Gender Roles In The American Family

The family that most of us think of when we say “average American family” is the Dunphy family, which consists of parents Phil and Claire and their three kids Haley, Alex, and Luke. Claire’s character in the show is stemmed from the stereotypical housewife that the media has placed upon women in general along side women in relationships. This stereotype stages women as weaker and subordinate to men, because the women do not financially provide for the family it automatically gives the men power over the household. Claire’s identity is made up of these types of characteristics such as motherhood, family orientation and domesticity. We also see instances where the gender stereotype actually switched sides. For instance, in the episode “Phil’s New Car,” Phil’s task for the day is find and purchase a new vehicle for the family per Claire’s instructions. Even in the first few moments the show is
Gloria has a rather ditzy personality, frequently misusing phrases and mispronouncing words. In the episode “Planes, Trains and Cars” we see Gloria and Jay in the midst of a conversation where Gloria is refusing to fly in a helicopter. But, in attempting to explain her fear to her husband Jay she has a large amount of difficulty searching for the right word, “helicopter.” Gloria then asks, “How do you say it in English the takatakatka?” Jay responds saying, “Helicopter.” The helicopter example stereotypes people within the Hispanic community as unknowledgeable or having a lack of understanding of the English language. The show’s writers seem to believe that by continually portraying these stereotypes against Latinos it is only in light fun and adding to the comical facto of the show. However, it does hardly anything to improve the views of Latinos in the mainstream American