[tzs]

If Homer was the smarter, calmer, saner parent most of the time and Marge was the dumber, short-tempered, crazy parent most of the time, The Simpsons would get slammed for attacking women. Same if Bart was the smart, obedient, respectful child and Lisa that less smart, rebellious child.

Similar if Lenny and Carl's roles were reversed. The Simpsons would be slammed for making the black guy the dumber one.

It's simply safer to make it so white (well, yellow in The Simpsons universe...) males are the ones who are dumb, impulsive, try out hare-brained schemes, and so on, and since it is out of those things that most of the comedy arises, those characters are going to get the most words.

[sdml]

Do you have any evidence for this or is it pure speculation? One counter-example I can think of is Modern Family, which was a less smart, rebellious child who is female -- the Haley character -- and has not to my knowledge received any criticism for "attacking women".

[akiselev]

Modern Family though also has Hailey's sister who is smarter than the lot of them and a much younger wife married to the patriarch without falling into a gold-digger/mail-order bride stereotype. Other than Haily and stereotyped mom(s) they're OK on the whole.

[sdml]

I wouldn't say "other than Haily". Even with that character in mind, I don't consider the show to be sexist. My point is that having a flawed female character doesn't imply that the show will be perceived as "attacking women" as tzs seems to be suggesting.

[exadeci]

Luke is dumb too maybe even more than Haley and she is not smart but she's not stupid either she got lots of social skills.

[CM30]

I'm not sure it would be criticised for making the female characters dumb. Because there are definitely quite a few shows that do this, and there hasn't been too much criticism of them stemming from that.

Then again, maybe it's a weird age demographic thing. Cause it seems like quite a few shows aimed at adults tend to make the male characters the dumb ones (like The Simpsons and Family Guy), but then a few more shows aimed at kids will let the female characters be the idiots (like say, Dexter's Laboratory).

Or if you want an example where both parents are dumb, any of Butch Hartman's shows seem to quality. The Fairly Odd Parents has both of the Timmy Turner's parents being about as dumb as Homer Simpson, and Danny Phantom could be similar in how it portrayed Danny's parents.

[drewrv]

Maeby Funke, from Arrested Development, was less smart and more rebellious than George Michael. I don't recall anyone attacking that show.