ere always shown with two parents, marriage intact, father working, and mom staying at home. Parents never talked about sex; indeed, it appeared as though they never had it because the codes forbade any nudity and required that scenes of passion not excite the audience. As a result, bedroom scenes between married couples typi- cally only showed twin beds. Now, family images on television are more diverse. Programs like Modern Family, The New Normal, and Two and a Half Men show very different images of family life. Still, the media continue to construct an ideal for family life—one that continues to stereotype men and women in family roles. Earlier research, based on systematic content analysis of the media, found the following: Most family characters are middle class. Men appearing with children are most likely to be shown outside; they are also more likely to be see
Cultural norms about motherhood and fatherhood come from many places, but the media are certainly strong influences on how family ideals—and the ideals for mothers and fathers—are created in society. Media images of the family have certainly changed since the inception of television. In the 1930s, “Hollywood codes”—that is, official rules in Holly- wood about what could and could not be seen in movies and, later, on television— meant that families were always shown with two parents, marriage intact, father working, and mom staying at home. Parents never talked about sex; indeed, it appeared as though they never had it because the codes forbade any nudity and required that scenes of passion not excite the audience. As a result, bedroom scenes between married couples typi- cally only showed twin beds. Now, family images on television are more diverse. Programs like Modern Family, The New Normal, and Two and a Half Men show very different images of family life. Still, the media continue to construct an ideal for family life—one that continues to stereotype men and women in family roles. Earlier research, based on systematic content analysis of the media, found the following: Most family characters are middle class. Men appearing with children are most likely to be shown outside; they are also more likely to be seen with boys, not girls. ●● Fathers are infrequently seen with infants. ●● Fathers are shown playing with, read- ing to, talking with, and eating with children, but not preparing meals, cleaning house, changing diapers, and so forth. ●● Women are disproportionately shown in family settings in the media. If you were to systematically study con- temporary family shows, would you find the same results? What has changed? What has not? What gender stereotypes do you find in family shows? How do the images in the media influence people’s views of ideal family roles?
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