For numerous years now, when we think of the typical American family, our thoughts often go to the suburbs. We picture a family with a father, mother and the average 2.5 children. This ideal family most likely has it's roots in the 1950's. After World War II,, there was a significant move from urban and rural areas to the newly formed suburbs. A substantial part of this move can be attributed to the low interest mortgage loans supplied by the GI bill, signed into law in 1944.1 There was also another significant change coming to the American family, the television set. Families would gather in front of this relatively new device as a source not only for news but also for entertainment. Fathers of the 50's, many of whom as children, had grown up through the hard times of the Great Depression. Also, seen the horrors of the second world war were now within the peace and tranquility of their suburban homes with their families. This father served roles as provider, authoritarian, and wise counselor for his wife and children, much like the father, Ward Cleaver, played by Hugh Beaumont, on the 50's television show “Leave It To Beaver”. These roles would change somewhat over the next 60 years or so. Television sitcoms have reflected the changing roles of the American father as the provider, authoritarian, and counselor over the last 60 years.
For example, the quintessential suburban father of the 50's worked the typical 9-5 job. His wife was a stay at home mom commonly called a homemaker. It was his sole income that provided his family with the lifestyle, typical of this suburban life. This was the case for about sixty percent of homes in the 1950's.2 Shows like “Father Knows Best” and “Leave It To Beaver” reflected ...
... middle of paper ...
..., L. (2012). Disciplining Children in the 1950s | eHow. Retrieved March 23, 2014, from http://www.ehow.com/info_8339974_disciplining-children-1950s.html
Moon, G. (n.d.). The Top Eight Reasons to Use a VA Home Loan | Military.com. Retrieved March 23, 2014, from http://www.military.com/money/va-loans/top-8-reasons-to-use-va-loan.html
Morawska, A., & Sanders, M. (2011). Parental Use of Time Out Revisited: A Useful or Harmful Parenting Strategy? Journal of Child and Family Studies, 20(1), 1-8. doi:10.1007/s10826-010-9371-x
Phil Dunphy by actor ty burrell - Modern Family - ABC.com. (n.d.). Retrieved March 23, 2014, from http://abc.go.com/shows/modern-family/cast/character-phil
Whitmer, D. (n.d.). Be Your Teens Parent Not Their Friend. Retrieved March 23, 2014, from http://parentingteens.about.com/od/disciplin1/a/Be-Your-Teens-Parent-Not-Their-Friend.htm
Elaine Tyler May's Homeward Bound weaves two traditional narratives of the fifties -- suburban domesticity and rampant anticommunism -- into one compelling historical argument. Aiming to ascertain why, unlike both their parents and children, postwar Americans turned to marriage and parenthood with such enthusiasm and commitment, May discovers that cold war ideology and the domestic revival [were] two sides of the same coin: postwar Americans' intense need to feel liberated from the past and secure in the future. (May, p. 5-6, 10) According to May, "domestic containment" was an outgrowth of the fears and aspirations unleashed after the war -- Within the home, potentially dangerous social forces of the new age might be tamed, where they could contribute to the secure and fulfilling life to which postwar women and men aspired.(May, p. 14) Moreover, the therapeutic emphases of fifties psychologists and intellectuals offered private and personal solutions to social problems. The family was the arena in which that adaptation was expected to occur; the home was the environment in which people could feel good about themselves. In this way, domestic containment and its therapeutic corollary undermined the potential for political activism and reinforced the chilling effects of anticommunism and the cold war consensus.(May, p.14)
This major development, as described in Lynn Spiegel's article "The Suburban Home Companion", was largely driven by the concept of suburbia as a safe, clean environment (free from "undesirables" such as blacks and lower-income families) in which families could experience both an increased private and community life. This separation, Spiegel says, is what opened the opportunity for TV success. As nuclear suburban families desired to experience the "outside" world (including travel, unusual voyages etc.), they were also trapped in a homogenous communities where life was mundane, and immense pressure was put on each family in these "fair tale" towns to keep up with, and out-do, next door neighbours, and produce a consistently stable and satisfied appearance.
