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The Simpsons: Atomistic Politics and the Nuclear FamilyAuthor(s): Paul A. CantorSource: Political Theory, Vol. 27, No. 6 (Dec., 1999), pp. 734-749Published by: Sage Publications, Inc.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/192244

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THE SIMPSONSAtomistic Politics and the Nuclear FamilyPAULA.CANTORUniversityof Virginia

W HEN SENATORCHARLESSCHUMER(D-N.Y.) visited a highschool in upstateNew Yorkin May 1999,he receivedanunexpectedcivicslesson from anunexpectedsource.Speakingon thetimely subjectof schoolviolence,SenatorSchumerpraisedtheBradyBill, whichhe helpedsponsor,for its role in preventingcrime.Rising to questionthe effectiveness of thiseffort atguncontrol,astudentnamedKevinDavis cited anexamplenodoubtfamiliarto his classmates but unknownto the senatorfromNew York:Itremindsme of aSimpsonsepisode.Homerwantedto get a gunbut he hadbeen injailtwice andin a mentalinstitution.Theylabel him as "potentiallydangerous."So Homerasks what that means and the gun dealersays: "Itjust meansyou need an extra weekbeforeyou canget the gun."Withoutgoing intothe prosand cons of guncontrollegislation,one canrecognizein this incident how the Fox Network's cartoonseries TheSimp-sons shapesthewayAmericansthink,particularlytheyoungergeneration.Itmay thereforebe worthwhiletakinga look at thetelevisionprogramto seewhat sort of political lessons it is teaching.TheSimpsons may seem likemindless entertainmenttomany,butinfact,itoffers some of themostsophis-ticatedcomedy and satire ever to appearon Americantelevision. Over theyears,the show has takenonmanyseriousissues:nuclearpowersafety,envi-ronmentalism,immigration,gay rights,women in the military,and so on.Paradoxically,it is thefarcicalnatureof the show thatallowsit to beseriousinways thatmanyothertelevision shows are not.2I will not,however,dwell on thequestionof the show'spoliticsinthe nar-rowly partisansense. TheSimpsonssatirizes bothRepublicansand Demo-

EDITOR'SNOTE:Thisessaywon theawardforbestpaperin thepoliticsand literaturesectionqf the 1998 AnnualMeetingof the AmericanPolitical Science Association.POLITICALTHEORY,Vol. 27 No. 6, December 1999 734-749? 1999 Sage Publications,Inc.734











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crats. The local politicianwho appearsmost frequentlyin the show,MayorQuimby, speaks with a heavy Kennedyaccent3 and generally acts like aDemocratic urban-machinepolitician. By the same token,themost sinisterpoliticalforceintheseries,the cabalthatseemsto runthetown of Springfieldfrom behindthescenes,is invariablyportrayedasRepublican.Onbalance,itis fairtosaythatTheSimpsons,likemost of whatcomes out of Hollywood,ispro-Democratand anti-Republican.One whole episode was a gratuitouslyvicious portraitof ex-PresidentBush,4whereas the show has been surpris-ingly slow to satirizePresidentClinton.5Nevertheless,perhapsthe singlefunniestpoliticalline in thehistoryof TheSimpsonscame at theexpenseofthe Democrats.When GrandpaAbrahamSimpsonreceives money in themail reallymeant for his grandchildren,Bart askshim, "Didn'tyou wonderwhy you weregettingchecks forabsolutelynothing?"Abereplies,"Ifigured'cause the Democratswereinpoweragain."6Unwillingtoforego anyoppor-tunityfor humor,the show's creatorshave been generallyevenhandedovertheyearsinmakingfun of bothparties,andof boththeRightandthe Left.7Settingasidethesurfaceissue of politicalpartisanship,I aminterestedinthe deep politics of TheSimpsons,what the show most fundamentallysug-gestsaboutpoliticallife in theUnited States.The showbroachesthequestionof politics throughthe questionof the family,and this in itself is a politicalstatement.By dealing centrallywith the family,TheSimpsonstakesuprealhuman issues everybodycan recognizeand thusends up in manyrespectsless "cartooonish"thanothertelevisionprograms.Its cartooncharactersaremorehuman,morefully rounded,thanthe supposedlyrealhumanbeingsinmanysituationcomedies. Aboveall,the showhascreatedabelievablehumancommunity:Springfield,USA. TheSimpsonsshows the family as partof alargercommunityandin effect affirmsthekind of communitythat can sus-tain thefamily.Thatis at oneandthesame time thesecretof theshow'spopu-laritywith theAmericanpublicand themostinterestingpoliticalstatementithas to make.TheSimpsonsindeed offers one of themost importantimagesof thefam-ily in contemporaryAmericancultureand, in particular,an image of thenuclearfamily. With the names takenfrom creatorMatt Groening'sownchildhoodhome,TheSimpsonsportraystheaverageAmericanfamily:father(Homer),mother(Marge),and2.2 children(Bart,Lisa, andlittle Maggie).Manycommentatorshavelamentedthe factthatTheSimpsonsnowserves asone of the representativeimages of Americanfamily life, claimingthat theshowprovideshorriblerole models forparentsandchildren.Thepopularityof the show is often cited as evidenceof the decline of family values in theUnited States. But critics of TheSimpsonsneed to take a closer look at theshow and view it in the context of television history.For all its slapstick





