Are Families Dangerous?

In "Are Families Dangerous?" Barbara Ehrenreich discusses how "media fixations" are recently allowing us to see the true grime that is our ideal family system. Ehrenreich's main contention is that families "can be a nest of pathology and a cradle of gruesome violence." She states that somewhere inside us, whether or not we want to believe; we know that this is going on around us, and media representations are outing the evils of family life. Implying that families might not be the shiny, happy role-players that we all would like to think of, she speaks of the unthinkable, gruesome crimes to the weak, and infirm, of these so-called families. She elaborates with the supposed fact that ."..families get...more dangerous...and dysfunctional (so) they ought to disband," even though she mainly grasps on to media portrayals. All in all, she concludes that we all try to duck away from all ill feelings toward anti-families, yet she does mention hope that come in the form of outside moral help. Ehrenreich asserts that we all, healthy or dysfunctional, need guidance from friends, relatives, and our community so we do not implode; also, in her final plea she emphasizes that we need more gender equality and better child welfare.

Ehrenreich's assumption that we all need help is just that, and assumption. On some levels some of us do need help, be it outside, or inside, but her article is flawed. She starts out with the media coverage of certain so-called dysfunctional families. No one doubts their validity of being dysfunctional, we must, however, doubt Ehrenreich's attempt to make the actual family norm more akin to a pride of self-defeating lions rather than what you or I might call "normal." Instead of saying normal, or the "no...

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In conclusion, we all have our views and versions of the typical, or perfect, family, yet how come we buy in to the media's portrayal of the violent and abusive family dynamic? Is it a plague running rampant? Is it an issue amongst us all? Yes. Is it the norm? No. Nor is it the widest range of the family. Families who educate themselves, as well as support one another through emotional bonds, and the such, come closer to, and are the most widely recognized form of a sculpted and politically accurate family, as close to "typical or "normal" as it could ever get. We need families to help us when we fail, hold us when we're scared, teach us when we are unsure, and show us that a "normal family" is not specific, but is positive. In this sense we need stronger families; would you want to be the weakest link in your families' ongoing history? Think about it.