Friday, April 12, 2013

IS THIS WHAT WE SENT YOU TO COLLEGE FOR?

At PJ Media, Susan L.M. Goldberg explains that Family Guy is the poisoned fruit of feminism. No, really. A section about what a terrible father Peter is begins with this:
Never has a term been so despised in the ivy halls as “The Patriarchy.”
Later:
Whether it’s the military, the doctor, or the monkey in the closet, the men on Family Guy do more to avoid perceived threats than to confront them, even if it means putting their own self-respect on the line. Ironically, while feminism focuses on the disenfranchisement of women, it has often done so by disenfranchising men.
Later still:
Whether playing up to feminist theory or playing into the results of a generation of male bashing, Family Guy’s definition of masculinity is the monster pieced together between books and over Cosmos.
The italicized Cosmos is in the original, so I don't whether Goldberg means the drink or the Carl Sagan TV show. (It's also possible her demoralized copy editor was laying a trap to find out if she can even read.)

Best part is Goldberg's bio:
Susan L.M. Goldberg is a writer with a Master's in Radio, Television & Film...
Wingnuts used to make fun of cultural studies gush -- look at all those liberal brats "studying" Madonna! Now they're not only going to college for it (and worshipping the queen of CultStud crap, Camille Paglia), they're writing a ridiculous amount of horrible cultural studies gush themselves.

They seem to think they're plumbing the Dark Mystery of the Arts to find the pulse of the electorate, but they just remind me of Chris Cooper trying to kiss Kevin Spacey in American Beauty. 

178 comments:

  1. She probably would have liked the episode where Brian talks about how ugly and untalented women basketball players are.

    FG is a lot of things but feminist ain't one of them. And I say this as a former fan.

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  2. The article is remarkably stupid. Yes, Peter is crazy dumb and Quagmire is a pervert/rapist. Everyone on the show is contemptible, including Lois, who has cartoon lady-parts. And Brian, who is a dog. (But does not have lady-parts presumably.)

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  3. tinheart10:45 AM

    FG is a lot of things but feminist ain't one of them. And I say this as a former fan.


    I favorite this comment with the heat of a thousand red-hot blazing suns. I stopped watching FG when it got all racist and rapy.

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  4. Someone just penned a serious article warning that because an intentionally ridiculous cartoon character would not make a good husband that societal values are being undermined by feminist theory. I fear that this is either a sign of the Apocalypse or that Idiocracy is inevitable. I pray that it is a sign of the Apocalypse.

    In the meantime, I await the verdict on Scrooge McDuck.

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  5. If they want to put their energies into analyzing Gilligan's Island and not, say, why school vouchers are teh awesome, more power to them.

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  6. Mr. Wonderful10:54 AM

    "the monster pieced together between books and over Cosmos."

    You forgot "copies of Cosmopolitan, the magazine whose promise of Six Erogenous Zones to Drive Him Crazy contribute in no small measure to Family Guy's depiction of the contemporary American male as a too-sensitive wuss driven mad by rampaging feminist body-claims."


    (Interestingly, I have no idea what I just said, but it sure seems true. I'm ready for Prime Time, Wingnut Style!)

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  7. First, they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they scutinize your animated sitcoms, then you win.

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  8. I stuck with it way, way longer than I should have. The breaking point for me was the jaw-droppingly transphobic episode where Quagmire's dad turns out to be a trans woman.

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  9. Bizarro Mike11:04 AM

    But really, is it that hard to figure out? The show itself (at least as it began, haven't watched in a while) is a satire of the 1980's sitcom. A white family in the suburbs with a working-class father having gentle antics with their zany neighbors. The clue is right in the fucking title and the purposefully inane theme song.



    And the basic setup is a good slant at some 80's neighbor stereotypes. The swinging bachelor is clearly a sexual predator, the tough guy is paralyzed, and the supposedly hip black man is really boring. Throw in Brian and Stewie and you had a pretty good show, at least until they had to stretch to be edgy.

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  10. Never has a term been so despised in the ivy halls as “The Patriarchy.”

    Curious. Most anti-feminists simply deny that any such thing as the patriarchy exists. Is she affirming that it exists and that it's a good thing? That's not an argument you often see outside fundamentalist religious circles.

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  11. I see your point. Perhaps we've found the perfect wingnut honeytrap in film and television studies. Lets hope they get lost there for decades, swamped in the social satire of long-running sitcoms so confusing to the conservative mind (“Why he no say what he mean? Him supposed to be ruler of family!") We could very well owe an eventual triumph on the issues of healthcare and taxation to the endlessly vexing cheekiness ofThe Simpsons

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  12. Also, she should try American Dad. If you watch it without a functioning sense of humor (given her reading of Family Guy, extremely likely), it comes across as a stirring endorsement of conservative values and traditional fatherhood!

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  13. Rugosa11:11 AM

    Snarkiness aside, it is worth keeping in mind that as men and women approach equality, men necessarily lose some of their patriarchal power. Since the right thinks society should function as a a rigid hierarchy, this drives them crazy. Although it's probably more like a putt.

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  14. Lets hope they get lost there for decades


    And if that doesn't work, just send them a link to TVTropes.