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natureand itsmockingof certainaspectsof familylife, TheSimpsonshas anaffirmativeside and endsupcelebratingthe nuclearfamilyas aninstitution.Fortelevision,this is no minor achievement.Fordecades,Americantelevi-sion has tendedto downplaythe importanceof the nuclearfamily and offervariousone-parentfamilies or othernontraditionalarrangementsas alterna-tives to it. Theone-parentsituationcomedyactuallydatesback almost to thebeginning of network television, at least as early as My Little Margie(1952-1955). But the classic one-parentsituationcomedies, like TheAndyGriffithShow(1960-1968) orMyThreeSons (1960-1972), generallyfoundwaysto reconstitutethenuclearfamilyin oneformor another(oftenthroughthepresenceof an auntoruncle)andthusstillpresentedit as the norm(some-times the storyline actuallymovedin the directionof the widowergettingremarried,as happenedto SteveDouglas,the FredMacMurraycharacter,inMy Three Sons).But startingwith shows in the 1970s like Alice (1976-1985), Americantelevisiongenuinelybeganto moveawayfromthenuclearfamilyas thenormandsuggestthatotherpatternsof childrearingmightbeequallyvalid orper-hapsevensuperior.Televisionin the 1980sand 1990sexperimentedwithallsortsof permutationsonthe themeof thenonnuclearfamily,in showssuch asLove, Sidney (1981-1983), Punky Brewster (1984-1986), and My Two Dads(1987-1990).ThisdevelopmentpartlyresultedfromthestandardHollywoodprocedureof generatingnew seriesby simplyvaryingsuccessfulformulas.8Butthetrendtowardnonnuclearfamiliesalsoexpressedtheideologicalbentof Hollywoodandits impulseto call traditionalfamilyvaluesinto question.Aboveall,thoughtelevisionshowsusuallytracedthe absenceof one ormoreparentsto deathsin thefamily,the trendawayfrom thenuclearfamilyobvi-ouslyreflectedtherealityof divorcein Americanlife (andespeciallyin Hol-lywood). Wantingto be progressive,televisionproducersset out to endorsecontemporarysocialtrendsawayfromthestable,traditional,nuclearfamily.Withthetypicalmomentumof theentertainmentindustry,Hollywoodeven-tuallytookthis developmentto its logical conclusion:the no-parentfamily.AnotherpopularFoxprogram,Partyof Five(1994- ), now showsa familyofchildrengallantlyraisingthemselvesafterboththeirparentswere killedinanautomobileaccident.

Partyof Five cleverlyconveysa messagesome television producersevi-dentlythinktheircontemporaryaudiencewantstohear-that childrencandoquitewell withoutoneparentandpreferablywithoutboth.Thechildrenintheaudiencewant to hearthismessagebecauseit flatterstheirsenseof indepen-dence.Theparentswanttohearthismessagebecauseit soothestheirsenseofguilt,eitheraboutabandoningtheirchildrencompletely(as sometimeshap-pens in cases of divorce)orjust notdevotingenough"qualitytime"to them.








