Saturday is almost over, so let's get some coverage of mature ladies. It's time for some Mature Musings!
One of the last truly great episodes of The Simpsons was "Natural Born Kissers", the finale of Season 9, which many people will point to as the final great season of the show. That episode had three plots in all: a plot about Homer and Marge having difficulties in bed, a subplot to that with Bart and Lisa hunting for treasure, and that which calls us today, the ending of the episode featuring Homer and Marge having to run through town completely naked, trying to get home without being seen by anyone. They fail. In fact, they fail so spectacularly they become the front page article of the newspaper after landing in a football field on camera day.
The use of nudity in this episode was such that Marge wasn't really being sexualized. Most of the time she was but an equal partner to Homer in a shared compromising scenario. The nudity was used more like an obstacle, a problem to overcome. As such, while Marge is naked and shows her butt quite a few times, even if only for a second or two. Homer, of course, shows more than her, but most of that was because he was being used for physical comedy, especially during the balloon scene. Marge often shows just as much as homer does, save her bare breasts because that's too much to ask for.
Still, there is one shot that lasts 6 seconds that stands out for one reason: the cel showcases both Homer and Marge's butts in full, but was clearly intended to be cropped since Gil isn't fully painted in. But, as seen in the edit I have, the shot could've indeed showed both their butts without any problem. It makes sense with Fox's seeming embarrassment of the episode; Fox said they didn't want the staff to air the episode, and hardly any more cels come up from the episode, and if they do it's from the other sections of the episode. Presumably their own cowardice meant that the shot had to be censored to avoid offending anyone, which makes no sense since The Simpsons is all about offending societal standards; eliminating the standards on female nudity would be a huge triumph.
Don't get me wrong. The episode is still good. But maybe, just maybe, it could be better...