How do you do.
[This was delayed the couple of weeks with distractions, and it's come out longer than intended. Fair warning.]
When That 70s Show came on the scene, it practically caught everyone's attention with its pop references to the decade that people were nostalgic over while poking fun at the said nostalgia. It made Topher Grace, Ashton Kutcher, and Mila Kunis famous when it came out, which sometimes proved a bad thing for the supporting cast. As the world entered the Millennium, Season Two wrapped up with Hyde taking the fall when Jackie's stash was found by the police, resulting in a cliffhanger where we wonder how long will he be in the Forman residence.
Season Three kicks off with Red Forman angry at Hyde, later Eric, for the stash he was arrested for and grounds everyone on the premise. Eventually, he calms down. Hyde later meets his father and the two attempt to mend bridges, though "Cats In the Cradle" is never referenced (and that's a song from the seventies). Kelso and Jackie are still estranged, even having the former charge the latter for damage to his van in one episode. Fez and Jackie have some chemistry, but Fez eventually goes to a girl named Caroline. The relationship shows some potential, until it's revealed that Caroline is crazy and practically stalks Fez until he breaks up with her and tries to use Donna as a shield. While that happens, Jackie reconnects with Kelso and the two manage to stick long in the season. The same is not said for Donna and Eric, who deal with some struggle with conflicting future plans that end with their break up.
The breakup puts Eric in a depression, as does Donna, and they set up a loyalty war over their friends in the Fourth Season, that lasts a few episode. The awkwardness is broken only when Midge leaves Bob and Eric's form of comfort is sex. Donna regrets it and keeps Eric away. Fez moves on from Caroline to Big Rhonda for a couple of episodes until they break up from bad advice. Jackie is cut off by her father over her relationship and takes up a job as a cheese seller, which eventually leads to problems in the relationship with her boyfriend and another break up. Eric gets paired with two girls on a few occasions, with Donna becoming jealous at each, until she meets Casey Kelso and the two date a while. The relationship makes Eric jealous, while Donna goes into a downward spiral. The others, including her father, who goes into dating a woman named Joanna, try to talk to her while Casey decides to call it off, leaving Eric and Donna free to reunite. Eric rejects her, causing Donna to run off with Kelso, who manages to patch things up with Jackie again and this time the last wants more than a relationship, to California. Red is manager at Price Market, with Eric working under him, which holds well into 1978 while Kitty begins to spend time at home. Laurie also leaves for college and is out for most of the season.
When we first see the characters back in Season One and Two, they didn't get much fleshing out. With the teens, it was easy to know who was who: Eric is the every man of a teen seeking to prove himself a man, Donna was the girl next door, Jackie is the spoiled rich girl, Hyde is the rebel, Fez is the token minority, and Kelso is something of a Jack of all Trades in tropes, being the jock who doesn't do much sports, and is bad at wrestling; the loyal sidekick who is very vain and narcissist; is a ladies man, who loses out on two girls. Even the grown ups are standard in characterization with Red the conservative, All American, man's man who frets about his son not into manly things, Kitty something of a smothering mom who prefers to keep her boy as a baby, and Bob and Midge are the weird neighbors.
Usually, in Season Two, the characters would be fleshed out, and they are. They become fleshed out even more in Season Three. When Hyde sees his father again, there is a point where it seems he won't make amends. I will say that Hyde does distract from the show in Season Two where, after seeing his parents bail, he becomes an orphan in need, but he refuses to call for help. When his father returns, it suddenly becomes a popularity contest in "Hyde's Christmas Rager", where Bud Hyde has to learn how it is to be a father. One problem that comes up is how this subplot is abandoned after a while and then it's retconned in Season Six, but I'll get to that on a later date.
Speaking of dates, Fez actually gets a girlfriend after being something of the lonely guy in Season Three, and the first one he meets likes him well. In "Dine and Dash", Fez learns that sometimes romance has to be turned off, like in a place where the girlfriend works (believe me, it does get hard to keep professional at times) and is offended by it. However, his girlfriend, Caroline, makes up for it by the end of the episode. Ironically, Caroline is shown to be obsessed with Fez more so than any girlfriend would, basically inverting some fantastic scenario where a girl desperate for a boyfriend winds up having one who basically stalks her. Fez eventually wises up and dumps Caroline, but he uses Donna to shield him from her for a time in "Fez Dates Donna." Caroline then gives up (like most TV girlfriends) but the not so funny thing is people get hurt when stalking happens, if not killed, and crazy ex-girlfriends get quite a bad rap for that. Luckily for Donna that Caroline doesn't go sneaking into her room and threaten her with harm. If anything, Caroline would be back.
As to Eric and Donna, they become the center piece couple for the run of Season Three, to the point of people mocking them as an old married couple for it. Yet, the relationship dances on pins and needles from "Holy Craps" on where Eric encounters a grouchy old man who warns him the dangers of marrying a high school sweetheart, something most people today take to heart. However, Eric chooses to stick it through.
What is really shown is how they see the future differently. In "Baby Fever", Donna has published a story in the paper and shows it to Eric, yet he goes gah gah over the way she handles a baby. Donna did work hard on that paper and she really took pride in it. To have it dismissed as second to being able to handle something as mundane as changing diapers is offensive, and I can hear today's feminists cranking up their own interpretations about it. Not only that, when they talk about the future, Eric imagines the house set up he grew up with (him coming home to find her with their kids), to which Donna changes to have herself come home from work while Eric stays at home. Yet, the horny deviant (read, teenage boy) in Eric uses that into a sex fantasy. Donna does it better by making his fantasy backfired on him and tells him to "get bent."
We can excuse Eric in this instance. Unlike myself or others, he never got to know that women can be breadwinners and dads can stay at home with the kids, and nothing shameful can be said about it. Eric was a boy in the Sixties, when women still stayed at home while men brought home the bacon. However, everything else can't be excused. His turning Donna's "equality based" fantasy into an erotic one is degrading.
Donna is not the innocent party in the underlying troubles of the couple, however. In "Eric's Panties", she freaks out at seeing a pair of panties in the Vista Cruiser, going so far as to come off as the jealous type when looking for answers, which drives off Eric's study partner. Of course, it turns out they were her mom's and her mom was with her dad in the car. In "Backstage Pass", Donna ditches Eric to interview Ted Nugent, and without even apologizing for it. Finally, in "Promise Ring", when Eric buys the said ring, Donna has troubles wearing it. Eventually, she tells him that she doesn't see her future with him, prompting Eric to break up with her.
In weighing it out, Eric is the worst brat of the two; he disregards her passions, he objectifies her, he forgets his mom's birthday, he keeps porn magazines under his bed, he groans in doing something to make women happy, yet expects free sex, and he reads her diary (a violation of her privacy). Donna, meanwhile, gets jealous real easily, gets mean often, and rejects a promise ring that Eric had put his heart in to buy (nothing worse than spending time and money to buy something for your woman than to hear someone not think it special).
