Family Girl?

Animated Television:
For my forth media format I reviewed an animated television series. The show I watched was Family Guy it airs at 9/8c Sundays on Fox. The episode itself was a re-run: Season 3, Episode 1 'North by North Quahog'. One of the issues I wanted to address while reviewing an animated television series was... does the portrayal of women on the television show affect the outcomes of the other characters. Another question I had was us race, class, and sexuality diversely represented within the characterizations of women on animated television?

The episode starts with Lois, the typical American housewife, comes home to find Peter, her typical American husband, dazing on the couch and watching TV. Plain clothes depict Lois’ role in the family along with the sack full of groceries she is carrying, the one her husband does not offer to help her with. It turns out the heavy grocery sack contains new sheets from Bed, Bath, and Beyond; this is where the conflict begins. Peter and Lois want to “break their new sheets in”, but Lois is just not feeling the spark that she used to for her husband (can you imagine why?).

Peter soon fabricates (>haha, pun!) a solution: a second honeymoon. Lois and Peter drive off for a romantic weekend only to find that they have arrived at a dumpy hotel, where their room is already occupied by a strange-looking woman. They are at a truck stop and it only takes the audience a second to realize why she is there. Lois is quick to point out that the woman is a hooker, automatically being labeled for what she is wearing, but the woman does not deny it.

While Peter and Lois are away, their two oldest children get into an argument, which quickly turns into a full-out wrestling match. Meg is definitely smaller than her younger brother, but she can hold her own. The teenage American girl is a fighter, the audience can tell by her hat, fiercely pink shirt, and disregard to whether or not her makeup is going to look all right afterward.

Later Lois and Peter turn on the TV to see a woman anchoring the evening news and another woman covering a story live. This shows that women have a place in the workforce, but the newscast goes on to say that she is not allowed in the Park Barrington Hotel because she is Asian, a degrading racial comment.

By the end of the show, Lois and Peter have solved their marriage problem and everything is back to normal again. Reading between the lines, there are a lot of instances where women were belittled in this episode. The male characters feed off of this negative humor, making their own character look better. Sometimes women even put down other women, like when Lois called the woman in the hotel a hooker, showing distinct separation of class. Even though women are seen in the workplace, racial comments are still made about them. These sexual barriers are subtle, but are still prevalent throughout the episode. It is apparent that with age women in the show come into their sexuality and use it as an empowering quality instead of a demeaning quality. Lois is the perfect example of this, because she convicts Peter to try harder in their relationship.