Families in Media

In class recently, we have discussed how movies speak to the culture of their times. One thing about our culture that is always portrayed in TV and movies is the idea of families. The families that we see in movies today is very different from those of the past. This is not simply because writers and directors thought it would be fun to mix it up, they are writing for the culture we live in. The days of seeing the perfect Leave it to Beaver family on TV are long gone. It is difficult for me to think of a movie that has what would be considered a typical nuclear family as the main characters. Most of these movies are not even trying to make a point about families, but they do tell a lot about the world we live in. E.T. and A Christmas Story don't really have any specific lessons on family, but they do both portray seemingly common families.

I cannot imagine that movies like Knocked Up would have been well received in the 1950s. I recently wrote a paper on the changing demography of American families. There are almost as many children living in single parent or divorced homes than ever before. The movies and TV shows we watch are only portraying reality. Even movies directed at children, like Night at the Museum center around a divorced, single father. While this does not make the movie bad, it is interesting to see how different movies and TV are. It is obvious that writers and directors have changed the topics of the films and the lives of the characters to better relate to the audience.