So, we get that Donna and Eric have been put on a pedestal in Season Three and wonder if they are still in Season Four. Apparently so, because the season is all about how their break up upsets everything and they should be brought back together.
As a foil to Eric and Donna (could we say Ericonna, or something?), Jackie and Kelso start out broke up in Season Three, as Jackie has her sights on Hyde, because he took the heat when she was caught holding a bag of drugs. Of course, Hyde doesn't return the affections while Kelso vies for Jackie again (even acting like a jerk in "Roller Disco" when she takes Fez out to dance with her). It really isn't until "Jackie Bags Hyde" that Hyde actually shows he likes Jackie, simply by knocking out her date. Unfortunately, the whole thing is scrapped in "Ice Shack" where its once more Jackie being sought out by Fez and Kelso. Fez demonstrates at being the dogged nice guy where he does good things for Jackie. He goes as her partner in the Roller Disco, where she later gets drunk, yet he doesn't take advantage of her. There is an interesting part with that where Batman subs for the angel while the Riddler plays the Devil in Fez's decision making (a secular interpretation), and Fez goes with Batman, since he's the good guy. Of course, Fez's action is commended, but the stinger throws it away by him getting drunk and asking Jackie to take advantage of him (showing television's double standard). Finally, there's "Ice Shack" where Fez challenges the two couples to the Newlywed game and Kelso proves himself good in remembering things, impressing Jackie. However, he throws that away by crying over his lost van and Jackie sees that as a sign. She turns to Fez for comfort, but Fez makes own variant of Butler's parting line (at least he kept his pride, considering this is another case of a guy does all the nice things for the girl, yet she chooses someone else in the end).
Kelso attempts to move on, only to not get turned on in a make out session with another girl. He freaks out at experiencing an early onset of impotence, until it turns out it's a sign he still has feelings for Jackie. So, he goes to Jackie again, who decides to test him out in "The Trials of Kelso", but it takes him knowing about it to actually pass them all. First there's the egg to make seem a father figure and then there's the fake illness Jackie brings up to see if he is shallow. Finally, she gets a girl to pretend to come on to him and he rejects her advances. Jackie is satisfied and they stay a couple for the rest of the season.
How Kelso and Jackie work as opposed to Eric and Donna could be argued that they are the same; both Kelso and Jackie are vain, arrogant, and self-centered. It's these things that made them last and it seems they could mature on it. Kelso has, even if he has to be told in order to do so. If there is a flaw in their relationship, as Season Four shows, it's basically their own problems that are only expressed by cheating on the other, while Kelso can't seem to mature fast enough. Meanwhile, Eric and Donna have disagreements on a few things and practically have a "my way or the highway" sort of approach that ultimately leads to the break up.
So, in Season Four, Eric and Donna are broken up while Jackie and Kelso are a couple, leaving Hyde and Fez as the only single guys in the group. That is until "Hyde Gets a Girl" where in a party to set Hyde up, Fez meets Big Rhonda, a plus sized blonde with glasses. Here, we see a potential of a new girl in the group, as she begins to hand with Donna and Jackie in a few episodes, while giving plus sized girls someone to look up to. I like how in "Red and Stacy", the other two girls try to give Big Rhonda a make over, only for Fez to accuse them of corrupting her; as if to take a shot at the idea of women changing their appearances for their men would improve their lives. Instead, we have a man who likes her the way she is. Unfortunately, we don't get more of Big Rhonda after "Kelso's Career", as she is written out for some strange reason. During that time, Fez starts to want to lose his virginity to her, only to be rejected. In "Everyone Loves Casey", he takes the advice of Casey Kelso and makes his move, and that results in the break up.
Kelso and Jackie don't break up in the end, however, but Jackie begins thinking of getting married, while Kelso has something of a commitmentphobia, causing him to runaway to California instead. I personally hated that, since all the build up was made in these seasons to get back together and dealing with underlying issues, and Kelso decides to throw all that away.
One episode I'll go into detail on is the start of Season Four, "It's a Wonderful Life," an episode that not only uses the title, but also the plot of It's a Wonderful Life, with Eric playing George Bailey and Wayne Knight plays the angel. The episode shows Eric what it would be like if he and Donna never kissed, resulting in a paradox where Hyde and Donna date, get into a relationship, and are married in the 1980s. Meanwhile, Eric's alternate self remains the whimpy boy who caves to Red's anger, a social outcast who joins the chess club, and only loses his virginity to Big Rhonda (even though she is later seen telling Fez she is saving for marriage). The paradox also means that when Kelso and Jackie break up, they never make up, but only settle for occasional hook ups while Fez simply becomes a rock star, similar to Michael Jackson.
The episode is non-canon, mostly, by having Donna act out of character and creating situations that don't add up. As a feminist, Donna's beliefs would clash with that of Hyde's at some point (example, she wouldn't in real life get a tattoo that made her Hyde's property) and the two would part. The future shot that comes in also has Eric making less attempts at proving himself a man, leading him being seen as weak by his parents who get a new boy -- a hyperactive sort who just might have terrics, but Red approves of him anyway -- while Kitty is no longer fretting over his departure and actually hints that he should leave in the wedding of Hyde and Donna. All the while, it's never implied that Fez and Jackie would find each other, nor is the idea of the lack of Eronna causing too much of a paradox. However, in the end, Eric realizes it was better to have loved and lost than to not love at all.
It touches close because it makes one think of how the past few months would be if he and his ex-girlfriend stayed as friends. Yes, less drama would have come and they'd feel time wasn't wasted for naught (unless it's a one sided crush), but then what would the two people would compensate for it? Remaining ignorant of the wrong buttons to push, never getting to see the other side of the person (like the creative side, if the woman could draw pictures or make jewelry), or being robbed of a good experience with something the two of you are into, or seeing that movie you both went to? And in couples who had sex while dating, I am positive they wouldn't be dealing with guilt of it out of wedlock, while also not knowing how important foreplay is. For people who met the love of their life, imagine if none of that happened. I have friends who are married, and I am sure at least two of them are reading this, and they would say how poor their lives would have been if they didn't make that decision to become more than friends.
One thing to add is looking at the footage, I can't help but think of how Eighties Kelso as a reporter resembles Will Farrel in Anchorman.
Another episode in Season Four is titled "That 70s Musical". Fez had tried out ballet during the two season side of the show, largely to meet girls. He does have to put on tights, but he does get the girls, but is disappointed. "They let me touch their thighs, but not their hearts," he tells the others, which is one way of showing how the ballet dancers don't see him as anything but a dance partner. Yet, he does have fantasies of ballet sequences, one something like West Side Story where he and his girls fight off rough guys and dance happily ever after, and the other him in the girls doing what could be considered a mating ritual.
