...traditional view of a typical American family has evolved considerably over the years. The well-known image of a nuclear family and their loveable dog, cheerfully standing behind their picket fence is fading. The 1950's portrayal of popular families no longer pertains to the majority of Americans nowadays because our society is moving toward equality. The television sitcom series, Modern Family, attempts to embody a more contemporary image of American families. Nevertheless, their intention is to depict modern families nowadays all the while still emphasizing stereotypes and outdated views in terms of gender roles. The award-winning series Modern Family features the lives of three families who form a larger extended family. Besides the creative and hilarious writing of the show, the popularity results from viewers easily relating to the characters and their family dynamics. As far as one can see, each character and respective family within the show appears to be like the typical family seen in today’s society. There are many well-liked and innovative features within the show that deals with modern day households, such as a gay couple who adopts a Vietnamese baby or a divorced father who has a multiracial marriage with a younger woman. However, the term "modern" in the show's title isn't necessarily spot-on. The Dunphys, who are the utmost old-fashioned out of the three, depict the nuclear family view just as the aforementioned 1950's happy family standing behind their picket fence...
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...October 2, 2014 Tues/Thurs 11-12:15 Professor E Family Case Study – Modern Family Modern Family, a sitcom that has been on the air for five years, is a realistic look into the dynamics of a large family with an interracial couple, a homosexual couple, and an adopted child. While not a typical family, the premise is certainly more up to speed with families in today’s society. The show has been very successful and it may be due in part to the fact that the show pokes fun of gays, has a sassy Vietnamese girl, is always comparing brains and beauty, and just doesn’t seem to leave anyone out. The dynamics and diversity of this family do portray “modern” times, however, the backgrounds and lifestyles are actually a little old-fashioned. Jay is the patriarch of the family. He is divorced with two older children and four grandchildren. He is remarried to Gloria, a Latin bombshell, and has a step-son, Manny. Jay and Gloria recently had a baby, so he now has another child to raise. Jay appears to have dated traditional values by being the bread winner while his wife is a homemaker. Gloria is most often seen at their large home cooking food or taking care of Manny. This domestic role also supports the ideology of patriarchy. Jay is in charge of the family. Though, Gloria usually has the final say when it relates to Manny because she is the biological mother and caregiver. Jay often makes fun of Gloria’s Spanish heritage. Gloria is originally from Colombia and talks about growing...
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...Modern Family The show “Modern Family” is one of the most successful sitcom on television today. The show depicts a total of three families, a parental family, (Jay and Gloria) and the families of the two grown siblings, (Mitchell & Claire). Claire is married to Phil and has three children of their own, while Mitchell is a gay father with a live-in husband, Cameron. The on-screen worldview of the families are very open with an almost anything goes attitude that is based on an atheist or an agnostics perspective. The limited amount of shows that I watched did not display any references to God. The family values portrayed the “New Normal”, that is currently being offered on many new television shows. On the show, I witnessed a lot of light-hearted moments that made fun of the life choices that each character made, and how different characters resolved them. The comedy is situational, and dilemmas faced are often real-life, but offer whimsical, light-hearted solutions. The shows worldview is secular, but adheres to defining the “New Normal” in its application. The three families all interact with each other and depict three different types of households, all coping with everyday problems that define that particular group. When dealing with gay issues, Mitchel and Cameron are in the fore front offering an exaggerated look and perspective. Family issues are addressed by Phil and Claire, and how they interact with parenting of their three children. Jay and Gloria deal with life...
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...Deviance, Sexuality, and the Family Many people do not notice how many times sexual and family deviance pops up in front of our eyes on the television. Everyday hundreds of shows come on TV that portray the way society reacts to strays in the social norm. Examples of family and social deviance can be found in shows like The Addams Family and Modern Family. LGBT members can be found throughout Modern Family because of the main characters being in a gay relationship. Family deviance is an example of the social control that society places on certain individuals. The Addams Family and Modern Family show how the US society deals with sexual and family deviance through the use of LGBT people and social norms. In the show Modern Family, sexual deviance is presented when Cam and Mitchell kiss for the first time on the show. Mitchell had rejected Cams kiss because he was embarrassed to show any kind of public display of affection. Society has made Mitchell feel like their gay relationship should not be displayed in public because people frown upon members of the LGBT community (Season 2 Episode 2). In another episode of Modern Family sexual deviance is portrayed when Cam pretends to be straight to win a bet with his partner,...
