QUEEN OF THE HILL Rachel Ramlawi A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate College of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS December 2020 Committee: Becca Cragin, Advisor Jeffery Brown © 2020 Rachel Ramlawi All Rights Reserved iii ABSTRACT Becca Cragin, Advisor An exploration of feminist themes within Fox’s King of the Hill. Using Peggy Hill as a site of discourse, I examine the way the show presents the gendered division of labor, motherhood, and body positivity. Contrasting the show with other sitcoms and other animated sitcoms, I look for the ways in which King of the Hill utilizes postmodern sincerity in order to make an honest message about feminism. I examine the episodes, “Goodbye Normal Jeans.” “Peggy’s Turtle Song,” and “Transnational Amusements Presents Peggy’s Magic Sex Feet” as a way to establish the progressive discourse the show is saying about feminism. In looking at these episodes I argue that King of the Hill presents a positive and progressive view of feminism with regards to gendered divisions of labor, motherhood, and body liberation. iv Dedicated to my mom Susan Cook, father Mustafa Ramlawi, sisters Jamie Ramlawi, Tess Cook, Grace Cook and three best friends, Tiffany Alcock, Marley Stuever-Williford, and Emily Solomon, who without their support I could never have finished this. v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS A big thanks to Dr. Cragin for advising me and guiding me through this process. And for teaching me the ropes when it comes to TV studies. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................... 1 CHAPTER ONE. “IF THE BOY LEARNS TO COOK ANE CLEAN, WHAT’S HIS MOTIVATION TO GET MARRIED?”: DOMESTICITY ON KING OF THE HILL ............ 8 “There’s No Rule that Says Only Women Can Do Housework”: Gendered Division of Labor Makes Monsters .............................................................................................. 14 CHAPTER TWO. PEGGY’S PROBLEM WITH NO NAME ............................................... 24 Empty Time and Clipping Coupons: Motherhood Madness ........................................ 28 The Problem Has a Name – it’s Patriarchy .................................................................. 32 Peggy’s “Turtle Song”: Poetry as a Voice to Scream With ......................................... 36 CHAPTER THREE THE RADICAL BODY POLITICS OF BOBBY HILL ......................... 43 “First We Must Reach the Men”: Body Positivity as Exploitation .............................. 47 The Body Politics of Bobby Hill .................................................................................. 53 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................... 58 WORKS CITED ....................................................................................................................... 64 1 INTRODUCTION Among all the postmodern ambivalence that was a trademark of TV in the late 90s, there sat a sincere gem – King of the Hill. Since the Flintstones first aired in 1960 animated sitcoms have been a part of American popular culture, in the 90s this genre expanded from what was originally a children’s genre1 to a genre that was explicitly adult oriented. When the Simpsons aired in the late 80s, the genre which had tapered off in the 70s had been revitalized, and in the 90s The Simpsons was soon joined by Comedy Central’s South Park, and network siblings Family Guy and King of the Hill. King of the Hill was a slice of life animated sitcom about the Hill family, and their neighbors. The Hills, and most of their neighbors were lower-middle class Texans, who lived in the fictional town of Arlen, Texas. King of the Hill stood out from its animated peers with a sort of startling sincerity in its episodes. Much of the premise around each episode of King of the Hill isn’t a father-knows-best set up, though on the surface it appears that way. A number of episodes feature Hank or Peggy (the patriarch and matriarch of the family respectively) being confronted with an issue that is liberal at its roots, and over the course of the episode, Hank comes around to changing his conservative views. There’s less of the ambivalence we see in most sitcoms that started in the 90s in King of the Hill as Hank is often explicitly shown to be wrong in his behavior or his viewpoints in the text. Couched in a comfortable humor, with a man not so different from people in “real America,” this sitcom had the chance to reach a broad audience of people with its progressive viewpoint. Class, race, stereotyping, mental illness, exploitation of workers, ableism, veterans’ rights, and gentrification are just a few of the topics tackled in the twelve seasons of King of the Hill. I 1 Though The Flintstones was aimed originally at parents, and given a primetime spot, it has was very popular with children. Is still used to market multivitamins to children. Stephen Cox, “The Modern Stone Age Family Has its Golden Anniversary,” LA Times (Los Angeles, CA), Sep. 11, 2010. 