How TV undermined the GOP’s family values pitch
Today, of course, we need only look at the popular sitcom Modern Family for an indication of just how much the idea of family has changed. That one family, which includes divorcées, immigrants, adopted children, gay couples, and strong women leading their households manages to encapsulate all the ways in which the definition of family has shifted and yet, remarkably, their arrangement is not unbelievable, nor does it stray too far from “traditional” family values. But what Modern Family doesn’t have is anybody who looks anything like a mainstream Republican: it’s difficult to imagine a character resembling Todd Akin, Rick Santorum, or even Mitt Romney appearing as anything other than a bumbling curiosity from an earlier age.
By showing what works for other—albeit, fictional—families, and by not heavy-handedly forcing values onto viewers, these shows both reflect the shift in Americans’ morals, while simultaneously pushing toward greater openness and acceptance of alternative family arrangements. Rather than downplay the role of family as its definition evolves, popular culture has shown us that family is as important as ever—so important, in fact, that people for whom the status of “family” has been denied will do anything to be included within it.
Blowback
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Well, duh.
When LBGT people are 3.4% of the population but vastly over-represented in television fiction, it only stands to reason that the culture is moving leftward through the media.
It’s been a steady goal since the 1980′s, when television master Ronald Reagan smashed the daylights out of cultural liberalism. The media elite made it their goal to transform America, culturally speaking, into the Upper West Side of Manhattan.
KingGold on November 15, 2012 at 5:40 PM
.
So what does The Daily Wildebeast call advertising?
LincolntheHun on November 15, 2012 at 5:40 PM
Huh? What pitch? Did I miss something? I thought Willard followed the “its the economy, stupid!” model?
Valkyriepundit on November 15, 2012 at 5:43 PM
Err, no.
The 17th-annual “Where We Are on TV” report released Friday by GLAAD found that 4.4 percent of actors appearing regularly on prime-time network drama and comedy series during the 2012-13 season will portray lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender characters. This is up from 2.9 percent in 2011, which saw a dip in what had been a growing annual trend. http://huff.to/Vurdug
ZachV on November 15, 2012 at 5:45 PM
I actually don’t know a single family like the one in “Modern Family”.
My life is more like an episode of Duck Dynasty.
/s
Defenestratus on November 15, 2012 at 5:46 PM
Yes, the entertainment industry has been masterful at this. I remember NBC had what seemed to be an all-gay lineup several years ago. Now they’re pushing for polygamy with a couple of reality TV shows.
Controlling the culture involves controlling three crucial elements:
- Media/entertainment
- Schools
- Judiciary
If you control those three, you end up controlling the culture.
Stoic Patriot on November 15, 2012 at 5:48 PM
TV’s message: White males suck unless they’re gay. White male Christians should be hated by everyone.
darwin on November 15, 2012 at 5:48 PM
Some people see more gays because they’re looking for them. Not that there’s anything wrong with it.
lester on November 15, 2012 at 5:50 PM
This has always been a part of the GOP’s values.
Abby Adams on November 15, 2012 at 5:53 PM
That’s all well and good, but that obscures the idea of billing, importance of roles, and face time per character. And just what do you suppose is the percentage of prime-time showrunners who are gay? Just asking, because it goes to my point.
I bet if you asked a random person on the street, “What’s the percentage of gay people in the population?” the answer will be vastly higher than 3.4%. I guarantee it.
KingGold on November 15, 2012 at 5:56 PM
Of course, the Republicans control the judiciary, local communities control the school boards and TV is controlled by the viewers….
Guess that liberal conspiracy isn’t quite so strong after all.
urban elitist on November 15, 2012 at 5:57 PM
More so than Hollywood. In Glee, the second-most evil group of characters are white Christian women. (The most evil are in-the-closet homosexuals; straight men are never — IIRC — multi-episode antagonists.)
calbear on November 15, 2012 at 5:58 PM
When Ellen became a afternoon talk show star and was embraced by middle class middle Americans who applauded when she married her partner, the die was cast. Children and adults all over the US may not know gay people but because of Will and Grace etc. like the characters portrayed.
The GOP better wise up. All we have left is fiscal conservationism.
Leave the other stuff behind or we will continue to lose.
People are always shocked to find out I am a Republican here in Massachusetts. It is always the same, “But you are so nice”, Hollywood has portrayed us for so long as being mean spirited and horrible that we will have to bend backwards to ever get our footing again.
If we continue to let the right wing social nuts run our party we will become a one party nation. It is just a matter of time.
Ricki on November 15, 2012 at 6:01 PM
Except that:
1.)The GOP doesn’t control the judiciary. Although they have appointed the majority of SCOTUS, Kennedy consistently sides with the left on cultural matters, while Roberts served as vote for the left on both SB-1070 as well as Obamacare.
2.)The GOP doesn’t control the schools. School administrators and teachers do — who come from the universities’ schools of education, which churn out people who are ardently liberal.
Stoic Patriot on November 15, 2012 at 6:02 PM
(continued from above)
and 3.) TV isn’t controlled by the viewers, it’s controlled by those who produce the content — again, people who are reliably liberal.
Stoic Patriot on November 15, 2012 at 6:03 PM
Has this guy actually watched “Modern Family?”
If the “criticism” section of the Wikipedia entry is accurate, a lot of people think the roles on this show are too conservative.
tbrosz on November 15, 2012 at 6:05 PM
http://www.gallup.com/poll/147824/Adults-Estimate-Americans-Gay-Lesbian.aspx
“U.S. Adults Estimate That 25% of Americans Are Gay or Lesbian”
melle1228 on November 15, 2012 at 6:05 PM
And yet the perennially ignored elephant in the room – who controls 90% of what appears on TV – goes unmentioned…..again. LOL. Perhaps we deserve to be diminished and replaced.
