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A person peers over the fence and sees another person's environment. The person sees what the other sees, and can only try to imagine what they must feel. Peter Griffin did so, though he was forced to, and the result was that he not only learned how women see the world, but he also embraced many of the values that women treasured. Perhaps the most powerful evidence of this change of view was when he tried to breastfeed his own son Stewie. There are a lot of things that would seem strange, and wrong about something like this happening, but at the same time, it questions the position of gender in society, and family life.
The act of breastfeeding is a form of bonding between the parent and offspring. It is traditionally, and biologically however, a female one, but in the clip, Peter decides to undertake the role. Now, one perception of gender studies is that it tries to prove that there is no distinction between women and men, and that women should not be treated differently based upon gender. But what happens if a man wanted to assume a role that is reserved for women? Peter tries to breastfeed Stewie regardless of whether or not he even can. According to Judith Butler, Peter's "… performance destabilizes the very distinctions between the natural and artificial, depth and surface, inner and outer through which discourse about genders almost always operates," (Butler 2541). Peter's actions defy society's idea of what is natural for a man to do in regards to his role as the father of his children. His motherly behavior could be deemed as artificial, because it goes against everything that society has dictated to be proper, but it does not stop him from doing something that to him, in this moment anyway, is only natural.
Peter's new attitude is the result of getting in touch with his "feminine" side, and he tries to act on it, even though he can't in some instances. The breastfeeding scene is an example of one of the many things that Peter cannot physically do because of his body. The body is often what defines gender, and establishes the rules in how people live and act and do. Butler's essay states that, "…what constitutes the limit of the body is never merely material, but that the surface, the skin, is systematically signified by taboos and anticipated transgressions," (Butler 2544). Looking at Peter in this clip, there are number of things that people could say are wrong, but Butler believes that Peter is merely acting on his inner frame rather than his outer frame, a concept that psychoanalysts like Freud and Lacan often touched upon in their works. Peter's "outer frame," in this case, is his male body, but his "inner frame" is the nurturing aspect that he has developed. Judith later continues saying that, "…acts and gestures …create the illusion of an interior and organizing gender core, an illusion discursively maintained for the purposes of the regulation of sexuality within the obligatory frame of reproductive heterosexuality," (Butler 2549). Despite knowing the limitations imposed on him by his body, and the fact that what he is doing is not considered normal, Peter ignores the limitations and acts upon his internal nature. This defiance effectively shatters the illusion that he cannot breastfeed Stewie to create the same bond that the mother would have with the child if she did so. In other words, Peter's actions are the result of his wanting as a parent, not just a father, to bond with his son.
This particular role reversal is not only funny, but it also raises a lot of questions about gender roles like: If a woman can undertake the roles that men can, why can't a man do the same with a woman's roles? In this case, the obvious answer would be that Peter is incapable of breastfeeding Stewie, but that is irrelevant to Peter. Peter's desire to bond with his son, however, what is relevant. Stewie unfortunately, does not seem to agree with his father.
Work Cited
Butler, Judith. "Gender Trouble." The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism 2nd Edition. Ed. Vincent B. Leitch. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 2010. pgs. 2540-2553. Print.
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