The 3 M's: Marge, Marriage, and Mayor

 In Season 29, episode 6 of The Simpsons, the feminist analysis is given tons of usage. In the episode Marge decides to run for mayor of Springfield after she is fed up with the way things are run. In the town hall meeting the first signs of sexism are present when the mayor puts down Marge for being a female by making sexist jokes. He makes comments about the difficulty of running a city is more complicated then getting her nails done. When she calls him out on his sexist comments, he continues to make more. In the next scene Lisa and Marge are in the kitchen talking about how society is still very much sexist and when she tells Homer she wants to run for mayor he says he is completely against a woman being mayor. 
The show continues its traditional values when Marge is asked what can she do for everyone in the town and she says as a mom she will have them eat their vegetables. Her position as a mom becomes at the forefront of the episode, the audience reacts by doubting her ability because she is a female and a mother. Even one of the women critics her baked dish she brought to the pta meeting instead of her as a politician.

 Even though she became the first woman mayor in Springfield it seems like the citizens of town, especially the media is down her throat watching every move she makes. They scrutinize her more harshly because she is a female expecting her to fail. When Marge tries to fix the problems around her by making a video of her in the kitchen, it reiterates that she can not get away from the “women are only good as mothers” stereotype. As she is filming Homer cuts in and ask her what time is dinner ready. When she tells him that she is in the middle of the speech, he disregards her and continues to ask the time. A few minutes later he comes back and ask her if it's possible to cook a hot pocket in the dryer. His lack of understanding for food preparation makes it seem as though women are the only ones who can successfully cook dinner and that it is not in men’s nature to be able to cook properly.

 After holding a focus group, her team that helped her get into office convinces her to use her husband's goofiness to raise her ratings. Throughout the rest of the scenes Homer is used as a comedy act next to Marge to boost her approval ratings. The show depicts that a woman in power is unable to succeed unless a man is involved. Marge is only able to increase her approval ratings by having Homer involved in her role as mayor even having a float of him being created for the Thanksgiving Parade.

 Later on in the episode, Marge goes to the former mayor and asks him if it's possible to have a good family life and be a political leader at the same time. This scene highlights what many women have to go through when it comes to balancing their lives. When a career woman who is also a mother is doing well, society feels the need to question whether she can balance both. Her personal life is tied to her professional one and people are unable to separate the two. Marge’s confusion on the balance is society’s pressure for her and other career woman to pick one life path instead of getting to enjoy both.

  The scene ended with the former mayor asking her to stay for an event because they needed coffee and cake served. This moment describes how as a woman no matter how professional you become, it is hard to escape society’s need to put you in domestic positions.

Fuller House: Culture appropriation

    In the reboot show Fuller House, an episode in the first season outrightly suggest the use of cultural appropriation. The night episode of this season titled "Partnerships in the Night", focuses on DJ Tanner-Fuller throwing a retirement party boss. The boss, a veterinarian named Dr. Harmon is moving to India and DJ takes it upon herself to throw him an Indian themed party. Cultural themed parties aren't new and the producers of this show decided to take part in it as well. The party is filled with tons of people who appear to be white, with no Indian person showing up to the event.
    Exclusion takes place in this episode by removing any trace of an Indian person at an Indian themed party. The lack of representation from the very people whose culture is being appropriated emphasizes the constant need to annihilated people of color from the media. White attendees seem to be the only ones present at this party, reinforcing the white race as the dominant group even in a situation that is not of their culture.
Stereotyping is also in this episode, but is first seen when Kimmy tells Stephanie to go to Target and buy anything remotely Indian. By giving her these directions Kimmy suggests that Stephanie can go off of her own idea of what she think is Indian, leading to her stereotyping the cultural group. At the party they simplify Indian culture to just colorful garments and decorations, as well as phrases. They only show pretty images of what they think is Indian culture without educating the viewers and themselves on the meanings behind the garments, food, and decorations. To them they view the culture a a simply theme to only enjoy for one night, while excluding the very people a part of that culture.
     The episode ends with a group dance by the cast and extras. What makes this scene more appealing is that the people dancing are majority white, not hinting at a single Indian person. The show's audience applauds the cast while they are taking part in this traditional dance. It reiterates that white people are able to take an element of a culture group, use it for entertainment, and be congratulated for it as if them appropriating the culture is not up for ridicule. The boss congratulates Kimmy for organizing the event saying that she came up with the "happy dance" referring to the traditional Indian dance. By reducing the dance to just a dance for enjoyment, erases the historical context embedded in the culture's dance.
The episode received a lot of ridicule from when it first aired, but not as much as it should have. Its apparent appropriation of Indian culture shows that even today, shows do not fail to use cultural groups as pure entertainment.