History Recap / TheSimpsonsS17E19GirlsJustWantToHaveSums

* Honor Before Reason: Rather than reveal her true identity as Jake Boyman, Lisa allows herself to get beat up by Nelson.

* BrokenAesop: After achieving an award for being an outstanding student, Lisa revealed herself as a girl by taking off her disguise. In her speech, Lisa briefly talks about how the boys do face a different kind of injustice to girls. After the boys start fighting, she also says that whatever the answer is to gender politics, she's happy to be a girl who's good at maths. Her entire speech is "Gender politics does not matter as long as you get the results you want".

* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Melanie Upfoot seems to be a reference to writer and activist Creator/MargaretAtwood, for whom gender and power politics are an usual topic, although this is strange given that the real Atwood has actually spoken ''against'' the kind of PoliticalOvercorrectness portrayed here.

-->'''?:''' Do it, Lisa! You'll be greater than or equal to boys!\\

* DoesNotLikeMen: After Skinner made a sexist remark that required Superintendant Chalmers to overcorrect the situation Principal Upfoot was assigned as principal. Upfoot spent the funding exclusively on the girls side of the school, while the boys were unfairly punished for Skinner's mistake by having their side reduced to a ghetto. Though she had a look of enjoyment when Chalmers plants a kiss on her.

* ButtMonkey: Principal Skinner. Nothing good happens to him in this episode, he's beaten up by the Broadway Itchy and Scratchy actors, gets condemned for his comments, is demoted to assistant groundskeeper, abused by groundskeeper Willie and finally gets overpowered and pinned down by squirrels while they pour poison in his mouth.

* {{Hypocrite}}: Melanie Upfoot, for all her attitude towards Skinner being appropriate given his sexist remarks, was just as sexist in how she treated the boys. She divided up the school by gender, took what little funding the school had and used it exclusively to improve the girls' side, and the boys were treated like animals as their side of the school was reduced to a ghetto.

* MythologyGag: Lisa's Jake Boyman disguise includes a wig that's the same hair color and style as Homer's when he was a teenager.

* PoliticalCorrectnessGoneMad: What Skinner said was definitely reprehensible but segregating the entire school by sex is disproportionate. Both sides suffered from this, the boys were treated like animals while the girls were denied proper education.

* DoesNotLikeMen: After Skinner made a sexist remark that required Superintendant Chalmers to overcorrect the situation Principal Upfoot was assigned as principal. Upfoot spent the funding exclusively on the girls side of the school, while the boys were unfairly punished for Skinner's mistake by having their side reduced to a ghetto.

* HehHehYouSaidX: Chalmers refers to Skinner's sexists comments as "diarrhea of the mouth". The entire student body erupts in laughter.

* {{Irony}}: Despite being denied the necessary funding for their education, the boys had a far better education system than the girls.

* KabukiTheatre: ''Stab-A-Lot'' has shades of this. Itchy, Scratchy, the old cat, and the singing knives are played by puppets, as stagehands in black suits control them from the back. This practice originated in Japanese Bunraku puppet theater.

* OnlyOneFindsItFun: Inverted. Marge is the only member of the family shown not to enjoy the musical, being intimidated by the actors walking down the main aisle. Lisa appreciates the artistic design choices behind the play, Bart cheers at being "drenched in blood" (red streamers), and Homer enjoys when the Scratchy animatronic's head blows off and lands on him.

* AffectionateParody: The episode opens with the familiy going to see ''Stab-A-Lot: The Itchy & Scratchy Musical'', an outright parody of the Broadway ''Theatre/TheLionKing''; The name ''Stab-A-Lot'' is a take on ''Theatre/{{Spamalot}}''.

* {{Hypocrite}}: Melanie Upfoot, for all her attitude towards Skinner being appropriate given his sexist remarks, was a misandrist. She divided up the school by gender, took what little funding the school had and used it exclusively to improve the girls side while the boys side had turned into a ghetto.

* EpicFail: Assistant Groundskeeper Skinner's attempt to poison the squirrels infesting Springfield Elementary. They overpower him, pin him down and pour the poison in his mouth.
** Principal Upfoot's attempts to teach the girls math were treated as more of an empowerment seminar....and as Lisa pointed out didn't actually teach them anything about math.
* FridgeHorror: Nelson never finds out that the "boy" he had beaten up in school was actually Lisa Simpson, whom he had dated and had feelings for. Imagine the guilt he would likely experience for a long time had he found out.

* RealLifeWritesThePlot: The episode is a reference to Larry Summers resigning from the presidency of Harvard University due to sexist remarks he made about women in STEM.

* SweetPollyOliver: After learning that the boys' side of the school teaches math properly, Lisa, with some help of Marge, disguises herself as a boy named Jake Boyman, nicknamed "Toilet" by the other kids, to sneak in.

* ButtMonkey: Principal Skinner. Nothing good happens to him in this episode, he's beaten up by the Broadway Itchy and Scratchy actors, gets condemned for his comments, and is demoted to assistant groundskeeper.

* EpicFail: Assistant Groundskeeper Skinner's attempt to poison the squirrels infesting Springfield Elementary.