Lois Griffin

For the former Toronto city councillor, see Lois Griffin (politician)

Lois Griffin (née Pewterschmidt) is a cartoon character on the TV show Family Guy by Seth MacFarlane. She is the wife of Peter Griffin, and the mother of Meg, Chris, and Stewie. She is voiced by former MADtv cast member Alex Borstein.

Life

As established by episodes such as "Peter Peter Caviar Eater," Lois Pewterschmidt Griffin was born into the wealthy Pewterschmidt Family. Her husband Peter was a towel boy at the family country club. This job eventually leads to Lois falling in love with him because she found his lower class, easy-going silliness more appealing than the stuffy, uptight suitors in her social circle. Lois was crowned Miss Teen Rhode Island and wanted to pursue a modeling career, but her father thought that was beneath the dignity of the family.

Before meeting Peter, Lois had relationships with other men including, but not limited to: J. Geils, the "pyro guy" from the band Whitesnake and Chaim Witz (a.k.a. Gene Simmons of KISS), a fact of which Peter was very proud of when he learned of it in the episode "Road to Europe." Various episodes have referred to Lois's past experiments with lesbianism.

Lois was raised Protestant for which Peter's staunch Roman Catholic stepfather, Francis, despises her; on their wedding day, Francis spray-painted "To a Protestant Whore" underneath the "Just Married" sign on the back of their car. As she gave up her inheritance for Peter, Lois, not surprisingly, has a testy relationship with her father.

Lois teaches piano to supplement the family's income, though spends most of her time caring for her family. Chris was always overweight, even at birth (established in "He's Too Sexy For His Fat"), while her youngest son Stewie is intent on matricide, though she is oblivious to this. As for her eldest child and only daughter, Meg, whom many seem to utterly despise, Lois seems to hate her the least out of the entire family.

In the episode The Story on Page One, it is hinted that Lois attended (at least for a period) Kent State University in Ohio. This is derived from her comment, "My days in college were so exciting. This one time the National Guard came and shot some of my friends." This is an obvious allusion to the 1970 "Kent State shootings."

After Peter had been lost at sea for a few months and presumed dead, Lois and Brian wed in a sexless marriage of convenience ("Perfect Castaway"). When Peter was finally rescued, Lois was torn between her affection for Peter and her commitment to Brian. Brian understood and divorced Lois, but was annoyed when he discovered that, right after they divorced, Lois was apparently very close to having sex with him.

Lois has a younger sister, Carol, who has had nine husbands, and at least eight of which have left her, and had a baby boy by her eighth husband. She also has an older brother, Patrick, who she never knew she had and resides in the local insane asylum, first coming to her knowledge in the fourth season episode "The Fat Guy Strangler". Lois took Patrick out of the asylum and refused to believe he was a serial killer until Brian confronted her with evidence.

Also, as shown in the episode "Untitled Griffin Family History," it is revealed that one of her ancestors had children with Nate Griffin, Peter's black ancestor.

Personality and health

There is a curious duality to Lois' personality.

In "A Very Special Family Guy Freakin' Christmas", she has a nervous breakdown when just about everything goes wrong, throws a destructive tantrum, and is subdued with a tranquilizer. Lois partially explains her role as a mother and homemaker by saying that feminism is about choice, and that she chose to not have a job, and shouldn't be stereotyped as a typical housewife. In the episode "It Takes a Village Idiot, and I Married One", she gets into an argument with Mayor Adam West and threatened to run for mayor of Quahog against him, winning the election over West. However, she eventually returned the job to him after discovering it was too difficult for her to ignore special interests and maintain her integrity while in politics, conceding defeat.

Lois has some unexpected talents. She can calculate the street value of confiscated drugs with ease ("The Thin White Line"), and is a skilled lounge singer.

Lois' morals can seem questionable at times. In addition to being a long-time counterfeiter (making ten-dollar bills), she also went through a brief period of kleptomania ("Breaking Out Is Hard to Do"). She also showed a gambling addiction when the family went to an Indian casino in the first season. Various episodes have hinted that Lois does drugs, but this is shown most clearly in "Deep Throats." In "Mr. Griffin Goes to Washington," in a dream when she realizes that Stewie is a killer (which she could hardly even remember when she wakes up) she revealed that she smoked marijuana when she was pregnant with Stewie, a claim backed-up by show creator Seth MacFarlane on a DVD commentary. The show also contains at least on allusion to Lois having used meth--after being asked where she got a tattoo, her response is "I don't know, Peter, meth is a hell of a drug."

Lois has also been briefly shown participating in prostitution with Meg in the episode "No Chris Left Behind" in order to help pay to put Chris through boarding school. In many episodes scattered throughout the series, Lois is also seen smoking cigarettes. In the episode "Stewie Kills Lois" Meg and Chris got her smokers toothpaste for her birthday, after which Chris whispers to her "Take the hint!" Lois also had an extramarital affair with former President Bill Clinton which resulted in the temporary separation between her and Peter.

