I had an epiphany the other day. My boyfriend and I were enjoying some classic Simpson episodes and I was reminiscing about how much I loved Lisa when I was little. I identified so closely with her—she was the middle child, she was precociously intelligent, she was musical, political, and self-conscious about her nerdiness but never afraid to let her freak flag fly. That's all stuff I already knew, though. This was the breakthrough—Lisa Simpson was one of my first and most influential role models, and I think she was one of the best I could have had. Lisa is outspoken, confident, and assertive. She questions authority and ideology, she makes broad connections between political, economic and cultural phenomena—she is essentially the voice of reason on the show and the mouthpiece through which the writers of The Simpsons convey many of their political and philosophical points.
Most importantly, however, Lisa Simpson is a feminist. In the few instances that she shies away from displaying her intelligence or speaking her mind and instead tries to conform to society's standards, she always regrets it and eventually goes on a passionate tirade against those very conformities. In one particularly telling episode, Lisa is disturbed when she realizes the sexist and mysogynistic forces behind her beloved Malibu Stacy doll. In an effort to combat her family and friends' apathy, as well as the negative messages of the doll itself, Lisa finds the original Malibu Stacy creator and they release a feminist, progressive doll, “Lisa Lionheart,” whose sales fail miserably when the newest Malibu Stacy is simultaneously released. “Lisa Lionheart” gets sold to one little girl, however, who ignores the new Malibu Stacy advertising and is, presumably, drawn to and influenced by the empowered and autonomous Lisa Lionheart.
There are hundreds of more ways that Lisa Simpson embodies various feminist ideals, as well as hundreds of way that The Simpsons very much reinforces detrimental notions of gender. Overall, however, Lisa Simpson was incredibly influential in shaping not only the person that I am, but the person that I strive to be. This may sound rather trivial, considering I am talking about a cartoon character, but media influences can greatly shape one's understanding of society, culture, and one's self. And in my life, particularly, The Simpsons was a huge part of my childhood. While only now can I truly observe, understand and articulate the political and cultural messages of such a progressive show, those messages were no doubt at work on my young mind. Personally, I think I was very lucky to have Lisa in my life growing up. She is one of the few truly empowered female figures available to young girls today. We should all be a little bit more like Lisa.