Now he becomes a singer in a school musical pageant and he invites everyone to see him. Unfortunately, some of the petty dramas delay their arrival, making Fez think they don't care for him. It is humorous watching them break out into musical numbers, like "So Happy Together" or "The Joker" (That song that opens with "Some people call me the space cowboy...") the latter with four of the teens forming a swastika in the middle of the song. In the end, the gang arrives and witnesses Fez singing, even with Red being all grouchy about it.
Feminism and Masculinity are two things to talk about at this point. That 70s Show brings up the way the decade was where it seemed traditional gender roles were being challenged, especially in wake of what had happened in the past decade. Women's Lib movement had happened which challenged the very concept of gender roles, making it a watershed moment. Before the sixties, it wasn't unheard of for women to stay at home while men went to work. That's just the beginning: in 1958, it was rare to see women in pants. Now we come to 1978 (show's time), we have girls in bell bottom pants, hot pants, and denim pants. Kitty's cooking habits would have been seen as normal, too, and not something from an underlying psychological issue, while the idea of wives leaving their husbands and children would be a sign of being invective prior to the 1960s. Women's Lib, or Second Wave Feminism, had changed the spectrum in the sixties, replacing said roles for the world of sex, drugs, and rock 'n roll, resulting in a sudden need to have masculinity to be defined.
That 70s Show doesn't provide its own definition, but it does use the older generation's definition of masculinity many times, mostly by setting up a standard and mocking any man who doesn't meet it. Red Forman is treated as the example of the old school masculine man. He doesn't express his emotions, other than anger, hate affections, and puts his energies into manly activities like sports and hunting. This leads to him not having a good relationship with his son, as the latter is seen as "twitchy" in his eye. Even when he does well, Red offers no respect, and in "Love, Wisconsin style", when Eric tells him how Donna came to him and he rejected her because he didn't want to be a rebound, Red asks how is he too proud for her. "You're not an athlete and the only smart about you is your mouth," he says, basically kicking him while he's down. Red's solution to helping Eric over his break up with Donna is giving him chores, also, which never really works. Yes, doing something will get your mind off the break up, but it's a short lived relief and you suddenly have to find another project. Suppose you run out of things to do? Then what? (I know because I had a girlfriend break up with me months ago and even after helping with the wood and doing this blog, the sting is still present). In the end, you're just running away from and denying your scars, which Red seems to think that is what men do. It goes on the concept that men don't ask for help and are not suppose to feel, something that needs to be addressed. (At the same time, Eric's drug habits don't help either; it's like giving someone morphine constantly after touching a hot stove). In "Eric's Stash", Red learns of Eric accusing Hyde of stealing his secret stash and Hyde getting mad about it, and his solution is to have them fight it out; he even adds if they are not mad enough to fight, they aren't really mad. Having the boys fight each other won't make them less angry. If anything, it just encourages violence while giving them more reasons to be mad at each other. The only place I have seen where two men beat each other up and come out laughing about it later is in movies.
Of the other men, Red likes to think he has plenty of friends, but can't stand the others. Hyde is the only one of the younger men that he sees as a real man, and he is a rebel who violates his house rules with his lifestyle. He sees Kelso as an idiot, which is justified. Fez, of course, is given racists remarks (without using slurs, but sometimes calling him Tarzan). Then there's Bob and Leo, the former he sees as an annoying clutch and the latter as doped up hippie. The one man he does bound with is Pastor Dave, over football, and it results in him deciding to give up preaching. As you would expect, the church gets mad at Red for that, and Red has to convince Pastor Dave not to leave the church. So, you can conclude that Red doesn't have any real friends he can relate to, as he drives people away, while thinking being old means he doesn't have to make new friends. For the most part, Red's all about maintaining his image as an Alpha male, best evidenced in some dinner scenes where when Kitty sits the meal down, Red would grab the first bits, with Kitty following, and Eric getting the last bits, if at all (unlike my father who would let my mother and us eat first). The one time Eric challenges this, Red gets into battle mode with a threat of physical abuse ("a swift kick in the ass", he calls it).
While Red is not someone to look up to in being a man, there is one example of positive masculinity he attempts to pass on to his son. In "Kitty's Birthday (That's Today?)", Red and Eric forget Kitty's birthday, which is something I wonder if it's possible. I mean, two men forgot the birthday of a woman, who is wife of one and mother of another. I certainly know my mother's birthday, in fact it's so easy to remember: it has something to do with an important event in history. I also know my ex-girlfriend's birthday (the reason I am not typing it down is out of respect for her privacy). Somehow, they forget Kitty's, and she is obviously upset (and as revealed earlier in the show, such as with "The Parents Find Out", Kitty is the only person to make Red run for cover when she gets mad). So, the first thing they try to make her happy is by doing some of her chores, or rather pretend to, as she comes home. However, their smiles aren't fooling anyone and Kitty simply walks by without saying a word. Red then decides for the sake of Kitty's happiness, he and Eric must do something they normally wouldn't do: Square dancing. Neither Red nor Eric like this, but if mom ain't happy no one is happy.
This is one out of many, of course. Even the guys (and to a lesser extent, the girls) have a standard of being a guy to which those who don't cut out are subject to mockery. The show even does this on numerous occasions, often aiming the mockery gun at Eric. In "Red Sees Red", when we see the boys first trying out drugs, Eric is the only one whose voice has broken yet (and I can't tell if they got a girl to play her or if they just dubbed the guy's vocals). One way the girls have this is "Hyde's Christmas Rager" where Jackie takes Donna to a bar and flirt with firemen who are twice their age, but that's okay because they "can bench a keg, Eric can bench a cup." Translation, forget the whimpy Eric and go with someone with big biceps and a deep voice. In "Class Picture" Eric is also mocked because he gets a pimple every time pictures are made, one of which is placed near an eye to look like a red tear. Red also goes at him for his preference for comics and nerdy things like Star Wars, even referring to his GJ action figures as dolls.
After Eric and Donna break up, two sides of Eric happen. One is sensitive, especially after Donna publishes her Roman a Chef story, about Wanda and Derek who have a love affair that ends in the fictional Point upon the Place. Eric takes offense to the story, since some of it ruined his reputation over such things that seem trivial to him (killing a cat and looking at porn). In response, Eric writes a counter, though several drafts go back (including one where Wanda is a witch) before publishing. Donna is upset, but reveals hers was in two parts, with the second one stating that Wanda still loved Derek. Another side has no title, but it seems despite what most would think, Eric does well in getting girls into him without Donna. In "Hyde Gets the Girl", he is able to get a dozen to him by being a wounded bird, with one willing to go out with him to make him feel better (if that worked, as opposed to this wanting someone with confidence deal, I am sure guys would be more willing to wear their hearts on their sleeve instead of hiding their feelings). In "Uncomfortable Ball Stuff", Eric and Donna agree they aren't going to the ball on a date, so it shouldn't be a surprise a girl is into Eric, but Donna is shown getting jealous over that and vindictive. He also gets a date with a cheerleader, shown to be airheaded and into his car, though his messing up in parking the car, as well as stealing it, gets him in trouble. Eric even takes pride in being "Point Place's most eligible Viking". The only failures are with Penny, who turns out to be his cousin and teases him out of revenge, and Stacy in "Red and Stacy", a cashier girl in Stock Mart with a crush on Eric's father. In the latter, Eric wonders why she would prefer someone old enough to be her dad, and his friends, Donna included, suggest he is soft ("softer than Liberace in a Playboy mansion", they say), leading to him to have a talk with Red, accusing his tough fathering the reason why he is this way. Red answers to that with crocodile tears, claims he isn't the bad guy by using the "my father would never have done this" argument, while saying he has a creepy girl coming after him now while his wife is thinking of him being unfaithful.
