Simpsons Annoted

Summary:

The article talks about the show the Simpsons.  The show is geared to lower and upper middle class people.  The how is focused around normal events that its audience might encounter.  The show makes fun, mocks, and sheds light on certain topics that are in out society.  Such as education, politics, capitalism, and employment.  The reading discusses each character and explains how and why they are a functioning part of the show and how each is a member of society.  Each character allows the audience to relate to them.  The characters are not fully developed because the audience knows that they aren’t real actors.  The reading explains some of the underlying messages that the Simpsons send out to the public.  The reading explains some specific episodes where the theme and main points are addressed to the audience.  When Lisa convinces Mr. Burns to recycle, she is trying to preach to the audience that recycling is good for the environment.  Homer tells the audience about the stress of holding a job, and working at a job that one does not like, as many American’s are doing today.  The show tries to shed light on the issues in our society by poking fun and discussing the issues in a humorous manner. 

 

Reaction: I have never ever watched the Simpsons I had no idea that it addressed so many issues in our world, and that it played a large roll in the way society functions.  I don’t think the Simpsons are a version of our world, but I think the topics they discuss we can learn from.  I also thought the Simpsons was a dumb, pointless, and fully of nonsense type of show.  After reading the article I feel as though maybe the show actually does have some substance.

 

Reflection:

I am not all that sure what the Simpsons compare to. I can’t really think of any of the readings that we have read and how they fit in with the Simpsons.  I guess most of the stories we have read have an underlying or hidden message, which is what the Simpsons are all about.  The point of the show is to mock the United States and show the audience the many problems that arise in out society.  By poking fun at the problems many people find them to be less significant.  

Knowledge Nugget

1. Shows how woman can also control a situation, that men aren't always in charge-Esther seducing Irwin.
Example: http://z.hubpages.com/u/87106_f520.jpg

2. Examines men and women relationships, healthy or unhealthy.
Example: The Sopranos

3. Shows the mind and how Esther wants to plan giving her virginity up to a ransom person, how she envisioned it, why she doesn't want it to be special, men and women mentality about sex.
Example: Thelma and Louise-man not listening to woman about sex, Thelma and Louise's thoughts about men and sex.

The Second Sex

Summary: The reading focuses on how men are the “one” and subconsciously women are the “other”.  It is believed that woman cannot think for themselves or without men.  Therefore man refers to woman as “the sex”, meaning that the woman appears essentially to the male as a sexual being.  For him she is sex-absolute sex no less.  She is defined and differentiated with reference to man and not he with reference to her, she is incidental, the inessential as opposed to the essential.  He is the subject, the absolute she is the other.  The man being the subject can only be a subject if the other counterbalances him, which is the woman.  The man makes himself the essential causing the woman to be the other the inessential.  Women have always been inferior to men and always will be until women are able to bond together will other women, all types of women and fight women against men.  The reason that history has not been changed is because a white women’s bond is not to the other women of the world but to the white men of the world.  There is no change because the women fail to bring about change.  When women can bond together they will be able to make a historical change.  History was made by men, because women where told to follow rules that were set in place by men, allowing women no room to act together as their own beings.  The rules that the men set in place also cause the women to be the men’s dependent.  The male and female sexes have never co-inhabited the world equally, the men where also looked at as the superior being.

Reaction: I am not sure why or how but even though I am a woman for a strange reason I agree that in some way men are superior to women only in some aspects of life.  At the same time I believe that women are superior to men in some aspects. I think women are not seen as superior because as a whole, women don’t believe they are.  Woman have been put down and told that men were superior for centuries, and I feel that some women have come to terms with that and accept that.  Also women are forced to live in a world that is predominately ruled by men, men create the laws that women live by.  One part of the reading that got me was that women need men to create life.  I think that is one part of life that is hard to understand.  With out one of the sexes a life cannot be made.  But I feel as though the woman is more important than the men in that aspect of life. Without a woman there is no possible way that a life can be created. 

Reflection:  I am not sure how to reflect on this I kept thinking about the video of the 1940’s that we watched in class.  The fact that the women had the strength to cut their hair, wear short dresses, and smoke.  That was a time when a large group of women bonded together to help the women of the world, however there were still thousands of women who were against the flappers.  I also noticed in writing this like the reading said I never reference the sex of women as “WE” as a solid unit.  I reference the sex of women as women, separating women in to different types of women, each loyal to a man and what that man believes in is what the women stand for.  In the story Indian Camp if we were right in assuming that the mother giving birth had an affair then it shows that she had the power over her husband and she is responsible for his death, she caused him to die because of her actions.  I think the strength of women is dependent upon how that strength is used.  WE need to stop fighting each other and fight back against the ONE as a whole.