Assignment 7: Representation of the Contemporary American Family in Television

A quick look through America's history reveals the many changes the state of the family as a social institution has undergone over time. Described by the US Census Bureau as a unit consisting of “two or more persons, including the householder, who are related by birth, marriage, or adoption, and who live together as one household,” the family has proved to be a more controversial subject than is suggested by this definition (Newman, 209). Questions regarding marriages in particular have caused waves of debate throughout the country, raising questions about interracial marriages, same-sex marriages, and polygamy, to name a few.

Our very own families have been partially responsible for shaping our beliefs about what does and doesn't constitute a family. In addition, religious and educational institutions, as well as our race and gender, have contributed to our opinions regarding the contemporary American family. However, when we sit down on the couch at the end of the day to numb ourselves with prime-time television, we absorb images, whether consciously or not, which tell us what a family should look like. An analysis of family makeup in two particular TV series, currently broadcast to households nationwide, will shed light on the current representation of families in the media.

Modern Family

ABC's Emmy-award-winning show, Modern Family, is a comedy revolving around the lives of three related families. The shows central family is a white, upper-middle class family living in a suburban neighborhood. This description alone confirms the family's conformity to the paradigm of an idyllic family from America's past. Indeed, it consists of the husband and wife team Phil and Claire raising their 2 daughters, Haley and Alex, and their son, Luke. For being a “modern family,” the Dunphys appear to be quite “traditional” (i.e. white, heterosexual, married with children), just like those Newman refers to in the mythological “good ol' days” of American family life (Newman, 209).

The two other families in the show, however, begin to paint a slightly more realistic picture of contemporary America. Claire's father, Jay, is married to a much younger Latina woman, Gloria, who also brought her son, Manny, into the marriage. The probability of inter-racial and inter-ethnic marriages is rising- in 2008, 14.6% of couples who married consisted of two people from different racial or ethnic groups, compared with the 6.7% in 1980 (Newman, 202). America's high divorce rate, also increases the likelihood for children like Manny to have stepparents in their lives.

The third family consists of Claire's brother, Mitchell, his partner, Cam, and their daughter, Lily, whom they adopted from Vietnam. The inclusion of a family with a homosexual relationship in television, along with the perpetuation of same-sex marriage debates across the country, indicates a changing definition of marriage. There is hope that if individuals opposed to the inclusion of homosexual relationships in their definition of family begin to feel comfortable seeing such couples on TV, they may eventually become comfortable with the idea of such couples in the real world.

Parenthood

NBC's Parenthood cast picture
chicagonow.com

Parenthood, an NBC drama, revolves around the “very large, very colorful and imperfect Braverman family” (NBC, 2013). Zeek and Camille Braverman, an older married couple, have four children. All of these characters are white, heterosexual, upper middle-class individuals. Their eldest son, Adam Braverman, has a family that serves as a continuation of the so-called familial “golden age” (Newman, 209). He is married to a white woman, and has two children- one daughter, one son. With the inclusion of their dog, their family becomes a spitting image of American nostalgia.

However, among Adam's siblings, a more accurate portrayal of contemporary American families emerges. Crosby, his younger brother, is in a relationship and shares a household with African American character Jasmine, and their biracial son, Jabbar. This family exemplifies the steady increase, according to the Pew Research Center, of the share of births to unmarried women, at 41% in 2008 (Pew, 2010).

Daughter, Sarah, on the other hand, is a single mother of two children: Amber, who now lives on her own, and Drew, a high school senior. In a recent Pew Research poll, single mothers received little support from the American public. Findings suggested that almost 70% believe that single women raising children on their own is bad for society (NPR, 2011). With the predominance of negative attitudes towards single motherhood, TV characters such as Sarah Braverman may increase the acceptance of families such as hers.

Sarah's older sister, Julia, until recently, had a family much like Adam's- she shared a household with her husband and daughter. The adoption of Victor, a Latino, however, has brought some diversity into her otherwise “traditional” family. As in Modern Family, the show is raising awareness about trans-racial adoptions, unaccounted for in the family portrait of the glorified past.

Snapshot of a "traditional" 1950's family
http://carawaymuncefamily.blogspot.com/2008/07/portrait-and-poem.html

While both shows incorporate diverse, “contemporary” families into their plot lines, they still revolve around idyllic families of Western nostalgia. It is almost as if producers are dipping their toes in the waters, not yet ready to completely abandon the imaginary of a familial “golden age” in America, white picket fence and all. While these shows incorporate characters in bi-racial and same-sex relationships, in most cases, they are not married, and are not the core family around which the series revolves. Though the representations of contemporary families in these series aren't wholly accurate, they have broken a threshold to begin expanding existing frameworks, currently limited in scope, to include all American families, each unique in their own way.

Sources:
Newman, David (2012). Sociology: Exploring the Architecture of Everyday Life: 9th Edition. SAGE Publications. 

Parenthood: http://www.nbc.com/parenthood/about/

Modern Family: http://beta.abc.go.com/shows/modern-family/about-the-show

NPR, 2011: http://www.npr.org/2011/02/24/134031175/For-Single-Mothers-Stigma-Difficult-To-Shake

Pew, 2010: http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/files/2010/11/pew-social-trends-2010-families.pdf