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  15. That's perfect. Why they could spend the rest of their lives just writing about which motifs and characterizations are Marxist and attempts at undermining the free market and nothing else. And since being sunny capitalists they don't believe in the possibility of The Impossible Task we've got them right where we want them.

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  16. I'm looking forward to her exegesis on the Three Stooges' Man Haters Club episode.

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  17. Whoops. Make that the Woman Haters Club!

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  18. I remember that episode making me cringe, too. It was soon after that I threw in the towel.



    It's one thing to be edgy. It's the another thing to go out to of your way to just be flailingly nasty to just about everybody.

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  19. It's so weird, I never thought of FG as a send-up of 80's comedies, but you're right, it basically is one. (Although they have done meta intra-episode 80's comedies, too. Maybe that's what threw me.)

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  20. Her article reveals that she cannot recognize satire, a handicap her her field, I would think.

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  21. The great irony of all this is that I'd bet folding money these cartoon dumbjerk dads are all saying lines penned by, uh, MEN. And they're doing it on shows where the most popular, iconic characters are all, uh, MALE. But somehow--SOMEHOW--feminism is to blame.



    Excuse me while I bang my head against my desk.

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  22. RogerAiles11:27 AM

    Obviously, not all men between the ages of 18 and 34 are going to find the humor of Family Guy appealing. Yet a growing majority of them do.

    Family Guy had a 2.6 share in adults 18-49, less than NCAA finals, which had 13.1 million viewers with a 4.1 share.

    http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/tv-ratings-family-guy-grows-430653

    How 10 million 18-49 viewers translates to a majority of 18-34 men is something only Megan McArdle could explain.

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  23. I have *no* idea why they would have a problem guys liking FG, since it grows increasingly more douchey/dudebro/fratboy all the time. I'd think they'd be down with that.

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  24. Well yeah and it's not like the show was being brave or insightful or anything. Picking on trans people is easy and unlikely to alienate any of your core audience of frat boys.

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  25. This works great for Colbert too.

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  26. Yeah...that feminist rag, Cosmo. *headdesk headdesk headdesk*

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  27. RogerAiles11:31 AM

    Yet Peter’s neighbor Glenn Quagmire trumps them all. This guy is a walking orgasm, living the life you’d imagine Jack Tripper’s best friend Larry from Threee’s [sic] Company would have gone onto once everybody abandoned the apartment complex for the suburbs. New women (or cross-dressers) every night and the kind of varied sex life that would make the Kama Sutra look like an Idiot’s Guide to the First Time Out. Top it off with an unhealthy addiction to Peter’s wife Lois and you’ve got the perfect perv next door.

    Not just a cultural commentator, but a/an historian too.

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  28. Have you read any of Susan Faludi's books? The woman is a master of collating examples of this trend of blaming feminists and their emasculating ways for all our cultural ills. It's pretty infuriating, needless to say.

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  29. nanute11:34 AM

    Still wrong. It was the Little Rascals, with Alfalfa.

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  30. Am I the only person who wants to read the wingnut treatise on how "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" is SECRETLY CONSERVATIVE/contributing to the wussification of American men?



    Come on, wingnuts. Don't leave me hanging.

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  31. "Those poor people!"

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  32. I'm holding out for a "rising tide lifts all boats" kind of feminism--I want to be the matriarch while my spouse gets to be the patriarch. We are playing "rock paper sissors" to see who gets to import the peons/sex toys who will fulfill our dreams of dominance.

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  33. There's something going on here, though. If you appeal to men with douchey/dudebro/fratboy stuff that they actually like I guess you are guilty of exposing the reality of the patriarchy and its failings (which is that it enables losers to profit off of their gender) to the eyes of the world. I wonder whether this isn't analagous to the role of "scandal" in the eyes of the Catholic Church? In an orthodox world you don't have to worry about being watched and judged by subordinates but in a heterodox world you do.

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  34. KatWillow11:49 AM

    Perhaps she meant "Cosmo's" as in Cosmopolitan Magazine? Not exactly a feminist publication, except maybe in conservatard eyes.

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  35. sharculese11:52 AM

    Has this dipshit ever actually seen Family Guy's take on feminism? It's so toxic it makes The Man Show look like a Kathy Acker novel.


    Summary, for those who have (mercifully) avoided it: Peter gets caught making degrading comments to women at work, and also it turns out he films them on the toilet. Humorless feminist lawyer Gloria Ironbox (no really) forces him to attend a sensitivity seminar where after an accident causes him to experience the pain of childbirth he turns into a woman, all sensitive and touchy-feely worrying about breast cancer. Lois starts to get depressed about how she wants the crude moron she married back, because at least he was a real man. Then there's a party for some reason where Gloria Ironbox puts Lois down for being a stay at home mom and they have a clothes-ripping catfight that turns Peter back into a man.


    At that's like the first fucking season. It has not gotten better since then.

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  36. edroso11:54 AM

    The He-Man Woman-Haters Club!

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  37. sharculese11:55 AM

    "Patriarchy" like "homophobe" and "racist" is a liberal dogwhistle for Christians, the most persecuted minority in American history.

