After thinking about which stereotype I would like to focus my next paper on, I came up with a few ideas. I narrowed it down to study the stereotypes of American families. I will look at how families in America are portrayed in a variety of different movies and shows. For example the difference between the Stepford Wives family and the family in Malcom in the Middle. I will also explore the similarities of the "disfunctional middle class families" portrayed in shows like The Simpsons and Family Guy. I decided to search blogs about what people think the stereotypical American family is. One blogger described the average American family as
-Two parents happily married
-Smart, responsible, obeying children
-Living in a friendly suburban neighborhood
-Dog
-White picked fence
This is a common stereotype for American middle class families. This family is a lot like the family in the Brady Bunch. However, most of us know that not every family is like this, especially not anymore. This blog later on describes a certain family that is very disfunctional and has many problems. (Kind of like the family from Weeds). I would consider this source reliable only because I am looking for peoples opinions, not factual information. I was searching newspaper articles and found that majority people view the typical American family as the one described above yet also agree that it is not true for the majority of the country.
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I think this is a really good topic to write on, and could actually be really, really funny if you took a certain way in writing it. I agree that the stereotype of the “typical American family” is supposed to be something along the lines of the Cleavers or the Brady Bunch. Well maybe 50 years ago, right? The whole white picket fence with 2.5 kids and a golden retriever is not exactly what I describe my family as. And ok, maybe we aren’t as dysfunctional as Peter and his family on Family Guy, but I’m sure we have at least a couple of the flaws that they do.
ReplyDeleteMost of my friends and myself included have divorced parents. The divorce rate is more than 50% in America, so my perception of the typical american family includes a single parent working to support a family of 4.
ReplyDeleteI actually don't know a single family who fits the "typical American Family" stereotype, so where did the stereotype even come from? the 50s? It definitely will be a good research subject. Good luck :)
I believe that the way the American family is portrayed is very comical and unusual. Honestly I don’t really think the actual American Family can be defined because they’re all different. Have you ever met a family with the same as your own? No. All American Family’s are different, mine involved TV dinners on the weekdays and at the table on Sundays. And everybody loved Sunday dinners because that meant my dad was grilling. And sometimes I would cook dinners during the week. So I honestly don’t believe that the media has portrayed an embodiment of what you can call the American family. Now yes I do believe though that they have embodied an individual’s family but not and American family because it really cant be defined
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