Side note on that, I like how they are willing to show that girls can be creepy and men can find attention unwelcome from women, especially such an age gap. One could feel sorry for Red in the fact he is creeped out by a girl and feels unwilling to tell Kitty about it because one, he'll seem unfaithful to her, and two, makes him less of a man to feel uncomfortable about attention from girls.
Not just Eric; but Fez gets mocked for embracing what is today called "metrosexual" fashions (though how cologne wearing qualifies as metro is beyond me). In Season Three, he goes roller disco with Jackie as a partner, almost like someone going with a girl as her dance partner, earning scorn from Kelso. The show goes along and makes Fez weird for doing this. He is also treated to that in joining the ballet, since people think men in ballet are gay. Finally, there's his musical. All the while, Fez is basically embodying the opposite of American masculinity. Not just these seasons, but there is an earlier episode where Kelso, while dating Laurie, comes to the basement and the latter says "there's a twig in my shorts", to which Hyde says, "what a coincidence, so does Kelso." Speaking of Kelso, his quest to win back Jackie is commendable, yet he is later shown to be not ready for marriage and runs off instead of telling Jackie so.
I am sure Pop Detective would tackle this as he did with The Big Bang Theory, even showing how long "toxic masculinity" has been around. But ideal of masculinity shares the spot light with femininity and feminism. Femininity is illustrated with the two girls, Donna and Jackie (not to be ageist, but I'll stick with the teens). Donna, as you wouldn't believe, is Italian for woman, though I noted they don't use proper Italian phonics with Pinciotti. The name doesn't add much, as Donna is set up as a tomboy and a feminist, who burns for respect as a person and not treated special for being a woman. Opposite her, Jackie, supports the traditional forms of femininity, even going to so far as to demand it from boyfriends, yet she is also shown as to be a spoiled rich girl, implying that women who like guys that hold doors and all are either brainwashed or entitled brats while women who prefer equality are more down to earth.
One example is with money. Jackie is a rich girl and could get what she wants with her money. However, in "Jackie Says Cheese", it is revealed her father cut her off for dating Kelso, and she has to get a job because beauty is temporary and she'll be poor soon. I like how she learns the value of the dollar in the end, even telling Kelso she won't share her money because it doesn't "grow on trees." Kelso quickly becomes jealous and goes into modeling, much to Jackie's chagrin, because it reveals that women can be competitive, usually when it comes to looks. Currently, most women are valued at how good they look and it has led to women feel the need to be the prettiest in the room. If someone prettier comes along, suddenly it's open season. This last explains why Jackie and Donna are the only girls the gang (with Fez's girlfriends leaving after a break up).
Another place happened in Season Two. In that episode, "Eric's Stash", Kelso remarks that college is for ugly girls, and Donna replies, "College is for women who don't want to marry the first [sic] idiot they meet and squeeze out his bastard, moronic children." This statement is noteworthy as Donna was born in a time when women going to colleges were seen as obtaining an MRS, making the whole statement ironic, because college girls often wind up marrying the first idiot they meet and squeezing out his children. Of course, in the years since the time period of the series, that perception has faded away and women who go to college for husbands have become a minority while women who don't are the majority. I am sure Donna would have liked the statistics, if she ignored the new perception of college being a place where parties last all weekend and hooking up is the norm, while most of the rhetoric is no longer academic, but based on emotional responses to new facts. At the same time, imagine her reaction to the 2016 election.
This is where feminism comes in. It's not clearly defined, other than what's known from the period. To Donna, feminism means equal rights, no gender roles, and more opportunities to women like her. One thing of Donna, as seen in thus far, she seems to think that feminism is about going by the rule of "do what thou wilt." To her, doing favors is sexist, as is compromising. To Jackie, feminism is a bunch of manly girls and not worth her time. As to everyone else, where feminism depends on who you ask and the results that follow.
Midge disappears in Season Four, later revealed to have left Bob for some reason. This is because her actress, Tanya Roberts, took a leave of absence and rather than try to explain around her disappearance, the show chose have her leave Bob, with a hint of it being due to unhappiness (itself suggesting their reconciling and marriage renewal in Season Two to be nothing but hot air). Bob takes Midge's going feminist in Season One like that of a child who had his treats taken away. When Joanna comes, it seems from the start that she will henpeck Bob until the episode, where Bob actually stands up to Red. The non-canon episode implied Eric lacked the confidence to stand up to Red because dating Donna gave it to him. In short, the implication women could turn men into confident fellows, or render them into steers, a trope that basically makes men out to be needy. Then we get the woman, Joanne, who takes over from there. In "Eric's False Alarm", Bob hosts a barbecue with Red and Kitty joining, yet Red is shocked that Joanne is willing to operate the grill, and even gets Kitty to join in, while regulating the chopping of celery into slaw job to the men. Red complains of a woman taking what he believes is a man's job (all but admitting he feels threatened at this) while he finds Bob's standing up to him offensive. In response, he hosts his own barbecue and lets Bob and Joanne be guests, only he winds up burning the meat.
In short, feminism is shown to be a disruption of the peace in That 70s Show, where happy housewives are corrupted by its messages and it makes them leave home, while making daughters become bad girls, while making everyone confused on how to behave with each other. I'm not a feminist, but even I can see how one-sided the portrayal is, often coming across as misogyny, which is saying something of the seventies that, from many angles, is more sexist than the fifties. When the girls are not a bunch of brats who demand equality, they are eye candy for the guys. Best example is "Hyde Gets the Girl" where dozens of girls shown as airheads come to flirt with Hyde. Then, in "Eric's Cousin", his Cousin Penny comes in largely to accommodate the male gaze factor. In the latter, the girls, especially Donna, don't bother to tell the guys to snap out of that idea and accuse them of objectifying women, and instead see Penny as a hated rival. They even try to get a tan just to make things even. I am sure there are people who will say more of the show where the boys compete over girls and some how go back to friendship if the girl was out of the picture, yet the girls are shown to be fiercely territorial and often at each other's throats over the guys (despite being outnumbered), and only ganging up on outsiders.
