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Catherine Kridi
English 115
Professor Spitler-Lawson
10 December 2016
Project 3: Final Draft
Word Count: 2081
Women Portrayal in The Office
In The Office, directed by Ken Kwapis, Kwapis presents stereotyping women as being the
norm and this act is accepted by society when in reality its far from being appropriate. The
Office is an antagonistic comedic show about insulting everyone and everything. Kwapiss
passion for insulting women and demonstrating them as the reincarnations of every stereotypical
accusation ever made. Their misrepresentation raises concern with the audience because it is
demeaning to disrespect women in a documentary, with the setting of a workplace environment.
Women in The Office are presented as dependent or inferior to men by their portrayal as weak,
annoying, and targets for sexual advances.
In an office that consists of both women and men, a challenge arises as Michael Scott, the
Scranton branch boss, challenges the office to a push-up competition. When none of the
employees show an interest in his little distraction, he raises the reward of completion to allow
anyone who succeeds to leave home earlier from work. A co-worker of Michael, his right-hand
man, Dwight Schrute interrupts and explains the limit to beat is Michaels score of 25 and one
girl pushup (The Office S6E21). Dwights inability to count Michaels last pushup and label it as
a girl pushup demonstrates the lack of respect and degrades the womens value and strength. A
mans inability to complete a full pushup is being referred to as a weak version of a full pushup

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and thus categorized as something a girl would do. Furthermore, the directors choice of having
all the employees drop to the ground in an attempt to go home early yet having only a male,
Stanley Hudson, complete the pushups, this intention was done by the boss knowing that women
are incapable of having the will or power to finish a couple full pushups. Women portrayal as
weak is evident as they are verbally put down by their male co-worker's comments and being
neglected of having any women complete the given physical 25 push-ups. Feloni, the author of
an article based on stereotypes professional women face, states, Unless a woman proves
herself...men will treat women as if they were gentler, which can undermine their authority
(Feloni). Feloni writes this to explain that in the process of assuming women are gentler or
physically weaker than men, they are undermining their authority. Women are often rejected into
believing they arent as qualified for highly ranked positions because they are viewed as inferior
to men.
In addition, in another episode of The Office, there is a friendly basketball game and as
Michael constructs the team he chooses all males. Phyllis, a female character in The Office,
volunteers to play in the competition because she can offer her past experience of playing
basketball, but Michael obliviously ignores her. He continued to choose other males in the office
for the team and finally ended up with a team full of involuntary males. Regardless of Phyllis
volunteering to play but getting denied, she tries again, but this time Michael doesnt ignore her
as he comments, No, No! Ridiculous! (The Office S1E5). Men are seen as physically more
qualified to play a sport than women are in this episode which degrades their potential. This
especially occurs when women are denied the chance to prove that they are capable of doing
anything a man can do. Not only are women shamed for being seen as too feminine to participate
in a physical sport, a gay member of the office, Oscar Martinez, is rejected for volunteering due

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to his sexual orientation (The Office S1E5). Michael viewing Oscar as the stereotypical feminine
gay guy, allowed him to see Oscar as another one of the women in the office. Oscar, regardless
of his man-built body structure, is rejected and categorized to have the same characteristics and
emotional attachment that women have. Oscar is now viewed as inferior to the other men of The
Office simply due to his sexual preference.
The men's ability to manipulate women into thinking they are reliant on men to be the
physically dominant ones doesn't end there. In an episode of The Office, Phyllis had been
attacked outside her work and Pam Beesly, the secretary in the office, tells the cameras in a
private interview, I dont often miss Roy, but I can tell you one thing, I wish someone had
flashed me when I was with Roy, because that would be the ass kicking of the year implying
that only her muscular imaged ex-boyfriend is her only source of protection as a female (The
Office S3E21). Being reliant on a man especially as a form of protection is degrading to women
and promotes the stereotyping of women. Women are strong-willed and powerful enough to
handle themselves, therefore, the presence of a man is unnecessary and is only a delusion men
have because women are capable of self-protection.
Not only are females in The Office presented as weak, they are also seen as annoying.
The character Kelly Kapoor is intrigued by her co-worker Ryan Howard who undeniably is not
attracted to her. She continues to picture herself in a relationship with Ryan, as a part of her
delusional fantasy, but all Ryan wants is to have fun with her and then leave. In an episode, Kelly
is having a cultural party and invites members of the office including Ryan. She helps him with
his outfit and she treats him like any girlfriend would, respectfully. As the party commences,
Ryan is left alone with Kellys siblings, all female, who giggle and ask questions very
obnoxiously which demonstrates females as annoying. Ryan is then confronted by Kellys

