I am an avid viewer of Family Guy. It’s almost disgusting how much I enjoy the relentless crude humor that is somehow only appropriate because no group is spared from the show’s cruel jokes. When we were assigned to watch a TV show and comb through its action for issues of gender, my mind immediately jumped to Family Guy—how the familial plotline of the episodes embraces common gender discrepancies and stereotypes to the point where the depiction could only be a mockery.
Today I watched an episode that took place during the Thanksgiving holiday. Within the Griffin family itself (Peter the father, Lois the mother, and their children), the discrepancies in actions based on gender are truly appalling. While Peter sits on the couch watching TV and drinking a beer, Lois pleads with him to maintain his manners during their upcoming dinner party. During the dinner itself, Peter sits at the head of the table and is served food by Lois. Later, Peter becomes very drunk and begins to shout abusive comments at his son, only to have Lois scold him to stop drinking. It seems as though Peter does whatever he wants and that is Lois’s responsibility to maintain the composure of the household. Although Lois frequently emits sighs of exasperation and anger, she usually acquiesces eventually.
I noticed many other differences in the way that men and women behave at the Griffin Family Thanksgiving dinner party. The women are very polite while greeting one another and complimenting Lois on her cooking. The men, on the other hand, often make insensitive and sexual comments about the women and other characters. In one part of the episode, the scene switches to a family eating Thanksgiving dinner in the past (my guess would be the early 19th century), and a man yells at his wife for showing her ankles in public. Later, when the atmosphere at the dinner table becomes intense, a woman suggests that “it’s time for us girls to use the powder room.” The intense matter being discussed at the table was apparently unsuitable for women.
The dynamic between males and females in this particular episode of Family Guy (and in most other episodes of the show as well) is so harshly overt that the show could only be mocking both men and women, and that is what makes it so funny. Sure, it’s extremely politically and morally incorrect, but in all honesty I find Family Guy to be hilarious.
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