Besides other girls, the female characters even find rivalry in machines: Kelso's van and Red's car. All I will say about that is, which would be better: obsessed with you or obsessed with his car? At the same time, while female jealousy is shown a bad thing, the male jealousy is shown to be a form of caring and concern, further adding a case of double-standards in the show. When Eric sees Donna with Casey, he gets jealous of her being with the latter, which does make him hypocritical, but his jealousy is shown in a positive thing, confirmed when Casey proves to be of negative influence on Donna. All the while, the show doesn't provide a good model for masculinity while showing to be sexist against women in portrayals.
Apart from these flaws, seasons three and four have their good times. Citing them all would make this long entry go longer, sadly.
The breakup puts Eric in a depression, as does Donna, and they set up a loyalty war over their friends in the Fourth Season, that lasts a few episode. The awkwardness is broken only when Midge leaves Bob and Eric's form of comfort is sex. Donna regrets it and keeps Eric away. Fez moves on from Caroline to Big Rhonda for a couple of episodes until they break up from bad advice. Jackie is cut off by her father over her relationship and takes up a job as a cheese seller, which eventually leads to problems in the relationship with her boyfriend and another break up. Eric gets paired with two girls on a few occasions, with Donna becoming jealous at each, until she meets Casey Kelso and the two date a while. The relationship makes Eric jealous, while Donna goes into a downward spiral. The others, including her father, who goes into dating a woman named Joanna, try to talk to her while Casey decides to call it off, leaving Eric and Donna free to reunite. Eric rejects her, causing Donna to run off with Kelso, who manages to patch things up with Jackie again and this time the last wants more than a relationship, to California. Red is manager at Price Market, with Eric working under him, which holds well into 1978 while Kitty begins to spend time at home. Laurie also leaves for college and is out for most of the season.
When we first see the characters back in Season One and Two, they didn't get much fleshing out. With the teens, it was easy to know who was who: Eric is the every man of a teen seeking to prove himself a man, Donna was the girl next door, Jackie is the spoiled rich girl, Hyde is the rebel, Fez is the token minority, and Kelso is something of a Jack of all Trades in tropes, being the jock who doesn't do much sports, and is bad at wrestling; the loyal sidekick who is very vain and narcissist; is a ladies man, who loses out on two girls. Even the grown ups are standard in characterization with Red the conservative, All American, man's man who frets about his son not into manly things, Kitty something of a smothering mom who prefers to keep her boy as a baby, and Bob and Midge are the weird neighbors.
Usually, in Season Two, the characters would be fleshed out, and they are. They become fleshed out even more in Season Three. When Hyde sees his father again, there is a point where it seems he won't make amends. I will say that Hyde does distract from the show in Season Two where, after seeing his parents bail, he becomes an orphan in need, but he refuses to call for help. When his father returns, it suddenly becomes a popularity contest in "Hyde's Christmas Rager", where Bud Hyde has to learn how it is to be a father. One problem that comes up is how this subplot is abandoned after a while and then it's retconned in Season Six, but I'll get to that on a later date.
Speaking of dates, Fez actually gets a girlfriend after being something of the lonely guy in Season Three, and the first one he meets likes him well. In "Dine and Dash", Fez learns that sometimes romance has to be turned off, like in a place where the girlfriend works (believe me, it does get hard to keep professional at times) and is offended by it. However, his girlfriend, Caroline, makes up for it by the end of the episode. Ironically, Caroline is shown to be obsessed with Fez more so than any girlfriend would, basically inverting some fantastic scenario where a girl desperate for a boyfriend winds up having one who basically stalks her. Fez eventually wises up and dumps Caroline, but he uses Donna to shield him from her for a time in "Fez Dates Donna." Caroline then gives up (like most TV girlfriends) but the not so funny thing is people get hurt when stalking happens, if not killed, and crazy ex-girlfriends get quite a bad rap for that. Luckily for Donna that Caroline doesn't go sneaking into her room and threaten her with harm. If anything, Caroline would be back.
As to Eric and Donna, they become the center piece couple for the run of Season Three, to the point of people mocking them as an old married couple for it. Yet, the relationship dances on pins and needles from "Holy Craps" on where Eric encounters a grouchy old man who warns him the dangers of marrying a high school sweetheart, something most people today take to heart. However, Eric chooses to stick it through.
What is really shown is how they see the future differently. In "Baby Fever", Donna has published a story in the paper and shows it to Eric, yet he goes gah gah over the way she handles a baby. Donna did work hard on that paper and she really took pride in it. To have it dismissed as second to being able to handle something as mundane as changing diapers is offensive, and I can hear today's feminists cranking up their own interpretations about it. Not only that, when they talk about the future, Eric imagines the house set up he grew up with (him coming home to find her with their kids), to which Donna changes to have herself come home from work while Eric stays at home. Yet, the horny deviant (read, teenage boy) in Eric uses that into a sex fantasy. Donna does it better by making his fantasy backfired on him and tells him to "get bent."
We can excuse Eric in this instance. Unlike myself or others, he never got to know that women can be breadwinners and dads can stay at home with the kids, and nothing shameful can be said about it. Eric was a boy in the Sixties, when women still stayed at home while men brought home the bacon. However, everything else can't be excused. His turning Donna's "equality based" fantasy into an erotic one is degrading.
Donna is not the innocent party in the underlying troubles of the couple, however. In "Eric's Panties", she freaks out at seeing a pair of panties in the Vista Cruiser, going so far as to come off as the jealous type when looking for answers, which drives off Eric's study partner. Of course, it turns out they were her mom's and her mom was with her dad in the car. In "Backstage Pass", Donna ditches Eric to interview Ted Nugent, and without even apologizing for it. Finally, in "Promise Ring", when Eric buys the said ring, Donna has troubles wearing it. Eventually, she tells him that she doesn't see her future with him, prompting Eric to break up with her.
In weighing it out, Eric is the worst brat of the two; he disregards her passions, he objectifies her, he forgets his mom's birthday, he keeps porn magazines under his bed, he groans in doing something to make women happy, yet expects free sex, and he reads her diary (a violation of her privacy). Donna, meanwhile, gets jealous real easily, gets mean often, and rejects a promise ring that Eric had put his heart in to buy (nothing worse than spending time and money to buy something for your woman than to hear someone not think it special).
So, we get that Donna and Eric have been put on a pedestal in Season Three and wonder if they are still in Season Four. Apparently so, because the season is all about how their break up upsets everything and they should be brought back together.