2 am focusing very narrowly on King of the Hill’s discourse about a few feminist issues. While one can, and should, go into the way King of the Hill goes on at length about toxic masculinity in the relationships between Bobby, Hank and Hank’s father Cotton, I just don't have the ability to in the scope of this thesis. Instead, I’m going to focus narrowly in on a single character – Peggy Hill. Peggy is Hank’s wife, Bobby’s mother, three-time winner of Arlen Jr. High’s Substitute Teacher of the Year Award, and a champion boggle player. Peggy is an interesting site of discourse for a few reasons, while she’s a wife and a mother, she also works, routinely fails at the domestic labor, and is not traditionally attractive. In these areas she falls outside many of the traditional ways we see women even within animated sitcoms. For instance, Marge Simpson and Peggy Griffin from The Simpsons and Family Guy, are both beautiful stay-at-home moms who excel at the domestic labor, a sharp contrast to their schluby husbands. Peggy Hill contrasts these other animated women, making her a fascinating to read for the ways in which King of the Hill uses her as a site of discourse surrounding feminist issues. I will examine the ways in which King of the Hill pushes back against hegemonic ideas of a gendered division of labor, body positivity and motherhood. King of the Hill is unlike other animated sitcoms, in two areas, the first is the aesthetics of the show itself. King of the Hill relies on animation that is both simplistic and grounded in reality. There are no gags where characters hurt each other and are seemingly fine the next scene. There is no talking poop or babies, no alien invasions, or anthropomorphic animals. In "Back to the Drawing Board. The Family in Animated Television Comedy," Michael Tueth writes about how animated shows use the concept of carnival. Through the use of animation, they distance themselves from reality enough to try and critique it. Tueth writes, "The Simpsons and other successful animated domestic comedies have been able to explore darker, subversive aspects of 3 family life thanks mainly to the possibilities of the cartoon aesthetic."2 King of the Hill deviates from the carnival as most of the time as it relies on a clean, understated almost plain aesthetic. The aesthetic of King of the Hill is pseudo-realistic. Each character is so simplistic it allows you to almost forget about the cartoon format all together. In this way the show draws you in with a sense of normalcy. No injuries that are miraculously recovered from, no ethnic caricatures, no quick trips across the world on money they don’t have. King of the Hill instead lulls you into a sense that this could really happen, there could be an Arlen, Texas, these could be your neighbors. This isn’t to say of course, that King of the Hill never uses the grotesque or carnival, sometimes they do. The rarity of it only seems to highlight the distorted or unrealistic images that are being presented. When Peggy stares at the twisted laughing faces of stay-at-home mothers gleeful talking about couponing we’re supposed to see how horrifying this thought is from Peggy’s perspective. She’s wondered into a nightmare, and the sudden, unusual distortion highlights that. The show does not attempt to make a caricature of the themes within each episode, nor does it attempt to make a caricature of the citizens of Arlen. While it would be easy to lean into Southern stereotypes, using over exaggerated accents and overblown ethnic stereotypes. The show instead leans into a sort of realism for the voices of the cast, even characters with accents like the Laotian neighbors that live next door to Hank are given rich, vibrant interior lives. There is nothing stereotypical here. No ten-gallon hats and the only distinctly Southern accents comes from the quick speaking Boomhauer. And even this is not the type of Southern accent anyone would expect to come out of Texas. Though the combination 2 Michael Tueth “Back to the Drawing Board: The Family in Animated Television Comedy,” in Primetime Animation: Television Animation and American Culture. ed. Carol Stabile and Mark Harrison (Oxford: Routledge, 2003), 141. 4 of simplistic style, and a depiction that does not mock the lower middle class conservative Christian Texans, King of the Hill builds a platform that allows them to reach a broad audience with their rather sincere messages. King of the Hill does not mock a conservative audience the way many might feel The Simpsons, Family Guy, or South Park does. Instead they slip feminist, and class-conscious messages into the show the way you might sneak spinach into a smoothie. In ways that are easier for an audience who might not agree with those messages to see and consume. These messages also make the show remarkably sincere, genuine, and heartwarming for audience members who may not need to be told it’s okay to learn sex-ed.