Down with Prince Charming!: Family Guy Analysis

The episode of Family Guy entitled "Don't Make Me Over" provides many examples of hegemonic identity stereotypes influenced by pop culture. Below are a list of the top 5 hegemonic/counter-hegemonic ideologies I derived from this single episode:

The counter-hegemonic ideology of handicapped people: The wheelchair bound character of Joe Swanson was a vast relief to the typical stereotypes of handicapped people not

being able to do anything by themselves. In this respect, the episode put out an image of a handi-capable person which deviates highly from other ideas portrayed by the media. However, in the same respect, the show provided comedy at the expense of Joe when (during the 80's montage) Glen Quagmire accidentally hammers a nail into Joe's paralyzed leg and Joe feels nothing... implying that paralyzed people don't feel pain. Left is a screen shot from the episode featuring the Joe and Glen hammer scene.

The hegemonic ideology of extremely violent and sex-crazed prisoners: One of the most entertaining scenes from the show was the failed performance of the guy band at prison. The first stereotypical reaction of the prisoners was to riot and kick Peter's butt; then the newly made-over Meg took the stage and all the prisoners oggled at her. And why wouldn't they?!? After all, prisoners have no women amongst them so they obviously must be sex-driven violent criminals waiting to take advantage of a young teenage girl. As one of the inmates remarked, "I could just strangle her all night..." In my opinion, this scene portrayed one of the least recognized stereotypes that pop culture heavily influences. Prisoners are so often depicted this way, that it becomes routine and natural to think of them this way.

The hegemonic ideology of gay effeminate men: This episode

, as well as most popular television programs, depicted the stereotype of effeminate gay men. The show really went out of its way to poke fun at gay lifestyle, from lisp ridden cows sucking on Popsicles, to prison inmates interested in fellow prisoners and Chris (the teenage son). As if this were not enough to convey gay=bad, there was also the demoralizing rock band scene where the men donned rockstar outfits and then proclaimed that they should've coordinated their outfits because now they just looked like 'queers'. Below is a picture of the end credits scene in which various jabs at homosexual men were made (all instances are lableled).

Hegemonic ideology of the looks obsessed mom pressuring her daughter to be pretty and hip, while spending all of her own time keeping up her looks: Lois (mom) and Meg (daughter) interacted with each other exactly as expected. When Meg came home crying that she was ugly, her mom took her shopping for the latest hip fashions... shirts that read "Sperm Dumpster", "Little Slut" and "Porn Star". Of course, Lois eventually came around to the idea that attention like this would be exploitative of Meg, but she still encouraged her daughter to change according to society's whims. The sad part is that this seemed to come natural to Lois... one scene towards the end of the show had Meg complaining that "it's too much work being beautiful" and Lois replies "Well, not for me, but it's good to have you back." This scene clearly reinforced the idea that housewives have one duty, namely to look beautiful all the time.

Hegemonic ideology of the frightening & dangerous black man and the overly defensive white man: Probably one of the most obvious and redundant ideologies conveyed in this episode was the frightening and dangerous black man stereotype. The dog, Brian, portrayed the ideal white man who was simultaneously afraid of the black music label manager and overly defensive of his racist ideas. Every time the black manager would come near, Brian would bark at him, and then persistently apologize for his actions claiming that he could not help them. Brian even felt the need to defend himself to the family during a recording session, after having another barking episode, he asked "You guys know I don't have a problem with black people right?" Obviously, this episode tried to poke fun at the "I'm not a racist, but..." people; yet at the same time managed to perpetuate the hegemonic stereotype of threatening black men. Left is one scene featuring Brian the dog barking needlessly at the black manager.