Feminism, Generations and "The Simpsons"

 

Throughout its 31 season run, The Simpsons (20th Century Fox Television; 1989-present) has evolved and changed from a subversive satire of the American sitcom to an institutional classic of animated television. During this run, the characters have changed as well, for example Homer Simpson, the patriarch of the titular family, shifted from a bumbling and sincere Average Joe who is very concerned about how his family is perceived by society, to an increasingly temperamental and impulsive exaggeration of a human being, having been described as “…a boorish, self-aggrandising oaf…” (Bonné, 2000). Two of the other characters that have also changed in significant, but not necessarily immediately obvious, ways in a feminist viewpoint; the characters of Marge and Lisa Simpson, who have both held feminist stances throughout the series, though the prominence of this viewpoint has varied from episode to episode, season to season.

Marjorie Jacqueline “Marge” Simpson (née Bouvier) is the stay-at-home mother, whose role in the show and the family dynamic is that of the traditional, mainstream sitcom homemaker, wife and mother, often very put-upon and acting as a nagging conscience for her family and on occasion, the town of Springfield as a whole. Although maintaining the characteristics of the sitcom mother - keeping houses in order whilst putting up with the husband’s wacky antics and being the butt of several jokes - Marge is able to develop more as a character over the course of the series thanks to having episodes centred on her. In Season 2, we see an increase in Marge-centric episodes, starting most notably with episode #7F09, “Itchy & Scratchy & Marge”, where Marge begins a protest group called S.N.U.H. (Springfieldians for Nonviolence, Understanding, and Helping) and campaigns against the in-universe animated show The Itchy & Scratchy Show, which she believes is responsible for baby Maggie attacking Homer with a mallet. It is in this episode that Marge’s character is fleshed out more than being just a typical sitcom homemaker, with several character traits and interests being introduced, such as her social and moral activism and her appreciation for the arts, as demonstrated within this episode with her defence of the Michelangelo’s David as a piece of art that should not be censored, an argument that the other characters use to undermine her previous assertions that Itchy & Scratchy should be made less violent for its child audience.

Later in the series, we see these newly introduced traits play more of a role; her activism was depicted in the flashback episode “The Way We Was” (#7F12), where she takes part in a feminist protest at her high school in 1974 (at the peak of second-wave feminism in the United States), and her burning of a bra - while declaring that “The first step to liberation is to free ourselves from these male-imposed shackles” - would lead to her getting detention and meeting Homer for the first time. In episode #4F06, “Bart After Dark”, Marge and the members of the Committee for Moral Hygiene try to rally the town to demolish the burlesque house, and only stands down when she accidentally destroys part of the house against the wishes of the town, whose opinions were swayed through song.

While she remains a housewife for the majority of the series, there have been several episodes which depict Marge getting employment outside of the home before inevitably returning to the home, in a similar manner to how Homer will often have multiple jobs throughout the series, but will ultimately return to the status quo of working at the nuclear power plant by the end of the episode. But unlike Homer, whose jobs are often used as vehicles for jokes and satire (how else could he possibly become an astronaut?), whenever Marge enters a new vocation, it invites character study and more serious social commentary. The first occurrence of this is in the creatively named episode “Marge Gets a Job” (#9F04), where Marge gets a position in the nuclear power plant and then becomes subject to Mr. Burns’s unwanted advances, highlighting the issue of workplace sexual harassment, which comes to a head in the episode when Mr. Burns fires Marge on the grounds that she is a married woman, and would therefore not return his affections. However, the episode does not show Mr. Burns facing any repercussions for this harassment, as Marge remains fired at the episode (to return to her status quo of a homemaker) and Mr. Burns getting away with his behaviour thanks to his wealth and influence, and his team of ten high-class lawyers. 

The second time that Marge got employment outside of the home is in episode #2F21, “The Springfield Connection”, wherein Marge joins the police force after experiencing the thrill of bringing criminal Snake Jailbird to justice. This decision is met with mockery from the all-male police department, as well as provokes feelings of inadequacy in Homer, who fears that Marge being a cop; 

“… makes you the man! Which makes me the woman! And I have no interest in that — besides occasionally wearing the underwear which, as we discussed, is strictly a comfort thing.” 

