There's always a gorgeous wife!

There are many daytime shows out now that surround the classic heterosexual family with a thin pretty wife and an over weight average Joe husband. Shows like King of Queens, Grounded for Life, Still Standing and According to Jim (just to name a few) are sitcoms surrounding daily family drama. The man is the head of the house with his macho personality and the wife is a petite and pretty woman. I can not think of a show that has an “average Jane” as a housewife.

Shows like these definitely demonstrate the classic power struggles within families. The women of the house are very feminine but always take control of the household as well as fix the family problems. The macho husbands always seem to be the comic relief in the drama of family life. For example, in Grounded for Life the husband always originally try’s to solve the children’s problems with violence but the wife always saves the day by using logic. The men’s feeling of being the “head of the house” is a complete false allusion, because the women are the true decision makers.

These shows are good representations of change within our culture. Comparing today’s nuclear family shows to the past there is an obvious difference between the stereotypical wives. All in the Family was the classic family comedy show with the sweet average looking wife and the very masculine “meat head” of a husband. The wife never got the respect she deserved and stayed in her place as the classic housewife tending to her husband. Now, the women are a lot cleaner cut and have more power in the household. This shows the shift in how our culture views housewives and the respect given to women. Today, women earn a lot more respect and even have equal rights, compared to the past when women had to fight for their right to vote.

Looking at how family is represented in television series is a good way to analyze where our societal norms stand. Fortunately, after comparing the older and newer television series, it is clear that our culture has changed drastically for the better. Hopefully this trend will continue and diminish discriminatory differences.