Sunday, September 30, 2018

One Day at a Time: Sexism

 One Day at a Time: 1975 vs 2017







Episode 4 (season 1) of the 1975 show and episode 2 (season 1) of the 2017 show both discuss sexism that occurs at the workplace, obviously from a female point of view.

Adaptation: The biggest difference about the two shows is that the original show is about a 70's white family while the reboot is about a Cuban one living in America.

Ideology: There's been a major (but still bad) ideology change between the time periods. In the 70's the ideological view was that women's most useful thing was their bodies, as proved by episode 4 of the 1975 version. Throughout the episode Ann was being coached by 2 men and even her daughters on how to get a job by showing off her body. As the men keep cracking wise ones about Ann's sexual-ness, the laughing track is cued to let the audience now to laugh at those moments because that's what people thought was funny in the 70's. However, in the 2010's this ideology of women has shifted. The commentary that episode 2 of the 2017 show tries to make is that now women are on the same playing field as men yet still inferior. Penelope is struggling to be treated equally in the workplace due to her douchy coworker being sexist and over "man-splaining." The difference here is that the sexism isn't as obvious today than it was back then (from a modern POV). Penelope doesn't even realize that her coworker is being sexist until her social-conscious daughter tells her he is. The point is that today's sexism is men constantly trying assert their dominance over females such as "man-splaining" or being microaggressive.

Genre: Although the ODAAT reboot is still a sitcom-type show, both shows were on different platforms. The 1975 show was shown on cable TV while the 2017 one is a Netflix exclusive. Video streaming is a big platform these days that many young people take advantage of. Digital technological advancement is the biggest difference here so it makes sense that the reboot was made for the digital streaming audience of today.

Social History: Both shows make a great deal of social commentary from their time. The 1975 show commented on big issues in the 70's such as sexism, sex, suicide, feminism, etc. The reboot comments on modern issues such as immigration, sexuality, mental illness, financial struggles in today's economy, etc.

Semiotics: Since both shows are sitcoms, the laugh tracks acts as anchorage to allow the audience to know what they should find funny. What's interesting about the original show is that in the episode Ann does realize that the whole situation about getting a job was sexist, and she does conclude that it was wrong, but she still didn't get the job and nothing changes. In the reboot's episode, Penelope realizes she is being treated unfairly at the workplace, and after speaking her peace, quits. Then once she has a conversation with her boss, they negotiate proper conditions and pay for Penelope to return to work and be treated fairly next to her coworker. If there had not been a solution in the reboot's episode I believe that it wouldn't have boded well with the modern American audience, as nowadays people strongly believe in taking action rather than staying silent and sticking to status quo.







1 comment:

  1. I love your ideas on the sexism present in certain episodes, I am as well touching on that topic but for a movie (The Parent Trap). I also think you have a decent amount of work to base your presentation off of I would just recommend thinking more about the social history after all that is what warrants the change in the remake you're doing. It also might be beneficial to think about how Syntagmatic and Anchorage as well as Paradigmatic and Articulation intertwine with the main points in your presentation/project.

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