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...Debunking the Modern Family Myth According to Stephanie Coontz in “What We Really Miss About The 1950’s”, the 1950’s were symbolic in terms of the nuclear American family. The “typical” nuclear American family structure consisted of an unemployed stay-at-home mom, working dad, a child or two, and a suburban home. In her article, she refers to the 1950’s as being the optimal time period for family’s where the ideology in television shows such as “Father Knows Best” and “Leave It To Beaver” was not just a depiction of how life was supposed to be lived, but an accurate portrayal of how life actually was back then. Today, the once commonly known family structure has been modified and tweaked and the standard image of a modern day family is no longer exactly how it looked 60 years ago. Twenty-first century culture has opened the door for many new views including the redefining of the typical structure of a family; in today’s world the model family is no longer just between a male and a female but also includes homosexual couples (Male/Male or Female/Female). Before complying with the definition of how the traditional family should be, we must be able to first define what a marriage truly is. Marriage as defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary is “the intimate or close union of two individuals”, though the definition seems stable enough it isn’t the only definition of marriage and the idea of marriage itself is actually quite wide spread as we see in Evan Wolfson’s “What is Marriage...
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...The television series Modern Family attempts to portray a more contemporary view of American families being that the traditional image of a nuclear family is fading out. However, despite the show’s aim at presenting the image of modern families in America today, the show still emphasizes stereotypes and outdated patriarchal ideologies. All three of the families on the show Modern Family are in the upper middle class. The first family is the Dunphys—the husband is Phil Dunphy who is a the breadwinner that works as a real estate agent while his wife Claire Dunphy is a stay-at-home mother. The two of them have three kids; a daughter named Haley who is attractive but known as the “dumb blonde” (but is in fact not actually blonde), a daughter named...
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...Today's Modern Family - How it has Changed.... Shawn A. Gropper COM/172 - Elements of University Composition and Communication II August 11, 2014 Ms. Elaine Boyle Today's Modern Family - How it has Changed.... Traditional families of the past are nothing like what they are today; due in part to the continual pressure society places on the modern family. “The nuclear family (or traditional family) is a term used to define a family group consisting of a pair of adults and their children.” (Encyclopedia Britannica Online. 2011) Society is constantly trying to put a label on individuals, spouses, and families, like the nuclear family. Because of these labels and a competitiveness between relatives and the rest of humanity – families have found themselves trying to stay one step ahead in life. “Families are susceptible to mounting pressures from finances and work. Raising a family can be rewarding and demanding even in healthy social and economic climates, so stressful times can make things much more challenging.” (American Psychological Association, 2010, Paragraph 1) These stressors could include financial hardships, changes in the family; including divorce, additions to the family, or even death, and the continual changes with technology. Therefore; does the term “traditional family” still abide with society today? If not, how can society bring back the family values that once existed within our ancestors? Constant Stressors Often times a family is like a bank account...
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...Modern family was introduced to America as a show about three families, a traditional family structure, homosexual family, and a mixed family that all interact with each other. Keeping Up With the Kardashians are an American family with their own reality TV show, centering around a celebrities everyday life. In analyzing the two popular TV shows Modern Family and Keeping Up With the Kardashians from a feminist perspective, it is evident that American culture in today’s society is either pushing or differing away from the norms of gender roles and hegemonic ideologies. In September 2009, Modern Family first aired on ABC and is not on it’s seventh season. This culturally defining series has now won five consecutive Emmy awards and a Golden Globe award and continues to entertain American with its sitcom. The head of the family is Jay, who is married to a much younger Latin woman named Gloria, and he tires to keep up with her and her passion filled son Manny. Claire, is Jays daughter who is a hard worker but had trouble raising her three kids while her husband Phil is worried about “getting down” or being just like them. Their three kids are Haley, a typical bratty teenager, Alex, who is incredibly smart, and Luke who is very different. The third family is Claire’s homosexual brother and his partner Cameron and together they have an adopted little girl named Lily. Throughout this show we watch the three families go through their everyday interesting lives. Keeping Up With the Kardashians...