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parents, Mr. and Mrs. Kapoor. Ryan is immediately bombarded with questions about what he
wants to do in his future and whether Kelly is his priority, to ensure his qualifications as a good
future husband for Kelly. As the questions continue, Ryan only talks about traveling and doing
selfish things without even bringing Kelly into the picture. Her parents then try and convince her
to be with a doctor they believed was a much more suitable candidate for her, but she denies
everything and tells them they are in love (The Office S3E6). Kellys presented as an annoying
and dependent girl on a guy who shows her no appreciation. Her lack of self-respect and
continued approach towards Ryan in a girly and dependent way allows the audience to believe
woman are really annoying when it comes to dealing with fascinations over a guy.
In one of the main episode based on Phylliss attack outside the office, she was
inappropriately flashed as a man held up a map asking for directions but then out of nowhere
flashed her. She enters her job shaken with freight from what she had just experienced and
everyone listens to her explain the traumatic story. Michael interrupts her story and states, wow
has he seen Pam or Karen? in an attempt to say that women are sexually obligated to deal with
harassment if they are attractive (The Office S3E21). According to an article about sexual
harassment at work, the author informs his readers, Sexual harassment can range from
persistent offensive sexual jokes proves that even though Michaels unintentional targeting of
Pam and Karen as an opportunity for a harmless and humorous joke, it is still considered as
sexual harassment because they were both attacked in a sexual way, verbally (Sexual Harassment
at). Throughout The Office, women are not only attacked verbally, its implied that it is
acceptable to be physically attacked by them as well. Michaels inappropriate comment allows
viewers to understand the mentality of men and how they believe it is okay to advance at a
woman if she is attractive enough.

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Furthermore, when an incident like this occurred, Dwight Schrute develops a law in the
office in his attempt to prevent any further incidents of a similar offense. He writes up a law for
the office demanding that women dress in "Sleeves down to the wrists, button up collars and
rusted colors. Women will be sent home if they wear make-up or heels exceeding inch.
Females are not allowed to speak to strangers unless given written authorization by Dwight
Schrute allowing females to feel like they are at fault for these sexual advances because they
choose to dress a certain way (The Office S3E21). Regardless of the known saying dress for the
job you want, not the job you have the women in the office dressed very professionally.
According to Boguhns essay, he informs his audience that, Women in an office environment
may be expected to don any combination of heels, makeup, pulled together hair absent of gray,
and fitted outfits (but not too fitted, or else be deemed slutty) (Boguhn). This proves that even
though Kwapis has Dwight list similar forbidden accessories and articles of clothing as an
attempt to humor his audience, it is a serious issue that occurs in reality. Women in real work
environments are subject to a certain style of dress and no matter how professional they dress
they will always be at fault if any issue arises. This allows men to imply that women shouldnt
work because their business attire is too sexual to be in a business environment. Unfortunately,
no matter what women wear, it will never be good enough to be accepted by male workers or
bosses.
On the other hand, although women continuously are presented as inferior to the men in
The Office, one character, Jan Levinson, a female who is the boss of Michael, holds a pretty
important position. Many women in the office are always neglected of important positions that
only the majority, if not all, are run by men. Jan had the position as boss of all the Scranton
Branches until she was stripped of her position because her emotions got in the way (The

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Office S3E22). Demonstrating that females are too emotionally invested in their lives to be
serious about a position of importance in a business, is degrading. Jan's involvement with
Michael, romantically, gave her boss a reason to remove her from the important position and
offered it to Michael. Michael rejects the job offer because he cares too much about Jan to betray
her, yet Jans boss still disregarded that Michael was also too emotionally invested to be staying
in his job position as manager. Only women are attacked or victimized, even when a man is
doing the exact same thing. In an article about women in the workplace, the author argues,
Women negotiate for promotions and raises as often as men but face more pushback when they
do proves that regardless of Michael getting the offer, who is more emotionally invested than
Jan in their relationship, the position gets offered to him nonetheless (Women in the). Women
continuously get denied with excuses, which both men and women are guilty of doing, yet only
women are to be blamed. Not only does Jans boss look for another candidate to take over her
position, he rejects all women and puts Ryan Howard, who is only a temporary employee
interning, in the position. According to a commentary by Spencer, Spencer states, As can be
seen in the collage, all of the men are placed above the women, as they would be in a hegemonic
hierarchy this demonstrates that no matter how qualified, experienced or skilled a woman may
be when applying for an important job, she will never be as good as a man for the position
(Spencer). This further proves that regardless of its satirical intention, it is a realistic issue that
supports the idea of a social hierarchy where men will continue to classify themselves as the
superior gender.
The Office is a comedic television show adored by many viewers, and many of these
viewers are blinded by its humor that they are unable to recognize the sad nature of todays
society where women are stereotyped every day. The stereotyping jokes used in the show was

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meant to be used for entertainment, but these so-call jokes actually occur in the workplace.
Women every day are viewed and treated less than a man simply because of their gender. Being
viewed as incapable of doing things men can do, brings joy to The Offices audience. They are
treated so poorly that these stereotypes have developed into entertainment. The Office
demonstrates women in a stereotypical way, particularly inferior to their superior, men, by
characterizing them as weak, annoying, and targets for sexual advances.

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Works Cited
Boguhn, Ally. "Dress Codes, Double Standards, and 4 Other Subtle Ways Women Face Sexism at
Work." Magazine, Everyday Feminism, 19 June 2015. Accessed 23 Nov. 2016.
Feloni, Richard. "The 7 Worst Stereotypes Professional Women Face." Business Insider, 21 Mar.
2014. Accessed 28 Nov. 2016.
Spencer. "Powerful Images in 'The Office' and the Messages They Send." "The Office" and
Popular Culture, 5 May 2007. Accessed 28 Nov. 2016.
"Sexual Harassment at Work." FindLaw, Thomson Reuters, 2016. Accessed 28 Nov. 2016.
The Office. Ken Kwapis. NBC, 2005. Netflix. Web. 28 November 2016.
"Women in the Workplace 2016." McKinsey and Company, Sept. 2016. Accessed 28 Nov. 2016.