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  38. Maybe that's more simply said as "The Archie Bunker Problem" (also known as the Stephen Colbert Problem and Poe's law of sitcoms which is that no matter how hard you parody some viewpoints there will be some viewers who take your satire as instructional film or documentary.

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  39. whetstone11:57 AM

    Three Stooges' Man Haters Club episode.


    Evidence that feminism is WORKING! Family Guy is the apocalypse!

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  40. No, actually, the Stooges' first short on their own without Ted Healy was called "Woman Haters". It was a musical short and Moe, Larry & Curley sang their lines. Oddly enough, Larry was the focal point of the short, the main protagonist, and there wasn't much trademark Stooges slapstick.

    Unless, of course, you're being snarky, but in that case, it's my birthday and I'll nerd out on what I want to if I want to.

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  41. Derelict12:03 PM

    I will fall back on my usual comment for these things: How horrible it must be to view everything in the world as some sort of political signpost that demands interpretation.

    But at least it keeps them off the streets, I suppose.

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  42. nanute12:04 PM

    Thanks Roy. Spanky nominates Alfala, "because he hates women"

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  43. nanute12:06 PM

    I think we're spitting hairs here. I'm going with Alfalfa when it comes to splitting fairs. Happy Birthday!

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  44. mortimer12:10 PM

    Cosmo the magazine is apt. PJ Lifestyle, in the manner of "womens' magazines," supermarket tabloids, and Newt Gingrich, is obsessed with enumerated lists.
    Here's a typical bunch, starting with Roy's current target:
    - Totally Petarded: The Top 5 Masculinity Myths On Family Guy
    - 5 Core Conservative Values In The New Jackie Robinson Biopic 42
    - Game Over: 6 Horrible Choices Dragging Down Nintendo
    - The 5 Best Security and Privacy Tools For Your Mac
    - The 4 Most Outrageous Lies in Robert Redford’s New Pro-Terrorist Movie
    - 4 Reasons Why The Electric Car Is Not Ready For The American Driver
    - The Top 5 Misconceptions About Objectivists
    - The 13 Weeks Radical Reading Regimen
    - Who's to Blame for Fueling Pop Culture's 5 Worst Female Stereotypes?
    And that's just on today's page. There's a zillion more. I guess their marketing department thinks this is a strategy to attract the enormous Newt Gingrich fan base.

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  45. Agreed. Back in the old days, comedies hated women and that's how it should be. And the Stooges don't split hairs so much as yank Larry around by his. And thanks.

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  46. whetstone12:13 PM

    Well, at least they're trying to correct the lieberal slant of cultural studies instead of just carping about it. Baby steps, you know? Once they figure out what irony is, the sky's the limit: the Father Knows Best Chair of Media Right-Think at Berkeley can't be too far behind.

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  47. whetstone12:16 PM

    I have *no* idea why they would have a problem guys liking FG


    Well, if you start off blindfolded and pointed in the wrong direction, there's no end to the delightfully unexpected places you'll end up.

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  48. sharculese12:30 PM

    Thanks, now "I now pronounce you members of the Woman Hater's Club" is stuck in my head.

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  49. slavdude12:34 PM

    Not to mention that the opening sequence for the opening song is a clear reference to "All in the Family"'s opening.

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  50. Ironically, while feminism focuses on the disenfranchisement of women, it has often done so by disenfranchising men.


    Yes, the poor dears can no longer be assured of being hired or promoted over a woman, can't sexually harass with impunity, and can't be the only ones allowed to vote or run for office. Woe!


    Well, at least they still make more money.

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  51. Precisely this.

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  52. Oddly enough, Cosmo *was* fairly feminist, back in its day. But then the culture caught up with the Sex and The Single Woman idea and moved past it, while Helen Gurley Brown remained mired in the past.

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  53. PJ Lifestyle, in the manner of "womens' magazines," supermarket tabloids, and Newt Gingrich, is obsessed with enumerated lists.


    Shouldn't they call PJ Lifestyle something like "Peignoir"?

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  54. If you spend any time on Manboobz, you'll see Dave Futrelle making a lot of hay out of MRA whining about sitcom dads and commercial dads who are, to a man, inept and bumbling. It's all feminists' fault! they cry.

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  55. As a kid, I hated "All in the Family," because my dad would get drunk and cheer on Archie Bunker. It wasn't until I watched it as an adult (and my father was gone) that I realized how great it actually was.

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  56. FMguru12:48 PM

    See also: Why Dave Chappelle abruptly shut down his hugely successful comedy show (too many lunkheads didn't understand the exaggerated ironic racism in all the sketches was ironic, thought it was a license to step up their own vocal racism because it was so freaking hilarious).

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  57. FG is a lot of things but feminist ain't one of them.

    But don't you see, doofy sitcom dads are the very apex of feminist art. Any show where the father is a bumbling goofball is by definition a piece of misandrist pro-gynocracy propaganda.

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  58. PaminBB12:54 PM

    "Whether it’s the military, the doctor, or the monkey in the closet..."



    What does that last bit even mean? I've only seen the show a couple of times, am I missing some reference?

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  59. sharculese1:07 PM

    That sounds French. Are you calling them gay?