As a foil to Eric and Donna (could we say Ericonna, or something?), Jackie and Kelso start out broke up in Season Three, as Jackie has her sights on Hyde, because he took the heat when she was caught holding a bag of drugs. Of course, Hyde doesn't return the affections while Kelso vies for Jackie again (even acting like a jerk in "Roller Disco" when she takes Fez out to dance with her). It really isn't until "Jackie Bags Hyde" that Hyde actually shows he likes Jackie, simply by knocking out her date. Unfortunately, the whole thing is scrapped in "Ice Shack" where its once more Jackie being sought out by Fez and Kelso. Fez demonstrates at being the dogged nice guy where he does good things for Jackie. He goes as her partner in the Roller Disco, where she later gets drunk, yet he doesn't take advantage of her. There is an interesting part with that where Batman subs for the angel while the Riddler plays the Devil in Fez's decision making (a secular interpretation), and Fez goes with Batman, since he's the good guy. Of course, Fez's action is commended, but the stinger throws it away by him getting drunk and asking Jackie to take advantage of him (showing television's double standard). Finally, there's "Ice Shack" where Fez challenges the two couples to the Newlywed game and Kelso proves himself good in remembering things, impressing Jackie. However, he throws that away by crying over his lost van and Jackie sees that as a sign. She turns to Fez for comfort, but Fez makes own variant of Butler's parting line (at least he kept his pride, considering this is another case of a guy does all the nice things for the girl, yet she chooses someone else in the end).
Kelso attempts to move on, only to not get turned on in a make out session with another girl. He freaks out at experiencing an early onset of impotence, until it turns out it's a sign he still has feelings for Jackie. So, he goes to Jackie again, who decides to test him out in "The Trials of Kelso", but it takes him knowing about it to actually pass them all. First there's the egg to make seem a father figure and then there's the fake illness Jackie brings up to see if he is shallow. Finally, she gets a girl to pretend to come on to him and he rejects her advances. Jackie is satisfied and they stay a couple for the rest of the season.
How Kelso and Jackie work as opposed to Eric and Donna could be argued that they are the same; both Kelso and Jackie are vain, arrogant, and self-centered. It's these things that made them last and it seems they could mature on it. Kelso has, even if he has to be told in order to do so. If there is a flaw in their relationship, as Season Four shows, it's basically their own problems that are only expressed by cheating on the other, while Kelso can't seem to mature fast enough. Meanwhile, Eric and Donna have disagreements on a few things and practically have a "my way or the highway" sort of approach that ultimately leads to the break up.
So, in Season Four, Eric and Donna are broken up while Jackie and Kelso are a couple, leaving Hyde and Fez as the only single guys in the group. That is until "Hyde Gets a Girl" where in a party to set Hyde up, Fez meets Big Rhonda, a plus sized blonde with glasses. Here, we see a potential of a new girl in the group, as she begins to hand with Donna and Jackie in a few episodes, while giving plus sized girls someone to look up to. I like how in "Red and Stacy", the other two girls try to give Big Rhonda a make over, only for Fez to accuse them of corrupting her; as if to take a shot at the idea of women changing their appearances for their men would improve their lives. Instead, we have a man who likes her the way she is. Unfortunately, we don't get more of Big Rhonda after "Kelso's Career", as she is written out for some strange reason. During that time, Fez starts to want to lose his virginity to her, only to be rejected. In "Everyone Loves Casey", he takes the advice of Casey Kelso and makes his move, and that results in the break up.
Kelso and Jackie don't break up in the end, however, but Jackie begins thinking of getting married, while Kelso has something of a commitmentphobia, causing him to runaway to California instead. I personally hated that, since all the build up was made in these seasons to get back together and dealing with underlying issues, and Kelso decides to throw all that away.
One episode I'll go into detail on is the start of Season Four, "It's a Wonderful Life," an episode that not only uses the title, but also the plot of It's a Wonderful Life, with Eric playing George Bailey and Wayne Knight plays the angel. The episode shows Eric what it would be like if he and Donna never kissed, resulting in a paradox where Hyde and Donna date, get into a relationship, and are married in the 1980s. Meanwhile, Eric's alternate self remains the whimpy boy who caves to Red's anger, a social outcast who joins the chess club, and only loses his virginity to Big Rhonda (even though she is later seen telling Fez she is saving for marriage). The paradox also means that when Kelso and Jackie break up, they never make up, but only settle for occasional hook ups while Fez simply becomes a rock star, similar to Michael Jackson.
The episode is non-canon, mostly, by having Donna act out of character and creating situations that don't add up. As a feminist, Donna's beliefs would clash with that of Hyde's at some point (example, she wouldn't in real life get a tattoo that made her Hyde's property) and the two would part. The future shot that comes in also has Eric making less attempts at proving himself a man, leading him being seen as weak by his parents who get a new boy -- a hyperactive sort who just might have terrics, but Red approves of him anyway -- while Kitty is no longer fretting over his departure and actually hints that he should leave in the wedding of Hyde and Donna. All the while, it's never implied that Fez and Jackie would find each other, nor is the idea of the lack of Eronna causing too much of a paradox. However, in the end, Eric realizes it was better to have loved and lost than to not love at all.
It touches close because it makes one think of how the past few months would be if he and his ex-girlfriend stayed as friends. Yes, less drama would have come and they'd feel time wasn't wasted for naught (unless it's a one sided crush), but then what would the two people would compensate for it? Remaining ignorant of the wrong buttons to push, never getting to see the other side of the person (like the creative side, if the woman could draw pictures or make jewelry), or being robbed of a good experience with something the two of you are into, or seeing that movie you both went to? And in couples who had sex while dating, I am positive they wouldn't be dealing with guilt of it out of wedlock, while also not knowing how important foreplay is. For people who met the love of their life, imagine if none of that happened. I have friends who are married, and I am sure at least two of them are reading this, and they would say how poor their lives would have been if they didn't make that decision to become more than friends.
One thing to add is looking at the footage, I can't help but think of how Eighties Kelso as a reporter resembles Will Farrel in Anchorman.
Another episode in Season Four is titled "That 70s Musical". Fez had tried out ballet during the two season side of the show, largely to meet girls. He does have to put on tights, but he does get the girls, but is disappointed. "They let me touch their thighs, but not their hearts," he tells the others, which is one way of showing how the ballet dancers don't see him as anything but a dance partner. Yet, he does have fantasies of ballet sequences, one something like West Side Story where he and his girls fight off rough guys and dance happily ever after, and the other him in the girls doing what could be considered a mating ritual.
Now he becomes a singer in a school musical pageant and he invites everyone to see him. Unfortunately, some of the petty dramas delay their arrival, making Fez think they don't care for him. It is humorous watching them break out into musical numbers, like "So Happy Together" or "The Joker" (That song that opens with "Some people call me the space cowboy...") the latter with four of the teens forming a swastika in the middle of the song. In the end, the gang arrives and witnesses Fez singing, even with Red being all grouchy about it.
