“It’s Like a Guy Never Lived Here!”: Reading the Gendered Domestic Spaces of Friends

Abstract

This article argues that the postfeminist gender politics of Friends (NBC, 1994–2004) are played out via a series of manipulations and reversals of space and mise-en-scène. Arguing that clearly gendered domestic space forms a stable part of the sitcom’s equilibrium, it analyses instances where the mise-en-scène boldly calls attention to men’s and women’s spaces, puts the gendering of space into flux, and highlights the burden of domestic labor. It reveals through close textual analysis how space in Friends is used to offer the playful promise of freedom from restrictive gender roles, but ultimately maintains a conservative status quo of both space and gender. It also makes a case for paying close attention to the aesthetics of the traditional sitcom to appreciate the expressivity of production design offered in such texts which, although (deliberately) unspectacular, is by no means unremarkable.