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  60. aimai1:20 PM

    Off of the boob tube and into the streets! The People, on their couches, will never be defeated!

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  61. aimai1:21 PM

    Another sad abuse of the concept of irony. Irony is very sad and has taken some quaaludes, a gun, a noose and a knife into a quiet room and is contemplating its future.

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  62. Derelict1:24 PM

    Nor shall they concede while seated on their Hoverounds!

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  63. Davis1:25 PM

    Thanks for supporting me, since I do have memory problems. Yes, I remember them singing all their lines. I was wrong about the Stooges being in a club, though.

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  64. Jay B.1:54 PM

    "Never has a term been so despised in the ivy halls as “The Patriarchy.”"


    Funny. I know it's a trope, but in the world conservatives make up, it's the castrating bitches in the Ivies (and Smith! Hollah! Are those lesbians gay or what?) who are the ones who use the term all the fucking time. Of course, in the real world, the Ivies overwhelmingly produce the culture that would be best referred to as "the patriarchy", or if you prefer, "the elite", which of course is a class based...Oh fuck it.


    I like to think that in the world of wingnut welfare, they have a wheel that serves as a functional "cultural critique" randomizer. She spun the outer wheel one way and it said "Family Guy", then she spun the inner wheel and it came up "Feminism". It's like a dare, because I refuse to believe anyone could really believe this lunacy.

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  65. Yes, it's the show's gay monkey.
    https://www.google.com/search?q=evil+monkey&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hl=en&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=1EtoUavIOo2H2AWx04DABQ&biw=1920&bih=841&sei=5UtoUc3_OOqE2QWvuIH4AQ
    No, there is actually a monkey in Chris' closet that is supposed to be evil.

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  66. PersonaAuGratin2:03 PM

    The sort-of-dopey fat guy with a thin, hot wife has been a staple formula for sitcoms and cartoons since time immemorial...by which I mean The Honeymooners, through The Flintstones (which was in part an homage to The Honeymooners), up to King of Queens, etc.,etc.,etc.

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  67. I had to stop reading Manboobz about a year ago because it actually depressed me. I tried to laugh about all the insanity but after awhile it became too much.

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  68. That's dumb. Everyone knows that pro-gynocracy proganda is when I go out on the street with a bullhorn and yell to everyone how great vaginas are.

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  69. Wingnuts used to make fun of cultural studies gush -- look at all those liberal brats "studying" Madonna! Now they're not only going to college for it (and worshipping the queen of CultStud crap, Camille Paglia), they're writing a ridiculous amount of horrible cultural studies gush themselves.


    It's like a continual transaction occurring between the right and the mainstream. The right, inspired by gangster rap and gonzo porn, recreate themselves as gun-toting Ted Nugents and sexy Sara Palins. The mainstream sits back to watch the conservasploitation show. The right feels exciting, the mainstream feels entertained. The effect is that the mainstream gets more right wing and the right wing gets mainstreamed.

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  70. According to the show’s creator, Family Guy’s target audience
    is men ages 18-34. This happens to be one of the most desirable
    demographics for advertisers and women looking to eventually get married
    and settle down.



    You know what's an even more desirable demographic for advertisers and women looking to eventually get married and settle down? Men ages 18-35! Take THAT, egghead!

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  71. tinheart2:35 PM

    I loved their article "10 Most Conservative Soft Drinks". The winner was Mountain Dew, because it used to have a picture of a hillbilly sipping a jug of moonshine on the bottle.

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  72. I agree. Horribly stupid ideas really do hurt your brain, after a while.

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  73. aimai2:43 PM

    The only value in reading a site like Manboobz is that it introduces you to the seamy underbelly of a certain segment (the lower segments) of American society and then you can kind of recognize that particular brand of crazy when it turns over and presents itself to the sunlit world. You can find yourself slightly ahead of the arguments advanced by the newly divorcing guy in your office, or your friend's new ex husband when he starts to bitch and moan about the gynocracy and the way the courts are stacked against the male parent. All while he's fucking over his first wife and children, nickle and diming them to death, and using the courts as a new form of spousal abuse.

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  74. aimai2:46 PM

    But this begs the question--which I just saw in a discussion of serial killers--where does parody leave off and homage begin? Apparently there are copycat killers and hommage killers--one imitates the master and the other leaves traces of respect for the master. Satire has to critique the thing its parodying or its just hommage--where in Family Guy is the person or moment who stands outside the horrible behavior and offers the viewer a place from which to laugh which is not complicit? Offers the viewer a resolution which is not acceptance?

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  75. aimai2:49 PM

    But is there anything else on the wheel? Or is the arrow structured so that the word "guy" trips the word "gal/feminist." At any rate the real problem she seems to be having is that its not "the term" that is despised it is the institution which is an historical fact, whether she likes it or not.

