There are certain traces of stereotypes in almost all the activities in which the characters engage and that seems to be meant in a humourous way. For example, in one episode, Lisa and Bart (the children of the family; brother and sister) are taken hostages by a prison escapist in a zeppelin. Using a computer inside the zeppelin you could write on an electronic board outside the zeppelin. Lisa discovers this and writes a message to let everybody know that they are in there - and decorates her plea for help with a series of flashing red love hearts... Stereotypically, it is unlikely that Bart would have done this if he were the one who had written the message!
Another example could be in the episode where Bart gets himself a fake ID, rents a car and goes away for 'spring break' with some friends (he of course lies to his parents). Meanwhile Lisa stays home and has fun by going to work with her dad. What’s the message here? "Boys go off and do crazy things, but girls must stay home, close to the family".
Bart is always the one who has all the adventures and does all the exciting funny things, where Lisa is the shy/intelligent one always getting him out of trouble. She never holds any grudges, while Bart is verbally abusive to her a lot of the time and always gets his revenge on anyone who has crossed his path - in other words "girls; you be silent, boys; you have the right to do anything".
The children are not the only characters who can be discussed in terms of gender representation, the adults are also classic cases. As mentioned before, Marge (the mother) is a housewife; she never directly disagrees with Homer (her husband/the father), and she’s always the one spoiling the children. She’s also the one doing all the house chores, while Homer enjoys himself in front of the TV. One episode of 'The Simpsons' in particular highlights the way in which men struggle to maintain the woman’s limitation to the house, and subsequently their economical dependence on them. One day, for some very senseless reason, Homer is fired. The whole family is distressed because they have no other form of income. Homer tries to get another job, but he fails miserably. In a desperate state Marge proposes to get a job herself, presenting a major problem. “You?! Get a job? You can’t get a job; if you do who will take care of the kids and of the house then? And besides, you don’t know how to do anything.” He goes on arguing about his role in the family and that supporting them made him feel both a good husband and a good father. How about cooking for his kids... wouldn’t that make him a good father? It was incredible the way Homer made every skill that would have helped Marge get a job seem so useless and unimportant.
In conclusion, I think that 'The Simpsons', as representative of modern sitcoms today, reinforce gender stereotypes rather than subvert them, especially those that date back to as early as the 1950's when television first became available. One of the main objectives of a sitcom is too entertain the audience and give them the opportunity to laugh at aspects of themselves, as the characters are representative of the audience. This makes us, the audience, feel secure in our own worlds. Yet I find this slightly contradictory, as mankind has generally lost the label of stereotype and we now live fundamentally as individuals in our society. We, as a whole, no longer lead the gender roles which are emphasised in early sitcoms, and which are still emphasised in general today.
