“Modern Family” is a mockumentary style sitcom that premiered in 2009 on ABC which has become one of the nation’s most popular television shows. It depicts the daily life of three families, a nuclear family consisting of a mother, father, and their three kids, a homosexual couple and their adopted daughter, and a mixed family with a stepson. As if that weren’t enough the three families are also related making it all one big multigenerational family. During its release producers and network executives were weary of the sitcom’s success due to the vast representations of family and how Americans would take to such representations. There was particular concern over the role of the homosexual couple and how the public would react to such an open relationship between the two men, Cameron and Mitchell. Concerns over these issues were quickly dissolved as ratings soared. Today depictions of LGBT characters in such shows including “Modern Family” and other forms of media have made viewers more comfortable with same sex relationships. In 2013 the sitcom was renewed for its fifth season indicating a huge cultural shift in how the country accepts nontraditional relationships and allows such representations of family into their homes. Of the many sociological concepts that the show addresses the first and most prominent is exemplified by the complex family dynamics which raises the question of how exactly do we define family? It is very clear both the title of the sitcom as well as how the individuals interact and define each other, that in this case the word family can take many forms. In all three cases we see individuals who are united into cooperative groups that care for one another. Throughout the seasons we also see that no matter the ... ... middle of paper ... ...ee concepts that are not too different from that of heterosexual couples. These questions woven in with a comedic spin help the viewer in learning to relate to these challenges and in the process accept the couple. In conclusion, the increased portrayal of LGBT characters in media such as in shows like “Modern Family” has led to an increased acceptance of diverse lifestyles, by addressing the challenges faced by these individuals and highlighting their similarity to the nuclear heterosexual family. This influence is seen in both older populations as their preconceived expectations of the couple are challenged and younger generations that are growing with these new norms. Though these show’s primary role is entertainment through the use of comedy, they also serve a latent function of influencing culture through greater exposure and understanding of different styles.
Sitcoms." Fathering: A Journal of Theory, Research, and Practice about Men as Fathers 7.2 (2009): 114-39. Print. 17 April 2014.
Americans love their television, and television loves the American family. Since the 1970’s, the depiction of the American family on television has gone through many changes. In the 70s, the Brady Bunch showed an all-white nuclear family. Today, Modern Family, shows a family of blended races, ages, and sexualities. For thirty years, the sitcom family has reflected the changing society of its time and there is no exception of this for the families in The Brady Bunch and Modern Family. The lifestyle, social aspects, and economics situations of the Bradys and the Pritchett-Dunphys are similar in their attempts to portray the lives of families of their time, but differ drastically in the types of families they represent. The characters in Modern
Since the beginning of time itself, Television has been one the most influential pieces of media that the world has ever encountered. The beginning days of television depicted stereotypical mothers cooking and cleaning their homes for their husbands and children. Yet, as the decades passed, television took a dramatic turn, leaving the days of drama free entertainment as a vast memory. Now a day, however, when one hits the power on button to Bravo, the screen lights expand to ritzy socialites dealing with their everyday lives as “housewives”. Bravo TV’s hit number one reality television show, The Real Housewives of Atlanta, deals with the everyday lives of modern-day housewives. When speaking of these women and their family life, the reality series shows its viewers that family life in modern times is dramatic, full of misrepresentations of how people are perceived, and that fame comes at the cost of family.
Full House is the opening plot of three men raising three girls, and it thought to be totally innocuous, the classic show opened the door to conversations about same sex parents on a show. Now Full House paved the way for today’s show Modern Family. Modern Family might be the most progressive show in the past 50 years. Because it takes on all the awkward nontraditional American family elements and crams them into a comedy show. As I said with Full House it brought same sex parents together on a sitcom with Mitchell and Cameron as the gay couple with an adopted Asian baby. Jay and Gloria both provide the divorcees, and Claire and Phil are a strong woman with a very submissive husband and to add on that it is a very dysfunctional family. Basically the show embodies a rich but diverse definition of family held by contemporary
In the last fifty years television has evolved tremendously, especially sitcoms. For example, in 1969 The Brady Bunch aired a show that featured two broken families coming together to form a seemingly ‘perfect’ blended one. The television show emphasized the importance of appreciating your loved ones, as well as surmounting challenges that teenagers face in everyday life. In 2009, the perhaps ‘modern’ Brady Bunch aired on ABC, Modern Family. This show focuses on three families, and highlights non-traditional families, illustrating that there is no ‘perfect’ family. In the forty nine year gap between the two programs, social and cultural issues such as gay marriage, adoption, and multicultural marriages have made
According to Murray Bowen’s family systems theory, the family subsists in a system where as the individuals are inseparable from their network of relationships, but continue to strive to be individualized. Consequently, various forms of these networks are grounded in the domestic structure and the “normal” or “ideal” family and development derives from the interaction of the family members when they remain differentiated, unease is minimal, and partners have beneficial emotional communication with their own family members (Nichols, 2014). The concept of achieving individuality while remaining in a cohesive family unit may cause stress. Concepts such as differentiation of self, triangulation, emotional cutoff, and anxious attachment may aid in the elucidation of the family system. This theoretical concept along with these coinciding terms will be explored through one episode of the television series The Goldbergs called Rush.
Though not immune to criticism, Modern Family and Full House still claim glimpses of societal pressure when showing aspects of the “American family.”
