Ashley Nelson

5/5/16

Conservative Family: Breaking Boundaries While

Reinforcing the Status Quo
Modern Family is intended to be a modern version of the classic family sitcom.
Rather than your classic Cosby Show or Full House, were shown three branches of one
big family. At the core of the family are the Dunphys, the white, heterosexual couple
with three children. On the outer rim of the family were presented a homosexual couple,
with an adoptive Vietnamese daughter. And The Pritchetts who compose the rest of the
family, while showcasing the older-white male, married to the younger foreign-born wife
who has an effeminate son who is also foreign-born. Although Modern Family excels
past its counterparts with incorporating families that arent that of the norm, they tend to
base those characters and families off of recycled stereotypes. Modern Family is anything
but modern. And is inevitably reinforcing heteronormativity.
Phil, Claire and their three children are at the center of the family, they portray the
typical, heterosexual-white family that defines what a normal family family is, in
which to measure the other families against. (Lowder) Claire, although she is the female,
within the relationship she takes on traditionally male roles, as she is the CEO of her
father closet company and is consistently busy with work. While her husband Phil takes
on the more feminine roles, as he is a Real Estate Agent, a job stereotypically taken on by
women. All three of their children; Alex, Haley and Luke are, like there parents,
heterosexual.

During the episode I Dont Know How She Does It (Season 7, Episode 15)
Claire is shown providing for the family, always busy with work and afraid to admit she
cant do it all. Through this we see Claire as the provider, and the distinct male figure
within the Dunphy household. As Claire excels at being the masculine figure in the house
she fails to nurture and preform her motherly duties. There is where Phil steps in and is
hyper-feminized throughout the show and more importantly though his need to be the
caretaker among the family. Hes vulnerable and isnt afraid to show it and doesnt hide
his emotions. During this episode were shown Phil being upset about not being able to
preform his feminine duties as the mother of the household. In this sense were
symbolically shown that Phil can neither provide for his family in terms of being the
father figure in the house and also that is isnt even capable to preforming his feminine
duties. (LaVecchia)
The show does a good job of reversing who takes on the roles of the opposite
gender, and in this way were able to see how this show expresses what modern means,
but then that is completely undone by making sure they both stick strongly to those roles,
inevitably reinforcing what femininity and masculinity have traditionally always entailed.
(LaVecchia)
And then there is the all coveted homosexual couple, Mitchell Pritchett and Cam
Tucker, who compose the Tucker-Pritchett household. While Modern Family has broken
ground in introducing a homosexual couple into their show and into this family, the two
still carry out assumed gender-normative roles. (LaVecchia) Cam is the effeminate, camp,
flamboyant gay, who carries out feminine roles and is the stay at home dad.
(LaVecchia) While Mitchell plays out the male roles in the household, as he is always

busy with work, being he is the provider. They have an adopted daughter who almost
always outsmarts her fathers, Lily. Which, in a way, give us the sense that Cam and
Mitchell arent completely competent parents, in comparison to the others, at least.
Although Modern Family does a good job of including a more diverse set of
characters than most family sitcoms, they tend to fall back on common gay archetypes
through Cam and Mitchell. Almost the only recognizable trait that Cam possesses is his
sexual orientation, or rather his gayness. It becomes his entire personality and the thing
we laugh at the most. (Bowen) Cam and Mitchell are seen going to a homosexual
wedding, where the only attendees are other homosexual men. So as say that heterosexual
couples have no place in there and that the only friends they could obtain are other
homosexuals. (Season 7 Episode 15) If this were a wedding that Claire and Phil were
attending more likely than not the entire wedding would be filled with other heterosexual
guests. In this way were presented with the idea that the homosexual is an other and
they should stay that way, in their own private sphere.
Although this episode strayed from the norm of hardly ever, to never showing any
affection between Cam and Mitchell, the two are seen sharing an intimate moment at the
wedding and even engage in a kiss, a very short and less than passionate kiss, but a kiss
nonetheless. (Season 7, Episode 15) Were soon after queued to laugh at all of the
gayness that fills the room as all of them homosexual couples fall into an emotional fit
with one another, expressing their affection for one another. In this way were told that all
gay couples are overdramatic, irrational, and predictably feminine. To this fact were
encouraged to laugh, not at the amount of emotion that fills the room but the fact that
men are showing emotions, and are in essence presented as feminine. (Bowen)

And then we have the head of the households, the Pritchetts. With the hypermasculine, no-nonsense father figure, Jay Pritchett and his much younger wife Gloria.
Here were subject to the classic stereotype of a young beautiful foreign bombshell who
falls for an older rich white man. (LaVecchia) She is the stay at home mom/ trophy wife
and her only job is to preform domestically around the house. Glorias son Manny, is the
only character within this family that doesnt hold to traditional gender roles as he takes
on an effeminate character. In this episode we see Manny being totally turned off by
heterosexual porn. In this way were being fed the idea of Manny as being abnormal in
comparison to his cousin Luke who cant seem to take his eyes off of it. (Heyl) Although
were presented with a non-normative family, they still hold on to normative beliefs.
Manny is seen as different, and in that way his feminine ways are demeaned and were
encouraged to laugh at that fact. (Bowen) Gloria fits within the tight constraint of what
exactly is means to be a foreign born women and Jay holds the patriarch up throughout
the show, expressing its normalcy. (LaVecchia)
While were presented these non-normative families, they still take on
heteronormative behaviors through the characters tendency to fall within specific gender
roles. (LaVecchia) The over all message of this show is a conservative one. This show
falls short on actually challenging the idea of what a family can be. In essence were
presented with a realistic family, which is too easily replaced with heteronormative.
(LaVecchia) They show us what it can look like but, they also show us how exactly
theyre supposed to act; heteronormatively. (LaVecchia) Rather than the show being titled
Modern Family it should be titled Conservative Family as they reuse and reinforce
heteronormative behaviors and conservative family values. (LaVecchia)

References
1. Bowen, D. (2012, November 1). Modern Family: Why Are We Laughing?
Retrieved May 05, 2016

2. Sherman Heyl, Barbara. Homosexuality: A Social Phenomenon in Karen E.

Rosenblum. and Toni-Michelle Travis (Eds.) The Meaning of Difference: American
Constructions of Race, Sex, Gender, Social Class and Sexual Orientation. New York:
McGraw Hill. 1996. pp. 155-165.

3. LaVecchia, Christina M. " Of Peerenting, Trophy Wives, and Effeminate Men:

Modern Family's Surprisingly Conservative Remediation of the Family Sitcom Genre" in
Harlot. 6 (2011)

4. Lowder, J. Bryan. "A Modern: Look at the American Family" in Columbia

Political Review May 2010