Response to “Marge Simpson, Blue Haired Housewife: Defining Domesticity on The Simpsons”

    This article begins with the pop culture text that exists in The Simpsons which covers American religious life and the representation of homosexuality in cartoons, etc. Jessamyn basically states her argument about the satirization in The Simpsons. Especially the character Marge Simpson challenges the traditional housewives in 1950s sitcoms.
     In the article, Jessamyn explains plenty of terms that play an important role in understanding both the article and The Simpsons. For example, she refers “a family” in The Simpsons to “the centrality of the female domesticity”, which is significantly similar to the male dominated family-traditional nuclear family in 1950s sitcoms. As for the crucial element in The Simpsons-satire, she gives the explanation that satire is a way of indicating its audience to get rid of the old and the dominant as well as noticing the new and the non-dominant.
     Jessamyn raises a variety of discussions in the article as well. She puts forward that The Simpsons is both innovative and inherited. First of all, it converts a father’s role in a conventional nuclear family from efficient to ineffectual. Second, The Simpsons reveals the unexpected truth of American society. Instead of a harmonious society in 1950s sitcoms, The Simpsons ironically think of the common public places-schools, families and workplaces as fetters. The Simpsons is inherited because it eventually ends with sentiment though it is full of satire.
     Regarding the character-Marge, Jessamyn believes that Marge Simpson is not simply a homemaker borrowed from the televised housewives. She owns rough and scratchy voice which is different from those sweet voices of televised housewives. Except her voice, she is also distinctive in view of her role. Marge expands her functioning area from home to public and even politics. Beyond that, she possesses bad emotions such as frustration and anger, which is different from the unnaturally cheerful televised housewives. For those surprising characteristics Marge owns, they overturns and satirizes the audience’s preconceived ideas about a televised housewife in 1950s sitcoms but provides us with a more actual alive wife and mother. Even though Marge and those televised housewives are both unrealistic, Marge is created based more on housewives or women’s perspective. She has the right to choose what she wants to do but not what her family or the audiences want from her. Thus, The Simpsons shows more respect to housewives or women’s true being.