Marge Simpson Appropriates Black Culture

To answer your two most immediate questions; yes, you read that right, and yes, I’m serious. I’ll respond to your next two statements as well; yes, I’m White (thank you for pointing that out!), and yes, I’m going to write about this topic anyways. I might even spark an outrage and lose readers over this article, seeing how I’m not a member of the Black community. I write this even in the middle of a job hunt, though i feel compelled to write anyways, even if it might cost me a job opportunity. Who knows, this article might just make me a real writer.

Marge Simpson is a serial offender with over thirty years of infractions to her animated name. Seeing how The Simpsons is still currently in production, it’s safe to say that she will continue to pilfer from the Black community for the foreseeable future. I wonder who will receive the first pitchfork-wielding angry mob: myself or Matt Groening?

But first, before we can get into America’s longest-tenured sitcom mother and wife. we need to examine the phenomenon behind another long-running Simpsons character. Apu is the owner and operator of the Kwik-E-Mart, a convenience store in the fictional town of Springfield. Apu is shown to exhibit many negative stereotypes regarding people from India; everything from his thick accent to his laxed quality standards regarding the cleanliness of his store, to artificially extending expiration dates of the items in his store and many more have all been made into a punchline. The character eventually drew scrutiny in 2017 as the documentary The Problem With Apu made waves across social media. While Groening was rather tone-deaf in his response, he has since sidelined the character. Since I’m a sincere believer in actions speak louder than words, this is proof that at some level Groening does indeed listen to the viewers.

Given that, we can turn our focus onto Marge Simpson. To start, Marge Simpson’s iconic vertical hairstyle is not even her natural hair. This is evidenced in numerous flashbacks to her teenage years, where she is depicted with non-vertical hair. Therefore, Marge Simpson has been doctoring her hair to achieve an unnatural-to-her look for decades now, as shown in Season Three. Hair styles are a point of contention within our modern culture war, as a far-left pundit (eww…pundits) spoke at length about on his show. While Oliver may be wasting his talents via his horrible career choice, he is far from the only one with this view; white students at a Pennsylvania college were discouraged from donning cornrows.

Furthermore, Marge appropriates Black culture through her frequent use of the term Homie. The term Homie has roots in the Black community, as stated by several etymology sources (such as this one). Given that Black characters in the show are often depicted in a realistic skin tone (Carl is one example), we can safely assume that Marge Simpson is indeed not Black and hence is appropriating culture with each use of that term. Anecdotal as it may be, I once received a thorough tongue-lashing from an older female colleague (just kidding, women don’t age past 26!) for using the term homie when referring to a close friend of mine. She reacted with the level of outrage as if I had just shot her dog. The message was clear; I was not supposed to use that term. A pitchfork-wielding detractor will eventually retort “But Dan, there’s an important context to Marge Simpson’s use of that term that you aren’t addressing! Haven’t you ever listened to George Carlin?”. Since concepts like context and nuance have been absent from these discussions so far, I’m not going to introduce them now.

“Dan, this is the most ridiculous article I’ve ever read”, a triggered reader will likely spout off as they leave a hateful comment on the way out. To be fair, they aren’t entirely wrong either. While I would not want to minimize the suffering of the marginalized, I do sometimes wonder where the line of cultural appropriation lies. Why are the negative portrayals of characters like Apu cause for outrage yet Marge Simpson’s transgressions are not?  I’m having a déjà vu feeling right now regarding the criteria used; while it is easy to see who decides (the pitchfork-wielding angry mob), the question of what criteria they use to decide still isn’t clear to me. Can somebody please mob-splain me? I’m serious; the radicalized have demonstrated that they are great at union-forming, however it would be nice if they could produce a document codifying their various lines in the sand. Such a document would help the non-radicalized steer clear and help their opponents trigger a discussion. The current model of not clarifying the rules then getting mad when they are broken is not a sustainable long-term solution for creating a healthy cross-cultural community.

While an angry mob is likely to form no matter how I end this article, there is a chance that this article encourages a deeper look into Marge Simpson. This could spur a change into how Fox portrays the character. Apu was a relatively minor character in the grand scheme of the show and his absence was a weatherable hit for the production. Marge, however, is a different story; she cannot be easily replaced, killed off, or otherwise sidelined. Thus, Groening would eventually need to approach the character with a bit more nuance following this possible protest. Truthfully, this wouldn’t even be difficult to pull off either. For example, writers can start using literally any other pet name to have Marge refer to her husband; audiences aren’t dumb and will be able to pick up pretty easily that she’s referring to/speaking to Homer if she says honey or babe. The hairstyle can easily be redrawn as well, given that they have already done so in the past. Fox can even dedicate an episode to Marge’s hair change; the family budget is tight and hence she has to forgo her hair salon appointments for the good of the household. This is in-character for her, and the triggering incident to this can be Homer getting fired (again, for like the fifth time) for doing [insert dumb thing here].  “Dan, these individual fixes are simple, nuance-lacking solutions that have all been done before!”, well recycling ideas is pretty on-brand for The Simpsons, so I see no reason that my suggestions can’t be implemented.

What is pointed out cannot be unseen…