Question 1:
In The Way We Never Were, Stephanie Coontz suggests that society romanticizes past generations of family life and points out that these memories are merely myths that prevent us from “dealing more effectively with the problems facing today’s families” (Coontz x). Coontz proposes that researchers can take empirical data and create misleading causality for that data, thus feeding cultural myth and/or experience. Coontz believes that “an overemphasis on personal responsibility for strengthening family values encourages a way of thinking that leads to moralizing rather than mobilizing for concrete reforms” (Coontz 22). She calls on us to direct our attention to social reforms, which can be accomplished by avoiding victim-blaming strategies and asking questions. Coontz suggests that conflict arises within society as we idealize past family traditions and demonize new family traditions. She expresses how society dismisses the difficulties of the past and highlights only the good. Coontz states, "We need to get past abstract nostalgia for traditional family values and develop a clearer sense of how past families actually worked” (Coontz 13). She suggests that in order to distract people from social ills (e.g. lack of strong government support for family and a social safety net) and government responsibility, focus is put on families and how they have failed: “Despite empirical evidence to the contrary, the myths about family persist largely as a way to explain social ills through private, domestic arrangements” (Notes xi). The focus on people’s personal and intimate domestic lives distracts us from civil and community responsibilities, which creates conflict within society. Parents tend to be blamed, as a way of distracting...
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... to force your idea on us” (Black Film).
“When you become successful one day- you do your business with heart” (Jal Performance).
Works Cited
Appiah, Kwame Anthony. Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2006.
Bechhdel, Alison. Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2006.
Coontz, Stephanie. The Way We Never Were. New York, November 2011.
Diamond, Jared. Collapse. New York: Penguin Group, 2005.
Emmanuel Jal. Knight Auditorium, Babson Park. 30 11 2011.
Henderson, Shallana. A Diversity Snapshot at Babson. Babson Park, MA, Spring 2008.
Life and Debt. Film. Dir. Stephanie Black. 2001.
Morris, Bob. True Tales of Double Dating with My Dad Assisted Loving. New York : HarperCollins, 2008.
Norberg-Hodge, Helena. Ancient Futures. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1991.
Richard Rodriguez was an established author of the 1980’s and 90’s. In his article titled Family Values (1992) he questioned the integrity and overall opinion of the American family system. Family Values uses the contexts of social and political ideologies to achieve its goals. His overall message with this argument is the competing types of family values and their application in real world settings. In this expository article, Rodriguez relies on his ability to weave pathos and ethos into a well-written argument that captivates his audience and encourages them to question the average American family system.
I think we all tend to blame something or somebody when things turn out badly; however, what happens when such blame involves an innocent subject? And the reason behind it is because of fear of the unknown future—a.k.a change. In the Modern Scholar essay, “Family: Idea, Institution, and Controversy,” Betty G. Farrell discusses the social and political structures that influences our concept of family; one of the influences are the political “scapegoats” caused by the
Brookes, Julian. "Cosmopolitanism: How To Be a Citizen of the World." Mother Jones. N.p., 23 Feb. 2006. Web. 20 Apr. 2014.
The idea of family is a central theme in Lorraine Hansberry’s play A Raisin in the Sun. Hansberry alludes to the Old Testament book of Ruth in her play to magnify “the value of having a home and family”(Ardolino 181). The Younger family faces hardships that in the moment seem to tear them apart from one another, but through everything, they stick together. The importance of family is amplified by the choices of Walter and Beneatha because they appear to initiate fatal cracks in the Younger family’s foundation, but Mama is the cement who encourages her family to pull together as one unit. The hardships of the family help develop a sense of unity for the Younger household.
However, a cosmopolitan would argue that the ethical value and rights granted should apply to every individual, instead of communities or nations. Even David Miller recognizes that it is natural to believe we have a certain obligation or responsibility to others outside our own nation, such as the world’s poor. This is because we are all human and have a humanitarian impulse inside us that makes us concerned with the well-being of others.
Talcott Parsons and Robert Bales, two of the leading figures in sociology, may be considered the founding fathers for the ideas of the “modern family” and the “male-breadwinner family.” Collectively, their work has influenced how Americans analyze families and has sparked new ideas regarding the American family from sociologists such as Stephanie Coontz and Arlie Hochschild. However, when studying the American family, Parsons and Bales fail to understand that the “ideal” family may not be so ideal for everyone. They neglect to consider societal influences and economic changes when discussing patriarchal social norms as the most optimal family structure. Their description of the male-breadwinner family consists of the father being the “instrumental leader” within the home, providing economically for his family based on his occupational earnings. Meanwhile, the mother is considered the manager of the household, providing for her husband and children physically, emotionally, and mentally.
