![]() ![]() Even with her dedication to work and her ambitious personality, Leslie proves that she is capable of finding and fighting for love. Viewers watch as Leslie’s relationship with Ben passes many milestones, including a tear-jerking proposal and wedding, and viewers ultimately see the couple happily raising triplets together. Putting her beloved job on the line, Leslie shows where her priorities lay and the power of what love can do. But I…I know how I feel, and I want to be with you. I mean, how would you imagine we do this? So let’s just say “screw it.”īen: It could hurt your campaign. We could just say “screw it” and do this thing for real. After months of debate, Leslie finally confronts Ben and makes a decision (“Smallest Parks”). After the breakup, Leslie and Ben are both miserable as they try to avoid each other at work. After secretly dating for a time, the couple decides to cut things off to avoid a scandal when Leslie decides to run for City Council. Still from Parks and Recreation, “Leslie and Ben” (Season 5, Episode 14, 2013).Īt first, the rule against dating within the office tests Ben and Leslie’s newfound attraction for each other. Wyatt is a nerdy state auditor who comes to Pawnee to evaluate the town’s funds and finds a lot more. While Leslie’s personality is not suitable for the men she meets early on, she is soon introduced to her perfect match during the show’s second season, Ben Wyatt (Adam Scott). In contrast to Leslie’s character, one can argue that Pam Beesly (Jenna Fischer) in The Office – an attractive, shy receptionist – has a thriving personal life and love life in particular because of her nonthreatening lack of career ambition and sweet disposition (Barrett and Davidson 2006). On top of being too committed to their work, women in the workforce have often been characterized by men as too ambitious, bossy, and threatening to be suitable partners. Of these sacrifices, love and marriage are at the top of the list (Reardon 1995). Leslie’s dilemma fits into the conventionally held attitudes about women in power and the perceived personal sacrifices they must make for professional gain. Through her short-lived relationship with Mark and a series of many awkward and hilarious blind dates, Leslie fails to find a relationship other than with her job. Much of the first season includes Leslie’s infatuation with a co-worker, city planner Mark Brendanawicz (Paul Schneider), with whom she had a fling with several years before. Knope Goes to Washington” (Season 5, Episode 1, 2012). ![]() In Parks and Recreation, the evolution of Leslie Knope is used to show that a modern working woman can achieve both her professional and personal goals by defying stereotypes about love, friendship, appearance, and power. ![]() Since the start of the workplace sitcom in the 1970s, series have used these stereotypes to either fuel their shows or to push against them (Kutulas). From breaking away from the traditional domestic sphere to having power in a patriarchal society, working women in sitcoms and the real world alike have been scrutinized for changing the status quo. Knope is among the many fictionalized, working women characters in sitcoms that are subject to various negative stereotypes. At the beginning of the series, Knope is a young, mid-level bureaucrat struggling to find love, success, friends, and her place in the world, and throughout the seven seasons of the show, she finds all of that and more with many jokes along the way. The masterminds behind The Office, Greg Daniels and Michael Schur, reunited in 2009 to create Parks and Recreation, a show following the cheerful, optimistic, and work-driven Knope, whose job as Deputy Director of the Parks and Recreation Department leads her on many adventures to liven up her hometown. Pawnee, Indiana may just be a small town, but to Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler), it means the world. ![]()
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