Gender Norms In The Film A Date With Your Family

In the 1950s a male and a female did not share equal responsibility or power in a relationship. As seen in A Streetcar Named Desire the male portrays a role of power and success whereas the female is seen almost as an accessory to the male. The male partner would go to work every morning and the female would stay home, cooking, cleaning, and making sure everything was acceptable for her husband’s return that night. When a male and a female were married in the 1950s the male partner became entitled to all of a female’s possessions, however, she was not granted the same power. This relationship has changed drastically in today’s society. It is no longer common to see this large power gap between the male and female figures in a relationship,

The novel “Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen depicts a social structure in which there are clear gender expectations. These gender expectations control and restrict the lives of both genders, most notably women. In. Austen’s world, women have few opportunities to support themselves, and have high expectations attributed to them. Men were held to similar standards. Upper and middle class men were expected to add to their families’ wealth, be charming, and eventually marry. Deviation from these spoken and unspoken rules, such as Lydia and Wickham’s elopement, would result in becoming a social pariah. In “Pride and Prejudice”, the characters of Elizabeth Bennet, her sister Lydia, and Mr. Darcy challenge the aforementioned gender roles put in

During life, birth, and death, a family is one of the few natures of life that are present throughout. Often times, the value of family is taken for granted, and people tend to disregard the importance it carries. Due to the power present in the nature of a man, often times it is challenging for women to establish a firm independence, in distinction of the common norms inaugurated in society and in family. In both A Thousand Splendid Suns and Pride and Prejudice, men are the dominant figures in all households, as they have control over their financial status, who their children marry, where they live, and create means in which the females of the family must follow. The inferiority that women face leads to an inquiry of an immense pride

During the time of the 80s, there were many television shows that portrayed traditional families. A traditional family, which is two married parents of the opposite gender and their child or children. Even though, Full house doesn’t necessary mirror the traditional family values that all society knows, it’s one of the shows that helped break gender stereotypes. For example, the whole family tradition “norm” was that women would be the caregivers and men would provide for their family. In Bittney Davis article, “Recognizing Gender Roles in Nostalgic TV Series Full House” she mentions, “The expectation of a male’s purpose in the household is to provide for and

Stephanie Coontz in “The Way We Weren’t: The Myth and Reality of the Traditional Family” emphasizes that the traditional and ideal nuclear family widespread in media and textbooks are false and far from reality. In fact, it is common to see more similarities to the traditional family consistent of “male breadwinner and nurturing mother” (1) today than in the past.

Over the course of the last sixty years, family values have consistently continued to change. With a heavier influx of women entering the work force and the social emphasis of individualism, the traditional family image has changed, and with

The American family has changed throughout history and has brought along gender and sexual norms. However, some parts of the family and these gender norms have been fairly constant as America has progressed and may even be seen today. These changes and similarities can be seen through the families during the colonial times, the 1800s, and the 1950s.

In contemporary film women's roles in films have varied quiet considerably between genres, geographical placement, and between

In her book Marriage a History Stephanie Coontz explains the male breadwinner family model and its dominance in family life during the 40’s, 50’s, and early 60’s. An illustration of the male breadwinner model is composed of a father, mother, and two children; typically a boy and girl close in age. Funded by their father’s well paying middle class salary, the wife and children live a comfortable life in suburbia and participate regularly in consumer trends. Perceived as the head of the household, the father was the sole financial provider. On the other hand the mother was the head of domestic life and was responsible for the children. The popular 1950’s TV show The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet exemplified this family model. With regard to the male breadwinner family model, imagine having eight other brothers and sisters. Imagine growing up without a mother, and with a father who worked constantly. Then consider living this life alongside your peers who come from the “normal” male breadwinner families Coontz describes… How would your family differ from your peers? What would be your thoughts and feelings towards family life? More importantly, how would these unique circumstances change your perception of the nuclear family?

Coontz again describes this situation with the illustration of what is thought to be the typical 1950s family life of a tight knit nuclear family who had few issues and the ones they did have could be hashed out quiet easily and efficiently. However, she points out that in real life this was not the case, alcoholism and abuse were rampant in the 1950s, but one would never be able to tell this if all they looked at were television portrayals of families from that era. This creates an unusual warped sense of history and nostalgia for a time period that in many way never actually

Times have changed; the nuclear family is no longer the American ideal because family needs have changed since the 1950's. This American convention of a mother and father and their two children, were a template of films and early television as a depiction of the American family life. Now seen as archaic and cliché by today’s standards, but the idea is common throughout many of the first world nations in the world. This ideal was a vast departure from the past agrarian and pre industrial families, and was modeled and structured as the ‘American dream’ father working, mother maintaining the household and children molded to be simulacra of the parents. This portrayal was not the standard; many communities throughout America had a different

The functionalists including Talcott Parsons, an American sociologist, believe in the ideal nuclear family. The father in the family is suppose to work and be the income source for the household, whereas the mother is responsible for raising the children and managing the household (Brym, 2014). Thus according to this, males and females have a social conformity that is passed down from one generation to another. Moreover, masculinity is linked with instrumental traits and femininity is associated with expressive traits. For example, male should be strong, protective, dominant and providers where as females are sensitive, weak, dependant and focused on their appearance (2014). In the film, this is the dominant view of the media (Newsom, 2011). Shows like 2 and the half men that display women as recyclable objects or news anchors who are thought to be able to attract viewer by what they are wearing that day, further illustrates the disparity between the two sexes (2011). Also classic TV series and films tend to present the functionalist views of a nuclear family, especially after World War 2 when the women were forced to leave the workplace and give the jobs back to the men (2011). This was a way for the media to ease the transition and convince the females that they were needed more at home by their families rather than in the work force (2011). By providing strict barriers for males and females, the media instils the view that if a man is too feminine

Over the past two decades, the impact of gender role stereotyping on our society has been examined in numerous studies. The purpose of these studies was to determine whether the sex bias portrayed in books, TV shows and social media is still as prevalent as in the past. Modern Family is one of the TV shows that clearly prove that, the roles played by males and females have changed in by the time. Modern Family show is about a family that tackles normal, everyday problems. The show features three combined families Jay and Gloria, Phil and Claire, Mitchell and Cameron and how different genders in each family act. Because of gender stereotype issues like gay marriage, house wives and large difference in age between married couples, this show focused on challenging these stereotypes and solving such conflict in our society.

Gender roles, the public image of being a particular gender that a person presents to others (gender roles, n.d.), have seen many changes through the years, especially in families. The changes can be seen in many aspects, including television shows, from the traditional family in the I Love Lucy sitcom of the 1950s to the plethora of shows about women and men who balance working and family life of the 2000s. A traditional family can be defined as “… the ‘natural reproductive unit’ of mom, pop, and the children all living under one roof… (Ball, 2002).” The 1940s, a period dominated by this type of family, were primarily a time of single-income families where the father was the ‘breadwinner’ and the mother the ‘homemaker (Hayghe, H.V., 1990).’

In Stephanie Coontz’s article, The Way We Weren’t: The Myth and Reality of the “Traditional” Family, she states that many Americans revived the nuclear family ideals that had so disturbed commentators during the 1920s. This disruption was people looking upon the same sex for their companionship and friendship. During this era, this was a normal occurrence, now it is shunned and looked at as though it is morally corrupt. This is not a typical family situation. In today’s society, some people would consider this behavior as non-familial and it would not be described as a “traditional” family