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Absent or negligentparentscan console themselves with the thoughtthattheir childrenreally are betteroff withoutthem,"justlike those cool-andincredibly good-looking-kids on Party of Five."In short,for roughlythepasttwo decades,muchof Americantelevisionhas beensuggestingthatthebreakdownof theAmericanfamilydoes notconstituteasocial crisisor evenaseriousproblem.Infact,it shouldberegardedas a formof liberationfromanimageof thefamilythatmayhave beengood enoughforthe 1950s but is nolonger valid in the 1990s. It is againstthis historicalbackgroundthatthestatement The Simpsonshas to make about the nuclearfamily has to beappreciated.

Of coursetelevision nevercompletelyabandonedthenuclearfamily,evenin the 1980s, as shown by the success of such shows as All in the Family(1971-1983), FamilyTies(1982-1989), and TheCosbyShow (1984-1992).And when TheSimpsonsdebutedas a regularseries in 1989, it was by nomeansuniquein its reaffirmationof thevalue of thenuclearfamily.Severalothershows took the samepathinthepastdecade,reflectinglargersocialandpoliticaltrendsin society, in particularthe reassertionof family valuesthathasby now beenadoptedas aprogramby bothpoliticalpartiesin theUnitedStates. Fox's own Married with Children (1987-1998) preceded The Simp-sons inportrayinganamusinglydysfunctionalnuclearfamily.Anotherinter-estingportrayalof thenuclearfamilycan befound inABC'sHomeImprove-ment (1991-1999), which tries to recuperatetraditionalfamily values andeven genderroles within a postmoderntelevisioncontext. But TheSimpsonsis in manyrespectsthe most interestingexampleof this returnto thenuclearfamily.Thoughit strikesmanypeopleastryingto subverttheAmericanfam-ily or to undermineits authority,in fact, it remindsus thatantiauthoritarian-ism is itself an Americantraditionandthatfamilyauthorityhasalwaysbeenproblematicin democraticAmerica. WhatmakesTheSimpsonsso interest-ing is the way it combinestraditionalismwithantitraditionalism.Itcontinu-ally makesfun of thetraditionalAmericanfamily.Butitcontinuallyoffersanenduringimageof the nuclearfamilyin theveryact of satirizingit. Manyofthetraditionalvalues of theAmericanfamilysurvivethissatire,above all thevalue of the nuclearfamily itself.As I havesuggested,one canunderstandthispointpartlyin terms of tele-vision history.TheSimpsonsis a hip, postmodern,self-awareshow.9But itsself-awarenessfocuses on the traditionalrepresentationof the Americanfamily on television. It thereforepresentsthe paradoxof an untraditionalshowthatis deeplyrootedintelevisiontradition.TheSimpsonscanbe tracedback to earliertelevisioncartoonsthatdealtwithfamilies,suchas TheFlint-stones or TheJetsons.But thesecartoonsmustthemselvesbe tracedbacktothefamousnuclear-familysitcomsof the 1950s:ILoveLucy,TheAdventures