Feminism and Masculinity are two things to talk about at this point. That 70s Show brings up the way the decade was where it seemed traditional gender roles were being challenged, especially in wake of what had happened in the past decade. Women's Lib movement had happened which challenged the very concept of gender roles, making it a watershed moment. Before the sixties, it wasn't unheard of for women to stay at home while men went to work. That's just the beginning: in 1958, it was rare to see women in pants. Now we come to 1978 (show's time), we have girls in bell bottom pants, hot pants, and denim pants. Kitty's cooking habits would have been seen as normal, too, and not something from an underlying psychological issue, while the idea of wives leaving their husbands and children would be a sign of being invective prior to the 1960s. Women's Lib, or Second Wave Feminism, had changed the spectrum in the sixties, replacing said roles for the world of sex, drugs, and rock 'n roll, resulting in a sudden need to have masculinity to be defined.
That 70s Show doesn't provide its own definition, but it does use the older generation's definition of masculinity many times, mostly by setting up a standard and mocking any man who doesn't meet it. Red Forman is treated as the example of the old school masculine man. He doesn't express his emotions, other than anger, hate affections, and puts his energies into manly activities like sports and hunting. This leads to him not having a good relationship with his son, as the latter is seen as "twitchy" in his eye. Even when he does well, Red offers no respect, and in "Love, Wisconsin style", when Eric tells him how Donna came to him and he rejected her because he didn't want to be a rebound, Red asks how is he too proud for her. "You're not an athlete and the only smart about you is your mouth," he says, basically kicking him while he's down. Red's solution to helping Eric over his break up with Donna is giving him chores, also, which never really works. Yes, doing something will get your mind off the break up, but it's a short lived relief and you suddenly have to find another project. Suppose you run out of things to do? Then what? (I know because I had a girlfriend break up with me months ago and even after helping with the wood and doing this blog, the sting is still present). In the end, you're just running away from and denying your scars, which Red seems to think that is what men do. It goes on the concept that men don't ask for help and are not suppose to feel, something that needs to be addressed. (At the same time, Eric's drug habits don't help either; it's like giving someone morphine constantly after touching a hot stove). In "Eric's Stash", Red learns of Eric accusing Hyde of stealing his secret stash and Hyde getting mad about it, and his solution is to have them fight it out; he even adds if they are not mad enough to fight, they aren't really mad. Having the boys fight each other won't make them less angry. If anything, it just encourages violence while giving them more reasons to be mad at each other. The only place I have seen where two men beat each other up and come out laughing about it later is in movies.
Of the other men, Red likes to think he has plenty of friends, but can't stand the others. Hyde is the only one of the younger men that he sees as a real man, and he is a rebel who violates his house rules with his lifestyle. He sees Kelso as an idiot, which is justified. Fez, of course, is given racists remarks (without using slurs, but sometimes calling him Tarzan). Then there's Bob and Leo, the former he sees as an annoying clutch and the latter as doped up hippie. The one man he does bound with is Pastor Dave, over football, and it results in him deciding to give up preaching. As you would expect, the church gets mad at Red for that, and Red has to convince Pastor Dave not to leave the church. So, you can conclude that Red doesn't have any real friends he can relate to, as he drives people away, while thinking being old means he doesn't have to make new friends. For the most part, Red's all about maintaining his image as an Alpha male, best evidenced in some dinner scenes where when Kitty sits the meal down, Red would grab the first bits, with Kitty following, and Eric getting the last bits, if at all (unlike my father who would let my mother and us eat first). The one time Eric challenges this, Red gets into battle mode with a threat of physical abuse ("a swift kick in the ass", he calls it).
While Red is not someone to look up to in being a man, there is one example of positive masculinity he attempts to pass on to his son. In "Kitty's Birthday (That's Today?)", Red and Eric forget Kitty's birthday, which is something I wonder if it's possible. I mean, two men forgot the birthday of a woman, who is wife of one and mother of another. I certainly know my mother's birthday, in fact it's so easy to remember: it has something to do with an important event in history. I also know my ex-girlfriend's birthday (the reason I am not typing it down is out of respect for her privacy). Somehow, they forget Kitty's, and she is obviously upset (and as revealed earlier in the show, such as with "The Parents Find Out", Kitty is the only person to make Red run for cover when she gets mad). So, the first thing they try to make her happy is by doing some of her chores, or rather pretend to, as she comes home. However, their smiles aren't fooling anyone and Kitty simply walks by without saying a word. Red then decides for the sake of Kitty's happiness, he and Eric must do something they normally wouldn't do: Square dancing. Neither Red nor Eric like this, but if mom ain't happy no one is happy.
This is one out of many, of course. Even the guys (and to a lesser extent, the girls) have a standard of being a guy to which those who don't cut out are subject to mockery. The show even does this on numerous occasions, often aiming the mockery gun at Eric. In "Red Sees Red", when we see the boys first trying out drugs, Eric is the only one whose voice has broken yet (and I can't tell if they got a girl to play her or if they just dubbed the guy's vocals). One way the girls have this is "Hyde's Christmas Rager" where Jackie takes Donna to a bar and flirt with firemen who are twice their age, but that's okay because they "can bench a keg, Eric can bench a cup." Translation, forget the whimpy Eric and go with someone with big biceps and a deep voice. In "Class Picture" Eric is also mocked because he gets a pimple every time pictures are made, one of which is placed near an eye to look like a red tear. Red also goes at him for his preference for comics and nerdy things like Star Wars, even referring to his GJ action figures as dolls.
After Eric and Donna break up, two sides of Eric happen. One is sensitive, especially after Donna publishes her Roman a Chef story, about Wanda and Derek who have a love affair that ends in the fictional Point upon the Place. Eric takes offense to the story, since some of it ruined his reputation over such things that seem trivial to him (killing a cat and looking at porn). In response, Eric writes a counter, though several drafts go back (including one where Wanda is a witch) before publishing. Donna is upset, but reveals hers was in two parts, with the second one stating that Wanda still loved Derek. Another side has no title, but it seems despite what most would think, Eric does well in getting girls into him without Donna. In "Hyde Gets the Girl", he is able to get a dozen to him by being a wounded bird, with one willing to go out with him to make him feel better (if that worked, as opposed to this wanting someone with confidence deal, I am sure guys would be more willing to wear their hearts on their sleeve instead of hiding their feelings). In "Uncomfortable Ball Stuff", Eric and Donna agree they aren't going to the ball on a date, so it shouldn't be a surprise a girl is into Eric, but Donna is shown getting jealous over that and vindictive. He also gets a date with a cheerleader, shown to be airheaded and into his car, though his messing up in parking the car, as well as stealing it, gets him in trouble. Eric even takes pride in being "Point Place's most eligible Viking". The only failures are with Penny, who turns out to be his cousin and teases him out of revenge, and Stacy in "Red and Stacy", a cashier girl in Stock Mart with a crush on Eric's father. In the latter, Eric wonders why she would prefer someone old enough to be her dad, and his friends, Donna included, suggest he is soft ("softer than Liberace in a Playboy mansion", they say), leading to him to have a talk with Red, accusing his tough fathering the reason why he is this way. Red answers to that with crocodile tears, claims he isn't the bad guy by using the "my father would never have done this" argument, while saying he has a creepy girl coming after him now while his wife is thinking of him being unfaithful.
