'Friends' and Masculinity

Friends is a TV Show that no one is going to claim has a lot of commentary on social issues, more often than not it avoided that so it could be a fun form of escapism for half an hour every week. But one topic that they would lay reference to for the sake of a plot point or joke is that of masculinity...they handled it weirdly. The characters are not seen as particularly manly, yet should they ever come across anything that goes against the social norms of how men should behave, they freak out. Two men napping together, a male nanny, Joey making potpourri, they would often criticise and mock these ideas because it's "weird". Now there are plenty of shows that would mock these ideas, especially in the 90's but the hypocrisy of it all is what baffles me, this is the same show that had Ross dressed as a potato and Chandler as a pink bunny have an arm wrestling match and be equally weak...i just realised how weird of an episode idea that sounds. My point being, there it's okay to mock their lack of masculine traits without belittling the idea of people being different, but in cases like Sandy the Male Nanny, he doesn't behave emasculate, it's not even a stereotype on his sexuality seeing as he's straight, but the idea of a guy able to be sensitive is weird apparently, i don't get it. How can a show go from having it be identifiable character traits in our main characters to mocking the fact that anyone who doesn't behave by the archaic standards of men? It's hypocritical and strange that they would give a damn about that in the first place, it makes me question how this show survived in the birth of post-modern television.

-Danny