The television shows “Everybody Loves Raymond.” It is on TBS almost every night and I am talking about episode called “Working late again” from season two.
The media item I choose to talk about is a television show called “Everybody Loves Raymond” its on TBS almost every night and is one of my favorite shows. “Everybody Loves Raymond is an American sitcom that is one of the most critically acclaimed American sitcoms of its time (Wikipedia). The show is about an Italian American man named Ray Barone who is a newspaper sportswriter from Lynbrook, Long Island. He has a wife named Debra, their daughter named Ally and their two identical twins named Michael and Jeffery. Raymond’s parents and jealous older brother live right across the street and they never give Raymond and his family one moment of peace. The loving family is always fighting and has problems occurring everyday. Raymond is usually in the middle of the problem and is the one who usually gets blamed by Debra or Robert. Ray’s mother Marie would never blame Raymond because he is known as her favorite. The show is so good because it has everyday problems that many other real families in America have today. There are so many episodes that I can relate to or know someone that can relate to them. It is a comedy and is informative at the same time. I have learned and understood why some things have happened in my life by watching this show and not feeling bad because I know someone else out there is having problems with their relatives or something of that sort.
The episode I will be using as an example is called “Working late again” this episode is geared toward gender issues and privilege between men and women. In the episode Debra has been working really hard to keep the house together and handling the kids. Debra feels that she is doing all the work around the house and Ray isn’t really helping because he has been working late. When Debra decides to be a nice wife and take Ray some dinner on a night he is working late she finds him in his office with a pizza watching TV and playing paper football with the guys. Debra was horrified all the hard work she puts in at home and with taking care of the kids and Ray does not help her one bit. Debra tells Ray she is upset and he needs to help around the house more and he says to her “That is your job” Debra gets so offended with that remark. Raymond is showing gender and privilege issues here. This reminds me of one of Johnson’s readings from class Johnson stated, “Women’s supposed inferiority has also been used as a basis for the belief that much of the work that women do isn’t work at all and therefore isn’t worthy of anything more than emotional compensation” (49). What Johnson is saying reminds me of what Raymond thinks about Debra. Ray thinks because he is a man and goes out and makes the money he is more superior to Debra. Since Debra stays in with the kids and does house work she does not do real work. Johnson states, “On a deeper level, women are, with few exceptions, the ones who nurture and raise each new generation of workers on which capitalism depends, and this vital service is provided without anyone’s having to pay wages or provide health and retirement benefits” (49). Women are just important as men and they should be treated the same as well. At the end of the episode Ray sees all the work Debra does for the family and he understands more that she is important and does do a lot. Johnson says, “Women do it for free even when they also work outside the home to the benefit of the capitalist system and those who are most privileged by it” (49). Women have issues with gender and privilege and in the TV show Raymond made an issue about gender to his own wife.
I feel that the TV show “Everybody Loves Raymond” is a good example of what Johnson was saying about Capitalism, Difference, and Privilege and Gender. The one episode really gave a good example of how women are genderized and do not get credit for everything that they do. I do not know if that will ever change I feel that some men out there will always think they are superior to women and they do more then women do. I really like Johnson’s reading and I thought it was very informative and perfect to explain through the show “Everyone Loves Raymond”.
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