How Families Have Been Portrayed in the Media

        In the 1970’s society was slowly moving away from traditional nuclear families and toward untraditional families like a recombined or “blended” family. The Brady Bunch was a significant television show that focused on traditional values while still being an unconventional family during that era. The Brady family consisted of a husband and wife who both had 3 children from previous marriages, and their maid. Just like the television show Leave it to Beaver the family structure was quite similar. The father was the head of the household and the only source of income, the mother stayed home and took care of the children, the kids went to school, and the maid cleaned the house and did other daily chores. During the episode we watch in class I noticed that the roles of the children changed. For example, it was not expected of the kids to do chores, so when the maid saw them all cleaning the yard to make their parents happy she was taken aback. Even though The Brady Bunch was not like other family TV shows, the higher authority of the father stayed the same. In the episode, the wife wanted to check on the kids because she felt like something was not right, however the husband disagreed and told her to stay downstairs. This showed the dominant power that the father still had over the wife in TV shows. Also, an example that shows that the functions of the family is fulfilled is when both the parents reassure their kids that they would never write a rude column in the newspaper about their family because they love each other. This let the kids know that their parents would also provide affective nurturance for them.

Full House was a late 1980’s show that was also seen as a non-traditional family. In the show, the widowed father Danny goes to work and raises his three daughters up with the help of his close friend Joey, and brother-in-law Jesse who all live under one roof. This type of family is called an extended family. Compared to the other shows Leave it to Beaver, and The Brady Bunch, Danny has less authority over his children. For example, in the episode we watched as a class,

D.J decided to live in the garage instead of sharing a room with her other sister. Danny tried to get her to move back into her old room by saying, “Donna Jo, I want you to move back inside right now! This instant…. Is that okay?” This shows that Danny has lost his control over his children and they are at are not obedient compared to Leave it to Beaver, where as if the father told Beaver or Wally to do something, they would do it without a complaint. Also, typical gender roles for men changed as well. An example would be when Joey and Jesse attempted to change the baby’s diaper. This proves that the men are now starting to do what usually the women do at home while taking care of the children. Examples of the six functions that the family demonstrates is providing physical care for members; Danny takes care of his children even after his wife dies. Also, when D.J was upset that her mom wasn’t around anymore, her  dad reassured her that he loved her and that he would never leave them, this also shows that he provides affective nurturance to his children

        Now in today’s society, shows like Modern Family depict how diverse the world is now compared to older shows such as Leave it to Beaver and The Brady Bunch. In the show Modern Family there are three different families that are shown. First, is the Dunphy family (nuclear) that consists of the husband and wife, and their 3 children. Second, is the Pritchett family, a May December marriage and the wives son from another marriage. Lastly, the third family is a same-sex couple, Cameron and Mitchell, who are living under common law and are also adoptive parents. The Dunphy family shows that the roles of the father has continued to be more tolerant and passive aggressive, similar to the father in Full House. For example, when the son shot his sister with a toy BB gun, the father only said, “buddy, uncool” to his son. This shows that fathers are more lenient and acceptive of bad behaviour in today’s society. Also, now we see that both parents are working in the nuclear family. Some family functions that these 3 families show us is the new addition of new family members; the same-sex marriage couple adopted a child from China which helps the population grow in their area. Also, the mother in the Dunphy famiy is always doing household chores like doing the laundry and making her family dinner, this shows that the mother provides physical care for the members in her family. Lastly, the mother in the Pritchett family tells her son that she loves that he writes poems and that he’s sensitive, this encourages him to be himself, which provides affective nurturance from the mother to the child.

In conclusion, families have changed an extensive amount over the years and TV shows do a great job in indicating those changes by showing the differences and similarities in the family, such as, the kind of family and structures there are, individual roles each person has inside the family, how the families achieve the functions, the type of relationship the partners have, and their authority in the household.