Reflecting on Martin and Pam


The popular 90's sitcom Martin although no longer being made has enjoyed reruns on different channels since the show ended in 1997. Although the interaction between the show's main character Martin and the best friend of Martin's girlfriend Gina may seem harmless and funny it does reveal something important about black images in the media and the way these images effect interaction between black people in real life. Although I do not want to focus on the creator of the show or those involved with the show I feel that it is important to analyze a common recurrent theme throughout the show. 

First let's start off with Gina. Although the character Gina is a non-white female that would be classified as black. Her skin color is closer to that of an individual classified as white. Her hair was straight and it did not appear to me that she wore any extensions or hair weaves. The character Pam was Gina's best friend who had brown skin and also wore her hair straight but it appeared as if she wore extensions and hair weaves. This was one of the main focal points of the jokes directed towards her character on the show. It was considered to be funny when the character Martin would talk about Pam's "buckshots" and her hair being nappy, her kitchen needing to be fixed, her needing a hot comb or ridiculing her for wearing a weave. 

Other characters on the show occasionally would direct the same sort of jokes towards her character. In addition to her hair being seen as comical relief there was a contrast between her and the character Gina who other than her "big head" or "big forehead" being joked about it was set up in a way that although I could be wrong after watching this show several times over the years and still continuing to watch it when I can. It seemed as if Gina was supposed to be the attractive nice woman who is the prize with the light skin(closer to white) and Pam was supposed to be the unattractive, loud, aggressive brown skin woman that no one wanted and who could not get a man except for the character Tommy and even this relationship was constantly ridiculed. 

To me it was also important that although she was wearing weaves or extensions her hair was still "nappy" and it was to be a mockery of how hard she was trying to have straight attractive hair and was still failing while it took less effort for Gina to have straight hair with no trace of "nappyness" left. Although it may not be apparent it reinforces the idea especially in young black people watching that it is okay to make fun of black women and their hair and that their hair is not considered to be attractive in it's natural state. I have tried to see this as a harmless theme in a show but I do not think it is. 

The more I have begun to analyze this show and other media the more I have noticed these things. What also stands out to me is the absence of shows that feature non-black or white men making fun of non-black or white women for having straight hair. It is significant for a people who have spent centuries having their hair and features ridiculed to have a show where the texture of a black women's hair is the punchline throughout the show's five seasons on the air.