The Myth Of The Family :: essays research papers

The Myth of the Model FamilyTHOSE OF US WHO grew up in the fifties got an image of the American family that was not, shall we say, accurate. We were told, Father Knows Best, set out It to Beaver, and Ozzie and Harriet were not just the way things were supposed to be simply the way things wereIts probably good that life wasnt homogeneous the television shows in the 50swe wouldnt have many women now. Take a look at the ratio of boys to girls on the most popular family shows. Ozzie and Harriet had two boys, no girls. Leave It to Beaver had two boys, no girls. Rifleman had unrivaled boy, one rifle, no girls. Lassie had one boy, one dog (supposedly a girl, but played by a boy), and no girls. My Three Sons hadwell, that ones obvious. Bonanza had three grown-up boys. Although Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz in real life had one boy and one girl, on I Love Lucy they had one boy. The only shows with daughters were The Donna Reed Show (one boy, one girl) and that lighthouse to womanhooddespit e its titleFather Knows Best (one boy, two girls). Grown to maturity, thats a late-1960s dating function of fifteen men to three women. Almost all the households were mama-papa-kiddies the nuclear family. (The exceptions were My Three Sons and Bonanza Steve Douglas Fred MacMurray and Ben Cartwright were widowers.) There were no prior marriages, no children from prior relationships, no nemesis or even thought of divorce, and the closest thing we saw to physical abuse was Ralph Kramdens, "One of these days, Alice, one of these days . . . to the moon" There were no infidelities, no drinking problems, no drugs (not even prescription tranquilizers), no racism (How could there be? With the exception of Hop Sing and Ricky Ricardo, there was only one race even the Hispanic gardener on Father Knows Best was named Frank Smith). There was no dropping out of school, no political discussion (much less(prenominal) political differences), no unemployment (except for Ozzies early retirem ent), no severe economic problem (except for a crop failure on Lassie, when they had to sell all the livestock, including Lassie but just before being carted off, Lassie pawed the ground and struck oil, and everything was okay again. Except for Lassie, who looked as though the Exxon Valdez had dumped its forward holding tanks on her).