Western Sitcoms: A Reflection of Our Society?

``Our group of friends comprised of men and women and we all have a Joey in our group and a Rachel defiantly.``

You can`t help but realise that parts of your friends, family members or even you are reflected in these characters.

This is a long forgotten article as I had sent this almost a year ago. I appreciate all your positive comments.

I do understand that such shows are for pure entertainment; but alas, i`m a sociologist afterall. I can`t , but help and ponder how the reltively insignificant can be significant

all in all, the fact that we as can assimilate such the essentially western influences and relitivise them, for our own social and cultural progress is what matters. I was simply bringing such a notion into the limlight.

Thanks everyone.

peace.

On side note;-
sig*h, awww, How I miss hanging out with my buddies back in Pakistan!

Dear writer

I find it amazing to mix and match east and west and enjoy your life with the extract of both western and eastern spices. If, Pakistani culture is becoming a mixed culture , this is the beauty of globalization.

(Sex and the city) and (friends) are fun to watch and worth spending your precious time. I don`t have much time to watch`em. But, whenever I have chance I definitely like to watch`em.

sex and the city is about sexually independent women, which Pakistani socitey will consider a sin. I believe Pakistanis need to watch these shows to come out of their fanatic views about women and their exact role in Pakistani primitive socitey, which is the main setback for the backwardness of Pakistani culture.

Friends is a comdey which is about these best friends , who love to hangout and have good times in Manhattan(New York city). This show always, always remind me of my old pals back in Pakistan, when we used to hangout and used to have great fun times in eachother`s companies. We shared our fun, sorrows and happinesses together. I simply love friends . Friends is the REMINISCENCES of my precious past back in Pakistan with my beloved buddies.

Last year when I was in India a friend had a small get together of our friends where some of my friends met at his house...there were ladies and few kids too....I was surprised that all 8 of them(friends) pushing 40 now, married, having kids and respectable professions could not stop talking about sex and women while their wives still walking around, serving food or chatting in the next room....some of the questions were coming my way too..hor phir goriyaN kiddaN ne?.... sunneya amreeka ch te kamm saukha ban jaanda.......Dullay, suna yaar kinniyaN ko pattiyaN tooN?......sunny, yaar teri oh clerk da ki haal ay? poori bomb shai ay yaar, kade sanu vi mila de.....
and I was like don`t talk loud guys, my wife will hear it....hamidm is right...we are probably tracked by satellites for our extra-curricular activities by the ladies.

rough translation of a punjabi shair I am forgetting now:

wives want their husbands to be horses in the bedroom
but pets when other women are around.

#8 hamidm2 sahib,
How are you? I understand your point about luxury in the presence of poverty. Pleasure in the presence of suffereing, and fun in the presence of sorrow. But, sir, as the horrible hindoos say ``Na nau man tel milega na Radha nachey gi.``

Beenisch,
An interesting topic that you have articulated into an excellent article. The key thing here is that sitcoms and comedy shows are there for enjoyment. These pleasant interruptions from the boring monotony of daily chores should not be painfully elevated to become sweeping statements about the demise or emergence of any civilization. Just have fun - enjoy the moment. :) You don`t need validation from peers, parents, teachers, neighbors, mullahs, and certainly not the government.

Re: # 8

I know what you mean....for you it`s a trip once a year or less, for me it`s part of my daily routine...

So does one give in to the cynicism and completely lose one`s sanity? Or somehow rationalise that there is bigger plan behind all the misery...and keep going?

Think about it

post-modern reality ............

...... so one day i was stuck in a traffic jam with a trucks, suzukis and three wheeled rikshaws honking their horns at each other ........... as a nonchalant cow carefully treaded its way through the stalled vehicles and stopped to relieve itself next to the honda civic, i realized that this ``urban post-modern reality demands excessive rationalisation at every step of our lives that inescapably triggers our sense of individualisation``........ and trigger it did ! ....... so i calmly got out of the car, walked to the side of the road, squatted next to a wall and relieved myself ...........

Re: # 7

burp mian,

...... actually i don`t wan`t to go too far because i get lost easily .....

