10 Times Full House Was Progressive

[TMC]

https://www.reddit.com/r/fullhouse/c...s_progressive/

1. The premise.

Three men living in San Francisco raising children together and no one bats an eye. There is a running gag where Joey and Jessie are mistaken for a romantic couple. This is usually played for laughs, but that is my point. The people who mistake Joey and Jessie for a romantic couple usually don’t care and have absolutely no problem with these two being a couple. That is great. If they were a couple, it would NOT be a problem.

2. Sexual Harassment portrayed as a bad thing.

When Jessie was the victim of sexual harassment in season 4 episode 3 I.Q. Man, he quit his job. That was the right decision on Jessie’s part. There isn’t a job in the world that’s worth your mental health. A lot of people fall victim of sexual harassment in the work place and just take it, because they believe that the job is worth it. It is not. Most experts agree that losing your job is not the end of the world.

• https://behappytips.com/losing-job-not-end-of-world/
  
• https://www.bustle.com/p/how-i-learn...he-world-68452
  
• https://www.brit.co/why-losing-your-...-of-the-world/
  
• https://youtu.be/QTy0iPHlfAc

Later in the episode, Jesse and Joey give a speech where they basically say that your career isn’t everything. They had the right idea but made the wrong word choice. This speech would have been to my liking if they had said, somewhere in that speech, that dignity and respect should not be sacrificed at the altar of your career. You should leave your job, if your work environment is hostile.

3. Dealing with domestic abuse.

Stephanie’s classmate Charles was a victim of domestic abuse perpetrated by his father. Charles was kind of a jerk, but that is probably the result of psychological trauma. This happened in season 6 episode 17. The message of this episode is that someone who seems like a jerk might actually just need genuine love and affection that they aren’t getting.

4. Regressive Gender roles are challenged.

In season 7 episode 20, Michelle a la Carte, Michelle and Becky build a race car. When Kenny says that girls can’t build cars, Michelle brushes it off as him being a jerk. When Michelle hears Danny, Jessie and even Becky joking about girls allegedly being unable to build cars, Michelle thinks that they are serious. Michelle didn’t believe Kenny when he said it, but she believed Danny, Jessie and Becky. That is because, as a kid, she is inclined to believe that adults (especially her parents) know more than her so she takes what her parents (and adults in general) say seriously.

The message of the episode is that, as a parent, you have authority over your kids, not to mention, your kids look to you for wisdom and knowledge. As a result, your words have power, more power than you probably want them to, so parents have the potential to cause their kids severe emotional pain and make the kids think that it is their own fault. Therefore, be very careful what you say around children, they lack the emotional maturity to understand when you are joking and when you are serious.

Joey does ballet. When Joey does ballet, Jessie and Danny bust his balls about it. When they see the type of effects that this joking has on Michelle, they apologize to Joey. When Kimmy found out that Joey was doing ballet, Joey asked Kimmy not to tell Danny or Jessie, because he did not want them giving him a hard time. I would of loved it if Joey had said to Kimmy:

“Please don’t tell the guys. They hold a lot of regressive ideas about gender roles, they might get offended. They are very thin skinned.”

I would have loved it, if, in response to Jessie and Danny busting Joey’s balls, Joey had responded with something along the lines of:

“I was reluctant to say anything, because I was worried you guys would get offended. I know how thin skinned you are. But you know what, I don’t care. If you are so easily offended that a personal decision of mine that’s none of your business, brings you to your knees, you have it coming.”

5. Making fun of Hollywood (Joey refuses to compromise his integrity for a job).

There was an episode in season 1, where Danny did a documentary about his family. Michelle was deemed unfit to play the role of herself. Reality T.V. is an oxymoron. In the episode “The Perfect Couple,” Joey is offered a chance to host a game show. He refuses, because the job would require him to mess with people emotionally. He refuses to compromise his own moral principles for a job. Moral principles are significantly more important, in the grand scheme of things, than any job.

6. Conflicting ethical views are presented (neither is portrayed as right or wrong).

In the episode “The Test,” the episode where D.J. panics about her test to determine what college she goes to, Jessie attempts to reuse a stamp. Joey claims that this is a bad choice. Joey was standing by consistent moral principles, but just because Joey was standing by consistent moral principles, that doesn’t mean that Jessie wasn’t. The law that Jessie was breaking made no sense. If you reuse a stamp, it will hurt absolutely no one. If you ask me, I think that it should be legal to resume a stamp. I would have liked it if, in response to Joey being against reusing a stamp, Jesse had said something along the lines of:

“If the government wants people to obey their laws, they should pass laws that make sense.”

