Why It's Fashionable To Hate Friends Now

6. The Slut Shaming

For a show so in-tune with what it was to be a sexually active young person in New York in the 90s, there's an awful lot of slut-shaming goes on - and an awful lot of double-standards, at least according to its new band of critics.

While the male characters are routinely back-slapped for their sexual exploits, sexual promiscuity in their female counterparts is more of an issue of shame. That wouldn't come as a surprise to anyone present when one NBC executive said Monica "got what she deserved" when fed a line in the pilot by Paul the Wine Guy to get her into bed.

When a show is built on that, it's in trouble immediately. And while Joey's little black book exploits are deemed hilarious, when Monica discusses her magic number with Richard, she's effectively slut-shamed again. As is Rachel when she gives her number to a guy in a bar while living with Ross. Sure, we're supposed to think Ross is the bad guy there, but it's still making a comment about women being proactive in their sexual behaviour.

Now that there's a more liberal attitude to sex - thanks in part to swiping right and the immediacy of Internet sex - perceptions were bound to classify that negatively.