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'The Simpsons' Predicted Florida Parents' Outrage Over Michelangelo's David Back In 1990
The influence of The Simpsons can be seen in almost every aspect of pop culture, and this week it proved its relevance once again.
A Florida principal was recently forced to resign after several parents complained about an art teacher showing a picture of Michelangelo's David to sixth graders. The parents deemed the image as "pornographic," leading to the resignation of the principal.
This story may sound familiar to Simpsons fans, as a similar storyline was featured in Season 2, Episode 9, titled "Itchy & Scratchy & Marge."
In the episode, Marge attempts to censor a violent cartoon, but ultimately comes to the realization that censorship is not the answer. Instead, she becomes a champion for free expression, even defending Michelangelo's David when asked about her stance on censorship.
You can see the moment we're talking about in the clip below.
The clip resurfaced after Don Moynihan, a professor of policy at the McCourt School at Georgetown University, brought it to everyone's attention.
He wrote:
"Well, it happened. Schools in Florida under Ron DeSantis are run by the type of parental mobs The Simpsons satirized more than 30 years ago."
You can see his tweet below.
People were unsurprised and continued to mock the scandal as a result.
Crafted between 1501 and 1504, Michelangelo's marble sculpture of the Biblical figure David was originally commissioned for an Italian cathedral.
It now stands at the Galleria dell'Accademia in Florence, Italy.
According to the Tallahassee Democrat, parents of sixth-grade children at Tallahassee Classical School filed complaints over the 16th-century artwork with one parent describing it as “pornographic.”
The former principal of the school, Hope Carrasquilla, said that the usual protocol is to send a letter to parents before classical artwork is shown to their children. However, due to miscommunications, the letter was not sent to the sixth-grade parents and one in particular was "point-blank upset."
Carrasquilla, who had been in the job for less than a year, said she was not surprised by the reaction from the school board chair, Barney Bishop.
Bishop emphasized that the incident was one of multiple issues with Carrasquilla but declined to provide details due to advice from the school’s employment lawyers. He also explained that he is lobbying for legislation to give parents more input into primary education.