That quote would have been the perfect explanation as to why Jesse has, or at least should have, every right to reuse a stamp if he so much as feels like it.

7. The single life can be just as happy and satisfying as married life.

Several of the characters end the original series Full House single. Danny completes the spin off series Fuller House single. The implication is that these single people are just as happy as all the people who are in relationships. I totally agree with that. You don’t need to be in a relationship to be happy, and if you do, you don’t have your priorities straight.

8. Psychology of bullies.

In college, Joey lost a hockey game. When he has a chance for a rematch at a charity game, playing against Stonewall. Stonewall is obsessed with beating Joey again. Danny says, “Is your life so pathetic and empty that you have to live in the past.” Stonewall pretty much admits that the answer is yes. This is a satire about bullying. Bullies like Stonewall are usually traumatized and looking to build themselves up by tearing others down.

9. Question Authority.

There was one episode where DJ was wrongfully punished for drinking. The key takeaway from the episode is that even authority figures can be wrong. In a different episode, DJ believes that the D she got in Spanish was not the grade that she deserved. Danny, unsure if her daughter got the grade that she deserved, investigates and questions the teacher. He does not immediately assume that DJ was right, but also does not immediately assume that the teacher is. That is the right thing to do.

If there is a conflict between a student and a teacher where both parties involved believe themselves to be correct, you should not believe either to be correct as a default, you should withhold judgement until you know the whole story. Think about it this way. If a woman accused a man of rape, you would not believe him to be guilty, just because he was accused, you would withhold judgement until evidence is forthcoming. That doesn’t mean immediately labelling the accuser a liar, at least not until the evidence has been reviewed and the allegation has been proven false. The presumption of innocence applies to both the accused and the accuser.

10. Progressive portrayal of masculinity.

The three main men, Danny, Joey and Jesse, help each other be better, more assertive and stand by consistent moral principles.

Who would you say is the most traditional masculine of the three main men? For me, I would say that they are equally traditionally masculine. They each embody a different form of masculinity.

Jessie is conventionally handsome, smooth with the ladies and very very confident. His laid back attitude and him not caring what people think of him make the women swoon. Ironically, if you don’t care what people think of you, people are likely to think very highly of you. The world loves confident people. That being said, Jessie has probably been with more women than Danny or Joey.

While Jessie is the most confidant, Danny is the most stoic. This is shown in the way that Danny parents the girls. While Joey can be a pushover with the girls (as shown in season 2 episode 7 Joey Gets Tough) and Jessie has anger issues, accompanied by a tendency to lose his cool and completely fly off the handle (as shown in season 2 episode 12 Fogged In), Danny is strict with the girls and very patient. He is strict with discipling the girls and he does it in a calm, polite, respectful way. If the spin off series Fuller House is any indication, Danny did a better job parenting the girls than Jesse did parenting the twins. For the record, statistics show that couples who split the domestic duties have more and better sex ( https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...est-sex-lives/ ). That being said, although Jessie has probably been with more women than Danny, clean freak Danny has probably had more sex.

On the surface, Joey might seem like the least manly among the three main male leads, considering he is a push over with the girls and he has probably had the less romantic relationships than Danny and Jesse. That seems to make sense until you realize, Joey plays hockey, which is one of the manliest sports that there is, Joey clearly outperforms Jesse and Danny in hockey and Joey has the courage to stand up to his boss, when the boss is guilty of letting Jesse be sexually harassed.

A strong man stands up for himself, a stronger man stands up for others. The way that Jessie, Danny and Joey all have each other's backs, I would say these are three very strong manly men. They are progressive portrayals of masculinity in the sense that they are open and expressive of their emotions and they express their emotions in a healthy way, as shown in season 7 episode 7 “Be Your Own Best Friend.”

[JO Sweet Heart]

^^^ The thing that I hate about that #2 situation is that the victim should never be the one who has to leave because at the end of the day, they are not even the problem in the first place. I wouldn't be surprised if that woman who wouldn't leave Jesse alone had other victims before and after him.

God bless you always!!!

Holly