A Social Commentary On Contemporary Social Issues

A tender Commentary On modern-day Social IssuesIf frequent, a send offd represent of controversial issues of a nine is the most effective approach that target versatile dilemmas inwardly a association without offending anyone belief, notion, religion, grammatical gender and disembodied spiritstyle. Although satire is usu both(prenominal)y produced to be humorous, its great purpose is often constructive kindly criticism, using jocularity as a weapon. The Simpsons serial publication, as a very habitual salute worldwide, looms to be a brilliant epitomic example of paradoxical events in the Ameri shag troupe. The principal(prenominal) purpose of the current assay is to delineate the shineiveness of The Simpsons denominate, representing the coeval social issues of the Ameri lavatory society.IntroductionThe main scope of the current essay is to show that to what intent the American series The Simpsons serve as a social gossip on contemporary social issues. To this e nd, different aspects of The Simpsons series ordain be discussed.Needless to say that media, in any kind, has gigantic impacts on social behavior casting cultural reorientation and documenting events. It is a double-blade sword, creating true or even false conceptualizations/notions that whitethorn lead a target society into one particular direction. That is why it is con postred as one of the most important tools for soft-impelling of habits. As a result, many merits can be transposed to nearlything in the buff even though the nature of human behavior is whateverwhat cartridge holders unpredictable. speech production of nuances, inherently, is a controversial issue and no one can determine all aspects of much(prenominal)(prenominal) intricate matte. While movies and premier series may influence social traditions, they are also projection and/or colligation of customs showing transitional changes of people deeds. In fact, in contemporary times, media represent transition /development of cultures within societies and even organizations ranging from the oil palm of Dallas to the law firm in L.A. Law to Al Bundys shoe sleuth in Married (Rhodes 2001). Nonetheless, the question is how precise is such exemplification? And, to be specific, how insightful and reflective would be a television series (e.g., The Simpsons for American culture or EastEnders for British culture, picturing reality of run-of-the-mine lifespans, cultures and organizations within a society?Presumably, American animated series called The Simpsons produced by bland Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company is the lift out paradigm that shows ironic parody lifestyle of an ordinary middle-class American family, whose day-by-day endeavors are the main leitmotif of the series. The stars are not real, but their travesty actions appear to ironically entertainingly magnifying the existing cultural issues, taboos and dilemmas. Hence, having harnessed various published articles and books , the main prey of the current article is to investigate the mirror image of The Simpsons reflecting the lifestyle of an American middle-class family from social, teaching methodal, political, religious, and economical viewpoints. Since its first debut on December 17, 1989, The Simpsons series broadcasted more than than 500 chronological successions. As a one of the most popular series, it has been announced as the longest-running American sitcom that has been awarded in various festivals, such as Primetime Emmy Awards, Annie Awards, and Peabody Award. In 2000, it has also been elected as the 20th centurys silk hat television series by the Time magazine and also awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.Simpsons familyThe Simpsons are epitomized by its family including homing pigeon the father, margin the mother, baronet the brother, Lisa the older sister and Maggie the younger sister. The show is located in an illusory city of Springfield where, there exist various icons such as Springfield Nuclear Power Plant (SNPP), Church, enlighten and Club, etc in part as parodies of American society. In fact, different episodes picture various aspects of the society, in which each of the pillow slips (i.e., kor, edge, baronet, Lisa and Maggie Simpson) aims to chitchat a message as a sketch comedy program. Each ironic mockery exaggerative grapheme embellishes one aspect of society to highlight the issue no overpower whatWhile the Simpsons are rather dysfunctional and many observers of the series confer nighwhat detestation feelings, literally, it appears that ultimately there is much popularity of the show. Paradoxically, most families beloved it as deriving force for a hidden solidarity within families. Considering or so(prenominal) electric archness of the show (e.g., frequent action of homing pigeon when he struggles baronet up to the stage till Barts eyes protrude out of his head), it may be considered as an immoral epitome. Marge is the ded icated wife of homer and mother of three kids. She is an orthodox archetype who represents diligent American moms, difficult to keep the family united on the track. In fact, Marges aim is to fascinate the family toward some kind of