When Lois appeared on Diane Simmons' talk show, an onscreen title described her as "Probably more of a bitch than she lets on" (To which Lois responds, "Oh, go fuck yourself, Diane;" the actual swear is bleeped and cannot be uncensored).

Lois engages in the lengthiest actual conversations with her daughter Meg, giving advice and so forth. It may be deduced, however, that she does not care as much about Meg as she seems to, and she has been insulting and rude towards her daughter on multiple occasions--though she is not physically abusive towards Meg like Peter often is. Part of this seeming hatred may result from resentment over the inconvenience of Meg's birth; in the direct-to-DVD film Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story, Lois reveals that her pregnancy with Meg prevented her from participating in the Olympics after which she comments, "Now I'm pro-choice." In an earlier episode she mentioned to Meg that birth control is nullified by antibiotics, implying she became pregnant by accident. She also tried to get an abortion as stated in the episode "Stewie Kills Lois."

Besides her quirkiness and hidden talents, Lois has a strong sexual side as well, to the point where it could be assumed she has nymphomania. One instance finds her in a dominatrix outfit, while another episode has her reaching an emotional climax by yelling at Peter to slap her panty-clad backside. Later, she role-plays the bad schoolgirl, asking Peter for a spanking. In fact, she even displayed a level of masochistic arousal once when Peter accidentally grazed her with a bullet from a handgun. Lois can be cuddly, too, and aggressive as well. She is playful and willing to take the lead if she feels like it. On one occasion, after feeling empowered through Taijitsu classes, she even played "the man" during sex with Peter, nearly raping him and leaving him mentally scarred the next morning.

In the early episodes of the show, Lois was considered to be, in many respects, the smartest and most responsible member of the family, expressing the most concern about their well-being. However, as the characters began to develop over time, it seems that Brian has inherited many of her old characteristics while Lois' thoughts and actions have grown more questionable, thus landing her in more awkward situations she would less than likely have been in before.

Lois is often convinced her own morals, opinions and views are right, and often tries to force them onto others, especially her family. However, this habit has done more harm than benefit to her family; if that is the case, then she does not hold back in trying to fix the damage she has done, though she still tries to maintain a strong figure of authority, no matter how terrible or guilty she may feel.

Lois also tends to deny even the most obvious things for various reasons and makes up several crazy excuses. It is only until after she runs out of excuses, or when someone else (often Brian) sharply intervenes, that she accepts something to be true.

In Season 4, it was revealed that what Lois did not realize was that she had acquired a tumor in her brain while repressing the feelings and thoughts of what kind of man she married, especially one with mental retardation. She puts up with his childish stupidity and hides how she truly feels about it, but at a hidden price. Along with other jokes and subtle implications, this suggests that Lois is not entirely happy with her marriage, but at least knows it has its benefits.

When Peter went blind from nickel poisoning in the episode "Blind Ambition", Lois stops wearing makeup until Peter gets his sight back, no longer feeling self-conscious about her appearance. Without makeup, her skin is an unhealthy-looking pale color.

After being doused with hot French fry oil, Lois spent at least several days in the hospital bandaged from head to toe (in the episode "Petarded"). When she was released, she exhibited no visible scarring, but said she would smell like French fries for 6 months.

In the episode "Sibling Rivalry," when Peter is unwilling to have sex after a vasectomy, Lois channels her sexual frustration into eating and becomes fat. Peter's interest is eventually renewed and things heat back up in the bedroom until her unhealthy eating habits get the best of her. She suffers a heart attack and, during the surgery, the doctor removes her fat, thus restoring her to her original size.

Despite all the physical harm she has suffered over the course of the series, it has been suggested in Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story that she is healthy enough to live at least another 30 years.

Sexuality

Lois has exhibited signs which indicate that she is bisexual. She has displayed this through such actions as intruding on Meg's slumber party and telling she and her friends used to practice French kissing and has the girls pair up, commenting on "women are such teases" and saying that's why she "went back to men," and passionately kisses a young lesbian friend of Meg's as an example of how a "real lesbian" would kiss her girlfriend, since Meg had only given her a peck on the cheek.

In a deleted scene "You May Now Kiss the...Uh...Guy Who Receives", Lois admits to the church reverend she had girl sex with another woman when she was younger, much to his fetish. In another deleted scene during the same situation, she states that she hasn't done so in a long while, especially after marrying Peter and having three children, which understandably disappoints the reverend.

Age

Lois' age has never been established in any episode, but she identifies herself in the episode "The Fat Guy Strangler" to be in her 40s. It was stated in the episode "Meet the Quagmires" that Peter and Lois were both 18 in the year 1984, whereas in "Let's Go to the Hop" Lois identifies herself as 2 years younger than Peter. The episode "Stewie Kills Lois" opens with her birthday, though it was never stated how old she turned.