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  76. aimai2:55 PM

    I agree with this analysis (blows smoke slowly out of corner of mouth, holds cigarette at a daringly french angle while leaning back in her wooden cafe chair in her West Village cafe) however, and its a big one, I think that right wing pursuit of pop culture is like the guys dragging the pond for the image of the moon. Its not really interesting and its ever receding in advance of their grasp. The cycle goes like this: first they attack popular culture because they fear it will break their hold on ossified local communities and institutions (the mining town, the farm, the patriarchal family, the control by parents of children). Then they try to seize control over popular entertainment because they realize it must be a cheap way of indoctrinating people. Then they find that its expensive to indoctrinate people into not wanting to revolt, or rock the boat, or have individual desires so they stand around whining about how no one takes their ideas seriously. Then they get envious about the parties and they start to demand that someone take them as a guest. Then they vomit in the punchbowl, hang around the necks of the famous people, and weep tears of self pity that no one likes them. Then they go home and write angry letters about how badly they were treated.

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  77. Dragging the pond for the image of the moon thanks I like that!

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  78. Brian occasionally serves this role, but anyone looking for consistent commentary in Family Guy is going to get frustrated quickly.

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  79. aimai3:11 PM

    Moonrakers. Its a thing.

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  80. If you don't think the Family Guy "I Need a Jew" song (it's on YouTube) is funny, there's no hope for you. Seriously.

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  81. Howard3:24 PM

    That day was pretty far back, I think. I went to college in the early 70s and even then the women I hung around with would laugh at it.

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  82. That's a great point, aimai. I learned a lot about MRA lingo there and now I can pick out an MRA boob in a heartbeat. They have tells.

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  83. Yeah. I would say the same about "True Blood"'s very muddle politics.

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  84. catclub3:48 PM

    Have there been trans characters on any other shows?
    Making them not invisible seems to me more than any other TV shows have done. Maybe I have missed them.

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  85. redoubt3:48 PM

    Thanks. I never watched this show. Something about it didn't sit well. Now I know why.

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  86. sharculese3:49 PM

    I stopped for other reasons, but it was a nice abatement to my rage levels.

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  87. redoubt3:50 PM

    Well, they have to "snowman" a par-five somehow.

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  88. Sharon3:57 PM

    But to make up for it, McFarlane had Peter ppt his dick in an electric pencil sharpener!

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  89. catclub4:02 PM

    Doonesbury is relevant to this, this week.

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  90. And all those clear references to The Simpsons.

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  91. aimai4:13 PM

    Its not a handicap if you are getting paid for it.

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  92. aimai4:15 PM

    The early season of Bones (if I may say so) had this word salady kind of perspective to the episodes. Its like they wanted to combine "ripped from the headlines" with "contrarian" with "massages your political perversions" and they ended up with mush. The "Islamic Terrorist" who isn't really but who kinda was. That sort of thing.

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  93. aimai4:18 PM

    I had an advertisement for Cosmo up on my wall in 1978, as a freshman in college. It was so stunningly weird and out of sync with reality that I thought it was a parody. It was an incredibly gorgeous, if synethtic looking, woman in an evening dress and it had an add copy that said something like "I can earn as much money as you do, or more, but I can still make you feel like you are a sex god while I stifle my bored yawns at your tedious and self important stories." I have it slightly confused with the contemporaneous commercial for Enjoli "I can bring home the bacon/fry it up in a pan/and never never never let you forget you're a man" but I swear to god the cosmo girl ad (full page, back of the NYT) describes her as stifling her yawns while her husband talks.

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  94. aimai4:19 PM

    Mais Oui. That's the title of the PJ lifestyle BDSM mag.

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  95. I hate that kind of hedging. Just make a decision, stop trying to have something for everyone.

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  96. DocAmazing4:25 PM

    "the monster pieced together between books and over Cosmos."
    There are billions and billions of doofus dads in the Patriarchy...

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  97. smut clyde4:49 PM

    "the monster pieced together between books and over Cosmos."


    I think I prefer the original Frankenstein story to the re-imagined version.

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  98. sharculese4:55 PM

    Haven't seen the episode in question, but you don't get credit for making transpeople visible if it's just so they can be the target of easy jokes. See also: Garrison, Mrs.

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  99. In the episode in question, Brian and Stewie refer to Quagmire's dad as "it" more than once, Brian compares her to a sex offender (he wonders at one point if a trans person shouldn't be required to notify his/her neighbors when they move into a neighborhood), and Brian throws up upon learning that Quagmire's dad (with whom he'd had sex) is a trans woman rather than a cis woman*.

    *Needless to say there's a lot of debate as to whether or not a trans person should inform their sexual partners that they're trans, which Quagmire's dad obviously didn't, but the "joke" still boils down to "haha trans people are gross."

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  100. Because feminism means marrying someone you find dull and tedious... I guess?

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  101. DRAT IT, Susan L.M. Gold Berg is correct I HATE THE TERM PATRIARCHY. From its first insouciant P to its heart-aching ARCHY, it makes me want to RIARCH. I ALSO hate MATRIARCHY and SANTARCHY and also TRACHEOTOMY, as well as ARCHEOLOGY and PLUTARCH. I HATE THE PLUTARCHY. It just makes me want to

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  102. Family Guy? Really? Something that was ever only mildly amusing and helmed by a dumbass not the least feminist, is what? Not just feminist, but ANTI-THE-POOR-MENZ? What the hell? I've tried LSD before, ýears ago, but I'm pretty sure all I had today was chicken wings and vodka. So don't tell me this shit even comes close to making sense.