Despite these objections, Marge graduates from the police academy with flying colours, and becomes a successful officer, though she becomes increasingly unenthusiastic as she finds being a cop becomes a barrier between her and her family and friends, becoming a point of contention when she has to arrest Homer for stealing her hat. And much like the aforementioned episode, Marge would return to being a homemaker by the end of the episode, as she resigns from the police force when she is disillusioned by their corruption when they are shown stealing counterfeit jeans from the criminal ring that Marge has just arrested. Rebecca Mahon and Nick Chedra reference Marge’s arc in this episode and relates it to their topic of “Into the World” in their book Educating Rita by Willy Russell (2003; 109-111), writing; 

“Comedy and parody are frequently used in the episode in order to convey the frustrations Marge is forced to deal with — whether these are based around the corruption of her colleagues, the music used on occasion which parodies former police shows, or even the scene where Marge is forced to arrest her husband.”

In their writings, Mahon and Chedra also compare Marge to the titular Rita of Educating Rita, the stage comedy that their book is focussed on, and how their desires to “enter the world” ultimately leaves them dissatisfied and regretting their decisions.

Authors Karma Waltonen and Denise Du Vernay discuss the separate influences of the different waves of feminism, and how second and third wave influence both Marge and Lisa respectively, and how these different perceptions can cause ideological conflict between the mother and daughter. While Marge became an activist during second-wave feminism in the 1970s, which dealt with issues of workplace and social inequalities, Lisa is more influenced by the then-current third-wave feminism of the 1990s, which saw the emergence of intersectionality and (perhaps most relevant for Lisa herself) vegetarian ecofeminism. Waltonen and Du Vernay attribute this generational divide to the creator of The Simpsons himself, Matt Groening, who they point out  “came of age during the second wave.” (2010; 226) They also write about how as the series progresses, the feminist side of Marge’s character becomes less prominent - possibly in favour of Lisa becoming the main vehicle for feminist discourse in the show - and becoming a more conservative character. And while there are still episodes which feature Marge partaking in second-wave feminist style activism, such as fighting for recognition for her work in carpentry (“Please, Homer, Don’t Hammer ‘Em”, #HABF17) or campaigning for same-sex marriage (“There’s Something About Marrying”, #GABF04), she has been shown to harbour contradictory mindsets, such as being initially opposed to her sister coming out as a lesbian and getting married in the same episode where she fought for same-sex marriages, for other couples. Waltonen and Du Vernay also make specific reference to a line of dialogue from “All’s Fair in Oven War” (#FABF20), where Marge can be heard saying, “When Virginia Woolf wrote every woman needs a room of her own, she must have been talking about the kitchen.”

Lisa Marie Simpson is the highly intelligent and socially conscious middle child of the Simpsons family, and have been the centre of many episodes where feminism is more at the forefront. An early notable example of this is the Season 5 episode “Lisa vs. Malibu Stacy” (#1F12), where Lisa is shocked to discover that the new talking Malibu Stacy doll includes sexist soundbites such as “Don’t ask me, I’m just a girl! hahaha, hahaha…”, “Thinking too much gives you wrinkles” and “My name is Stacy, but you can call me [wolf whistle]”. This was inspired by the infamous “Teen Talking Barbie” that Mattel released in July 1992, each of which were programmed to say four out of a possible 270 phrases, the most controversial of which being “Math class is tough!”, which drew the ire of the American Association of University Women, declaring it demeaning to women. In prior appearances of the doll, it was made clear that Lisa had instilled her own feminist ideals onto the Malibu Stacy, such as having her operate a feminist newsletter in “Lisa the Greek” (#8F12) or, as is the case in this episode, serve as a member of the General Assembly at the United Nations. However, it is while playing out this scenario that Lisa discovers how sexist the phrases are, prompting her to angrily explain to Bart that; 

“Millions of girls will grow up thinking that this is the right way to act… that they can never be more than vacuous ninnies whose only goal is to look pretty, land a rich husband, and spend all day on the phone with their equally vacuous friends talking about how damn terrific it is to look pretty and HAVE A RICH HUSBAND!!!!”

