There is no secret that the series of events that take place in television comedies is due to seeing our family conflicts in everyday situations. Thus, the main focus on one of the highest rated comedies, The Simpsons, is the comparison the show has towards a traditional North American family. A brief overview of the show, consists of The Simpsons, as a well-known cartoon family living in a town called Springfield. The family members include father and husband Homer Simpson, mother and wife Marge Simpson, and their three children, oldest and youngest daughter, Lisa, and Maggie and their only son Bart. Therefore, by gathering concise information concerning the characters, their economics, their tendencies, and similar statistical factual information …show more content…
As told in lecture, familialism is referred to as “a grand narrative that sets out an ‘ideal’ set of beliefs clung to despite evidence to the contrary. Often seen as both the source of social problems and normative families sought as the solution to all kinds of social problems”. Therefore, this means that the concept of familialism explains why our policies and images of how one visualize families may not up be up to date with “the social and economic realities today” (Teixeira, 2016). Those realities such as “falling wages relative to the cost of living, precarious employment & rising household debt, shrinking national job market; increased competition under globalization and unions and workers’ rights under attack globally” (Teixeira, 2016). These same realities are viewed when Homer loses his job at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant, and eventually starts to look for a new …show more content…
They have the average amount of children with an average age difference and educational levels. Homer Simpson 's profession is of a semi-technical nature, consistent with middle-class America, thus, he makes the average salary range. They have the approximate same amount of friends and extended family. On an individual note, the four main characters, Homer, Marge, Lisa and Bart, share similar values, norms and beliefs to a common North American family. Homer’s attitude towards work shows the natural responsibility of being the head of the household. Marge typifies a housewife with housekeeping hygiene and motherly responsibilities. In Bart, one can see a typical young male who would rather be with friends than in class. Lastly, Lisa Simpson finds self-fulfillment in achieving good grades. In times of danger, The Simpsons group together as do typical families, while at times when there is no sign of danger, they each exhibit distinct personalities within their social
In modern society, the average nuclear family is considered to be the mother, father, and 2.5 children. That is exactly what the Simpson’s has. Maggie has not aged one bit even though the show has been on since 1987. The average American family can be explained as the mother being the caretaker and the father as the head of the household. The mother and children are dependent on the father to provide for their family. The Simpson Family does display this but they aren’t a perfect white picket fence family. Lisa is the smartest in the family and she is only a child, she has more intelligence then her mother and father combined. “The Simpsons: Atomistic Politics and the Nuclear Family” was written by Paul A. Cantor. Cantor is the Clifton Waller Barrett Professor at the University of Virginia. He is also an American literary and media critic. Cantor is well known for his writings about popular culture. He is considered a preeminent scholar in the subject of American popular culture studies. This article fro...
Move over Jetson there is a new beloved animated family in town, the Simpsons. The Simpson’s originally aired on December 17th, 1989 and has yet to make us stop laughing. The Simpson’s follow a not so typical American family from the fictional town of Springfield. The episode follow the satirical lives of Homer (Dad), Marge (mom), Bart (brother), Lisa (sister), and Maggie (little sister). Though this is a satirical TV show many episodes provide excellent points and example of material covered in a sociology class. The episode “Marge not be Proud” gives multiple examples of deviant behavior and this essay will discuss two of them.
Television provides an avenue for which we can analyze people, cultures, and more. My favorite show is Family Guy. The show often pokes fun at either social norms or popular trends occurring in current society. Its humor is supported by the relationship of a talking baby named Stewie, and a talking dog named Brian who live in Rhode Island. Through out the many seasons of Family Guy, the viewer can see through a sociological perspective how all three common theories in sociology are used on Stewie and Brian.
Socialization plays in important part in the passing on of culture from generation to generation. It is defined as the lifelong process of social interaction through which we acquire a self-identity and the skills needed for survival. The agents of socialization provide the necessary social interactions to teach culture to individuals in a society. The four primary agents of socialization include parents, education, peers, and media. The most pervasive one, media, has a major role in teaching messages about the norms in culture. The purpose of this project was to observe the subtle messages that a TV series, like The Simpsons, send about gender, class, disability/ability, and age.
Groening took responsible risks to make these shows into popular TV shows. Groening made the first popular animated adult comedy (The Simpsons). He said “ The history of TV has traditionally been not to do anything that would scandalize Grandma or upset Junior. Our solution on The Simpsons is to do jokes that people who have an education, or some frame of reference, can get. And for the ones who don't, it doesn't matter, because we have Homer banging his head and saying, 'D'oh!'.” This became the concept around the Simpsons and Futurama. He also based the Simpsons on his real family (he didn’t in Futurama). His dad was named Homer, mom’s was Margaret (most called her Marge), and his little sisters were named Lisa and Maggie. He also had two
Today I received a referral from a family who is seeking help regarding their dysfunctional family structure. The Simpson’s are a nuclear family that is having difficulties living as a family. I have already spoken to Marge Simpson and agreed to find a way to get her husband and children to therapy. She has very high aspirations of attending therapy with her family because she has longed for a “normal” functioning family in which her husband and children interact in a much healthier manner than they do now. She described her husband of being careless, her son uncontrollable ate times, and her daughters disconnected from the family. We have set up the meeting for next week, Wednesday at six, when she believed her family would be more willing to attend and actually participate in the therapy session.
