Lois Griffin

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

Lois Griffin (née Pewterschmidt) is a fictional character from the animated television series Family Guy. 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 was born into the wealthy Pewterschmidt family. Peter Griffin, her husband, was a towel boy at the family country club; Lois eventually fell in love with him due to his low-class, easy-going manner, which she found more appealing than the stuffy, uptight suitors in her social circle. Lois was crowned Miss Teen Rhode Island and wished to pursue a career in modeling, but her father thought that was beneath the dignity of the family.

Before meeting Peter, Lois had relationships with other men, such as J. Geils, the "pyro guy" from the band Whitesnake and Chaim Witz (a.k.a. Gene Simmons of KISS), a fact which caused Peter great pride in the episode "Road to Europe." Lois was raised Protestant for which Peter's staunch Irish 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 she spends the majority of her time caring for her family. Chris, the middle child, was always overweight, even at birth (established by a newspaper article claiming "Local Woman gives birth to elephant child" in the episode He's Too Sexy For His Fat"), while her youngest son Stewie is intent on matricide, although Lois seems not to notice. Lois seems to dislike her eldest child and only daughter, Meg, in keeping with the apparent popular perception of Meg.

In the episode "The Story on Page One", it is hinted that Lois attended (at least for a period) Kent State University in Ohio through her comments, "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 love for Peter and her commitment to Brian. Brian understood her dilemma and divorced Lois, but was annoyed when he discovered that Lois was apparently one day away from 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 boy by her eighth husband. Lois also has an older brother, Patrick, whom she discovers for the first time in "The Fat Guy Strangler". Lois took Patrick out of the asylum in which he was interned, refusing to believe that 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 Son Also Draws," during 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 one 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", and when Peter asks what she means she goes to another subject very quickly but calmly.

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).

It has been hinted throughout the series that Lois never actually wanted kids. In the Episode "Stewie Kills Lois" it is revealed that she almost has an abortion when pregnant with Meg, a "busted condom" led to Chris's birth, and took drugs in order to have a miscarriage with Stewie, which might explain Stewie's violent behavior towards her.

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 really 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 dislike 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", which had also been hinted at in the earlier episode "Dammit Janet!".

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. Nonetheless, there are frequent suggestions that Lois is attracted to Peter predominantly because they're tolerant of each other's odder sexual quirks.

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. Nevertheless, Lois loves him very much since she knows how important she is to him.

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.

External links

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