Everyone in the world belongs to a subculture. Each subculture has its own sets of traditions, relics, and artifacts. Relics and artifacts are symbolic, material possessions important to one's subculture. Relics are from the past; artifacts are from the present. These traditions, relics, and artifacts help shape the personalities of individuals and how they relate with others. Individuals know about these items through storytelling in the subculture. Families are good examples of subcultures. My family, a middle-class suburban Detroit family of Eastern European heritage, has helped shape who I am through story telling about traditions, artifacts, and relics.
It’s not easy to build an ideal family. In the article “The American Family” by Stephanie Coontz, she argued that during this century families succeed more when they discuss problems openly, and when social institutions are flexible in meeting families’ needs. When women have more choices to make their own decisions. She also argued that to have an ideal family women can expect a lot from men especially when it comes to his involvement in the house. Raymond Carver, the author of “Where He Was: Memories of My Father”, argued how his upbringing and lack of social institutions prevented him from building an ideal family. He showed the readers that his mother hide all the problems instead of solving them. She also didn’t have any choice but to stay with his drunk father, who was barely involved in the house. Carvers’ memoir is relevant to Coontz argument about what is needed to have an ideal family.
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
My motivation to research, discover, and stimulate social change is rooted in my childhood experiences. As a young child I grew up in a household filled with domestic violence, which ultimately ended with the suicide of my father. I subsequently came to know a variation of the typical American nuclear family: a single parent household. As I began to study family dynamics further, I was able to see my life experiences in a broader context. In hindsight, I now realize the impact and weight my own mother had on my personal development. It was through her strength, determination, and optimism that I was able to find the spark within myself to set goals and dreams for my future. She encouraged me never to accept anything at face value, including the way our society attempts to define my womanhood. As a result of this, I now question American culture’s classification of a ‘successful’ family and the factors that determine a ‘stable’ family.
How can a simple six letter word be so complicated to define? Family is a single word that is open to many interpretations depending on the individual. If you try to condense this ideal to a single clinical definition you end up excluding numerous members of society. What comes to mind when you think of the word family? While in the most broken down and literal sense, family means a relative with a blood or legal bond, the word family can encompass blood relations, adoptions, and even intentional relationships such as friendships. Economies, cultures, and backgrounds can further differentiate what one’s perception of a family is. For many people, including me, a family is so much more. It is the amount of commitment, cohesiveness, and importance
"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.
Throughout history, the roles of men and women in the home suggested that the husband would provide for his family, usually in a professional field, and be the head of his household, while the submissive wife remained at home. This wife’s only jobs included childcare, housekeeping, and placing dinner on the table in front of her family. The roles women and men played in earlier generations exemplify the way society limited men and women by placing them into gender specific molds; biology has never claimed that men were the sole survivors of American families, and that women were the only ones capable of making a pot roast. This depiction of the typical family has evolved. For example, in her observation of American families, author Judy Root Aulette noted that more families practice Egalitarian ideologies and are in favor of gender equality. “Women are more likely to participate in the workforce, while men are more likely to share in housework and childcare (apa…).” Today’s American families have broken the Ward and June Cleaver mold, and continue to become stronger and more sufficient. Single parent families currently become increasingly popular in America, with single men and women taking on the roles of both mother and father. This bend in the gender rules would have, previously, been unheard of, but in the evolution of gender in the family, it’s now socially acceptable, and very common.
In order for society to meet the basic social needs of its members, social institutions, which are not buildings, or an organization or even people, but a system whose of social norms, mores and folkways that help make people feel important. Social institutions, according to our textbook, is defined as a fundamental component of this organization in which individuals, occupying defined statues, are “regulated by social norms, public opinion, law and religion” (Amato 2004, p.961). Social institutions are meant to meet people’s basic needs and enable the society to survive. Because social institutions prescribe socially accepted beliefs, values, attitudes and behaviors, they exert considerable social control over individuals.
When the word “family” is discussed most people think of mothers, fathers, and other siblings. Some people think of grandparents, aunts, uncles, and even cousins and more on the pedigree tree. Without family in people 's lives they would not be the same people that they grew up to be today and in the future. When people hear the word family they think about, the ones who will help them in any way they can whether it 's money, support, advice, or anything to help them succeed in life. Family will forever be the backbone of support. They are the ones who support their children during those life decisions. Family is not always blood related. Finally family is forever, family will never go away.