According to Murray Bowen’s family systems theory, the family subsists in an arrangement, whereas the individuals are inseparable from their network of relationships, but continue to strive to be individualized. Consequently, various forms of these networks are grounded in the domestic structure and the “normal” or “ideal” family and its development is derived from the interaction of the family members as they remain differentiated, anxiety is minimal, and partners have beneficial emotional communication with their family members (Nichols, 2014). Subsequently, the idea of achieving individuality while remaining in a cohesive family unit may cause stress. Concepts such as differentiation of self, triangulation, emotional cutoff, and anxious attachment may aid in the elucidation of the family system. This theoretical concept along with these coinciding terms will be explored through one episode of the television series The Goldbergs called Rush.
When television first appeared back in the 1940's, times were very different. What we would consider completely normal today would have seemed quite taboo just a few decades ago. For example, in 1953, Lucille Ball was not allowed to say the word "pregnant" while she was expecting baby Ricky and it wasn't until the 1960's show Bewitched, that we saw a married couple actually sharing the same bed. Considering how conservative the television networks were back then, it is not hard to deduce that something as controversial as homosexuality would be far from discussed or portrayed at any level. It was only in 1973 that television premiered its first homosexual character. Over the next three decades the emergence of gay and lesbian characters in television has increased and decreased as the times have changed. Due to the resurgence of conservatism that came back in the early 1980's, homosexual topics were again reduced to a minimum. Since that time though, as many people can see, there has been a rise of gay and lesbian characters on television. One might think after a first glance at the previous sentence that there has been progress among gay and lesbian communities to have a fair representation in the media. However, if one looks hard at the circumstances surrounding their portrayal, many people may start to believe that if there has been any progress then it has been quite minimal.
Theoretical perspectives on families come in many forms. These perspectives help to provide a basis of understanding of the dynamic relationships found within families. Lamanna, Riedmann, and Stewart (2015) define the Interactionalist perspective as the communication and face to face encounters between to individuals and their ability to be aware of one another. This family view best applies to the father-daughter relationship between Gus and Toula Portokalos from My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Gus, the dominant rule setting father, has made it his goal to embrace their Greek Heritage to its fullest extent all while maintaining certain roles for each member of his immediate family. While Gus strives to protect the family’s roles and community
Note: This paper has a very long Annotated Bibliography. In recent years, same-sex relationships have become more encompassing in US society. State legislation is changing such as accepting gay marriages, enforcing anti-discrimination laws, and legal gay adoptions; the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community is becoming public. Gay-headed families, like heterosexuals, are diverse and varying in different forms.
The family unit has always been a treasured and revered dynamic on television and in movies. Dating all the way back to I Love Lucy, storylines focused on the relationship between man and woman. Ozzie and Harriet introduced us to the quintessential American family—father in a suit, mother in pearls, and two exceptional children. It wasn’t until the 1970s that gay characters and lifestyles began to emerge. In 1973, An American Family, a PBS series featured one of the family’s sons revealing his homosexuality. In 1977, the television show Soap costarred Billy Crystal as an openly gay man. In the 1980s, it became trendy to feature gay and lesbian characters in ensemble casts. If you watch reruns, you can always find the token gay, that is, the really flaming homo or the butch lesbian gym teacher. The motion picture Mannequin, starring Andrew McCarthy and Kim Catrall, featured Meshach Taylor as Hollywood, an eccentric, finger-snapping homosexual. Many stereotypes such as these continued until the early nineties.
"A family is a small social group of people related by ancestry or affection, who share common values and goals, who may live together in the same dwelling, and who may participate in the bearing and raising of children. They have a physical or emotional connection with each other that is ongoing" (Vissing, 2011) and is the foundation of all societies. They can be formed by a grouping of father-mother-children or even more complicated combination of relatives. In the primary stage of family life in the United States, everyone from every generation lived together in one house. Subsequently, the idea of traditional family evolved and a married couple with children is at present, often called the traditional family. There are many types of families; however, this paper will focus on the traditional family. It will describe how the functionalist perspective, conflict perspective, and the interactionism theory apply to the sociological institution known as a family. It will explain some of the similarities and differences between the sociological theories in regards to families and how they affect the family members.
The television sitcom Modern Family produced by Steven Levitan and Christopher Lloyd shows the many different types of a modern American family. According to Andrew Hampp, “The show is among the most-viewed scripted programs in prime time in its second season, averaging 11 million viewers during original airings and often ranked as the most DVRed program most weeks” (2). The television show is a frequently watched show and is liked by many viewers. Modern Family's storyline helps the families of viewers by being an influential and relatable show to different types of families. The show is about the lives of three different families that are all related. In the show there are Jay and Gloria, an intergenerational couple with two sons-- Manny (from Gloria’s previous relationship) and Joe, their new baby. Jay’s adult son Cameron is married to his gay partner Mitchell, and they adopted Lily from Vietnam. Finally, Jay’s daughter Claire is married to her heterosexual partner named Phil and they have three children. The show is influential to our culture today because it shows these different types of families and addresses controversial themes such as gay adoption, the different family connections and communications, intergenerational coupling, and acceptance of diversity within an extended family. The family is easy to relate to while watching because it is based off of real family situations.
The wrongful idea of a “normal” family has existed throughout Western society for generations. Following notions connected to heteronormativity, this “normal” family is typically depicted as white and is comprised from a heterosexual couple (Lecture, 2016). As Professor Lord explained, this “normal” family ideal therefore does not exist because it is socially construction of the biased idea of how a family should be and is maintained throughout society which results in discrimination (Lecture, 2016). The incorrect valuing of some families over another based off certain identity markers such as sexuality and race has been imbedded into our society’s institutions and systems, establishing the divisions of those who are included and excluded.