..... but you can`t help being a little cynical as you sit in the smog and smoke at the trafiic light, listening to some breezy young thing on the radio talk about whether it is okay for emancipated women to smoke in public while an emaciated man is tapping on the window with the stump of his missing arm ........... and it is really hard to think about sex as another man with his lower half missing rolls up on the other side on a board with wheels and peers in with yellow eyes ......... i wanted to ask him if he still had the equipment to have sex, instead i just said, ``nice wheels !`` ................

Re: # 5

hamid-bhai...cynicism while no doubt entertaining, will only take you so far...

:)

I`ll go with Burpinder on this one.

Chill lady !

You don`t have to find issues in every BIT of life. Sometimes its just there, just without a meaning , just for the sake of being there.

sex in the city of rawalpindi .....

....... last december, as i sat in the traffic across from the pia office on the mall, i saw a woman expose her breasts in public ....... she was sitting on the filth strewn pavement with a grimy baby in her lap, when she suddenly pulled up her shirt to expose a rather grimy breast which she offered to the rather emaciated baby ........ nobody seemed to notice this blatant display of nudity as they walked around her ........

...... a then i was propositioned by a male prostitute who had asked for a lift in the blue area ......... look, i have nothing against gay folks, but it is rather disconcerting and even a little frightenening when a young man dressed in a crisp white shalwar kmeez and reeking of musk oil reaches over to place his hand on your thigh as you are trying to negotiate rush hour traffic ...........

....... and then there was this hijra who scared the daylights out of my kids as they waited in the car while i went in to collect the broasted chickens at rahat bakery ....... it seems that he/she had been tapping on the window and when they refused to roll it down he just stood there smiling and staring at them ........ he was a rather good looking guy/gal, with ruby red lips, pearly teeth, rupaul makup and dressed in a fine red silk shalwar kameez ...... i gave him five rupees, he thanked me politely, waved a limp wrist at the kids and walked away to have sex (i presume)

....... and if i were to believe the rumors, it seems that there a lot of married women having sex in the city while their husbands are in the dubai ....... some are even doing it while their husbands are just across town ........ only al-lah knows the truth ........ but one thing i do know - there seem to be quite a few happily married guys of my age who are having a lot more fun than i ever did ...... needless to say, mrs hamidm did not want me hanging out with them and was relieved when we got back to america where she can keep an eye on me .............

Re: # 2
Here is this gem from IB:
... permote dangerous ideas like `Enlighten Moderation`...

:)
There is always a sitcom happening.You just need to look around !

There is such a thing as over-analysing the simple pleasures of life. My advice to the author- enjoy it for what it is and avoid thinking of it as ``our pure culture`` versus Western decadent values, etc. etc.

FRIENDS is special because it rings so true; like the author says, we all know a Joey that we want to be like; a Monica that irritates the hell out of us with her penchant for cleanliness and yet could never plan a party without; a Rachel whom we are secretly in love with but never dare ask out, coz we just aren`t good enough for them; a Chandler who makes everyone laugh with nary a hint of the pain and insecurity within...

Likewise I suppose Sex and the City appeals to women because of the ease with which it brings out girly conversations into the living room...though never a big fan, I have watched a few episodes and even enjoyed them for the absolute ease with which seemingly taboo topics are discussed; at some level it`s helped men all over to appreciate the fact that womantalk is just as disgusting as mantalk!

Now excuse me, Seinfeld is on and I have to go :)

Thought provoking article !!!
My views are a bit extreme on this topic . I believe that our society is being systematically converted into a society of `wannabes` or we can safely say that we are slowly transformed into a `western society`. Our government is responsible where we could go any lenghts to do whatever the Americans & to permote dangerous ideas like `Enlighten Moderation`.
The Americans are in a myth if they think changing school curriculum & omitting Quran surahs from our textbooks would not permote the idea of `Jehad` or Anti-American feelings because it is in Momin(s) to read the Quran - here Americans are mixed up between Anti-American Sentiments & Jehadists in Pakistan & arround the world .
Here it is our responsibility not to do what Americans think but to do what(s) better for the nation.