Marriage and Family Relationships on Television :  "The Simpsons" and the Parody of the Normal Family

( Pages 1 • 2 • 3 • 4 )

Other essays and articles in the Arts Archives related to this topic include : The Full Extent of Damaging Representations of Women in the Media •  Gender and Generation in the Film “The Graduate” (1967)  •  The Presence of the Classic Epic Hero in the Film Star Wars

In terms of marriage on this particular television show, "The Simpsons", it is worth mentioning that the fact that Marge and Homer Simpson went to the same high school and dated there also suggests (although does not prove) that there is a certain level of class homogamy as well since at no point during the lifetime of the series (and yes, I’ve seen them all I think) is there any indication that Marge or Homer grew up incredibly rich or poor. In short, the Simpsons fit almost every conventional and stereotypical Western notion of marriage there is, even down to the 2.5 children (Maggie is a perpetual baby and thus is a joke on census’ assertion of the middle-class norm of exactly two and a half children per married couple in the United States and Canada). The family unit that is the Simpsons is thus a complete parody of the typical normal American family to such a degree that it is laugable.

There is one interesting departure from the stereotypical notion of the family unit as portrayed in the television show The Simpsons. While Marge and Homer adhere to almost every “typical” conventional condition regulating a normal marriage and family, their past involves an incident that is less than traditional, although by no means uncommon either in real life or in on television.  Marge and Homer are not a typical American family as they have subverted conventional marriage expectations that regulate that couples should be married before conceiving children and got pregnant on accident, resulting in the birth of their oldest child, Bart. One critic of this event notes that, “When Homer first courted his bride-to-be, Doctor Hibbert gave him a pamphlet entitled ‘So You’ve Ruined Your Life’ to a pregnant but unmarried Marge… After Home poisoned after eating an incorrectly prepared blowfish the Doctor gave him another brochure, ‘So You’re Going to Die” (Patterson 1998). In short, although this is certainly a humorous event with the doctor, this subtly implies that these slips away from traditional and conventional marriage and family expectations are just a part of life and are somewhat inevitable, just as death.

While this may be reading too much into a funny event regarding this aspect of family and marriage in the telvision show "The Simposons", it should be noted that much of the conflict that arises between the married couple is based on either breeches of conventional expectations of marriage (the provision of love, security, etc) of differences in how spouses think things should be according to a distinct set of cultural and traditional notions. For instance, in the frequent episodes of "The Simpsons" when Homer quits his job at the nuclear power plant to take on something new, Marge’s primary complaints and concerns have to do with the economic and social impact on the family.

In terms of the representations of family and marriage on a television sitcom such as “The Simpsons”  one should recognize the role of Marge. She is the guardian of the family’s adherence to norms and as a result, it quite frequently the one who keeps her husband in line so that the societal expectations of marriage, family, and “normal” behavior are maintained. Again, this is another way in which the Simpson family represents traditional and normative marriages in the West—the man is the adventurer, which is fine with the woman unless it compromises her expectations of what a marriage should be. Although this family violated one of the sacred principles of traditional marriage by getting pregnant before marriage, this but one slip in a constant stream of traditional behaviors associated with the typical family. Thus when the assertion is made that the Simpsons are “all of us” this is because we all recognize clear divisions between what is considered normal and right in our value-based assessments of what a marriage should be, but we recognize slippages from this enough to either find them funny or to place judgments upon such behaviors.

◄Previous  Page 2 of 4  Continue►