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  103. willf5:22 PM

    Maybe they should include it in every episode.

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  104. smut clyde5:23 PM

    they have a wheel that serves as a functional "cultural critique" randomizer

    Invented ca. 1275.

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  105. The problem with Bones was when they hired a muslim as one of the intern. AND THE WHOLE TEAM FREAKED OUT, because omigosh maybe he's a terrorist! I could get that that would be the reaction from someone who'd never met someone of another faith, but from highly intelligent people in the U.S. capital? The hell?

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  106. AGoodQuestion5:28 PM

    Um wow. I've seen Family Guy but I haven't had the, ahem, pleasure of seeing that particular episode.


    Gloria Fucking Ironbox?

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  107. AGoodQuestion5:30 PM

    The Top 5 Misconceptions About Objectivists


    There's the myth that they're fun to party with, but that one's self-propagated.

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  108. Jay B.5:31 PM

    Interesting. I think that's the same year Phyllis Schlafly was hatched.

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  109. AGoodQuestion5:36 PM

    Chris Rock retired his "I love black people, but I hate niggas" riff for much the same reason.

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  110. Jay B.5:37 PM

    You just blew my mind.

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  111. aimai5:40 PM

    You are making me want to see Transamerican again.

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  112. aimai5:41 PM

    And the bullhorn represents? Come on ladies, lets get with the program.

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  113. Come for the snark, stay for the mindblowing wikipedia links.

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  114. aimai5:44 PM

    Actually, by the time they got to that round of episodes I thought they were slightly more willing to take a stand. The team freaks out and then, eventually, the muslim guy ends up taking them to task for it in a pretty interesting set of ways--that he "looked into the eyes of the devil" while acting as a translator for the US army, that he turns out to have been faking his accent. The episode I'm thinking of was in the very first season when there is one of those "muslim terrorist is blown up" in a patently absurd event. I can't even remember how many bizarre twists they had to go through to make that one come out ok and not offend anyone while offending everyone.

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  115. Caligari5:45 PM

    "Have there been trans characters on any other shows?"

    Recently on Elementary Miss Hudson was introduced; she's a trans woman played by a trans actress.

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  116. Wow. The show got even worse than I thought.

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  117. aimai5:49 PM

    I was googling around looking for a site that might have images from the period and I couldn't find anything, but I did find some reviews of cosmo which explained what I found so weird. Cosmo was for upwardly mobile working class girls on the make--not for upper class women who didn't need it. Apparently it dispensed tips and info for snagging a man one or two steps above you socially and included quickie primers on art and culture as well as style so you wouldn't embarrass yourself with him in social settings. I forgot to mention that in the Ad I had up on my wall was some weird reference to his mother and making her happy which I couldn't place at the time. Now I think that it makes sense if the assumed reader is thinking "I want that life! And like her, my heroine, I'll still be struggling to keep it when I get it!" I guess what I'm saying is that its all more aspirational than I'd thought at the time--I thought you were supposed to be that woman (sucessful, sexy, career woman) not that you were supposed to not be her but struggle to imitate her when she herself is just you a few years on. In other words she's not a WASP heiress, she's a jumped up borough girl made good.

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  118. aimai5:51 PM

    My daughter's new highschool math teacher will be a transwoman. I haven't met her yet. There was a transman at her gradeschool as a parent. I never got close to him socially or any feel for who he was as a person. Just another guy at pickup and drop off.

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  119. aimai5:59 PM

    Ditto. That was fascinating smut clyde. Thank you for that link.

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  120. Vodka comes in all sorts of flavors these days, but chicken wing? Now they've gone too far!

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  121. Oh, that's true. But that doesn't explain the way the writers made the *characters* seem like total weird phobe-asses. It made zero sense,

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  122. "propaganda" is also a word. Wow, Auto-Correct failed me big-time. THANKS, FEMINISTS.

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  123. Let it ferment, buddy. Nothin' like salmonella through a straw.

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  124. And I got MORE where that came from.

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  125. What's Family Guy? Is that that new cartoon trying to horn in on the Simpsons?


    Seriously, my workplace contracts a graphic designer from time to time who teaches at RISD and once had the Oscar guy as a student. He even claims to be the inspiration for one of the characters (I won't say which one, 'cause that would be telling), but he's actually a really nice guy, so I'm not sure I believe it. Is there a nice character on the show?

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  126. Or the trans siberian orchestra--helluva light show, best since Floyd, man.

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  127. smut clyde7:06 PM

    Also a bad choice of safeword.

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  128. KatWillow7:54 PM

    That's why there were so many goofy dads in 50's and 60's and 70's shows. Such feminist decades!


    I've observed that no matter horrible, stupid, bigoted, revolting the "men" in a sitcom are, the women who love them are usually wonderful, way too good for the fellow. Looks like the Patriarchy telling guys its ok to be a pig.

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  129. KatWillow7:58 PM

    Because they're nerds! Brainiacs! Smart people. Everyone knows smart people are half-to-totally insane.

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  130. MRC2107:58 PM

    Well, Brian is a dog. We're discussing a sexual relationship between a dog and a human, which pretty much renders the whole thing absurd. I don't like the show and a part of that is that the anthropomorphizing of Brian creeps me out. But MacFarlane is deliberately trying to creep us out, so criticising the show for being creepy and unpleasant seems like criticising a horror movie for trying to scare us.

