Blogpost #4: Myths in The Simpsons

   As for most Filipinos, we are fond of listening to myths. Myths about how everything was made or how it was evolved. Myths are beliefs or ideas that has become connected with the person especially when we are going to illustrate the cultural ideas. As a fan of the sitcom "The Simpsons", what do you thinks is the myth of the show?

  As I look for more articles, I have found one, entitled "Myths in"The Simpsons" from the website comm326.wordpress.com . It does not really connect that much with the myths but it surely talks about works, technology and morality that the show portrays.

  According to that article, The Simpson creates our view that we have about work. It also creates our view that only men should have jobs and women should stay at home.

    If we are going to connect it with one of the episodes in The Simpsons "Maggie Makes Three", we can see that Homer really hates his job and wanted to quit but his wife, Marge, was pregnant with Maggie. What he did is he quits his job and find a new one. This represent our ideas that we should have to work. 

     Most women in the show do not have work that is why it represents our ideas that women should stay at home. There is this one episode where Marge gets a job. But at the end of the episode, she ends up back in the home. She gives up her job for her family and stays in her profession as a housewife. there is also this one character that shows the idea that women should not work and should stay at home is Gil. He is a failure character in the show but wanted to have a job but he can not get one.

     All of this ideas represent what work really is. We end up being on a job we don't like but having a higher salary/ wages than ending up on a job we are happy but having a lower salary/ wages.

     The article also talks about the skepticism of new technology. One of the episode shows how we are blindly worshiping  Mapples (spoof for Apples) with our unconditional money. Bart tells everyone what the consumers of the Mapples do not want to know. He irritate them to see how their trust was violated.

    The article also tackles about the morality of the Simpsons. That the morality is always the center of the Family according to the book "The Simpsons and Philosophy". In the book, Lawler, one of the author of the book, describes Kant's idea about morality. It has two opposing force. First is doing what is right and second is giving into ones desire. According to him that even the most moral person will still have a desire for something that they have to fight. And this portrays the Simpson Family about morality. There is this one episode where Moe, the bartender in the show, convince Homer to put a fire on his  car  just for him to get his insurance money but Homer did the opposite thing which portrays the Kant's morality.
     Reading this article, It really just got to show that The Simpsons is not just a plain cartoon show but it helps us to understand what life really is. It is not just a cartoon but a book that we can learn from.