Family Guy, an animated sitcom about a New England family and their everyday dilemmas, is a way for viewers to see the comedic side of a dysfunctional family. The Griffins consist of Peter and Lois, the patriarch and matriarch, and Meg, Chris, and Stewie are the children(Family Guy). Every character is different from the next character. They are also weird in their own way. The television show itself displays feminism, structuralism, and gay and lesbian criticism. Each character in the show also displays those criticisms in a certain fashion. Family Guy can be offensive to viewers with its satire, and the way the show delivers its message can make the family and the other characters in the show seem dysfunctional.
Annie awards, four Genesis awards, a Golden Globe nomination and many more. more accolades. People seem to engage with the Simpsons so well because they are portraying the average family but obviously with some not so average experience. The sand is a sand. The Simpsons themselves are a simple family in a small town in Middle America called Springfield.
Over the years, several cartoon series have been chosen as the object of study for different researches. The world most famous animated family, The Simpsons, has been studied by Meskill (2007) focusing on their discourses about education. The author concluded that the satirical portrayal of schools in The Simpsons- teaching, learning, administrating- is brilliant in the cleverly suggested conflicts it portrays and provokes. These contradictions, according to Meskill, can illuminate the humanistic side of the society in which we live and help to improve its institutions. Another cartoon series that has received many critiques is South Park. Schulzke (2012) analysed the episode “The F Word” to illustrate how the show uses sophisticated strategies
McAllister, Matthew P. "The Simpsons." Encyclopedia of Television. Ed. Horace Newcomb. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn, 1997.
Talcott Parsons and Robert Bales, two of the leading figures in sociology, may be considered the founding fathers for the ideas of the “modern family” and the “male-breadwinner family.” Collectively, their work has influenced how Americans analyze families and has sparked new ideas regarding the American family from sociologists such as Stephanie Coontz and Arlie Hochschild. However, when studying the American family, Parsons and Bales fail to understand that the “ideal” family may not be so ideal for everyone. They neglect to consider societal influences and economic changes when discussing patriarchal social norms as the most optimal family structure. Their description of the male-breadwinner family consists of the father being the “instrumental leader” within the home, providing economically for his family based on his occupational earnings. Meanwhile, the mother is considered the manager of the household, providing for her husband and children physically, emotionally, and mentally.
It’s not easy to build an ideal family. In the article “The American Family” by Stephanie Coontz, she argued that during this century families succeed more when they discuss problems openly, and when social institutions are flexible in meeting families’ needs. When women have more choices to make their own decisions. She also argued that to have an ideal family women can expect a lot from men especially when it comes to his involvement in the house. Raymond Carver, the author of “Where He Was: Memories of My Father”, argued how his upbringing and lack of social institutions prevented him from building an ideal family. He showed the readers that his mother hide all the problems instead of solving them. She also didn’t have any choice but to stay with his drunk father, who was barely involved in the house. Carvers’ memoir is relevant to Coontz argument about what is needed to have an ideal family.
The Addams family which ran for 2 years (1964-1966) is a classical formation of the emersion of misfits into a necessity for a show’s airing survival. Though the misfit needn’t be as obvious as the Addams Family a small replicate of then character is shown regularly in current generation television. What made the Addams so successful and well known was their spontaneous character traits which allowed them to break taboo and behave as if this was the social normality. Reactions presented from the interacting characters in the show which weren’t familiar with the family were what helped make the show ongoing and interesting by persisting with the idea that the family t...
Homer Jay Simpson, the patriarch of the Simpson household on the Fox series “The Simpsons” is a childish, lazy man, whose hobbies include eating donuts, drinking Duff Beer, watching television, and sleeping. A victim of the “Simpsons gene” which allows for only Simpson women to possess the trait of intelligence, Homer is unfortunately as “dumb as a chimp” according to his father, Abe Simpson. However, it is mainly through the analysis of his simplistic thoughts and nature, that one can gain a real perspective on Homer’s complex personality.
Sitcoms on television often use cultural representations in character choices as well as in situations the characters may fall into. Popular cultural themes can be shown in relationships between characters, such a family dynamic. One of the most popular examples of a typical family dynamic is a when the father of the family is on top of the hierarchy. We have seen this family stereotype on television for decades, namely Leave it to Beaver. Over time, stereotypes and norms of western culture have been embedded into popular television programing. A prevalent sitcom over the past six years has been a show called The League, which gained popularity due to the rise in popularity of fantasy football. The show made to be a comedy based around a group of friends who partake in a fantasy football league. In this show, many obvious cultural stereotypes arise that