But when Bart does not fully engage with what Lisa is saying, she tries talking about it with her friends, who in their childish naïvety, also don’t comprehend what the problem is. What is most troubling for Lisa is when she brings it up to the rest of her family, and Marge shows that she has been susceptible to the antiquated catchphrases of the Malibu Stacy dolls, inadvertently quoting her by suggesting that they “…forget their troubles with a big bowl of strawberry ice cream.” — possibly indicating an early decline in Marge’s feminist characteristics in the show. In response to this, Lisa attempts to complain to the board of directors of the Malibu Stacy company, only to encounter more institutional misogyny there;

Lisa:                   Is the remarkably sexist drivel spouted by Malibu                                                       Stacy intentional, or is it just a horrible mistake?

Female Employee:        [chuckles] Believe me, we’re very mindful of such                                                       concerns.

Male Executive:            [wolf whistle] Hey, jiggles! Grab a pad and back that                                                   gorgeous butt in here.

Female Employee:    Oh, you. Get away! [chuckles]

Male Executive:            Ah, don’t act like you don’t like it. 

It is this that further galvanises Lisa, and she then goes to find the original creator of Malibu Stacy, Stacy Lovell (voiced by Kathleen Turner), and bring her out of her forced retirement, which she says occurred in 1974 when her way of thinking wasn’t cost-effective, which may be a hint to her advocating for more gender workplace equality, given it happened during second-wave feminism — of course, The Simpsons being a satirical show, undercut this by also having Lovell admit to “…funnelling profits to the Vietcong.” Regardless, Lisa then designs a more progressive doll that would go on to be called Lisa Lionheart, which in her pitch to Lovell, will;

“… have the wisdom of Gertrude Stein and the wit of Cathy Guisewite, the tenacity of Nina Totenberg, and the common sense of Elizabeth Cady Stanton! And to top it off, the down-to-earth good looks of Eleanor Roosevelt.”

This is not the first time the series has demonstrated Lisa having a working knowledge of feminist figures of history; in “Bart vs. Thanksgiving” (#7F07), Lisa creates a centrepiece featuring the “trailblazing women who made our country great”, which includes Georgia O’Keeffe, Susan B. Anthony and Marjory Stoneman Douglas, whom she explains “worked her whole life to preserve the Florida Everglades” after admitting to Maggie that she probably wouldn’t have heard of her; in “Bart the Daredevil” (#7F06), Lisa is delighted to find a woman mud-pull driver at the Truckasaurus event, declaring “Another barrier broken. Ride on, sister!”; later in the series, she wants to meet the first female stealth bomber pilot in “Sideshow Bob’s Last Gleaming” (#3F08), when she says with a certain childish innocence that ‘During the Gulf War, she destroyed 70 mosques, and her name is Lisa too.”

The Lisa Lionheart doll is further infused with feminist ideals, as Lisa records phrases including “When I get married, I’m keeping my own name!” (which Lisa questions whether it should be “if I choose to get married…”) and most importantly “Trust in yourself, and you can achieve anything”, which keeps Lisa from losing all hope for the future of young girls when the Malibu Stacy company retaliate with a re-release of the same talking doll (complete with the same sexist soundbites) with a new hat and dominate the market again, as she hears the soundbite again when one girl still chooses the Lisa Lionheart doll over the Malibu Stacy with new hat. Writer Matthew A. Henry interprets this ending as being ambiguous with its politics and ideology, stating;

“On the one hand, this episode is offering its viewers an image of youthful idealism, can-do individualism, and grass-roots activism in the service of contesting prevailing ideologies and providing alternative ones, an image in accord with the progressive politics of The Simpsons. On the other hand, in acknowledging capitalism and the reality of a profit-oriented consumer marketplace, the episode is also offering a rather pessimistic view of the ability of individuals (or even small coalitions of individuals) to truly affect social change.” (2007; 297)

In conclusion, in a series as long-running as The Simpsons, change is inevitable despite the status quo reset that the show has operated with each episode. While both Marge and Lisa were depicted as feminists from very early in the series run, the prominence of their respective ideologies shifted as Marge’s second-wave feminism became less relevant when compared to Lisa’s more contemporary third-wave feminism, and Lisa became the de facto character for the writers to explore progressive political and social ideologies, such as vegetarianism and environmentalism. And while the show is first-and-foremost a social satire, those times when it specifically satirises feminist issues, whether in the workplace or in a capitalist society as a whole, it actually hits upon some issues that are still relevant, even after 25+ years since each episode’s respective broadcast. 

Bibliography

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