While some shows in the past take a more serious approach to hegemonic masculinity, Parks and Recreation takes a sort of serious approach, but puts a more satirical spin on it. According to Hurtado and Sinha, hegemonic masculinity can be described as legitimizing men's dominant positioning in society while justifying the subordination of women, which includes being seen as an "alpha male." (Hurtado & Sinha, 2008). Although Parks and Recreation is one of my favorite shows ever, after rewatching some episodes recently, there are some criticisms that come with watching the show again. One of the biggest and most important ones that I recognized was Tom Haverford's relationship with Ann Perkins.
Tom Haverford is sarcastic and is often seen as an underachieving employee at the Pawnee Parks and Recreation Department. He's always coming up with new business ideas, but they fail just about every time. When I watched Parks and Rec when I was younger, I did see him as too ambitious when it came to his business plans and pretty funny when it came to his cut scenes. What was made clear for me when I watched the show again was the way in which he treats women. He boasts about women all the time, even calling himself a "player" at times. This was something that I noted before, but never really paid attention to.
Tom aggressively flirts with women almost constantly and says things that would make any woman feel uncomfortable. This doesn't change at all when he pursues Leslie Knope's best friend, Ann
Perkins. Ever since the very first episode, Tom pursued Ann. Episode after episode, she constantly rejects him, but he continues to pursue her. He doesn't take no for an answer. Tom's behavior exemplifies hegemonic masculinity because he wants to come off as dominant to other women, which he thinks should be done by being in power positions and kind of harassing women to go on dates with him.
During a Valentine's Day episode (season 4, episode 14), Tom continuously asks Ann to go on a date with him. Ann ends up giving in and going on a date with him, but it's so forced. In the following episode, Tom keeps pushing Ann to go on another date although she told him multiple times that it wasn't a romantic relationship and that she wasn't interested in him. Tom continues to bother Ann and this leads to her pushing him aside. He takes it as an advance, so he sweeps all of the papers off the table nearest to them and states, "Let's get it on, right here!" The rest of the episode consists of Tom bothering Ann to go on another date with him, which she ends up agreeing to so that he would leave her alone about it.
This is just one specific example of the way that Tom treats women, but he was relentless in trying to have a romantic relationship with Ann. When the show first came out, seeing Tom get rejected constantly was funny, but today, the perspective has changed. He gets rejected because he's relentless and doesn't take no for an answer.
Artifact Type: TV show
Works Cited
Hurtado, Aida and Mrinal Sinha. (2003). "More than Men: Latino Feminist Masculinities and Intersectionality." Race, Class, and Gender: Intersections and Inequalities. Ed. Margaret L. Andersen, Ed. Patricia Hill Collins. Boston: Cengage Learning, 2019. 158-168. Print.
Tom and Ann's Secret Valentine's Date. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-q7GB8-IUg
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