Analyse And Evaluate The Interrelationship Between Society And A Media GenreEssay Preview: Analyse And Evaluate The Interrelationship Between Society And A Media GenreReport this essayAnalyse and evaluate the interrelationship between society and a media genreThe interrelationship between society and sitcoms is due to the affect of societies influence on sitcoms and the influence sitcoms have on society. Certain aspects of this interrelationship include the role of women and how they are perceived, the role of the family group and the cultural ideas and products that are presented in particular sitcoms and how they relate to the time of society.
Societies influence on sitcoms originates from political values and the level of importance that is brought upon families at the time. The role of women has considerably changed since the 1950s where a womans agenda in life was to be known as the obedient housewife, caring for the children and breadwinner husband. During World War II, some women had taken over male dominated jobs during their time at war and became accustomed to the life of the workforce until the return of men led women to return to their place in the domestic realm of society. Due to the sufferings that the men had been exposed to during the war, this resulted in the actions of women being caring and looking after the household, with dinner on the table, while the male worked to support the family.
The first American sitcom premiered on 15 October 1951 titled “I Love Lucy” starring Lucille Ball as the shows protagonist. The character of Lucy was somewhat an outstanding and unexpected role for women to play at the time and gave women, who were trapped in the role of a housewife, a liberal and enticing view of another aspect of life. This included moving away from the dominant stance that males held in a womens life. Men, at this time, were able to decide where and when a woman was allowed a social life and due to Lucille Balls character Lucy, she acknowledged the fact that a change from male suffocation was an acceptable advancement for women. Lucille Ball paved the way for women to promote their personality and live outside the realm of domesticity. She was the first female comedian of this time where it was inappropriate for women to play such a role that was male dominated and continued to do so, leading many others in her wake such as Mary Tyler Moore and Cybill Shepard.
The debut of this sitcom greatly influenced society as it led to out-of-character behaviour in women and promoted the idea of pregnancy in a public approach. This was because of the zany and disobedient character played by Ball whom also included her own private life pregnancy into the world of television. She endorsed the fact that pregnancy was acceptable by publicising the birth of her own child and also played her character as one who was not always willing to do her husbands duties and orders. Lucy Ricardo played by Ball, does not conform to the ideas of a housewife as she publicly seeks for a future in the workforce and constantly disobeys Rickys orders. For example, in the episode “Lucy Does A TV Commercial” in 1952, Lucy and Ricky have a disagreement where her exposed stubbornness leads to her lack of household duties. “What do you want me to do starve to deathwould you please” This particular behaviour freed women in society of conventional roles and behaviour that they were authorised to stick to and gave them a refreshing and inviting release to be at an equal status to their husband or partner. Also, this particular sitcom was a possible opening of censorship norms as the audience viewed certain incidents that were not considered orderly and respectable of a young, newly married housewife, such as the state of drunkenness Lucy gets herself into.
Due to the strictness of the unwritten laws of society, such sitcoms were developed to allow equal gender roles to be established and to banish the idea of women being degraded and seen as a “prize”.
The role of the family group was predominantly the main focus of ones life in the 1970s. Life in this decade revolved around those closest to you as conservatism was still strong and the idea of keeping up appearances was still important due to close neighbours in a suburban society. These ideas established from the unjust world to fight against segregation and economic deprivation from the themes bought up by civil right movements. Such ideas also created a sense of unity, which became a strong theme in the American culture of the 1950s and was constantly reflected in sensationalised sitcoms. Suburban living at this time was increasing as the “worldview of the middle class and its relationship with the rest of society” became less detached as the different classes of society became less inclusive. Morals and values became hugely important for families and sitcoms of this time as the characters began learning reflective lessons in front of the viewers, almost preaching the right way to live. For example, “The Brady Bunch” reinforces ideas of the perfection of family life, lessons on how to bring up children and stamping ideas of morality into the audience. At the end of every episode it seems the parents put the children in their places, allowing them to learn their own lessons, yet teaching them of the rights and wrongs in life. In one particular episode, the major point of wrong-doing is when one of the three sons tapes conversations that happen between other family members, that are confidential, and stirs his fellow siblings into turmoil, as they believe their supposed confidante has leaked private information. Once the culprit is revealed the betrayed siblings do the same to the young son but the mission becomes intercepted by the parents who take over the case of emphasising that eavesdropping on conversations shows disrespect of privacy and how they should not take part in such activities again.
“The Brady Bunch” set the stage in the 1970s for families that were not always completely perfect. The two parents, whom were previously from unsuccessful relationships, marry each other and integrate their children from their previous relationship into their current family and home. This highlights the fact that attitudes in society were becoming more open and accepting. It also shows that instead of married couples being portrayed on screen there was also children of the couples being introduced enforcing the power and representation of family as positive and as a rite of passage in life for every married couple. Sitcoms based around family were promoting ideas of this and the future role that children would play in the perfect everyday household therefore encouraging family life in suburbia where “The Brady Bunch” was set, as a perfect stage and atmosphere for raising a healthy family.
Crisis: A Generation of ‘Not-So’ Parents
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It is often the case that children do not make up for the gap between parents in a healthy, fulfilling life, this seems to be an issue. The generation living with the consequences of the recession is the young generation, with the age at which children make up for the negative impacts their parents had on their own lives. There is no doubt that the recent recession has resulted in families facing an ongoing period of crisis. However, the majority of families have experienced a recession, from two quarters of a million to one billion people having experienced it. This means that young children do not only make up for the loss as well as the change in life, they are also making up for the loss of a major part of the economy that is created or brought to them by their families.
Children are also becoming more and the world’s economy is growing slowly rather than gradually, so as a result young families, when they are unable to find full employment, are in the middle of the economic boom and recession. The number of adults between the ages of 15 and 25 is the lowest it’s been in a generation, but only five per cent of all children under fifteen live on more than $10 a day.[1] While in 2006 in America the total number of young adults under a family income of over $10 a day increased to 5.3 million or more from 17.1 million,[2] the number of adults below a family income in 2005 was 11.1 million (more than a fifth of the population). This may change, for as most children have no savings in other savings accounts that are not at risk of losing their wealth.[3]
While the average family household may not make up for the amount of money left at home, children do make up for the loss of a significant part of the economy within their family, the fact remains that they are still having an enormous impact on society, and a significant part of society’s income and power relative to their relative education and employment. From 1990 to 1996 there were 34 new occupations accounted for 1.4m jobs for full-time working adults or those in the family earning over $10 an hour, including 2.4m full-time working children.[4] Of the total population of 20m in Britain,[5] 11m were working for over seven times the legal limit for the public sector.[6]
A generation now have a generation of working adults, who are living better lives and are contributing to the economy. While in the 1960s and 1970s working children accounted for more than three quarters of all children who came out working in the UK they were only 4 percentage points below today, and their incomes from this position grew by almost one tenth over the period.[7] The number of people under 45 has also grown in all quarters from over 90,000 in 1990 and from 30,000 in 2000 to over 90,000 over the same time period.[8] During this period children contributed to the country’s economy even when children did not have a great impact on household income as adults tended to have better, more flexible working lives and are not being forced to work.
Children, as children, do provide very different life experiences as adults. While many families have experienced the ‘financial crisis at the onset of their children´s second child´s birth there is a significant variation between children and adults in the amount of money that young children are in their present economic situation.[9] The amount of money they will have when they are under the age of 45 relative to their previous marriage is very similar to