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...male, female, white, black, straight, and homosexual. These stereotypes are subtly shown, but noticeable nonetheless in the popular television show Modern Family. The sitcom documents the daily life of a fictitious “modern” family, consisting of a common Caucasian family, a gay couple, and a young-wife-older-husband couple, all of whom are related. The stereotypes of the Dunphy family, particularly Claire, stand out as she fulfills the expected stereotypical role of a stay-at-home mother, her family constantly teasing her and her consistent attempts to contain her family to be a normal family. Being a stay-at-home mother who doesn’t hold a job, Claire depends completely on her husband Phil in terms of income, which is identical to countless other TV shows. Claire’s character is based around this stereotypical image of women in television: no contribution to the household financially, and the classic characteristics of motherhood. In the episode “Phil’s New Car,” Claire tells Phil to go buy a car that is fit for the family, and gets upset with him when he returns with a sports car, clearly unsuitable for their family of five. Claire, completely concerned with Phil’s decision, berates him, showing her attribute for wanting the entire family to travel together. In response to Claire’s natural motherly character, the rest of her family makes fun of her, constantly ostracizing her for attempting to perform her motherly duties. When, in another episode, the town’s local paper pronounced...
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...The concept of the family has changed drastically from being of an extended family in pre-industrial society which contained two or more generations living under one roof. The role of the family was primarily a unit of production and reproduction which revolved around the farm. In comparison in industrial societies the nuclear family consists of two adults living together with children. This type of family structure was referred as the "stem" family. The changes in marriage, divorce and cohabitation have contributed to the growing number of new types of family. Two in five of all marriages are now remarriages, which makes stepfamilies one of the fastest growing family forms in Britain. In the decade to 2006, the number of single parent families also increased to 2.3 million, making up 14% of all families. Consequently more and more children are now growing up in single parent families, and in stepfamilies. A growing number of couples are also now living apart together, often following failed marriages or cohabitations. Initial estimates suggest that around two million people have regular partners in other households excluding full-time students and people who live with their parents. In most cases this is due to working in a different location to the family home or because the relationship is still in the early stages. However, women’s focus on their career may also be a factor. As women choose to focus on their career before settling into a committed relationship, they are getting...
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...The faculty book I chose to read was Joshua Gamson’s Modern Families: Stories of Extraordinary Journeys to Kinship. Joshua Gamson’s Modern Families tells a variety of stories about unconventional family creation. These stories highlight how many of today’s families do not fit the traditional family mold that many of us have grown up with, but makes them no lesser a family and enlightens readers on the changing nature of family structure in our modern society. Professor Gamson received his BA from Swarthmore College, his MA and PhD from the University of California Berkeley, and previously taught at Yale University for nearly a decade. Professor Gamson has previously authored three other books in addition to Modern Families, some of which have...
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...The good news is you’ve won a lifetime supply of razor blades. The bad news is you’re going to die. This is the dilemma that Phil Dunphy faces in sitcom Modern Family’s episode, ‘Lifetime Supply.’ For Those new to the series, Modern Family follows the lives of three very different families; 21 century gay couple with an adopted daughter, older man with glamorous young wife and the tradition yet dysfunctional nuclear family. The audience finds comedy in the unique stereotypes each character plays on and the relationship they share with each other, and through the episodes discover each character’s qualities, which makes them such memorable TV icons. Phil’s end of his lifetime supply of razor blades isn’t his greatest problem though. Gloria’s dreams are plagued by black rats, and after consulting her Columbian traditions, believes that something bad is going to happen to someone close to her. What makes this scene so memorable is how absurd this belief seems to be. This is emphasised in Jay’s response, clearly not understanding Gloria’s cultural beliefs, saying, “well I dreamt of a lucky blue cow, were good to go.” This is just one example of the suburb stereotypes displayed by Gloria and Javier, focusing on spiritual and cultural stereotypes of Columbian people....
