and yells at them very sternly to lay some rules so she can do what she wants. Both of them are scared of her and agree to her terms.

Bechdel Test 

Fiona is taking a shower and Debbie walks in to turn the water off because the water bill is too high. Debbie complains that Fiona is not paying for anything and is just costing them money. Since they are both lead characters and they were not talking about men this passes the Bechdel test.

Elijah and Fiona are having a conversation about their ex-boyfriends after Fiona’s ex walked into her work and she started throwing plates at him. Since they were talking about men and they are both main characters this fails the Bechdel test.

Shared by: Meagan Ebertz
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