Gender Stereotypes In Family Guy

A Television series that I think best emulates some of the topics that we discussed in class so far is Family Guy. Family Guy is an animated cartoon series that talks about real and current events and it even brings up some of the stereotypes that we are always presented with in the media. In the specific episode that I chose we can see a few things, we see an example of a gender role very early in the episode and we also get a feel of the male gaze later on in the episode. However, this male gaze has a twist to it, we are exposed to a depiction that looks to be making fun of the male gaze, and these are the main topics of which I will discuss. First, I will introduce the episode and try to summarize the main plot line as to get us to our

We see another failed attempt of Peter and Homer attempting to find Peter’s car. In this section we get the scene of the producers making fun and showing the downfall of the male gaze. In this scene we see Peter and Homer hold a free car wash for stolen cars, of which they get a lot of customers. However, none of the cars are Peter’s, but “we promised them a show” says Peter. They then go on to wash the cars in shorty-shorts and a tied up t-shirt that reveals their stomachs. This is there way of showing and making fun of the male gaze. This whole scene has Peter and Homer portrayed as something sexual and alluring even though they are overweight and do not fit into their clothing. After this scene we get a few other scenes before the end of the episode, the first being Meg and Lisa trying to find things that Meg might be good at, but they cannot seem to find anything; Until Meg starts playing Lisa’s saxophone, and she is a lot better than Lisa at it, but then Lisa gets jealous and tells Meg that her playing was a waste of good butcher arms, thus body shaming her like the rest of the people in her life. Then in the final scene we get a cliffhanger with Stewie having tied up Nelson, which is the bully that always picks on Bart and Stewie starts to torture him and this is where we are left until episode two of the

The main stereotype delivered in this episode is the role of the women as the caretaker of the house. However, there is an ongoing male role that is always depicted Within Peter and now with Homer. We see them both as being the breadwinners of the family. Throughout both television series they are the only ones who work and keep the families fed and sheltered. This is shown within every episode of Family Guy. Finally, wrapping up there is one more male role stereotype introduced in this episode and that is Stewie and Bart, they are both seen being violent and trouble makers, which is a stereotypical role that a young boy/man should possess in order to be considered masculine, which in my opinion is not something that we should be teaching the next generation. This is not the correct way to act in society, and all sexes should be considered