Essay On Family

The textbook defines "family" as "the basic unit in society traditionally consisting of two parents rearing their children" and includes "any of various social units differing from but regarded as equivalent to the traditional family". Ideas about what families are come to us partly from our surroundings. From the time we are young, we are exposed to ideas about what families ought to look like and how they should function. We are exposed to alternative images as we become acquainted with the different family structures portrayed by the media; books, newspapers, magazines, films, and especially television. For decades, television has served as a high-powered cultural lens on families. For the most part, these images have tended to be conventional
Also, with the rise of more diverse family units, the characteristics of which "vary dramatically" by several factors such as race, age, and economic status, gender roles have slightly deviated from those traditionally delineated to the father and mother. These roles are now more equally distributed, which is correlated with the changing economic role of women. However, certain expectations of the parents ' roles are still perpetuated; society for the most part still expects the father to be the “breadwinner,” and while the mother may or may not work, she is still expected to take on most of the domestic responsibilities. In the 1950s, television largely mirrored the prevalent concept of the American family. Popular shows like Leave it to Beaver and The Brady Bunch depicted the family as a heterosexual, patriarchal, churchgoing unit with chaste children. But in the 1960s, family depictions began to change. Modern Family were on the air in the 1950s people would be horrified by its content. A homosexual couple living together with an adopted child & an older man married to a much younger woman are only a few yet dramatic changes depicted in our society. Woman now play a more dominant role than they did in shows like Leave it to Beaver and The Brady Bunch. Women are seen with careers outside of the home, not relying on their husbands for financial support. However, television still tends to portray traditional gender roles within families. In Modern Family, for instance, Claire is often seen doing almost all of the housework, cooking, and juggling of the kids. The family that depicts the most drastic change is that of the homosexual pair Cam and Mitchell. Though the two are both male it is evident that Cam is much more feminine than his counterpart Mitchell. It seems ironic that even in a