"The Strong Arms of the Ma" is the ninth episode of the fourteenth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons.
In the episode, Marge develops agoraphobia in response to a traumatic mugging and overcomes the fear through exercise and bodybuilding, which leads to her taking anabolic steroids and experiencing a change in personality.
Homer asks Rainier if he has anything that will increase in value when he dies, and is shown an old weight-lifting set, complete with dumbbells and bench press, which he ends up buying.
Marge, stunned, walks to her car in a daze and breaks down crying at the wheel in front of her kids.
Later, as Marge is about to leave the house, Homer gives her pepper spray and some tips on how to handle an attacker.
One day, when she is alone at home, she eyes Rainier Wolfcastle's weight-lifting set and decides to use it to pass the time.
Using the steroids, Marge exercises harder than ever, becoming very muscular and estrogen-depleted, which results in a short temper and violent behavior.
When Homer refuses Marge's sexual advances the night before the contest, she callously ignores his worries and then proceeds to pin him down and rapes him, before leaving him completely sore and exhausted to take care of the kids the next morning.
That night, the family attends the Iron Maiden Fitness Pageant to see the women's bodybuilding final.
Later, at the Simpson house, Marge burns the weight set in the furnace as the episode ends.
In her original pitch for the episode, Carolyn Omine had Homer being the one to get mugged, becoming agoraphobic as a result.
[3] The idea behind the design was that Marge, wanting to never be weak again, ends up overcompensating to become super aggressive and overpowering.
The way that Marge defends herself against her mugger is an homage to a scene in the film The Godfather in which Sonny Corleone beats up Carlo Rizzi.
In the bar scene where Marge looks upon her destruction, Samuel Barber's Adagio for strings – also used in the film Platoon – plays in the background.
"[5] Cinema.com describes the premise as "Marge becomes agoraphobic (yes, only for one episode) after being mugged on the street and rather strangely decides that the best thing to do is take up weight lifting.
[6] DVD Talk said, "What's encouraging is that the 300th episode, whether it's ‘Barting Over’ or ‘Strong Arms of the Ma,’ is simply a number to the writers and producers of The Simpsons at this point, rather than a finish line.