Underrepresented Families

Have underrepresented families achieved success on television?  In what ways has the medium of television challenged and/or reproduced stereotypes of the American family?

Television programming has changed throughout the years. We now see a diversity of entertaining programming related to the American culture. Television shows have introduced the concept of the “American Family.” Portraying the American family as a middle or upper class white family with a husband, wife and children. However, family television has slowly started introducing families with different ethnicity and cultures. For instance, “I love Lucy"  became one of the first TV show that showcased a biracial couple, a white wife and a Cuban husband. Later on television shows introduced “The Fresh Prince of Bell Air” and the “Cosby show,” representing African American families for the first time on television. Although, television shows started emphasizing families from different backgrounds and culture, each show became a re-production of the same story. The so called the “American family” portrayed similar characteristics and situations. For instance, the men are portrayed as the breadwinner and the women are portrayed as the caretakers. Not all shows however, follow the same family patterns. For instance, Clair Hanks Huxtable (the Cosby show) was not a stay at home mother in fact, she is a successful layer. However, the Cosby show show cases of under representation through gender roles. On the Cosby show,  Clair is underrepresented by not giving the audience the opportunity to see her in action. Clair is a successful lawyer, and when watching the show we don't see her working on a law case or in her work environment. Instead, Dr. Huxtable takes the leading role and is seen on his work element at all times. But have all these stereotypes and gender roles portrayed on family shows changed today?

Today, we see television shows such as Modern Family, Empire, Fresh out the Boat and Blackish showcasing nontraditional blended families with a diversity of age, class, gender, and standards. However, when analyzing closely we notice that some of these shows are continuing to be a re-production of an upper,middle class families with not enough cultural diversity. Some of these shows are also portrayed with stereotypical behavior and culture. There is a lack of authenticity and truth behind these family shows. The American family continues to be underrepresented. Sadly, the majority of the viewers who enjoys these shows cannot relate with the families portrayed on the shows. When we think of the American family we don’t automatically think of our family but the white American family. Not being able to identify or relate with these television shows displays a lack of diversity, culture, values and principals. The show Blackish however, is one of the fewest shows that bring a new take of the African American family on television. These types of television shows can provide a massive audience support (Danish 306). But even though Blackish is changing the stereotypical American family, it is still lacking educational programming on the real struggle that African Americans, Latinos and Asian cultures experience on a daily basis. Reason being is that “all media, newspapers, film, radio, television, magazines and books, are controlled under strict censorship, that a nation can be forced to be uplifted or to conform to a predetermined ideological or cultural mold” (Danish 306). Until television shows provide a good representation of culture and ethnicity, viewers would be able to identify and relate to television shows rather than the typical "American family" that is portrayed on television today.