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 take up, Leave It to Beaver, and Ozzie and Harriet were not just the agency things were supposed to be just now the way things wereIts probably good that manners wasnt like the television shows in the 50swe wouldnt have many wo custody now. Take a look at the ratio of boys to girls on the most popular family shows. Ozzie and Harriet had deuce boys, no girls. Leave It to Beaver had two boys, no girls. Rifleman had adept and only(a) boy, one and only(a) 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 cardinal 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 guide (one boy, one girl) and that lighthouse to womanhooddespite its titleFather Knows best (one boy, two girls). Grown to maturity, thats a late-1960s dating population 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.) at that place were no prior marriages, no children from prior relationships, no threat or even thought of divorce, and the closest thing we saw to physical twist around 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 thither 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 policy-making discussion (much less political differences) , no unemployment (except for Ozzies early retirement), no intemperate economic problem (except for a crop failure on Lassie, when they had to dispense 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 preliminary holding tanks on her).