unanimity, still keeping the individuality of each particle of the family. She is the heart and soul of the Simpson family. Unlike her husband, Marge does not convey enough time to socialize with others since she is too busy taking care of her family. The lumbering arse around home run spends plethora of time with his friends at club boozing, and often makes unskilled mistakes Lack of intellectuality is part of his personality, keeping Homer as paradoxical husband and father who enigmatically acts supernatural full of provocation and conciliation without thought. Although Homer is not always fully loyal to his family because of selfishness and recklessness, still he is popular as he at long last does the right thing, at which the spirit of an American father is expressed (Rhodes 2001 Scanlan and Feinberg 2000 Todd 2002). The free spirited Bart, who is the oldest nestling, represents an epitomic mischievous kid create troubles everywhere he goes. However, similar to his fathers cases, the story brings about a redemptive moral lesson of life. Unlike Bart, Lisa, the second child, epitomizes a wise kid with in store(predicate) and great expectations. Lisa plays as central information of the Simpson family with acts of clear consciousness of meeter events. She is a curious grille characterizing new generation of American girls whose thirst is to explore as seen for Lisa when she discovers and views Buddhism and also become vegetarian. Despite being the youngest member of the Simpsons family, Baby Maggie sparks on the family issues by sucking her pacifier. She always show some wisdom and awareness as a baby girl (Rhodes 2001 Scanlan and Feinberg 2000 Todd 2002).HomerHomer works at Springfield Nuclear Power Plant, flec k Marge is a compassionate housewife who loves her hapless blundering cumbersome husband. Homers character is and admixture of clumsiness and provocativeness, who acts without deeming or even based upon weird thoughts. Edward de Bono has articulated six-steps of technical thinking skills as different hats (De Bono 1973), while Homer hat of wisdom is always the same, a yellow hat of transitional change benefits. Perhaps, he is the one who has the greatest influence on society culture, so that the catchword Doh, which is interjectionally used bt Homers, has been adopted into the English language.MargeHomers wife, Marge with distinctive blue beehive hairstyle, appears to be a well-meaning and extremely patient matron who cares and have great passion and astuteness, but it seems that she sacrifices herself for her family as a stereotypical mother.BartThe scarce son of Homer and Marge is Bart, ten years old teenage, who is the eldest child in family with mutinous attitude. Bart loom s to be very good at floundering. He represents supernumerary character of disobedient boy with sarcastic bittering actions no matter what Having such persona, he has been casted as a bad role model for children. The terminology of I am Bart Simpson, who the hell are you? means Bart doesnt not care no rules, no regulations, no jurisdiction (Ott 2003).LisaLisa Marie Simpson, as older daughter of the family, is eight years old second child of Homer and Marge. Lisa is extremely natural, who breaks the boundaries to discover new entities. Lisa plays the baritone saxophone, and has been casted as a vegetarian (season 7), a Buddhist (season 13). Her advocacies for a variety of political events (e.g., Tibetan independence movement) make her as the intellect of family and the series, but as other intelligent individual she suffers from loneliness even inside the family (Simpson 1998).Inexplicable Admixture as a FamilyAvaricious and sometimes covetous Homer the father with caring Marge the mother in combination with the rancorous behaviors of Bart and wisdom of Lisa along with reticent persona of Magi provide such an admixture that postulate to be carefully analyzed. Speaking of The Simpsons episodes, one should agree that many controversial topics (e.g., audacious conglutination and religion in normal schools) are the subject of the series and it seems that nothing is considered as taboo (Bonne 2002).Homers relationship with his Dad, Abraham Simpson (also called as Grampa) shows handout of traditional lifestyle. Intriguingly, Marge Simpsons older twin sisters, hold a soaked dislike for their brother-in-law, Homer. These twins work at the Springfield Department of tug Vehicles (SDMV). In terms of personality, the two minutes elder sister Selma seems to hold a strong desire for esprit de corps, while Patty materialises to be the feminist sister who pliably likes to be a lesbian. Marge sisters relationship conveys another take aim of Santas Little Helper ( dog) and Snowball (cat) also bring about some hidden aspects of their lifestyles.An Avenue for Nation ViewsInherently, the fact is that Springfield is nowhere, but it could be any state, representing whole nation. It is the same for all caricature stars of the show. Homer Simpson or Lisa Simpson could be anyone. This revolutionized series, despite being set in an unknown state, signposts wizard of the nation and is fabulous effort to reflect American society overall in each episode. Such representation has attracted many viewers from all over the country. It should be highlighted that the taste of the TV shows may differ in different cities or cultures. While, the viewers in the New York like to follow a how like Sex and the City, a show like The Simpsons with its unidentified setting can appeal to all Americans (Gray 2007). The Simpsons series is a trajectory of not only American society but also arc of the world federation cultural transitions.Citizenship, democracy and politi cal apathyThe Simpsons series also exhibit different levels of citizenships. Four main types of complementary citizenships can be recognized in The Simpsons series (Lund 2006), as follwParty-based public life that can be exemplified by Homer SimpsonsTrust-based public life that can be exemplified by Marge SimpsonsKnowledge-based public life that can be exemplified by Lisa SimpsonsRight-based public life that can be exemplified by Bart SimpsonsThese categorizations happen to be successive in time, nonetheless not inversely exclusive, that is to say that none of these four types have entirely subsumed the others though the design of viewers of the series may differ. It should be evoked that other types of citizenships have been presented during different episodes. Above all is religion-based public life that can be exemplified by Ned Flanders who is a descent well-meaning good-natured person as one of the someer in Springfield town. In fact, such various(a) epitomes of citizenshi ps appear to be good representatives of American society that can be considered as symbolic model of democracy which is held in a family moreover is a reflection of the whole society. The show combines various viewpoints within a family and also among members of different parties. The show targets political apathy though a self-deprecation method together with a refusal to take subjects seriously. Following are some examples of such transverse articulationsAn election? Thats one of those deals where they close the bars isnt it?, verbalise Barney Gumbel.Uh, Lisa, the whole reason we have elected officials is so we dont have to think all the time. Just like that rainforest scare a few years back our officials saw there was a problem and they dictated it, didnt they?, tell Homer Simpson.Lisa, if you dont like your job, you dont strike you just go in every day and do it really half assed. Thats the American way., verbalise Homer Simpson.I wish we lived in a place more like the Amer ica of yesteryear that only exists in the brains of us Republicans., said Ned Flanders.Presumably, one the most hilarious, yet mirthful, articulation was on Ned Flanders delineation when he was asked by his son Todd Flanders Daddy, what do taxes pay for? Ned Flanders Oh, why, everything Policemen, trees, sunshine And lets not immobilize the folks who just dont feel like working, God bless emIn short, politics is a common part of The Simpsons show, which literally exhibits some boundaries of the polarized American politics, even though there exist some diffused oppositions to the show per se. For example, the former Republican President of USA, Mr. George H. W. Bush condemned the show at the Annual Convention of the National Religious Broadcasters by articulating we need a nation closer to The Waltons than The Simpsons, an America that rejects the incivility, the tide of incivility, and the tide of intolerance (Armstrong 2005 food turner 2004). In fact, upon a liberal slant of the show, this was joked about in the episode The Simpsons 138th occurrence Spectacular, in which origin was made to hundreds of radical right-wing messages inserted into every show by creator Matt Groening. It worth to remind that the 138th Episode Spectacular, written by Jon Vitti and directed by David Silverman, was a parody of the communal preparation among live-action series to produce clip shows. This episode, as the most watched episodes of the season, has acquire positive reviews with a Nielsen (viewer/audience measurement system) rating of 9.5 and a Nielsen graze of 48.EducationSeveral reviews and books have been published on The Simpsons series and education (Luccasen and Thomas 2010 Gray 2005). It seems It has been stated that The Simpsons is a carrier for creating discourse in particular among young undergraduate students. While three levels of jokes happen to be presented on the show as a) elite humor, b) nonelite humor, and c) obscure references, the breadth of lore o n the looms to be indicative of the shows place in popular culture (White and Holman 2011). The multiplicity of the fans proves that The Simpsons typifies the universal appeal of satire. Accordingly, its followers include political elites and ordinary people from vastly different backgrounds. For example, Tony Blair is a big fan of the show, and lymph gland starred as himself in an episode while a school term head-of-state (Woodcock 2008). Conservative constitutional scholar Harvey Mansfield has supported the show by articulating that The Simpsons is the best thing on television. Hence, The Simpsons series appear to be able to touch to the elites representing various issues of scholar world mainly by Lisa Simpson.The Simpsons hungriness Games or Against ItWhether we like it or not, Homer Simpson explains