Gender Roles And Stereotypes The Kiss By The Dunphy s,...

The television series Modern Family attempts to provide an updated representation of the contemporary American Family. The program is centred on the familial interactions of three interrelated families; the Pritchet’s, the Dunphy’s, and the Pritchet-Tucker’s. Each family is unique as it depicts a specific family structure (or type) seen within society at large, representing a blended discourse of gender, race and sexuality. Superficially, it appears the families do represent segments of current society, however a textual analysis of the episode, â€Å"The Kiss† revels that heteronormative ideals linked to the nuclear family structure and associative gender roles are juxtaposed upon the characters and families portrayed. In fact, the program promotes specific gender roles and stereotypes of both women and homosexuals. To better articulate the gender roles and stereotypes imposed upon the characters in Modern Family it is beneficial to examine scholarly definitions of family, specifically those associated with Structural Functionalism. Based on research conducted with Australian aboriginal families, George Malinowski argued the family is comprised of a â€Å"man, woman and their children† (Mitchell, 2012, p. 29). He claimed the universality of this definition of family was predicated based on this familial representation occurring repeatedly within society. Malinowski’s family unit is seen within Modern Family with the Dunphy family comprised of Phil, Claire (Jay Pritchet’s