Hilarious Sexual Assault on Friends

Friends is an American sitcom that ran for ten seasons from the mid-90s to the mid-2000s. It has received accolades from fans and professionals alike. It follows a group of mid-20s coffee-shop-hanging friends in New York City. Who doesn’t like Friends? Especially Joey, the struggling actor and lovable, womanizing oaf of the bunch.

While Friends offers a wide variety of examples of misogyny and objectification of women, the most disturbing examples – including this one of childhood sexual assault – come from scenes that most people find funny.

In the premiere episode of Season 2 (“The One With Ross’s New Girlfriend, aired September 21, 1995), Joey kindly refers his friend Chandler to the family tailor. The Tribbiani’s had been going to this tailor “forever”, and Joey had his first suit altered there 12 years ago, when he was 15. Chandler visits the tailor and returns to the apartment infuriated that he had been fondled during the fitting. Joey brushes off the accusation – “That’s how they do pants!

Ross and Chandler explain to Joey that, no, in fact, fondling genitals is not part of how they do pants, and we all realize that we’re now laughing at childhood sexual abuse.

Or do we? We’re laughing at Joey’s reaction to realizing he was sexually abused from age 15 to 27. And that’s funny… why? Yet, this is normal.

It’s time to change what’s normal.