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
Many parts of history show that the 1950’s was a time of great turbulence and unrest in both politics and social life. All this unrest was caused by major historical events, including the Red Scare/McCarthyism and the Cold War. However, although many aspects of life in the 50’s were in such disarray, gender roles were not one of those aspects. In fact, there was a very narrow, strict idea of what it meant to be a male and a female during this time. The following discusses what was considered proper gender roles in the 1950’s and how these roles vary compared to the gender roles portrayed in the 1955 movie, Rebel Without a Cause.
As gender roles were enhanced, the nuclear family was birthed. This ideal family, mainly portrayed in popular culture, had a working father, homemaking mother, and children. Television shows depicting this type of household, Leave it to Beaver, and I Love Lucy, were not representative of the reality of America. Not all of Americans were white, and not all women were happy living as housewives (Boyer 101). Although most did not fit the mold
After viewing an episode of I Love Lucy, positive aspects of family and financial issues can be clearly seen in the 1950s. The Ricardo's are middle class, Ricky works as a club band leader and Lucy stays home and `poured all her energies into their nuclear family.' (37) This is a positive side of the 1950s because compared to a few decades before, `women quit their jobs as soon as they became pregnant,' (36) and concentrated more on raising children. These families were much more stable and made almost `60 percent of kids were born into male breadwinner-female homemaker families,' (37) which is a important factor for children to have a good childhood.
Suburbanization, roots of the “American dream.” A house occupied by a man and woman and their three kids; the man is the breadwinner, and the woman is the stay-at-home wife. The husband would leave the house to go to work while the wife happily stay at home to cook, clean, and care for the kids. This was the imagine that were painted for consumers after World War II. This was how success was defined. However, at the other end of rainbow was not a pot of gold. Women were angry and frustrated from being confined in their homes all day. Furthermore, African Americans were excluded from this “picture perfect” dream when the government created “red lining” and made it impossible for people of color to get a house loan. The impact of suburban growth
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
Though not immune to criticism, Modern Family and Full House still claim glimpses of societal pressure when showing aspects of the “American family.”
The Parents Television Council reviewed every original series airing during prime time (8:00-11:00 p.m.) on the broadcast networks during the 2001-2002 television season. The analysis encompassed 119 shows depicting 150 children. Key findings include: 47% live in a traditional family with their married biological parents, 14% are raised by single fathers, and 90% of TV single fathers are widowers. Of the 97 televis...
As mentioned before, sociologists Coontz and Hochschild further elaborate upon Parsons and Bales’ concepts of the American family, but they mostly critique the idea of the male-breadwinner family. One of the main arguments Coontz and Hochschild present is the decline of the male-breadwinner family due to the economic changes of the United States and the arising social norms of consumerism. Because Parsons and Bales never considered how the changes throughout society would affect family, they believed the male-breadwinner family would continue to be a functional type of family for everyone. However, within her text, “What We Really Miss about the 1950s,” Coontz specifically discusses the major expense of keeping mothers at home as consumption norms...
Throughout the decades, parenting has evolved resulting in altered child rearing experiences for adults. It has changed from the 1920s, when children had to work no matter where they lived, to now where you can't discipline your kid and society decides what is right. Punishing your child became customary over time, but today physical punishment is highly frowned upon. Looking into each of the decades since 1920, family life has been focused on the child and influenced by community expectations.
THOSE OF US WHO grew up in the 1950s got an image of the American family that was not, shall we say, accurate. We were told, Father Knows Best, Leave It to Beaver, and Ozzie and Harriet were not just the way things were supposed to be—but the way things were
The 1950s was a time when conformity held supreme in the culture at large. Issues such as women 's rights were thrown to the back as people tried to remain in the popular form of a family. These issues being put off only caused the prolonging of the tumultuous 1960s that would soon