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  131. KatWillow8:11 PM

    Conservatives also cannot seem to grasp that Pop Culture is a reflection of real culture, not the creator. Do conservative women smear makeup on their reflections in the mirror?

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  132. Mr. Wonderful8:32 PM

    Right. "Say it right...No, no, say it right or I'm not stopping..."

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  133. Sgaile-beairt8:41 PM

    mau mauing the nerds??

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  134. Sgaile-beairt8:46 PM

    did you ever get bored enough, to actually read TEH ROOLZ? srsly that is what those books advocate....they kind of lost steam when one of the authors was suddenly divorced in th e middle of a book tour....guess the boredom went both ways!!

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  135. aimai9:08 PM

    Just the opposite, though Kwillow--its really that the writers are pretty sure that the audience can't handle what an educated/sophisticated person would really think about stuff like Iran vs Iraq or Islam. Only very occasionally do they allow the team to make middle america uncomfortable by making it clear that their values are not the same values as the upper class and educated actually have.


    I liked the show early on because of its willingness to have Brennan speak for an educated atheist--my favorite scene of all is when she points out that Jesus is, technically, a zombie and upsets booth.

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  136. Waffle_Man9:18 PM

    I think if there's one thing that unites all the different feminist groups, it's a love of rape jokes.


    Something with as many rape jokes as Family Guy pretty much has to be feminist!

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  137. smut clyde9:21 PM

    Lull's wheels feature in Frances Yates' "The Art of Memory", and make a passing appearance in Blish's "Faust Aleph-Null", so it was inevitable that I will rant about them on the slightest opportunity.

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  138. XeckyGilchrist10:10 PM

    It must be like with the n-word. THEY'RE allowed to use the n-word, why can't we white guys? Feminists are allowed to tell rape jokes, why can't we?

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  139. DocAmazing10:19 PM

    Brings a whole new meaning to the word "Buffaloed".

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  140. montag210:35 PM

    Y'know, it's at times like this, reading prose like Goldberg's, that I think, 'to hell with Jesus coming back. That's just asking for even more trouble. The person we really need to resurrect is Molly Ivins.'

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  141. billcinsd10:43 PM

    and Propaghandi is a Canadian band that did the song "Apparently, I'm a 'P.C. Fascist' (Because I Care About Both Human and Non-Human Animals)"

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  142. billcinsd10:48 PM

    Here in Rapid City, SD we had a trans city council member. Well technically this person left the city council to have their surgery and was replaced by a woman named Hadcock

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  143. billcinsd10:50 PM

    there's the misconception that they aren't standard, bog-variety Republicans

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  144. Halloween_Jack10:58 PM

    Salmon vodka. This is a thing, and has been for a while.

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  145. Halloween_Jack11:00 PM

    I'm pretty sure that bitter masturbation figures in there somewhere. Maybe several places.

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  146. Tudor Jennings11:58 PM

    The wonderful and always-willing-to-do-edgy-stuff Chloe Sevigny on "Hit and Miss".
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hit_%26_Miss
    Can't get more upfront than the main character being a tranny.
    Naturally, the networks aren't making a second season top of their to-do list, and the (first) season was - yes, I'm going to say it - a bit "hit and miss" itself. Still and all, worth developing I reckon.

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  147. Tudor Jennings12:09 AM

    She used an electronic ballot box in Ohio to do the calculations.

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  148. DocAmazing12:59 AM

    This is why I gave up trying to write fiction: unfair competition from reality.

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  149. Cargo1:12 AM

    Don't forget the misconception that they know anything about economics or capitalism.

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  150. Another Kiwi1:26 AM

    Also and too, a job for life.

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  151. mrstilton2:11 AM

    but they just remind me of Chris Cooper trying to kiss Kevin Spacey in American Beauty.



    See? Liberals are the real homophobes.

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  152. I'm assuming this was a reference to the fact that Seth McFarlane is supposed to be producing a followup to Cosmos, featuring Neil DeGrasse Tyson. Does nobody here know this?


    McFarlane's actually a pretty sharp guy, albeit with the emotional maturity of an eight year old.

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  153. "Never has a term been so despised in the ivy halls as “The Patriarchy.”"



    It's not as despised as "8 am lecture"

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  154. AngryWarthogBreath8:16 AM

    Can we send them a link to a not-real copy version of TVTropes? Because I remember, some time ago, the site in general got its murder-boner on so hard that every damn page, even completely unrelated ones, had moments like "Batman defeats the Joker, but ruins everything by not killing him", "Goku defeats Vegeta, but ruins everything by not killing him", "the ponies defeat Nightmare Moon, but ruin everything by not killing her", and I wanted, ironically, to kill something.

    If we're going to end up with another month of "the Mighty Ducks defeat the Hawks, but ruin everything by not killing them", I'd very much like it to be on ConservaTVTropes, so I can keep my sanity.

