#king of the hill
Clients’ names and personal information have been omitted to retain their privacy.
“That boy ain’t right.”
There’s more to abuse than hitting.
tbh, I was kinda waiting for someone to point this out and yes, you’re absolutely right. Abuse doesn’t have to be physical, it can be emotional and/or verbal.
This comic came about because I‘d read several commentaries comparing Homer Simpson and Peter Griffin, specifically in regards to how they treat their daughters.
Almost everyone I know who takes the time to think critically about The Simpsons or Family Guy hones in on the fact that Peter physically and emotionally abuses Meg, whereas Homer is incompetent, neglectful, and absolutely does not understand Lisa – but he loves her and he tries.
In the commentary about how Peter and Homer treat their daughters, I didn’t really see anyone bring up the physical/emotional abuse of their sons.
To lay it out there – I loathe Family Guy. Fucking hate it.
I grew up watching The Simpsons and can have entire conversations purely through quoting the show. But as much as I love The Simpsons, I think the overall cultural attitude to corporal punishment (physical abuse) has changed enough that it’s time to retire the running “joke” of Homer choking Bart. It may have been a culturally acceptable joke ten years ago, but more and more research is showing seriously negative outcomes for kids that have experienced any form of physical punishment. We need to stop normalizing it.
As for King of the Hill, Hank and Peggy are hardly perfect parents and both have a tendency towards stifling Bobby’s more flamboyant and/or “feminine” behavior. But they both love Bobby; they have both, at different times during the show, been able to connect to Bobby through his various interests. While not perfect, they are a much healthier depiction of a family.
As a queer transgender dude who grew up in Texas and is totally unsuited for Southern concepts of masculinity, I have a real soft spot for King of the Hill and for Bobby. It’sa far more real and complex depiction of family, compared to the pointless cruelty of Family Guy or the lesser cruelties of The Simpsons.
Post link
Clients’ names and personal information have been omitted to retain their privacy.
I love this comic. I love it so much.
Excuse me while I also talk a bit about Family Guy here.
I used to enjoy Family Guy. Yeah, it was crude and crass but the writing was clever. Some of the jokes were extremely funny. But as time went on, the more they started to care less. Or at least that is how I feel. And the more feminist I became and the more I learned how harmful certain ‘jokes’ are, the more I began to hate. Especially when it comes to Meg.
Meg is not a terrible charecter. She isn’t evil, she’s not a villian. Yet she gets treated like complete and utter crap because….honestly, I don’t know why! The writers say they don’t know how to write teenaged girls but I call bullcrap on that. Meg has been abused by not just Peter but her mother and brother too. Her mother, who should be trying protect her daughter, demeans her in every possible way and that is suppose to be funny. That’s the joke. Meg in pain is the joke.
And isn’t funny.
People say, “It’s just a cartoon” but we know that media influences how people think and having Meg being hurt physically and emotionally is dangerous because there are going to be people who see that and think that is okay. And the way Chris is portrayed also shows how children learn from their parents and can end up being abusers.
This comic really is fantastic
I feel like this is the spiritual sequel to Boy’s Night that none of us knew we needed but we absolutely did
Also, I feel like this brings up a pretty interesting point: Even though Hank Hill is often confused and disappointed with Bobby, he is never physically abusive towards him or anyone in the family, and is willing to show his son he loves him. Bobby may be a constant source of confusion for him, but he’s not below learning to accept his son for who he is, and given that Hank takes a lot of pride in being a red-blooded american man, when american media is so obsessed with the ideal of “comically” abusive and negligent fathers, that’s pretty damn important.
Post link
