Parks and Recreational Feminism

This specific episode of Parks and Recreation, "Jerry's Painting", is satirical of modern political ideologies which in turn creates a feminist argument. In this episode, people are arguing to destroy a painting containing a woman's breasts on a centaur, calling it pornography and beastiality. The painting is of Leslie, the Parks and Recreation head in the show, and she finds the painting empowering and does whatever she can to keep the painting from being destroyed. The episode seems to be making fun of and emphasizing the overreaction of the public, which is alike to what would most likely happen in our society.

One reason why this could episode could be seen as a feminine argument is because Leslie feels empowered by the painting of her bare chest, instead of embarrassed and ashamed like what is expected in our society today. Leslie is completely caught off guard when she sees this painting depicting her as a topless centaur. While this is a ridiculous and quite absurd situation for comedic effect, I believe there is a feminist argument being made here. Leslie's first reaction is not to run and hide, to get red in the face or to get pissed off. When the artist even suggests that he would take the painting down, the camera zooms in on Leslie's smiling face. Leslie is proud of her body and empowered by this depiction of herself. She feels pride from her body being shown and wants the painting to be left up for all to see. Later on, Leslie is shown bossing people around and acting like the queen of the world due to the empowerment she feels from the painting of her.

The people in this episode that are against the painting - the closed-minded, conservative people, are over-exaggerated and purposely made to look like fools, leading a viewer to see that this view is outdated and quite ridiculous. The people that are arguing against the painting are also made fun of and mocked in this episode. Their characters follow all stereotypes of a white conservative man or woman, who is uptight and shallow. The mere mocking that the more valued and comedic characters do of the anti-painting character's proves that the episode is feminist.

This episode also contains another feminist woman character named April. April does not possess any "womanly" or conformist traits in her personality. She is careless, bland, boring and quite a filthy slob who leaves old food and dirty clothes all over her house and eats spaghetti off Frisbees while sharing a fork with her husband. Her appearance is rather average and she is not dressed up to look like a Barbie doll, nor is she super skinny. As previously mentioned, April does have a husband in the show! This shows that women do not have to be societies cookie-cutter products to have a man like them or to be happy.

This specific episode (Season 3, Episode 11) of the show Parks and Recreation is a feminist work.  The episode beats stereotypes and doesn't follow societal expectations and patterns of what a woman is. While the feminist statements and points in the show are dramatized and ridiculous for comedic effect, there clearly are feminist arguments being made. Parks and Recreation is a show that isn't bad for the American mind, and I would hope leads people to question things and "think outside the box".