Moore, L.R. (2003). American values in decline: What can we do? FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, 72(1), 15-15. http://search.proquest.com…
The family that most of us think of when we say “average American family” is the Dunphy family, which consists of parents Phil and Claire and their three kids Haley, Alex, and Luke. Claire’s character in the show is stemmed from the stereotypical housewife that the media has placed upon women in general along side women in relationships. This stereotype stages women as weaker and subordinate to men, because the women do not financially provide for the family it automatically gives the men power over the household. Claire’s identity is made up of these types of characteristics such as motherhood, family orientation and domesticity. We also see instances where the gender stereotype actually switched sides. For instance, in the episode “Phil’s New Car,” Phil’s task for the day is find and purchase a new vehicle for the family per Claire’s instructions. Even in the first few moments the show is…
The traditional family structure in the United States is used to be considered as a family support system involving two married people providing care for their family. However, the traditional family structure has become less common as we head into the 21th century. The changes among families in America has shifted to very powerful changes, including divorce and single-parent families, teenage pregnancy, and same-sex marriage, and increased rate of adoption. Social movements such as advanced technology, longer life spans, the freedom of increasing the use of birth control, women’s increasing engagement into the workforce, and a dramatic increase in divorce rates have restructured the American family’s life nowadays.…
This essay will discuss the “modern family Structures” within society and explore the lack of any “normal” or standard family. Using existing sociology perspectives this essay will further discuss modern behaviours, experiences and life chances within a specific family unit and how they fit the existing theories. Finaly the author will evaluate the usefulness if any of these theories and how they can be used in a coherent manner to explain the impact they have on a family unit and in turn what impact the family has on the individual.…
The present structure of the average family in America is changing, mainly due to the growing number of mothers who now work outside the home. The current mark of dual-earner families stands at 64 percent, making it a solid majority today. This alteration of the "traditional" structure of the family is a catalyst for other changes that may soon occur.…
This essay, The Myth of the Model American Family, is a discussion of the concept of an ideal family in the different perspective specifically social, cultural and economic. This is also an attempt to identify the structural changes in relation to the global development and the international economic crisis that immensely created impact on their lives. However, the discussion will limit itself on the different identifiable and observable transformations as manifested in the lifestyles, interrelationships and views of family members and will not seek to provide an assessment of their psycho-social and individual perceptions.…
This article describes how today’s family structure is increasingly different than the stereotypical family consisting of two parents two children. Oswald discusses changing roles in the household, and how pluralistic structures of family are replacing monolithic ones. This is reflected in advertising, which increasingly caters to a fragmented family with more individualized adds. Oswald discusses changes in the workforce that support the idea of a pluralistic family structure. With more women working overtime, and men working part time, a variety of role compositions can be taken on at home. She explains that the connections and desire for togetherness is being satisfied through individual needs met within a community.…
The image of the model family is breathtaking, a housewife-mother, a breadwinner father, a couple of kids and a pet or two. This is the dream of most Americans but at the same time is a cliché. “The “traditional” family… has existed for little more than two hundred years” (18). This idea has been so widely accepted due to the attention that it has received in the media. Like Gary Soto in “Looking for Work” the perfect family misleads people into thinking what is truth and what is fiction.…
The ideal family from the American perspective has traditionally been known as the nuclear family by sociologists. The nuclear family, consisting of a married couple and their unmarried children, materialized as a romantic ideal as the Industrial Revolution transformed the United States into a country where families didn’t have to depend on many children and extended families for help on a farm or financial stability and families got smaller. Wealthier families could afford to have a home for themselves and their family of procreation (an individual, their mate, and their children) without needing the financial support of additional family members, and this kind of a family became desirable. Additionally, some other characteristics of the ‘ideal American family’ became popular and commonplace in the US and around the world as well.…
When it comes to family, there was no way to define such a word. Post-modern society has allowed for the diversification of the family structure, bringing today’s society further away from the idea of the ‘ideal’ family.…
Television network ABC Family’s breakout comedy series, Modern Family, is a show full of life lessons and hidden meanings. Most television shows nowadays are all about sex, alcohol, and the dramas that occur because of them. Modern Family is not an exception, however it focuses more on the family aspect of life’s many dramas. On the surface, it is similar to the sex and drugs filled television shows that consume the media these days, but underneath that surface each episode has a moral to be learned, and the show overall represents many different assumptions America makes on what a “typical” family is.…
2. Stanley, Tim. (2012) History Today, The Changing face of the American Family.Vol. 62 Issue 11, p10-15. 6p.…
Given that family relationships grow more complex everyday, the roles become more and more confusing too. Issues like the parental rights of gays and lesbians and their suitability as adoptive parents and the legalization of same-sex marriage are becoming more common these days and the family composition is changing at a fast rate. Far away from the typical nuclear family from the…
Modern day families come in all shapes and sizes – divorce, remarrying, single parenting, out-of-wedlock and a number of other variables have turned the nuclear family into the exception rather than the norm. Even within the modern nuclear family, homemaker and breadwinner roles have evolved into something that makes it impossible to have one specific definition for family. As a matter of fact, the…
According to Martin and Nakayama “the demographic imperative suggests the world is becoming increasingly diverse and differ from one another in ethnicity, race, religion and nationality.” (Martin & Nakayama, 2010, pg6) Modern Family a prime time situation comedy is directly addressing some of these imperatives and possibly adjusting the worldview of its audience by a heterogeneous extended family being the center piece of the show. The diversity of this heterogeneous family includes married gay men adopting an Asian female child. A Caucasian sugar daddy married to a an attractive much younger Hispanic immigrant and an average Caucasian family.…