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of Ozzie and Harriet, Father Knows Best, and Leave It to Beaver. The Simp-sons is a postmodernre-creationof the firstgenerationof familysitcoms ontelevision.Lookingback on those shows, we easily see the transformationsanddiscontinuitiesTheSimpsonshasbroughtabout.In TheSimpsons,fatheremphaticallydoesnot know best. And it clearlyis moredangerousto leave itto Bart than to Beaver.Obviously,The Simpsonsdoes not offer a simplereturnto thefamilyshows of the 1950s.But even in the act of re-creationandtransformation,the show provideselements of continuitythat make TheSimpsonsmore traditionalthanmay at firstappear.TheSimpsonshas indeedfounditsown oddwayto defendthe nuclearfam-ily.Ineffect,the showssays,"Takethe worst-casescenario-the Simpsons-and even thatfamily is betterthan no family."Infact,theSimpsonfamily isnot all thatbad.Somepeopleareappalledat the idea of young boys imitatingBart,inparticularhisdisrespectforauthorityandespeciallyfor his teachers.Thesecritics of TheSimpsonsforgetthatBart'srebelliousnessconformsto avenerableAmericanarchetypeand thatthis countrywas founded on disre-spect for authorityand an act of rebellion.Bart is an Americanicon, anupdatedversion of TomSawyerandHuck Finn rolled into one. For all histroublemaking-preciselybecauseof his troublemaking-Bartbehavesjustthewayayoungboyis supposedto inAmericanmythology,fromDennis theMenace comics to the Our Gang comedies."'As for themotheranddaughterin TheSimpsons,MargeandLisa arenotbad rolemodelsatall. MargeSimpsonis verymuchthe devotedmotherandhousekeeper;shealso oftendisplaysafeministstreak,particularlyintheepi-sode in whichshegoes off on ajauntala ThelmaandLouise.'1Indeed,she isvery modernin herattemptsto combinecertainfeministimpulseswith thetraditionalrole of amother.Lisais inmanywaystheideal childincontempo-raryterms.She is an overachieverin school, and as a feminist,a vegetarian,and anenvironmentalist,she is politicallycorrectacrossthe spectrum.The realissue,then,is Homer.ManypeoplehavecriticizedTheSimpsonsfor its portrayalof the fatheras dumb,uneducated,weak in character,andmorally unprincipled.Homeris all those things,butat least he is there. Hefulfills the bareminimumof a father:he is presentfor his wife and aboveallhischildren.To be sure,helacksmanyof thequalitieswe wouldliketo see intheidealfather.He is selfish, oftenputtinghis owninterestabovethat of hisfamily.As we learnin one of theHalloweenepisodes,Homerwouldsell hissoul tothe devilfora donut(thoughfortunatelyitturnsout thatMargealreadyownedhis soulandthereforeitwas notHomer'sto sell).2 Homeris undenia-blycrass,vulgar,andincapableof appreciatingthefinerthingsin life. He hasa hardtime sharinginterestswithLisa,exceptwhen she developsa remark-able knackforpredictingthe outcomeof profootballgamesand allows her





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fatherto become a big winner in the bettingpool at Moe's Tavern."More-over,Homergets angryeasily and takes his angerout on his children,as hismany attemptsto strangleBartattest.In all theserespects,Homerfails as a father.Butuponreflection,it is sur-prisingto realize howmanydecentqualitieshe has. Firstandforemost,he isattachedtohis own-he loveshisfamilybecauseit is his.Hismottobasicallyis, "My family, rightorwrong."This is hardlya philosophic position,but itmay well providethe bedrock of the family as an institution,which is whyPlato'sRepublicmust subvertthepowerof thefamily.HomerSimpsonis theoppositeof aphilosopher-king;he is devotednot to whatis bestbutto whatishis own. Thatposition has its problems,but it does help explain how theseemingly dysfunctionalSimpson family managesto function.Forexample,Homeris willing to work to supporthis family,even in thedangerousjob of nuclearpower plant safety supervisor,a job made all themoredangerousbythe fact thathe is the onedoingit. In theepisodeinwhichLisa comes to wantapony desperately,Homereventakesa secondjob work-ing forApu Nahasapeemapetilonat the Kwik-E-Martto earnthemoneyforthe pony's upkeepandnearlykills himself in theprocess.14In suchactions,Homer manifests his genuineconcernfor his family,and as he repeatedlyproves,he will defend themif necessary,sometimes at greatpersonalrisk.Often,Homeris noteffective in suchactions,butthatmakes his devotion tohis family in some ways all the moretouching.Homer is the distillationofpurefatherhood.Takeawayall the qualitiesthatmake for a genuinely goodfather-wisdom, compassion,eventemper,selflessness-and whatyouhaveleftis HomerSimpsonwithhispure,mindless,doggeddevotionto his family.Thatis whyforallhis stupidity,bigotry,andself-centeredquality,we cannothateHomer.Hecontinuallyfails atbeingagoodfather,buthe nevergives uptrying,andinsome basicandimportantsense thatmakeshim agoodfather.Themost effective defense of thefamilyinthe seriescomes in theepisodein whichtheSimpsonsareactuallybrokenupas a unit.5 Thisepisodepoint-edly begins with an image of Margeas a good mother,preparingbreakfastand school lunchessimultaneouslyforherchildren.She evengives BartandLisa careful instructionsabouttheirsandwiches:"Keepthe lettuceseparateuntil 11:30."But afterthispromisingparentalbeginning,a series of mishapsoccurs. Homerand Marge go off to the MingledWatersHealthSpa for awell-deserved afternoonof relaxation.In theirhaste,theyleave theirhousedirty,especially a pile of unwasheddishes in the kitchensink. Meanwhile,things areunfortunatelynot going well for the childrenat school. Bart hasaccidentallypicked up lice from the monkey of his best friendMilhouse,promptingPrincipalSkinnertoask,"Whatkindof parentswouldpermitsucha lapse in scalpal hygiene?" The evidence against the Simpson parents