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  155. AngryWarthogBreath8:28 AM

    "Game Over: 6 Horrible Choices Dragging Down Nintendo"

    Oh, God, they have serious business games people there, too. I suppose it's not a big surprise, but it's all the more wince-worthy when they get close to things I actually care about. Okay, real quick, PJ Media, despite what you've heard from Halo players about how no one actually likes casual games, and Super Smash Brothers is for babies, the Wii has sold 99.96 million models worldwide, which is 133% of either the PS3 or Xbox 360. The Wii-U, even gimmickier and with few major groundbreaking titles so far, has sold 3 million units in its five to six months of existence, with no eighth generation competition. Millions of people will buy a new Mario game even if it is entitled "Super Mario Mockery: Bowser Laughs At You For Ten Hours And Then You Lose". Nintendo is doing pretty all right.



    Also, while lists can be a good idea in that they divide a long article into readable chunks and thereby lure the punters in quickly, they also put you head to head with Cracked, which is not a sustainable Internet strategy.

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  156. If you are doing it in several places, are you doing it right? I only know the one.

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  157. The Dark Avenger2:17 PM

    I want to watch Transatlantic

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  158. willf2:35 PM

    So expect many scientifically accurate jokes about Uranus.

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  159. aimai3:27 PM

    Sorry, that was a bit more random than I meant it to be. I was just considering that the numbers and stories of people who have changed genders is only going to grow and eventually everyone will know one or more. WE can expect, I hope, to see generalized acceptance and people learning to MIND THEIR OWN FUCKING BUSINESS about other people's bodies and choices in about...uh...50 years? Actually I think its going to be substantially less in some parts of the country. But it will take time.

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  160. And that is only the tip of the iceberg with this show. One of the main reasons I cannot stand watching it is the constant dehumanizing treatment of Meg, which on my mind is a clear and direct attack on The Simpsons' promotion of Lisa as a successful feminist character.

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  161. Brian is occasionally decent.

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  162. The italicized Cosmos is in the original, so I don't whether Goldberg means the drink or the Carl Sagan TV show.

    billions and billions of vagina dentata...

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  163. Big_Bad_Bald_Bastard6:31 PM

    Whether it’s the military, the doctor, or the monkey in the closet, the men on Family Guy do more to avoid perceived threats than to confront them, even if it means putting their own self-respect on the line.

    Generally speaking, this is a good course of action. Of course, the qualifier "perceived" is important- it's a damn good idea to actually verify whether or not one's perception is sound.

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  164. Big_Bad_Bald_Bastard6:57 PM

    Totally off topic, but I have introduced "I'd bet folding money" into my lexicon. Thank you, Dr. Noisewater!

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  165. glennisw11:05 AM

    yes, the disturbing new trend of comedy shows depicting husbands and fathers as clueless compared to their wives threatens our society. I long for the morally uplifting and respectful days of The Honeymooners and the Flintstones.

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  166. glennisw11:08 AM

    But didn't Mountain Dew drop that image? Have they knuckled under to political correctness?

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  167. glennisw11:11 AM

    Which wingnut is it, I forget, who's obsessed with the evil that is women's basketball?

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  168. glennisw11:25 AM

    Cosmo is slutty and therefore liberal and feminist.

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  169. Alan in SF1:02 PM

    Poisoned fruit of feminism? I always thought "Family Guy" was Sgt. Bilko, animated.

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  170. At the Oscars, Seth MacFarlane performed a song that ws a hilarious parody of the appalling level of hypocritical sanctimony at previous recent Oscar ceremonies, and for his efforts, he was greeted with a torrent of hypocritically sanctimonious criticism.


    Conclusion: Pete Hamill was right -- you should never employ irony in a 3rd World country.

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  171. Big_Bad_Bald_Bastard4:44 PM

    In defense of the 8 am lecture, "Biology of the Terrestrial Arthropods" totally kicked ass.

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  172. XeckyGilchrist4:48 PM

    Was that the song about how we'd all seen a bunch of actresses topless in scenes that were invariably about sexual assault?

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  173. No, it was the song about how movie stars and movie makers are living saints who ennoble our lives, and how showbiz in general is all about the highest and most nearly divine aspirations of the human spirit.


    How did you miss that?

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  174. Strider9:23 PM

    One addendum I'd make to your post: Nintendo sold every one of those hundred-million Wiis at a profit; Sony and MS take a loss on every console they sell and make up for it with liscencing fees on games. I honestly think the bigger issue facing them right now is Smartphones eating the dedicated-portable market.

    So because I'm a huge nerd who hates himself, I went over and scanned the "6 horrible choices..." article. I have to say it's pretty uninspired; it basically boils down to the standard-issue "Nintendo is doomed because they're not acting exactly like Microsoft and Sony or bending over backwards to appeal to Bros!" anti-sense that you'd find in any hater thread on Kotaku. In PJM's defense, it does seem at least apolitical; but then again, I tried to read as little as possible.

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  175. Best take his word for it, Jay B.
    ~

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  176. This. Does anyone else remember that one autumn in 1979 when P.J. O'Rourke was actually funny?

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  177. Halloween_Jack9:59 AM

    My initial impression of Family Guy was that its sole purpose was to do the lowball jokes that The Simpsons had too much class to do, and nothing that I've seen of it since has changed that impression.

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