The Show Family Guy Character Analysis

Option 2: “Family Guy” Keniesha Lake SOCI 1010-C21 Murphy University of Memphis   There are many ways to show the world your ideas, and the main way people tend to go about it is using different forms of media. Media is all the print, digital, and electronic means of communication” (OpenStax College 2015). The most used form of media is television. You can use television to find out the news, watch sports, and be entertained. The form of media I am using for this paper is the popular comedy show “Family Guy”.

“Family is the center of everyday American life. Our parents are our first protectors, first teachers, first role models, and first friends. Parents know that America’s great reward is the quiet but incomparable satisfaction that comes from building their families a better life.” Having a dysfunctional family where both parents are not present and one is present can affect a child’s life and the way they approach things because they have no one to talk to or advise them on certain

A family contains young minds that are at first taught the building of personality or character and controlling the emotions of him or herself, while also being taught how to set goals for life (Ritter) But as new generations came of age, the family became a weakened and fractured unit as husbands and wives gave way to the human nature of adultery in a widespread manor. Here in America, the family has been under constant assault and broken marriages and broken households are now a normal thing to see. Few fathers show the guidance and teaching to their children that is needed often requiring the mother to take on both roles. As children grow up being more spoiled and pampered to, they are never learning to accept and recover from setbacks.

Television help to develop many cultural norms that societies experience in everyday life. In the 1970’s viewers are introduced to a revolutionary change that became popularized and broadcast in most American homes. That type of television discusses civil issues that focus on topics that influence media dissimilarities such as racism, poverty, sexuality to sexism. These particular television shows pave the way for any show that one can view today that exudes diversity. Family Situational Comedies introduce an interesting, unique and unbiased point of view that presented the lives of different families you could actual find in America who weren’t perfect and face real struggles.

Television situational comedies have the ability to represent different values or concerns of their audience, these values often change every decade or so to reflect and highlight the changes that the audience is experiencing within society, at the time of production. Between the years of 1950 and 2010, the representation of gender roles and family structure has been addressed and featured in various sitcoms, such as “Father Knows Best” and “Modern Family”, through the use of narrative conventions, symbolic, audio and technical codes. These representations have transformed over time to reflect the changes in social, political, and historical contexts. The 1950’s sitcom “Father Knows Best” traditionally represents the values of gender roles and family structure in a 1950’society, with the father, held high as the breadwinner of the family and the mother as the sole homemaker.

The year is 2016 and American society is open-minded to so many issues, except televised stereotypes. Racial and gender stereotypes are continually reinforced by social media and television, it has played a major role in the way society views one another. Enabling stereotypes that have been associated with a person of specific race or gender in the media promotes prejudice. Meaning society expects that person to act a certain way based on what they have witnessed on television or social media. . A perfect example of how television shows incorporate stereotypes based on ethnicity is the tv show “Everybody Hates Chris “which is about a working class African-American family that lives in a poor urban neighborhood in New York. Chris Rock is the

When I was twelve years old, I became bored of kid’s TV shows. I knew it was time to try to find something new to watch. I had heard of some cartoon about a talking baby and talking dog, and enjoyed watching it when I stumbled upon it one day when flipping through the channels. Little I did I understand most of the jokes. Re-watching episodes now that I haven’t seen in years, I have a much greater appreciation for the humor that the writers infuse into every scene. I am also better able to see that deep down, the show produces positive messages about family, relationships, risk-taking, and self-discovery. In essence, the environment of Family Guy is existential, where characters have the ability to make extreme choices; this allows episodes

Leadership (3) and discipline is shared equally by both parents. Bonnie has taken over the motherly role, she has a kinder, softer approach, but the children know that her word is law. Whereas Chris has taken over the more fatherly role, she is a little stricter, consistent, less flexible, and adheres to the rules. (4) The roles (5) for each family member are stable and only change when needed.

The characters in Parenthood appear to be the evolving family for the 1990’s. The Buckman family is comprised of four different parts that include a Grandma, Grandpa, and Larry, the youngest child; Gill, one of the fathers; Karen, Gill’s wife; Kevin, Gill’s oldest son; Taylor, Gill’s only daughter; Justin, Gill’s youngest son; Helen, a single mom; Julie, Helen’s only daughter; Gary, Helen’s only son; Nathan, one of the fathers; Susan, Nathan’s wife; and Patty, Nathan’s only girl. This paper will address the Buckman’s evolving family, including the dynamics of change in the family and strategies for coping with change. The first family in the Buckman family is Gill and Karen.

Evolution of Family Sitcoms “Blood is thicker than water.” A saying commonly heralded by family members in order to reaffirm the importance of family unity. These words spoke loud to the entertainment industry as they were trying to create new content for television. Situational comedies were quite popular, but there was a lack of relatability to families. The most logical step was to combine the two.

American Families Today The American family has undergone many changes since the 1900’s. More so, in the past 40 years, the nuclear family seen dramatic changes and has been described as deteriorating. There has been a dramatic rise in divorce, single parent households and child poverty. Studies have shown that children growing up in poverty-stricken single parent households are more likely to be affected well into adulthood. While this is the case, people are also living longer, and families are accommodating this change by living with relatives allowing for more bonding time then in previous generations.

Despite the creator’s of Modern Family effort to portray a progressive view of American families, the show still accentuates outdated female stereotypes and gender roles; reinforcing gender characteristics, patriarchy and hegemonic masculinity. In contrast to its title, Modern Family promotes traditional gender roles and stereotypes of women, which result in the portrayal of an inaccurate image of the female, and weakens the stance of women in today’s U.S. society. Gender stereotypes are prevalent throughout the Modern Family; the women are all portrayed as wives and mothers, promoting a continued male dominant family ideology. Claire and Gloria are throughout the show acting on our society’s “assumptions about women’s ‘appropriate’ roles” (Dow 19).

“The Changing American Family” by Natalie Angier states, “Fictive families are springing up among young people, old people, disabled people, homeless people, and may well define one of the ultimate evolutions of the family concept, maximizing, as they do, the opportunities for fulfillment of specific social and economic needs outside the constraints of biological relatedness.” The ever changing social dynamics and circumstances of this life have opened the definition of family to encompass individuals who can fill those deep-seated needs

Many cultures that exist do not identify with the concept of immediate or extended family—all kin is family, by reaching outside the nuclear family structure” (Raney, 2015:6). The Simpsons depicts how family concepts are/were portrayed more than 20 years ago and shows the life and roles of a nuclear family. Diverse Gender

Families can be regarded as the foundation of society. For Fleetwood (2012: 1), the importance of families is highlighted by the fact that it would be difficult to comprehend a society that could function without them. In addition, even though families and their compositions vary across societies and cultures, the family can be viewed as a universal social institution (Macionis & Plummer, 2012: 625. Specifically, according to Macionis and Plummer (2012: 625) and Neale (2000:1), it has the ability to unite individuals into cooperative groups via social bonds (kinship) and is ultimately experienced differently from individual to individual. However, the family can be a source of conflict, tension and inequality, which is why one of the key practices