Culture Commentary

I can probably sit down and name you one hundred reasons why I love Parks and Recreation, but my favorite, aside from Ron Swanson’s mustache, is the relationship between Anne (Rashida Jones) and Leslie (Amy Poehler). 

I’ve watched a lot of television. A LOT of television and few friendships between woman make me as happy as Anne and Leslie. Often times when more than one woman is featured in a show their is always this need to pit them against one another. I’ve seen it on Desperate Housewives (that show is all about women rivalries), Modern Family, New Girl, and even The Office. A friendship like theirs in hard to find. Not only do these women encourage one another, they take care of each other, compliment one another (which is a lot rarer than you might think) and like friends, they work through their problems and never let a stupid guy get in the way: OVARIES BEFORE BROVARIES, UTERUSES BEFORE DUDERUSES. 

However, the friendship shared between Amy Poehler and Rashida Jone’s characters made me wonder why it’s so hard to find genuine female friendships portrayed on television. Will the world end and planets collide if two women sharing a genuine and loving platonic friendship is portrayed on television? Well, given that Parks and Rec has been on for four amazing funny seasons, I would think not. 

Women competing with each other is nothing new. In media a girl is either a madonna or a whore. She’s either a smart, shrew or a dumb, bimbo. Either way, if you’ve got two girl with shared interests, there’s going to be some kind of competition. Sadly, more often than not it’s over a guy. I’m sure there can be many reasons for the constant rivalry between women, but only one reason seems to make sense to me: in male dominated culture, women are constantly being viewed through a male lens. When the media you’re bombarded with every day looks at women this way, it’s going to be hard to think anything different. That brings me to another important reason why I love Parks and Recreation, Amy Poehler’s fearless writing. 

For most, Amy Poehler is that really funny blonde on SNL or more recently as Leslie Knope, but I think it’s also important that she’s a great writer as well. There is no doubt in my mind that with strong women like Amy producing, writing, and calling the shots, their is little room for female rivalry and more room for a female perspective. I hate to call the relationship between Ann and Leslie revolutionary and refreshing because that’s how all relationships between women should be. Unless of course she sleeps with your husband or gets you fired from your job or something, then it’s okay.