Student's Research Paper II

Alice Taeyoung
IEP Thesis Pratt Institute
Professor Sang Kim
Fourth Draft

Incomplete Breaking the Traditional Female Role in the Simpsons

The father should work for the family and be a patriarch, and the mother should take care of kids and house work with sweet smile. The male child should be smart, and a female child should be girlish and modest. Should people be this way? This is a just the stereotypical family’s role that we have seen in our surroundings and media. It was not so long ago that the dream job of women was to be housewives. Even today people are still living in the structure based on that role, and it is also seen in the TV shows and movies which can reflect trends in society. Society has been changing a little bit and people are allowed more variety family or life forms such as single moms, gay families, domestic partnership and no-kid couple, and the some media tries to show different frameworks as reflections of this change in the real world. Nowadays people can find both traditional looks and new looks in the media. The long-lived TV cartoon, “The Simpsons” shows one of these different views. In the characteristics of each family members, this cartoon is unique and has distinction from other entertainment programs, but it is just “little bit” because it follows the basic traditional structure.
In the website ‘the Simpsons Archive’, the writer states Homer’s features in the section ‘Homer being Homer’. It is necessary for Homer to be bonehead antics, mooning his butt at death, missing the point and signs of intelligence (Hall, 2003). Homer Simpson is stupid and dumb, but very innocent, while the mother Marge Simpson is very talented and good in the business of living. The son Bart Simpson is a very mischievous boy, and the daughter Lisa Simpson is smart and mostly does the right thing. The characters of the Simpsons are unique as compared with other cartoons we have seen such as disney. In the Simpsons, most of the male characters are silly, however the main female characters, Marge and Lisa are definitely talented and intelligent, and these make the Simpson having a distinction from other cartoons that only have girlish and enervate female characters. These two characteristics show that this cartoon cares about the positions in family of females.
But the Simpsons is as progress as the public like and accept, and it makes the Simpsons is just “little bit” different from other cartoons. In the way the producers appear to represent revolutionary female roles throus Marge. When they show some gender roles and Marge makes revolutions, the end of Marge’s rebellions is always “happily ever after,” like a fairy tail. In the seventh episode of the eighteenth season “Ice Cream and Marge” Marge thinks about her value and position in the society, and finds new talent in sculpture. Homer destroys her sculptures accidentally, and he apologizes to her for his mistakes. The end of story is that Marge realizes her happiness as a wife and sculptor with Homer, and she goes back her position where she was. She is just happy as a housewife in the family and forgets her talent. When the new episode is started, her rebellions and talents that she found in old episodes are disappeared and this happen is just over again.
In the third episode of the same season, “Please Homer Don't Hammer 'Em” Marge find her gift as a carpenter, but people think that being a carpenter is man’s job. So she uses Homer’s name and all her works are Homer’s. She wants to get her credits back, but Homer doesn’t want to be humiliated by people. Marge is angry because Homer doesn’t give up, but the end is “conjugal love” through apology of Homer. The story of Marge’s credits which Homer took is disappeared and her secret ability just exists behind Homer. In the article “Men Know from Homer: women from Marge” written by Shulman (2003), it is mentioned that “Marge is the woman behind the throne. And like wives in the 1850s and the 1950s, she takes care not to let her husband know how much better she is at the business of living.” Through eighteen seasons, it has some changes. To show twenty one century, the Simpsons shows the generousness that Marge expresses her talent and smart and Homer also know that, but it never use their life. The one permanence role is that Marge exists as a housewife and never comes forward, and this makes the Simpsons incomplete in TV programs that show new family form.
In the Simpsons the most important element is the family as the title. It makes that Marge can give up her gift and a life as a working women in the society. The family structure in the Simpsons is partial but there is some hope. By this rule the only free character who has hope in the future is Lisa. According to the Shulman (2003) “Unlike her mother, Lisa never hides her brains from the men in her life” and “People love Lisa for demonstrating that women don’t need to hide their ambitions to be loved.” Also in “Please Homer Don't Hammer 'Em”, Lisa advices throwing away man’s selfish ego to her father who has trouble because he doesn’t want to give up his credits that were Marge’s. Lisa is not only hope in future but she is also the counterevidence about sad reality in this society. Today, this society allows the women’s free speech through as a daughter and a child, but not as an adult independent woman. Lisa is half-done as a child and a daughter, and it is also half-done of the Simpsons.
In the Simpsons world there are no worries or marital discord. Through many parodies and critical jokes the Simpsons are showing many things such as social problem, political events and gender issues. The simpsons has a special talent that everything makes funny even it is very serious subject. In the gender issues that Marge is involved, the end is love in the family. Her revolution is always disappeared in the end of episode, and she works again as a housewife in next episode. The main problem is never solved. Love is one of the most valuable things in the world. In the real world, however, “love” can not be only solution in many gender issues. The “love” in the family makes women can not get out of family and hide their gifts as Marge. The other female character, Lisa is hope but it can not be a comfort for new female roles that people expect. The Simpsons is quite unique and progress as a new view point of women’s social position. It tries to show new family role model, especially women’s role in the family as a Marge and Lisa who have independent ideas from others. But it is not dramatically revolutionary and rather a little bit. People should recognize about it. It is likely that people can watch new cartoon or new episode in the Simpsons that have completely revolutionary.


Reference

Hall, D., & Thomas, J. (Oct 15, 2002) The Homer File. Retrieved Apr 6, 2007, from http://www.snpp.com/guides/homer.file.html#homerisms.

Shulman, P (2003, July-August). Men Know from Homer: women from Marge, Psychology Today

Warburton, M. (Writer) & Kirkland. M. (Director). (2006). Ice Cream and Marge [Television series episode]. In Greaney. D (Producer), Eighteenth Series. Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation

Warburton, M. (Writer), & Kirkland, M. (Director). (2006). Please Homer Don't Hammer 'Em [Television series episode]. In Greaney. D (Producer), Eighteenth Series. Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation