Gendered Mathematics in the Case of The Simpsons A growing question within education is why males generally do better in STEM related fields than their female counterparts. The Simpsons episode entitled “Girls Just Want to Have Sums” attempts to answer this question through its analyzation and observation of the differences between boys and girls. By forcing a girl into a boy’s world, we begin to see the issue from both sides, and the many aspects that make it such a daunting question. The main plot of the episode follows Lisa Simpson’s quest to receive a challenging math program in her school. After Principle Skinner is fired for his problematic “diarrhea of the mouth” regarding women in mathematics, he is replaced by women’s educational expert Melanie Upfoot, whose first act is to segregate the school by gender, to allow girls …show more content…
During this time, she becomes Jake Boyman. Whether or not this new identity truly correlates to Lisa’s exceptional math skills, her new surroundings are what magnify the differences between the boys and girls. These differences are what separate most men and women. Her brother Bart and the rest of the boys teach her to think with a boy brain, which to Margaret Atwood, is a brain “good for aiming…for hitting the target when you pull the trigger” (Atwood 468). A brain to reach conclusions, and get results. The open ended conclusion to the episode provides us with no real answer to the question. It allows the audience to draw their own conclusions to the real reason behind why more men are in math. One indisputable fact is that Lisa was changed by this experience. She sees now that men and women are different, and our natures often dictate how we express our interests in life. Whether or not one chooses to try and achieve in mathematics is solely up to them, and so long as the opportunities for both men and women to succeed are present, anyone can achieve what they
“The People’ were yelling at Mr. Castor, so he told Norma to teach sonia. Norma is so smart that she explained the math problem in a easy way to Sonia. Now sonia can do homework and then she won’t be yelled at by her father for not learning the math problems. Norma was a mathematical genius who was the only one that would talk to the Pip squeaks sitting in front of the class. She would go over and talk to them about the south, she is from
This rejection is similar to the way she views boys, when other girls begin talking about boys LisaMarie and her cousin Tabitha do not agree with them: “Girls in our class had become very silly, standing in the playground and whispering about this boy or that. I was glad I didn’t have to be a part of that” (Robinson 127). LisaMarie has yet to accept boys, just as she has yet to accept her talents. Furthermore, her negative attitude towards boys also extends to her brother Jimmy. After leaving him to
The short story, Prairie Gender, written by Rae Spoon examines ones’ difficulty identifying with a single gender. Spoon uses the literary device, irony in order to express the confusion and difficulty people have with gender. More specifically, the use of irony is used due to the fact that the gender conventions of society are flipped in the protagonists home town. Throughout the short story, the protagonist struggles to identify as a male or a female, primarily, due to the strict gender conventions society places on each gender.
Third, cognitive-motivational factors where children “begin to filter the world through a gendered lens” (Leaper, Friedman 562), interpreting gender related behavior, and forming gender typed expectations. Alexie wrote this specific novel from a male perspective. Which isn’t always a bad thing, but there is a way to write a book from a male lense, while “deconstruct[ing] gendered practices and gendered hierarchies” (Bean, Harper 15), which isn’t the case here. Alexie included a “male gaze” that was all too apparent. Junior apparently is already filtering the world through a gendered lens.
Norm shows his masculinity by supporting his wife and making sure she can get a good start to the day by cooking for her. Marge is a great detective, who catches and solves the case of the murders. Both Marge and Norm are very good at what they do and this role reversal in no way takes away either one of their identities as either male or female. Marge is great at all the ‘manly’ things without giving up her female qualities which is clearly portrayed in her pregnancy.
Stereotyping is something I Personally experienced in America. Misconceptions and stereotypes are some of what was seeing in the Simpsons video. Watching that very short clip from the Simpsons episode and my own experience with misconceptions and stereotyping, I can see how people stereotype others because they are not like the same. Some people have not left their country or origin, the only thing they know about other people or culture different from there, is what they hear, read or get through the media. Hope we examine our own biases and preconceived notions through a media representation of another people or country and those that
My father never thought that my ability to do work was hindered by my gender. In fact, he thought the exact opposite. So, that’s why, during the summer before fifth grade, I didn’t know how to respond when a boy told me, “Girls can’t play football.” My ten year old brain could not wrap itself around the words coming out of his mouth.
The reason thing about Rosie going to college was not looking “ In some unassessed part of my brain, somewhere in that thinking that’s below language, I must have still believed it was possible to fix my family and myself, live our lives as if Fern had never been part of us” (Fowler
In Algebra she finds herself struggling to grasp the concepts that are being taught. Math used to make her feel gifted and important: “I knew why I had to memorize my multiplication tables. [{...]} - all that was practical. Toolz eye kan yuz. It made so much sense I never thought about it.
Seeings as I have been faced with the option of tuning into a showing of Rosanne or an episode of The Simpsons, I have made the decision to watch one episode of majority of the populations all time favorite, The Simpsons. In the Simpsons family Marge is the mother and Homer is the father of Lisa, Bart, and Maggie. Each member of the family has an easily distinguished role. For example, Marge is portrayed the caregiver and Homer is shown as the “breadwinner.”
The Simpsons has been one of the United States’ most significant cartoon series for over three decades. Season 6 Episode 2, or Lisa’s Rival is a satire that pays homage to one of the biggest names known in gothic literature. During this episode, Lisa Simpson is one of the most intelligent kids in school, until a new student named Allison Taylor steps up to compete for the once-concrete role. This is a classic example of how The Simpsons tackles serious topics through digestible humor, portraying the guilt, suspense, tension, and remorse of Lisa Simpson’s journey navigating the struggles of competition based on the subtly similar events in The Tell-Tale Heart.
For instance, in the movie Frozen, Anna's hand is not only tiny compared to Hans', but her eyeball is also wider than her wrist. Female features are enhanced, while the bodies of male are enlarged. Cohen believes with all the concentration on the small differences between males and females, it tends to be forgotten that the similarities outweigh the differences. The choices made by producers or artist give us a view into important cultural dynamics. There is a lot of debate between the roles that men and women play but we must learn to see that men and women can share the same abilities, physically,
There are certain events that seems to lead to this resentment and her actions afterwards just further supports the idea. The inferiority complex starts when Lisa starts to learn swimming at school but can never put her heads underwater long enough so she was determined to learn swimming in four weeks. Jimmy copied her moves effortlessly( Robinson, 47) and instead of being smug about it, he give her those soft, pitying looks( 48). This event is enough for her to stop wanting Jimmy to stick with her and she began to seek out others company, like Erica and Tabs.
With the Simpsons on TV, we are always very used to seeing a stereotypical nuclear family. The father works a nine to five job where ever he could get one, the mother takes care of the children by grocery shopping and washing dishes at all times, Bart is a hooligan who gets in trouble all the time, and Lisa is the angel of the family. Because of the stereotypical family structure, we already have insight onto how we can look at the Simpsons family through a feminist lens. In this specific episode, we see the Simpsons in three different stories and the scenarios that they act out.
Glee S1 E1 ‘Pilot’: A Feminist Analysis Within the first episode of the hit television series, Glee, we are introduced to a variety of unique personalities. As we are introduced to the various characters, it becomes apparent that they are more than simply ‘average’ people. Each member has his/her own uniqueness. Yet the women in particular seem to have more of the striking encounters, as compared to the men, who seem to play more of a passive role.