preview

The Fosters: An Untraditional Family

Decent Essays
Open Document

What qualifies a family as a family is something that has been largely debated in history. In recent years, untraditional families have become more publicized and are seen everyday in both the media and in real life. An example of an untraditional family would be The Fosters from the ABC Family’s TV show The Fosters.
The Fosters is a show about a foster family with two moms: one black, one white. In the home, there is a biological son, two adopted children, and two fostered children, from different cultural and ethnic backgrounds.
Through mom’s, Stef and Lena, relationship with their children, complicated issues are normalized in the context of the show. It is not only a massive shift from traditional notions of a TV Family, but also gives …show more content…

Somerville called Queering the Color-Line. In the book, Somerville weakens the argument that of same-sex relationships by saying that “Race occupies the place vacated by gender” (36). It implies that relationships should not be between different genders or different races. The evidence for this is seen in the interracial same-sexed relationships between the school girls (34), which was too seen as an “abnormality.” Through this example, the questions were raised, “why was the relationship abnormal,” “did the girl’s intimacy trouble the authorities because it was homosexual or because it was interracial?”(34). The Fosters is a show that undermines Somerville’s essay. It is a show about a foster family that has interracial same-sexed parents. In the home, there is a biological son, two adopted children, and two fostered children, from different cultural and ethnic backgrounds. Somerville would have never expected to see a same-sexed interracial couple, where the white women took on the on the masculine role, and the black women took on the feminine role; let alone a lesbian couple that is so public announced as the characters Stef and Lena Adams …show more content…

In the “Pilot” episode of the Fosters, we are introduced to Stef, the “man” of the family. Stef is a strong, attractive police officer. She is tough but kind, even if she is not what would normally be described as maternal. She is a divorcee now in a lesbian relationship with Lena. Stef is also the biological mother of Brandon. In this episode you see Stef defy her role as “a white women.” It is first seen when her ex-husband Mike requests her as his partner because he “needs to protect her.” This pisses Stef off, and she goes on this long rant about how she is a strong women, who does not need someone to protect her, because if we had not notice “she made it through the academy.” Stef and Mike have a very complicated relationship. Through this relationship, she breaks multiple gender roles. She breaks the gender roles that a women should be feminine and a women should be taken care of by a man. She does this by having a job that is male dominated. With this job, Stef is made to be seen as equal to Mike, which implies that women are just as capable as men and are equal to

Get Access
Related
Get Access