That 70's Show featured the lives of six teenagers in Wisconsin during the 1970's. In it, many stereotypes from that time period, and even today's, were presented and counterbalanced. So when examining this show, it is important to remember the "norms" that are supposed to be conveyed from that time period. (Mayne) Kelso was too attractive to care about being smart and very sexist. Hyde was the anti-government stoner. Jackie was the rich, glamorous, and materialistic girly-girl. Fez was, well, basically just the stupid foreign exchange student. Eric was the less-than manly Star Wars nerd. And Donna was the tomboy, often just thought of as one of the boys of the group. Donna and Jackie are polar opposites, with Jackie being super feminine and fitting into most norms, but both break the hegemonic norms that Lull mentions. They are oftentimes the in-charge person in their relationships. Throughout the series, the main focus became Donna and Eric's romantic relationship.
In the particular episode I examined, "Hot Dog," Donna and Eric end up becoming engaged. The first scene is of Donna in her Catholic school uniform looking at college brochures her guidance counselor gave her. She says that there is no point in reading them because she is planning on following Eric to whatever school he decides to go to. After Donna says this, Eric decides that he should do something nice for her, since in a way she is putting her whole future on the line. Always the materialist, Jackie suggests jewelry, and that there is a price tag on love.
Following Jackie's advice, Eric goes to the jewelry store. He tells the salesman that he wants to show Donna how much he loves her and that he wants to be together forever, but since they are in high school still, he feels an engagement ring says too much. However, the clerk convinces him that in fact, that is what the ring says verbatim. When Eric returns to the basement, he tells the gang, minus Donna of course, that he bought the engagement ring. Kelso asks if it's meant to be a joke, Eric replies that he wants to marry her, and again Kelso says, "As a joke?" At this point, his friends make him wear the "stupid helmet" and explain that high school is too early to decide that you'll be with someone forever, and that you don't get engaged when you're happy, but instead when there is no way out. To further compound the "stupidity" and scatterbrainedness of teenagers, Eric storms out with the stupid helmet still on and has to reenter the room to put it back.
In an attempt to prove that marrying Donna is a great idea, Eric poses the question to his parents. His dad tells him to think about his future, not Donna. When he tries to say that Donna is his future, his mom interjects by saying that even though he loves Donna, they are so on-again, off-again that it's likely that they will be off-again sometime soon. This makes it seem as though no romantic relationships formed in high school years can be truly lasting, because teenagers don't know what they want. Further showing how it is thought that teenagers are unsure of their wants, his parents go on to plan his future career, pretending that he is not even in the room.
When the time finally comes for Eric and Donna to meet up so he can give her a present for following him to college, Eric has decided that the engagement ring was in fact a stupid idea. He tells Donna about it after she prods him to tell her what the real present was, and he says that because everyone said it was stupid, he decided against it. He is allowing others' opinions to shape his decisions. Donna says that she wants to be with Eric forever, so they decide to follow through with getting engaged, and then they both go on to say how stupid they are for doing it, but they sound happy as they say it. This representation of adolescents being playful (Powerpoint, 3/9/11) and unable to be taken seriously and make well thought out decisions is displayed very well in this episode, especially with the reactions of the parents to such subjects.
Works cited
Lull, James. “Hegemony.”Brown, Adriane. Class Lecture. "Self Representation" The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH. 24 February 2011
Mayne, Judith. “Women, Representation, and Culture.”