our postmodern individuality crisis (Bybee and Overbeck 2001). The Simpsons show (Roberts 2010). equal the Hunger Games, with loss of identity we will just survive and eventua lly will realize the transitional reorientation/modification of the society. Having used the activist irony or sarcasm, The Simpsons show often professes to approve of (or at to the lowest degree accept as natural) the very things that are target for the attack. While the Hunger Game may happen within the societies for many reasons, the state of satires in a given show such as The Simpsons may reflect the state of civil liberties and human rights. Needless to say to fight the illiteracy in any kind that may lead society toward Huger Games, in which any criticism of a political/religious system is suppressed, satires will provide an open door for clarification.The Simpsons and ReligionThe Simpsons series critically show the contemporary religious issue in the American society (Bowler 1996 Satkin 2002 Lewis 2002). For example, the episode, The Father, the word of honor and the Holy Guest Star, Springfields only known pastor, makes a Unitarian reference when Homer Simpson asks if h e needs to wail on a few Unitarians to become Catholic. Speaking of religious issues in the show, the most religious characters happen to be Ned Flanders and high-flown Lovejoy. In fact, Flanders appears to be the most conservative Christian with little tolerance to other believes (e.g., pagans, Jews, Hindus and homosexuals), expressing that the other believers are all epicureans and whoever dog such notions will directly go to the Hell. On the other hand, Reverend Timothy Tim Lovejoy, who is the preacher of the Western Branch of American Reform Presbylutheranism church building that to the highest degree everyone in Springfield attends, represents different character. The show makes ironies on almost all religions, but the Islam and Muslims seem not to be the target of the show For example, in one of the episodes, the Hindu god Vishnu is shown as sitting in the center of the earth and controlling the world with different controlling devices, in like manner it is the same for th e Hindu god Ganesh, mostly by Homer when interacting with Apu.Social Commentary on Controversial IssuesThe Simpsons show seems to be also a gay-friendly animated sitcom (Padva 2008). Given the fact that a truly instigative gay representational practice must contest not only the gay subjects experience of heterosexist persecution but also their experience of patriarchal privilege, capital of Mississippi discussed that certain gay male cultural practices that transvalue deviance as a positive mode of self-identication contain at least an implicit recapitulation of the normative male ideal (and the dominant heterosexual sex/gender system) from which the gay male deviates (Jackson Jr 1993).However, The Simpsons series happened to flash the gay marriage and olibanum spark outrage among conservative groups in America, who are against it. In a long-running show, the show embarked on some gay marriages despite the fact that brant goose Bozell III, the president of the Parents Television Council, blasted that at a time when the public mood is overwhelmingly against gay marriage, any show that promotes gay marriage is deliberately bucking the public mood (Block 2007).Controversial Storylines an ExampleIn a study, in order to test the effectiveness of using an episode of The Simpsons in an introductory sociology classes, students attitudes (N=176) have been tested toward lesbians and gay men before and later on viewing the episode titled Homers Phobia. The participating students were asked to identify stereotypes about gay men and lesbians. It was found that viewing the problems encountered by Homer Simpsons negative approaches toward a gay character on the show augmented acceptance of homosexuals amongst freshmen students. In fact, the use of the episode of the cartoon happened to generate a greater perspicaciousness of discussion about the consequences of homophobia and discrimination of lesbians and gay men (Miller and Thornton 2009).Concluding RemarksIn the hist ory of mankind, presumably, there has always been a conflict between naming and disengagement on controversial issues of societies. To highlight social/political issues, yet avoiding disconceptuality and vagueness, some artists capitalize on the grotesque parody and jest with teasing. The Simpsons series is epitomic stereotype that targets controversial issues of the American society to show hurdles as satire. The spectrum of the show differs in terms of degrees of biting as ranging from satire comely at the hot-end, and kidding at the violet-end. Given that teasing is the reactionary side of the comic, The Simpsons may not be taken seriously as it limits itself to a shallow parody of caricature appearance. But, The Simpsons series exploits satire to go against untouchable issues such as gay marriage. Having subversive characteristics, the show seems to carry a indistinct moral dimension targeting various issues to bring about possible loos of identity in a humored buffoonery man ner with little censor/exclusion. This side of the show should be highlighted by TV critiques.