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...ABC's Modern Family is a renewed look on the standard American family. This is a large claim, one that can be looked at in full with different aspects of Media Literacy. Analyzing today’s media allows us to understand how different have an effect on the audience, and whether that effect can be positive or negative on society. Beside the creative and humorous story-lines, the family is constructed in a way that many people can relate to. Media are constructions. Three individual families represent the complexity of "family" in today's modern world. The show aims to do this by including several mixed family situations. Jay Pritchett is divorced and remarried a much younger Colombian wife, Gloria. Gloria has son Manny Pritchett from a past marriage. From his first marriage, Jay has two children, Mitchell and Claire. Mitchell Pritchett and Cameron Tucker form a gay couple who adopt a Vietnamese baby. Claire married Phil Dunphy, and they have three children. Haley, the eldest daughter who dropped out of college, Alex, a bright middle daughter, and Luke, the goofy youngest son (Cast). Although Modern Family represents many modern tastes of what it is to be "family", the show still uses many stereotypes to build its humor. It becomes evident that without traditional aspects the construction of the "Modern Family" would fall apart. These stereotypes can create a negative sense of appeal to different demographics, including those they are trying to represent. This...
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...Modern Family Values The health of modern society is dependent upon the family unit and the values it cultivates in its members. Research regarding the relationship between social stablity and health outcomes has identified a lower risk of chronic illness in societies with higher social stablity. (German & Latkin, 2012). A society is composed of individuals who share commonalities in values, traditions and activities; and families are the building blocks of society. The family unit provides the means by which society populates itself and cultivates the values, traditions and activities which define the group as a unique society. A society’s stability is affected by the adherence to thoses commonalities and the family unit’s ability to impart those values upon its members. The basic functions of the family include psychological stabilization, socialization, provision of economic and physical necessities. (Friedman, Bowden, & Jones, 2003) These functions are not static, they change as the family matures and their roles within the family change. Where a child was onced cared for physically and economically by a parent years later the opposite could occur where an aged parent would be dependent both physically and economically on the now adult child. Successful changes in family function and structure in response to such a drastic reversal require an intense effort; and often despite satisfying the economic and physical functions; issues often arise due to the lack...
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...the canyons of Studio 5 several weeks ago, the cast of ABC’s hit series “Modern Family” was busy filming an episode. As crew members huddled around the monitors, Cam, the portly, gay Mr. Dad portrayed by Eric Stonestreet, learned some bad news. His partner, Mitchell, had failed to mail out invitations to a fund-raiser in their home that night. Cam had ordered the crab cakes and rented the harps, but he had no guests. “Get me Mitchell!” Cam shouted to his nephew, Luke. What followed was a high-tech version of “Who’s on First?” Luke doesn’t know Mitchell’s number. Cam grabs the phone and presses speed dial. Mitchell lets the call go to voice mail. Luke doesn’t know how to press redial. Cam snatches the receiver and gets twisted in his headset. We’ve had five back-and-forths in 10 seconds and still nobody has managed to communicate. Shakespeare used mistaken identities to flummox his lovers. “Modern Family” uses dropped Skype connections. In the last two years, “Modern Family” has ridden timely premises like this to surging viewership and six Emmys, including outstanding comedy series. In a rare concurrence, the darling of the critics is one of the highest rated comedies on television, and is the 20th rated show over all this season. This unusual success for a family comedy raises questions: What aspects of contemporary life has it tapped into? What does “Modern Family” say about modern families? From the beginning, the creators Steve Levitan and Christopher Lloyd...
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