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Modren American Family in the Media

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05 December 2007

Modern American Family in the Media

Introduction

People have for long been used to the thought that the values promoted by media can easily change our attitudes towards simple things . However we rarely think of this as applied to American nation and American values . While media has significantly changed an image of a perfect American family , this process should be re-considered once more

The rise of the American movie and media industries has caused significant shift in our

family values . What we currently view as an ideal American family is absolutely different from what was traditional in 1940s . The fact of changes themselves is not as notable , as the fact of these changes being mostly negative . Sexual revolution and gender liberalization have not introduced any positive notions into the life of a simple American family . On the contrary , these two processes were successfully commercialized by Hollywood scenarists and producers , to bring a new light of family values into our lives

We can now hardly remember the American movies of 30s and 40s , in which positive family values were praised . It is not rare that I face an opposition in discussing those movies due to their "exaggerated kindness . The period until 1950s could easily be called as being pro-family . The brightest examples are "The Best Years of Our Lives "Andy Hardy , and "Since You Went Away . All those works of art seemed not only to praise , but to celebrate family life . The 1939 's "Wizard of Oz " has successfully supported the already traditional positive view of family as social formation (Bryant Bryant 16

Americans well remember the show "Leave it to Beaver , which also epitomized our American family . It was the depiction of the traditional family at that time moreover , it also carried a significant implication of what values that family treated . It was rather different from the family in the media of 1940s , but it did not yet possess that tint of family negativity , which we currently observe in the structure of American family values "In 1960 , over 70 percent of all American households were like the Cleavers : made up of a breadwinner father , a homemaker mother , and their kids . Today "traditional " families with a working husband , unemployed wife , and one or more children make up less than 15 percent of the nation 's households (Mintz . Osborne underlined the difficulty with which some mothers were experiencing those changes in family structure : Rose has felt guilty since the day she went back to work - the hardest single thing I 've ever watched her do . Deep inside her psyche lies a powerful message that she belongs home , that is she is not with her child she is terribly irresponsible (195 . There is a persistent misunderstanding of the roots of these changes : whether it was family to change media attitudes , or whether it was the media to change family attitudes (Bryant Bryant 79 . Yet it is clear that what Americans see as a...

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