Family And Contemporary Culture Essay Example

Contemporary culture and conventional culture are two eminent terminologies that have clear-cut footprints seen on the family structures. The society and family structures are changing because of adopting new cultural dimensions (Press, Women Watching Television 6). Over the years, a paradigm shift can be observed in American families. The traditional ideologies in terms of American family structure have been transmuting to the contemporary ideologies. The family structure has been greatly influenced by the contemporary culture. Nowadays, media claims itself as a best representation of contemporary culture in the family structures. The purpose of this review essay is to observe or evaluate whether media representation of contemporary culture in family structure is true or not. It is being claimed that the American family structure has been evolving as per contemporary family structure.
The conventional image of American family in which one can observe nuclear family structure where husband wife along with their children and pet live a happy life is fading away. Today, this nuclear family structure concept is changing and do not apply in present American families. Previously, the gender equality was not considered much in the American families. However, in the contemporary culture, families are more inclined towards gender equality. Media is trying to portray the contemporary family culture through different TV programs. One of the best examples is the sitcom Modern Family. This TV program has attempted to portray the contemporary family culture in US.
In this sitcom, three families are depicted and their lives and stories are interrelated with each other. This sitcom is one of the most famous sitcoms of US, in which the contemporary family culture has been presented. Experts consider this element as a success factor for this TV program success. As per experts feedback, this sitcom has taken away all the traditional cultural elements, the families that are depicted in the sitcom do not have any traditional or conventional family structure elements. A critical analysis of this sitcom reveals that this sitcom depicts the familial principles to the American culture. The families depicted in the sitcom are Pritchett family, Pritchett-Tuker family and Dunphy family. The program plot depicts Dunphy family as the family who does not follow conventional cultural practices. On the other hand, homosexual couple is also depicted known as Pritchett-Tucker family and the last one is mixed marriage family known as Pritchetts. The producer of this sitcom tries to convey that American family structure has been transformed into contemporary culture and the conventional practices have been obsolete. By evaluating each family structure, this claim has proven wrong (Press, Women Watching Television 6).
The sitcom title is misleading, as modern culture representation has not been depicted among these families. The title of the sitcom is opposite to the story depicted in this TV program. In reality, the story portrays traditional gender roles and women stereotypes. However, this program tries to convey or portray innovative and new family culture; this can be proven by seeing homosexual and mixed married couples. Although, there are few things by seeing them one can accept the fact that program has depicted few elements, which portrays new and modern family structure. For instance, in the traditional or conventional family structure daughter and wife are required to put last name of their husband or father. This clique has been amended in the program where Pritchett-Trucker’s adopted daughter last name is spelled with a hyphen. This hyphen depicts their equality position in the society and refusing the conventional patriarchal society. Such factors are highlighted in the TV program give impression to the people that the modern family program is trying hard to promote the contemporary family culture, where stereotyping things are fading away. The program lacks in resisting the conventional patriarchal norms and values. The programs depict weak status of women who is depended on their husband’s income and confined themselves to do home chores only. This element is a reflection of male dominant society where male members work and women are dependent on husband’s salary. Women role depict in the program portrays the conventional motherhood identity, no individual identity has been depicted and this shows lack of equal gender identity in the society.
The character Gloria is a Latin American whose character is passive, hot-tempered, and dependent on men with sexy physical appearance. Couple of episodes makes fun of the Latin American accent; this is a true reflection of stereotype behavior. On the other hand, character Claire Dunphy depicts a woman who gives sacrifices for her family and her appearance is more causal than the character Gloria. Episodes depicted that Claire was once an ambitious professional but she left due to her family commitment. This depicts her dependency over others; she does not portray an independent individual (Press, Women Watching Television 6). This program fails to break the stereotype notions regarding gender equality, family values and feminism. Programs portray the inappropriate and inaccurate image of women in US society. The relationship between women and work on television has been studied by Andrea press. It has been identified that the workers image in US TV programs are correlated with an increasing number of women labor force participation in US. The reason for increasing women labor force is increasing divorce rates. Nowadays, US women are employed on either higher posts or lower posts. However, in Modern Family none of the women is doing job. The image of women has not been portrayed accurately in the program. These traditional family values, norms and culture are being portrayed in the program, which create a perception among people that the contemporary family culture is same as it is depicted in the program (Press, Women Watching Television 6)..
The critical review on the TV program Modern Family depicted that the title of the program does not meet its meaning. The characters in the program do not portray the contemporary family culture but conventional family culture. Despite of its popularity, the show is not a true depiction of modern culture. This TV program is taking audiences backed to the 1990s era. The traditional family values have been depicted in the TV which was being practiced in early 90s era. Modern Family is portraying a wrong stereotyping women image in this 21st century i.e., homemakers and mothers. This clichés do not portray today’s ambitious women. People enjoy such programs as the rating of the program depicts that, but the problem is that society does not aware of the true picture. Thus, it can be concluded that although society and family culture have been changing but TV programs like Modern Family portray a wrong picture to the audience and still traditional cultural values have been highlighted instead of contemporary ones.

Works Cited

“Modern Family: About the Show." abc.com. ABC, n.d. Web. 11 Dec 2011
“Modern Family: Bio Jay." abc.com. ABC, n.d. Web. 11 Dec 2011
Press, Andrea L. "Gender And Family In Television's Golden Age And Beyond." Annals Of The American Academy Of Political And Social Science 625. (2009): 139-150. EconLit . Web.6 Dec. 2011.