Cameron in the show is a homosexual man, who adopts a baby girl named Lilly from Vietnam with his partner of 5 years, Mitchell. Together they raise her, however, Cameron takes on the more motherly role, but he also takes it to the extreme because of the producers.
His character is extremely flamboyant which is drawn out by the writers/producers and put into his relationship with Lilly. He stays at home with her all day, keeps her from daycare, calls himself "mama bear" and a "trophy wife".
Typically, when two homosexual men raise a child together in America, they host seemingly real lives. Both men work, the child attends day care, and are seen as equals. But in the show, Cameron plays a definite mother role which makes it not so modern.
Monday, December 5, 2011
Gloria Pritchard
Gloria Represents the popular new age ideal of marriage in a the mind of a man, when you get remarried to a "hot" younger women.
Although in the show, this marriage came with a son, Manny, which gives this new ideal a spin. However, even though she has a 12 year son, she acts more like his friend than is mother sometimes. In the show, Gloria is seen at home often, but not doing things for the house like Claire. She is never shown to be cleaning even though their house is immaculate, and when she is cooking, she is wearing a very tight, and revealing dress unlike Claire.
In an article online about this new marriage phenomenon, I read that most of these marriages end up in divorce after only a few years. The reason most often being that the woman will get bored, move on to another older man (or someone just as wealthy) but continue to take the man for all he's worth just despite the hostile divorce. I'm not saying this will happen in the show, but this relationship does exist in the real world, but it gives woman the wrong sense of love life to look forward too.
Although in the show, this marriage came with a son, Manny, which gives this new ideal a spin. However, even though she has a 12 year son, she acts more like his friend than is mother sometimes. In the show, Gloria is seen at home often, but not doing things for the house like Claire. She is never shown to be cleaning even though their house is immaculate, and when she is cooking, she is wearing a very tight, and revealing dress unlike Claire.
In an article online about this new marriage phenomenon, I read that most of these marriages end up in divorce after only a few years. The reason most often being that the woman will get bored, move on to another older man (or someone just as wealthy) but continue to take the man for all he's worth just despite the hostile divorce. I'm not saying this will happen in the show, but this relationship does exist in the real world, but it gives woman the wrong sense of love life to look forward too.
Claire Dunphy
She is the steroetypical mother on the show.
She is always shown in the house doing some sort of chore, whether she is cooking or cleaning, or driving the kids somewhere there are very few scenes when Claire isn't working for the family.
In season one, episode "The Moon Landing", you meet an old co-worker for Claire's back when she used to work in marketing. This gives a look into the life that Claire could of had, if she didn't give it up for her family. It is also in this episode that Phil says to the children, "you mother does work, she just works for us", which is one way the producers have demonstrated how they feel about how Mother's should be and also have husbands view them.
She is always shown in the house doing some sort of chore, whether she is cooking or cleaning, or driving the kids somewhere there are very few scenes when Claire isn't working for the family.
In season one, episode "The Moon Landing", you meet an old co-worker for Claire's back when she used to work in marketing. This gives a look into the life that Claire could of had, if she didn't give it up for her family. It is also in this episode that Phil says to the children, "you mother does work, she just works for us", which is one way the producers have demonstrated how they feel about how Mother's should be and also have husbands view them.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1aSzTVrP5FQ
This video shows the introduction of Lilly into the Modern Family bunch, she is introduced by Cameron who is one of her dads, in a very dramatic fashion. This clip shows how the producers demonstrate their view of homosexual fathers.
This video shows the introduction of Lilly into the Modern Family bunch, she is introduced by Cameron who is one of her dads, in a very dramatic fashion. This clip shows how the producers demonstrate their view of homosexual fathers.
Sterotypes of Mothers
•Always available for their children
–Preparing snacks
–Hosting sleep overs
–Waiting on children (unemployed)
–Always cleaning
•Shows where you can find these mothers:
–Home Improvement
–Leave it to Beaver
–That 70’s show
–Many more
A lot of this information comes from the article, "Two Washes in the Morning and a Bridge Party at Night", which is all about the risks of being a stay at home mother. These risks are things such as if something were to happen (health wise) to your husband, you would not be able to provide for your family. In this economy especially you would struggle to find a job of any kind, and most likely if you were to find one the income wouldn't be a suitable exchange for the loss of your husband. If you just happen to get a divorce, the same thing would follow, finding a job would become rather difficult and as a result any number of things could happen, even the courts could take away your kids. Also, most marriages with stay at home mothers end up in divorce one the kids are grown up because the parents didn't live on their own or have their own lives and they begin to resent each other.
Thesis Statement
In this paper, I will be critically analyzing the seemingly diverse representations of maternal figures on the hit TV series “Modern Family,” by exploring the ways that mothering is constituted traditionally by keeping the primary caregivers within the domestic sphere. Specifically, I will argue that the character Claire fits into the most common stereotype of the perfect mother since she is unemployed and is the primary care provider for her three children. Secondly, I will argue that the character of Gloria plays up the new age ideal for a mother in the eyes on a man, she is beautiful and acts more as a friend to her son Manny than as a caring mother, also she isn’t seen performing any of the same type of chores as Claire is. Lastly, I will explore the character of Cameron, a homosexual father of an adopted Vietnamese baby Lilly, who despite having a seemingly different responsibility to demonstrate the style of a different household, falls under the same stereotypes as a “perfect” mother. The show does its best to demonstrate families in a “modern” way, but through the expectations of the producers the show doesn’t do the real modern families of America justice.
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