A brief view of Family Guy: This television series is centered on an American middle class family, who are the Griffins, in the made up town of Quohog, Rhode Island. The family consists of parents, Louis and Peter, and their three children: Chris, Meg, and Stewie. They have a dog named Bryan who speaks and is very intelligent and is an alcoholic and a possible racist as well. Chris is un-intelligent like his father. Meg is a social outcast. Stewie is a baby that creates diabolical plans to kill his mother and rule the world. Peter contains three main friends: Cleveland, Quagmire, and Joe, each which seem to have some sort of social handicap. Joe is crippled from the waist down, Cleveland is Black, and Quagmire is a pedophile. No other family member’s friends are shown as elaborately as Peter’s.
Family Guy provides a means to critically analyze the American popular culture without actually having to look into the various aspects of this culture. Taking into account that Family Guy is a parody and does tend to exaggerate many of its acts, this television series does contain many of the ridiculous trends that Americans call ‘fashion’. Through these trends we are all able to look at the American society and learn more about the way that it works in terms of its social structures. Through these social structures, however, we are able to distinguish the many identities that dwell within this society. These identities are formed on the basis of gender, race, sexuality, class, and age, upon many other traits.
The basic events that took place within the episode “Done Make Me Over” were triggered by Meg’s dissatisfaction with her appearance. Louis decides that she wants her daughter to fit in and look sexy so takes her shopping, which did not work out too well. With a play of luck Meg receives a makeover which transformed her from an average looking high school girl into this sexy, blonde, pop icon. As Meg is receiving her makeover Peter decides to form a rock band. This, however, fails. Meg’s new sexy looks saved Peter’s band from failing completely. Meg was the focus of the attention while the rest of the family played instruments in the background. Through a cruel joke played on live television, Meg was ripped from her pedestal of fame and realized that she no longer wanted to be beautiful.
There are many identities presented within this episode. Meg is a high school girl that has to deal with the various pressures from her peers. Her clothing does not show off the curves that she has nor does her style fit in with what is considered “hip”. Louis tried to explain to Meg that she should not let what her peers tell her to influence her self-judgment yet, she also brought her spirits up with a promise of a shopping spree in which they would go shopping for clothing that would show off her ‘cute butt’. At the shopping mall, Louis was picking out shirts that had logos that were very devaluing to girls. Such logos consisted of ‘Little Slut’ and ‘Sperm Dumpster’. However, since they were written in glitter it was alright.
This scene portrayed the nature of society objectifying women into sexual objects. Not only were these girls expected to be ‘little sluts’ but there were only empty vessels in which sperm was to be deposited in. This type of influence can shape a young girl’s sexuality. There logo is assuming that the girl is heterosexual and she is sexually active, even though the targeted audience for the shirts are high school girls. This concept is very disturbing and true. It reflects on today’s young girls being expected to participate within activities that were expected at an older age within previous generations.
The age that Meg is portrayed as is the targeted audience for many advertising companies that are trying to sell beauty products. At this age, young girls are sensitive about their looks; which causes them to be sensitive about how their peers view them. Meg’s age is unknown; however she is a high school student. The high school environment is influenced tremendously by social expectations of beauty. The beautiful people that wear designer products are the most popular ones while people like Meg, who look mediocre, are placed as outcasts. This is apparent when Meg goes through her makeover and becomes a sexy high school student. She gets accepted into the popular girls group and gets asked out by a cute guy.
The sexuality of young girls is shaped by peers as well. Meg has feelings for a boy named Craig Hoffman. She is attracted to him because he gives off the dangerous vibe, a wild child, someone who does not follow the rules that are set up by authorities. That dangerous aspect appeals to many girls. Some girls actually state that they would prefer a ‘bad ass’ as a boyfriend rather than a ‘sweetheart’. However, Crag did not have the same feelings for Meg. He believed she resembled a boy. This belief sparked Meg’s dislike of her appearance. She shaped her self-image by what a boy she had feelings for thought of her as many other girls do within society. After her makeover, she was blonde, wore clothing that showed off her flat stomach and curves, and was very attractive. When walking down the hallway, she was cat-called at, the popular girls recognized her, and Craig asked her out on a date.
Meg’s class is a form of identity as well. Since she is a part of the middle-class she is vulnerable to various advertisements as well as social expectations. The resources to make herself look ‘beautiful’ socially are accessible to her. She is not poor, nor is she rich. She can not have every material thing, yet she can go shopping to find jeans to show off her ‘cute butt’. With her middle class status comes a nice house to live in. Even though her father, Peter, works in a toy factory, the family seems to be living in a nice home with a nice lifestyle. The mother, Louis, stays at home, raises stewie, and cooks and cleans for the family. The lower-class people are depicted as being no good and their final destination would be incarceration. In the scene in which Peter’s newly formed band perform at the jail house, mostly all of the people depicted there look like they come from lower-class families. They are stereotypical representations in that the white inmates have large muscles with long hair and tattoos. The black inmates were not even shown, but in the crowd the viewer could clearly see the large amount of black inmates within the prison.
The identity category of race is played into the episode as well. Keeping in mind that Family Guy is a parody, there was a quick snippet scene after Peter decides that he would like to form a rock band in which a black man is presented as a viewer. He was commenting on how Peter is known for his crazy decisions and wondering how the outcome would be. The black male is shown wearing clean clothing but, his surroundings looks like he is very poor. He is depicted as if he lives in a garbage dump. There is a table that is propped up by garbage cans. Tires pop out of the side of the screen and there is broken refrigerator as well as a mattress in the background. An old, tattered wooden fence marks the boundary of the garbage dump and the outside world. This character is the only character that is black and says something within the episode, other than Cleveland. The other black characters were only depicted in prison.
As stated before, Family Guy is a prodigal representation of the different identical categories within society. In these episodes, the characters exaggerate the traits of each identity. By making Meg into a hot, sexy high school girl and showing how she was automatically accepted among her peers and was asked out, Family Guy shows the ridiculous weight society puts on appearance. The contrast between the classes as well as the races presents the serious implication that lower-class people are more prone to crime than middle class and black lower-class people are the biggest criminals of all. In conclusion, the different identities portrayed in this series carry truth about how society functions in the real world.
