To say that Marge Simpson has the patience of a saint would be an incredible understatement.

I recently purchased the box set of seasons 3 – 5 of The Simpsons because one, this is widely considered to be the golden age (or yellow age) for everyone’s favourite four-fingered family; and two, because I crave nostalgia. Like many 90s kids I grew up watching The Simpsons, so even though I already knew all the gags I still found myself laughing as I rewatched. What’s not to love about Bart’s birthday song for Lisa, or Homer’s brief stint as Mr Plow?

But as I relived the crazy antics of my favourite childhood cartoon, I could hear a nagging little voice in the back of my mind. It wasn’t anything new; it’s a voice I started hearing more of the older I got, especially whenever I sat down to watch shows or movies – mostly comedies – that depict families. It was a worried little voice, often just a groan (much like the way female characters groan whenever Homer does something stupid). And this was fitting, because the voice was worried about Marge Simpson.

In 2016 BoJack Horseman creator Raphael Bob-Waksberg tweeted “Does Marge have friends? (a poem in fifteen tweets)” which drew attention to the implicit loneliness of Marge Simpson. Throughout the The Simpsons we see Homer interact with all kinds of friends and co-workers, both at the plant and at Moe’s Tavern. The kids too have friends they hang with at school. To quote Lisa, “Even Maggie has that baby with the one eyebrow.” But outside of the family, who does Marge have?

The poem was retweeted and shared across the internet, sparking a new kind of conversation about The Simpsons. For the first time it felt like my worried little voice for Marge Simpson (and other characters like her, such as Lois from Family Guy, though to a lesser extent) wasn’t just my worried little voice. It seemed that many people had shared the same quiet concerns for the character of Marge that I had, and for the first time people were actually talking about it.

Marge Simpson is a wife and a mother. She cooks and cleans for her family. She runs the household. She takes care of the family finances. She offers shoulders of sympathy to her children, and she offers warm arms of condolence to her husband. In everything she does, she is patient and understanding beyond what a reasonable person might expect.

In season 4 alone we see Marge endure through: Homer’s drink driving arrest, Homer demolishing both family cars, Bart blowing up the house as part of an April Fools prank, Homer’s lack of support when she is cast in a musical, and being sentenced to 30 days in prison for minor shop lifting (which was accidental, as she was so run down from taking care of her sick family that she genuinely forgot to pay). No matter how patient or supportive, it seems that time after time Marge is forced to passively accept mistreatment, misfortune, and a lack of common decency from those around her.

Yet we very rarely see her rewarded for her truly good and positive traits. Instead we see at least one episode a season where Marge runs out of patience and good will, is labelled some form of ‘crazy’, and becomes the punchline for the entire episode.

Take for example season 3 episode 14: “Homer Alone”. In this episode Marge is so stressed out from all the chores and errands she has to run that she ends up ‘snapping’ when Maggie’s bottle spills while driving. She is labelled ‘crazy’ by police officers, the media and Homer, who is predictably last to arrive at the scene. Perhaps the best line to describe Marge’s entire existence in the show is spoken in this episode after Homer And Bart’s tom-foolery results in a broken lamp: “I am not cleaning that… oh, who am I kidding?”

Does Marge seem content with the life she has? Over all, it appears yes. In some episodes you can see that small parts of Marge wish things were different, but overwhelmingly her attitude is one of acceptance and gratitude for the life she has. While these are also admirable qualities, they are equally frustrating. Why doesn’t Marge want more than what she has? Why doesn’t she want a husband that drinks less and who has some semblance of career drive? Why doesn’t she want to get out of the house and make friends? Why doesn’t she want more?

In season 4 episode 7: “Marge Gets a Job” we see Marge’s resume contains only ‘homemaker.’ Yet her desire to enter the workforce now – with three children, one a baby – seems at odds with this. Why wouldn’t she look for work sooner if she was happy to work while also raising children? Was Homer’s ego too fragile that she didn’t want to steal the spotlight, like we see in this episode? Or did she feel obligated this entire time to take on the household chores and support her husband as he went out and made a career for himself? (an almost laughable concept, as Homer has no idea how to be a nuclear technician anyway)

We see Marge try her hand at various jobs over the years, including Police Officer and Real Estate Agent. In the end, Marge is always forced to retreat back into homemaking. This is almost painful to watch when you consider that Marge’s frequent attempts to enter the workforce evidence a desire for something else. Let me be clear: there is nothing wrong with homemaking; that is not the issue at hand. The question I raise is whether homemaking is really what Marge wants to do, and her motivations for both becoming and then staying as a full-time homemaker.

You can tell me it’s just a cartoon, or just a bit of fun, and I’ll agree with you. It is just a cartoon, and it is just trying to be funny. But funny or not, I think some level of care needs to be taken when depicting characters of any creed, and when it comes to TV shows and movies I cannot help but notice discrepancies such as this between male and female characters. Comedies can be funny when the jokes are clever, but painting women as blissfully complacent caricatures to the shenanigans of the men in their lives is lazy and overdone. Marge Simpson deserves better.

Images: Fox Broadcasting Company