Peter Griffin Enforcing the Norms of an Abuseful Father
In today’s media, many TV shows survive by making fun of others in a satire way. Shows like South Park, The Simpsons, and American Dad, all thrive off the pain of others. The show Family Guy falls under this category of media. The Family Guy series first aired in 1999 and has come under fire many times in the past for its offensive humor and jokes that went too far. The show itself has been canceled twice before and it’s for good reason. The funny jokes and themes of the show may be funny but they are sending a bad message to its viewers. The main character, Peter Griffin, is a hard working father of three. But Peter has a secret sinister side. As seen in the 2017 episode “Partial Terms of Endearment”, in which, Peter sends a message to fathers that they should be abusive and neglectful of their families to be normal parents.
Throughout the episode, there are multiple occurrences of Peter not valuing or listening to the opinions of his wife. Notably, towards the beginning of the episode when Peter first meets Naomi. Naomi was Lois’s past lesbian lover from college, and she wants to have dinner at Lois’s house to talk over some important information. Peter, being the stereotypical, male sex maniac, could not see the real reason Naomi was coming over and thinks that they are going to have a three way. When Naomi finally arrives at the house, Peter pushes Naomi and Lois to have sex. Peter requires multiple scoldings from Lois and 3 scene changes to finally understand what is really going on. These scenes enforce the norm that men should only care about sex. The scenes push men to be obsessively chasing women like dogs to have sex. Even to the point they are completely blind to the situation happening around them. Later on, Lois and Naomi get to talk and Lois finds out the real reason Naomi wanted to come over was to ask Lois to be her surrogate. Immediately, Peter is in opposition and will not let Lois be the Surrogate. He says this even before asking for Lois’s opinion. Lois, on the other hand, wants to be the surrogate but is stopped by Peter at every chance. Whenever the topic is brought up Peter acts like a child and refuses to see that it is Lois’s body and not his. Eventually, Lois chooses to do the operation anyway without Peter’s permission. This part of the episode sends a message to fathers that they do not have to listen to their wives opinions. It shows them that men should be superior to their wives and what they say is law in the household. Yet, there is one good cultural transmission that come out of this scene. In the scene, viewers get to see Lois go against the words of her husband and go through with the operation. Proving the point that it is Lois’s body and that her opinion should be valued. Further on in the episode, Lois is pregnant and Peter is still angry. Until a news report comes in saying that Naomi has died in a car crash. Now the conversation has changed to whether or not Lois should get an abortion. At first, both Peter and Lois are in agreement to get the abortion until Peter meets a group of protesters outside the abortion clinic. Peter is shown a short video and he changes his mind. Peter drags Lois out of the clinic and will not let her get the abortion similarly to getting pregnant in the first place. The ending of the show enforces the norm that men are stupid. It’s seen in how the protesters changed Peters mind instantly and so easily with a poor quality video. It shows men that they are dumb and this can hurt a person self esteem.
In addition to Peter neglectfulness to respect the opinions of his wife, Peter is also abusive to his wife and family. In particular, when Peter sets up for an accident to happen to Lois so she could not have the baby. The scene plays out like a cartoon Road Runner episode where he leaves a trail to a pile of explosives. Of course, the plan does not work and it ends up that Peter is the one that gets hurt. Even though Peter’s plan fails it still sends the negative message that it is funny and okay for a father to endanger and plan to abuse their wives. Even when the wife is carrying a baby. This can have negative consequences when it come to domestic violence and other forms of abuse in the household. Identically, during a fight over if Lois should get an abortion Brian, the dog, asks “What if carrying the baby to term would endanger the mother’s life?”. Peter then replies “I do not know what seven of those words were.”. Furthermore enforcing the stereotypical, stupid male. But his stupidity also shows that he cares more about being right and have opinions be valued then the life of his own wife. This sends a message to fathers that their wife’s lives are less important than being right. Also, during the episode, Peter is seen kicking his family out of his house just to have sex with his wife and Naomi. While the children are in the town the baby Stewie spends time in a bar surrounded by grown men and eventually steals money from them. To which Stewie and the rest of the family are chased out of the bar. This sets a bad example for how a father should treat his family. Having sex should never be more important than the health of your family. It sends a message to fathers that it’s normal to let their children run free with no supervision. This is how children get hurt and killed when no one is around to protect them from the dangers of the world.
Obviously, the show Family Guy is supposed to be satire and not every joke is meant to be taken seriously, but the messages being sent can have a negative impact on the person watching. This episode alone pushes the message the fathers should be abusive, neglectful, and should follow the norms that other shows push on males. In the future, more cases of domestic violence, child abuse, and even murder could happen as a result. Shows like Family Guy are bad pieces of media and should be avoided even if they are entertaining to watch.