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mountswhen Skinnersends for Bart'ssister.Withherprescriptionshoes sto-len by her classmatesand her feet accordinglycoveredwithmud,Lisa lookslike some streeturchinstraightout of Dickens.Faced with all this evidence of parentalneglect, the horrifiedprincipalalertsthe ChildWelfareBoard,who are themselvesshocked whentheytakeBart andLisa homeandexplorethepremises.The officialscompletelymis-interpretthe situation.Confrontedby a pile of old newspapers,theyassumethatMargeis a badhousekeeper,when in fact she hadassembledthe docu-mentstohelpLisa withahistoryproject.Jumpingtoconclusions,the bureau-crats decide that Marge and Homer are unfit parentsand lodge specificchargesthattheSimpsonhouseholdis a"squalidhellhole andthe toiletpaperis hung in improperoverhandfashion."The authoritiesdeterminethat theSimpsonchildrenmustbe giventofosterparents.Bart,Lisa,andMaggieareaccordinglyhandedoverto thefamilynextdoor,presidedoverbythepatriar-chalNed Flanders.Throughouttheseries,the Flandersfamily serves as thedoppelgangerof theSimpsons.Flandersand his broodarein facttheperfectfamily accordingto old-style moralityandreligion. In markedcontrasttoBart,theFlandersboys,RodandTodd,arewell behavedandobedient.Aboveall, theFlandersfamilyis pious,devotedto activitieslike Bible reading,andmorezealousthaneven thelocal ReverendLovejoy.WhenNed offerstoplay"bombardment"with BartandLisa, what he has in mind is bombardmentwithquestionsabouttheBible. TheFlandersfamily is shockedto learn thattheirneighborsdo notknow of theserpentof Rehoboam,notto mentiontheWell of Zahassadaror the bridalfeast of Beth Chadruharazzeb.

Exploringthequestionof whethertheSimpsonfamilyreallyis dysfunc-tional,the fosterparentepisodeofferstwo alternativesto it: on one hand,theold-stylemoral/religiousfamily;on the other,the therapeuticstate,what isoftennow calledthenannystate.Whois best ableto raisetheSimpsonchil-dren?The civil authoritiesintervene,claimingthatHomer andMargeareunfitas parents.Theymustbe reeducatedand aresent off to a "familyskillsclass"basedon the premisethatexpertsknow betterhow to raise children.Childrearingis amatterof a certainkind of expertise,which can be taught.This is the modernanswer:the family is inadequateas an institutionandhencethe statemust interveneto makeit function.At the sametime,theepi-sode offerstheold-stylemoral/religiousanswer:whatchildrenneed is God-fearingparentsin orderto makethemGod-fearingthemselves.Indeed,NedFlandersdoes everythinghe can to get BartandLisa to reformand behavewith the piety of his own children.Butthe answertheshowoffers is thatthe Simpsonchildrenare betteroffwith theirrealparents-not becausethey aremore intelligentor learnedinchildrearing,and notbecausetheyaresuperiorinmoralityorpiety,butsim-








