Family Guy and Sexual Harrassment

As South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker are always pointing out, Family Guy will usually tend more towards pure humor than political and social statements. However, there is certainly enough satire in Family Guy to warrant discussion, and this week's episode, "Peter-Assment," which aired on March 21, is a good example (click here to watch on Hulu).

The episode turns sexual harassment on its head, a common technique for satirists, in order to reveal its seriousness. Peter's boss, who is a woman, finds him attractive (all the more funny because Peter is hilariously fat - she says "You really fill out those shorts"), and tries to seduce Peter. When he resists, she fires him.

Peter tells Lois he was sexually assaulted by his boss, but she just laughs at him and says "That doesn't make any sense. Guys like being touched by women, it's not harassment if you like it." To prove the point, Meg talks about how her teacher actually did sexually assault her, which Peter and Lois basically ignore except as an example of legitimate abuse. Notice here also the phrase "It's not harassment if you like it." It's an excuse most abusers stand by, in line with "It's just a little bit of fun" or "Nobody's getting hurt."

The main idea I think creator Seth McFarlane is driving at is most men think sexual abuse is a joke, or at least not a big problem, because they are used to men being on the abusing side, even if they themselves don't participate in it. They're not in danger of having to choose between being humiliated or losing a job. There is a demonstrated disparity between men and women on the subject. According to an April 2009 study by the Southern Poverty Law Center, 77 percent of Latina women in the south said sexual harassment was a major workplace problem, while only 48 percent of men thought so.

This is obviously a narrow study, but it's the sort of thinking many of us fall into. When men see a women being abused, they are much more likely to pass it off as a joke or harmless. Family Guy tries to change that thinking by demonstrating how abuse is not really a matter of men and women, but of power. Later in the episode, Peter is watching an old movie. The actor slaps his girlfriend, who says, "Why did you slap me?" He responds, "Because you have a face." Peter then imagines the actor telling him to stand for himself as a man, who needs to put women in their place. But this purposefully, once again, leads us astray.

Family Guy, I believe, does not want us to see that Peter has lost his manhood when he is assaulted by his boss. Instead, they want us to see that manhood should not be defined by power over women, just as a boss should not define herself by power over her employees. Relationships should be defined by mutual respect - the sort of respect Peter shows his boss when he has sex with her on her own terms, disguised. He does not intend to get his job back by it - he just recognizes her need for companionship. Therefore, he fulfills her need without humiliating himself further. The fact that it all works out in the end because she saw through his ruse is simply a nice round ending.