Side note on that, I like how they are willing to show that girls can be creepy and men can find attention unwelcome from women, especially such an age gap. One could feel sorry for Red in the fact he is creeped out by a girl and feels unwilling to tell Kitty about it because one, he'll seem unfaithful to her, and two, makes him less of a man to feel uncomfortable about attention from girls.
Not just Eric; but Fez gets mocked for embracing what is today called "metrosexual" fashions (though how cologne wearing qualifies as metro is beyond me). In Season Three, he goes roller disco with Jackie as a partner, almost like someone going with a girl as her dance partner, earning scorn from Kelso. The show goes along and makes Fez weird for doing this. He is also treated to that in joining the ballet, since people think men in ballet are gay. Finally, there's his musical. All the while, Fez is basically embodying the opposite of American masculinity. Not just these seasons, but there is an earlier episode where Kelso, while dating Laurie, comes to the basement and the latter says "there's a twig in my shorts", to which Hyde says, "what a coincidence, so does Kelso." Speaking of Kelso, his quest to win back Jackie is commendable, yet he is later shown to be not ready for marriage and runs off instead of telling Jackie so.
I am sure Pop Detective would tackle this as he did with The Big Bang Theory, even showing how long "toxic masculinity" has been around. But ideal of masculinity shares the spot light with femininity and feminism. Femininity is illustrated with the two girls, Donna and Jackie (not to be ageist, but I'll stick with the teens). Donna, as you wouldn't believe, is Italian for woman, though I noted they don't use proper Italian phonics with Pinciotti. The name doesn't add much, as Donna is set up as a tomboy and a feminist, who burns for respect as a person and not treated special for being a woman. Opposite her, Jackie, supports the traditional forms of femininity, even going to so far as to demand it from boyfriends, yet she is also shown as to be a spoiled rich girl, implying that women who like guys that hold doors and all are either brainwashed or entitled brats while women who prefer equality are more down to earth.
One example is with money. Jackie is a rich girl and could get what she wants with her money. However, in "Jackie Says Cheese", it is revealed her father cut her off for dating Kelso, and she has to get a job because beauty is temporary and she'll be poor soon. I like how she learns the value of the dollar in the end, even telling Kelso she won't share her money because it doesn't "grow on trees." Kelso quickly becomes jealous and goes into modeling, much to Jackie's chagrin, because it reveals that women can be competitive, usually when it comes to looks. Currently, most women are valued at how good they look and it has led to women feel the need to be the prettiest in the room. If someone prettier comes along, suddenly it's open season. This last explains why Jackie and Donna are the only girls the gang (with Fez's girlfriends leaving after a break up).
Another place happened in Season Two. In that episode, "Eric's Stash", Kelso remarks that college is for ugly girls, and Donna replies, "College is for women who don't want to marry the first [sic] idiot they meet and squeeze out his bastard, moronic children." This statement is noteworthy as Donna was born in a time when women going to colleges were seen as obtaining an MRS, making the whole statement ironic, because college girls often wind up marrying the first idiot they meet and squeezing out his children. Of course, in the years since the time period of the series, that perception has faded away and women who go to college for husbands have become a minority while women who don't are the majority. I am sure Donna would have liked the statistics, if she ignored the new perception of college being a place where parties last all weekend and hooking up is the norm, while most of the rhetoric is no longer academic, but based on emotional responses to new facts. At the same time, imagine her reaction to the 2016 election.
This is where feminism comes in. It's not clearly defined, other than what's known from the period. To Donna, feminism means equal rights, no gender roles, and more opportunities to women like her. One thing of Donna, as seen in thus far, she seems to think that feminism is about going by the rule of "do what thou wilt." To her, doing favors is sexist, as is compromising. To Jackie, feminism is a bunch of manly girls and not worth her time. As to everyone else, where feminism depends on who you ask and the results that follow.
Midge disappears in Season Four, later revealed to have left Bob for some reason. This is because her actress, Tanya Roberts, took a leave of absence and rather than try to explain around her disappearance, the show chose have her leave Bob, with a hint of it being due to unhappiness (itself suggesting their reconciling and marriage renewal in Season Two to be nothing but hot air). Bob takes Midge's going feminist in Season One like that of a child who had his treats taken away. When Joanna comes, it seems from the start that she will henpeck Bob until the episode, where Bob actually stands up to Red. The non-canon episode implied Eric lacked the confidence to stand up to Red because dating Donna gave it to him. In short, the implication women could turn men into confident fellows, or render them into steers, a trope that basically makes men out to be needy. Then we get the woman, Joanne, who takes over from there. In "Eric's False Alarm", Bob hosts a barbecue with Red and Kitty joining, yet Red is shocked that Joanne is willing to operate the grill, and even gets Kitty to join in, while regulating the chopping of celery into slaw job to the men. Red complains of a woman taking what he believes is a man's job (all but admitting he feels threatened at this) while he finds Bob's standing up to him offensive. In response, he hosts his own barbecue and lets Bob and Joanne be guests, only he winds up burning the meat.
In short, feminism is shown to be a disruption of the peace in That 70s Show, where happy housewives are corrupted by its messages and it makes them leave home, while making daughters become bad girls, while making everyone confused on how to behave with each other. I'm not a feminist, but even I can see how one-sided the portrayal is, often coming across as misogyny, which is saying something of the seventies that, from many angles, is more sexist than the fifties. When the girls are not a bunch of brats who demand equality, they are eye candy for the guys. Best example is "Hyde Gets the Girl" where dozens of girls shown as airheads come to flirt with Hyde. Then, in "Eric's Cousin", his Cousin Penny comes in largely to accommodate the male gaze factor. In the latter, the girls, especially Donna, don't bother to tell the guys to snap out of that idea and accuse them of objectifying women, and instead see Penny as a hated rival. They even try to get a tan just to make things even. I am sure there are people who will say more of the show where the boys compete over girls and some how go back to friendship if the girl was out of the picture, yet the girls are shown to be fiercely territorial and often at each other's throats over the guys (despite being outnumbered), and only ganging up on outsiders.
Besides other girls, the female characters even find rivalry in machines: Kelso's van and Red's car. All I will say about that is, which would be better: obsessed with you or obsessed with his car? At the same time, while female jealousy is shown a bad thing, the male jealousy is shown to be a form of caring and concern, further adding a case of double-standards in the show. When Eric sees Donna with Casey, he gets jealous of her being with the latter, which does make him hypocritical, but his jealousy is shown in a positive thing, confirmed when Casey proves to be of negative influence on Donna. All the while, the show doesn't provide a good model for masculinity while showing to be sexist against women in portrayals.
Apart from these flaws, seasons three and four have their good times. Citing them all would make this long entry go longer, sadly.