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ply because Homer and Margeare the people most genuinely attachedtoBart, Lisa, andMaggie, since thechildrenare their own offspring.Theepi-sode worksparticularlywell to show thehorrorof thesupposedlyomniscientand omnicompetentstate intrudingin every aspect of family life. WhenHomerdesperatelytries to call up Bart andLisa, he hears the official mes-sage:"Thenumberyouhavedialedcan nolongerbe reachedfromthisphone,you negligentmonster."At the sametime,we see thedefects of theold-stylereligion.The Flandersmay be righteousas parentsbutthey are also self-righteous.Mrs.Flanderssays,"Idon'tjudgeHomerandMarge;that'sfor avengefulGod to do."Ned'spiety is so extreme that he eventually exasperateseven ReverendLovejoy,who at onepointaskshim, "Haveyou thoughtof one of the othermajorreli-gions?They'reall prettymuchthe same."In theend, Bart,Lisa,andMaggiearejoyously reunitedwith HomerandMarge. Despite chargesof being dysfunctional,the Simpson family func-tionsquitewell becausethechildrenare attachedto theirparentsand thepar-ents are attachedto theirchildren.Thepremiseof those whotriedto take theSimpsonchildrenaway is that there is a principleexternalto the family bywhich it can bejudgeddysfunctional,whethertheprincipleof contemporarychild-rearingtheories orthatof theold-style religion.Thefosterparentepi-sode suggests the contrary-that the family contains its own principleoflegitimacy.The family knows best. This episodethusillustratesthe strangecombinationof traditionalismandantitraditionalismin TheSimpsons.Evenas the show rejectsthe idea of a simplereturnto the traditionalmoral/reli-gious idea of thefamily,it refusesto accept contemporarystatistattemptstosubvertthefamilycompletelyand reassertstheenduringvalueof thefamilyas an institution.

As the importanceof Ned Flandersin this episode remindsus, anotherway in which the show is unusualis thatreligionplays a significantrole inTheSimpsons.Religionis aregularpartof the life of theSimpsonfamily.Weoften see them going to church, and several episodes revolve aroundchurchgoing, includingone in which God even speaks directlyto Homer.16Moreover,religionis aregularpartof life in generalin Springfield.Inaddi-tion to Ned Flanders,the ReverendLovejoyis featuredin severalepisodes,includingone in which no less thanMerylStreep providesthevoice for hisdaughter.17

This attentionto religionis atypicalof Americantelevision in the 1990s.Indeed,judging by most televisionprogramstoday,one would neverguessthatAmericans areby andlargea religiousandeven a churchgoingpeople.Televisiongenerallyacts as if religionplayedlittle orno role in thedailylivesof Americans,eventhoughthe evidencepointsto exactlythe oppositecon-











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clusion.Manyreasonshave been offeredtoexplainwhytelevisiongenerallyavoidsthesubjectof religion.Producersare afraidthatif theyraisereligiousissues, they will offendorthodoxviewers and soon be embroiledin contro-versy;televisionexecutives areparticularlyworriedabouthavingthe spon-sors of theirshows boycottedby powerfulreligiousgroups.Moreover,thetelevisioncommunityitself is largelysecularin its outlookandthusgenerallyuninterestedinreligious questions.Indeed,much of Hollywoodis often out-rightantireligious,andespecially opposedto anythinglabeledreligiousfun-damentalism(andit tends to label anythingto the rightof Unitarianismas"religiousfundamentalism").

Religionhas,however,beenmakinga comebackon televisionin thepastdecade, in partbecauseproducershave discoveredthat an audiencenicheexists for shows like Touchedby an Angel (1994- ).1 Still, the entertainmentcommunityhas a hardtime understandingwhatreligionreallymeans to theAmericanpublic, and it especially cannot deal with the idea thatreligioncouldbe aneveryday,normalpartof Americanlife. Religiousfiguresinbothmovies and televisiontend to bemiraculouslygoodandpureormonstrouslyevil andhypocritical.While thereareexceptionsto thisrule,'9generallyHol-lywood religious figures must be either saints or sinners,either laboringagainstall odds andall reasonfor good orreligiousfanatics,full of bigotry,warpedby sexualrepression,laboringtodestroyinnocentlivesin one wayoranother.21But TheSimpsonsacceptsreligionas a normalpartof life in Springfield,USA. If the showmakesfun of pietyin thepersonof NedFlanders,inHomerSimpsonit also suggeststhatone can go to churchandnot be eithera reli-giousfanaticor asaint.Oneepisodedevotedto ReverendLovejoydeals real-istically andrathersympatheticallywith the problemof pas

simpsons on politics

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