Kungfoochimp on November 15, 2012 at 6:07 PM
Sweetie, I was here first. And you are in no way a conservative. You are a squishy republican who want her money.
The states and the voters should be able to decide who married whom in their community, and it is NOT us righties use the dictatorship/judiciary to push our agenda.
You all better wise up, because without us- all you all become is stingy Democrats.
melle1228 on November 15, 2012 at 6:07 PM
Where’s the outrage?..where are the demonstrations?
Isn’t that like actors in blackface portraying something they are not?
Fakes…I hate every variety of them, they’re so…fake.
Mimzey on November 15, 2012 at 6:08 PM
Sweetie, I was here first. And you are in no way a conservative. You are a squishy republican who want her money.
The states and the voters should be able to decide who married whom in their community, and it is NOT us righties use the dictatorship/judiciary to push our agenda.
You all better wise up, because without us- all you all become is stingy Democrats who continue to lose..
melle1228 on November 15, 2012 at 6:07 PM
FIFM.. BTW, do you honestly think that if you capitualate on EVERY social issue that that the Dems and their buddies in the media wouldn’t continue to tar you as anti-women, homophobic, and racist-you are delusional.
melle1228 on November 15, 2012 at 6:09 PM
What a crock.
Mimzey on November 15, 2012 at 6:09 PM
How could they leave out Bonanza, The Big Valley, Family Affair, The Courtship of Eddie’s Father, The Partridge Family?
p.s. In late August, Ann Romney answered, “Modern Family” when asked by ET Online what was her favorite TV program.
Ladysmith CulchaVulcha on November 15, 2012 at 6:10 PM
Mentioning Maury Povich would be racist, right?
Couldn’t a counter argument be made that the dwindling viewership of these shows demonstrates that over the decades the public has rejected those new values as they became bluer? I assume that the splintering of audiences with the increase of viewing options results in lower ratings for individual titles over time.
That’s just as valid as the video killed the family values star theory that concludes the existence of television shows explains electoral results.
rw on November 15, 2012 at 6:12 PM
Sure.
My whole street, in NY, is just like the one Mr. Fitzgerald describes in Modern Family.
Everybody at work too.
Please……
Dreadnought on November 15, 2012 at 6:12 PM
SoCon rage against the popular entertainment machine is so 1980s.
Heck, even Tipper Gore Declared The War on Rappers (and turned NWA from nobodies to multi-platinum…uh, artists
)
SoCons want to put y’all back in chains.
It is actually possible to watch television with degenerate families (Shameless, Weeds) and movies that turn psychotic violence into Pornography (SAW 1, 2, 3, 411, 911) and be a perfectly normal person. This goes for video games too.
CorporatePiggy on November 15, 2012 at 6:14 PM
Damn liburl. herrr derrr
lester on November 15, 2012 at 6:14 PM
I despise anything with Jon Cryer in the cast.
Jeddite on November 15, 2012 at 6:16 PM
Hope you are being sarcastic. I watch a lot of unwholesome shows as a socon, but I am an adult and can differentiate between Sons of Anarchy being fictional violence and going out and joining a biker game. I don’t let my children watch it, but have no issues if others want to enjoy adult oriented programming.
But what do I know. I am still 21 years into my first marriage and have two children by the same father who I married. Oh and I am a “strong” Republican woman.
melle1228 on November 15, 2012 at 6:19 PM
.
I see you enjoying your legal ounce of “medical” herb.
THC levels must be off the charts.
.
I keep forgetting, to which party did Tipper Gore belong?
LincolntheHun on November 15, 2012 at 6:24 PM
I was Somewhat facetious but not really sarcastic just a little bored with the very stale arguments that are made (almost always by social conservatives) that the degenerate media is destroying our culture, hurting our children, and so on and so forth.
People have tried very hard indeed to draw causal connections between shifting media mores and societal trends. And like AGW proponents the science never stacks up. Such simplistic models of causation are the cultural equivalent of Mann’s hockey stick graph.
Values (which are typically inculcated by family) are what counts here – not gays on TV, absurd violence, or the portrayal of degeneracy as something humorous. I daresay the fact that you are seemingly happily married with two children has nothing at all to do with how the entertainment industry changes over time.
CorporatePiggy on November 15, 2012 at 6:26 PM
Don’t know, but she was married to the artist Chakra Khan.
CorporatePiggy on November 15, 2012 at 6:28 PM
I would agree with you on most accounts. I do, however, think that people become “desensitized” to things when they see them all the time. Broken families become the norm on television. I also think that the adult culture has been “geared” toward our children. I am a firm believer that it is the parent’s responsibility to make sure children are monitored in what they watch, but even I am shocked sometimes in what I think are on innocuous shows. I do think that little girls are sexualized and fed sexual image at much too young an age. I am not going to ban and picket because I firmly believe in the 1st amendment, but I do think that our culture has devolved. My husband and I have values and yes that is why we have remained faithfully married, but I wonder if my children will go up with the same message when outside messages are constantly sent that marriage is temporary etc.
melle1228 on November 15, 2012 at 6:33 PM
I disagree.
In fact I find it almost unbelievable that some cannot accept the obvious when it comes to the influence to culture and values that media plays.
The mistake is the same mistake that people make for seeing nothing wrong with drugs, prostitution, pornography, etc…i.e. “it doesn’t effect ME that way..so therefore it shouldn’t effect anyone..except a few here and there”.
It’s a weak line of reasoning imo.
Mimzey on November 15, 2012 at 6:34 PM
We have all those kinds of folks in our family yet we’re still conservative if not exactly Big R Republican. I daresay, some of us even look like mainstream Republicans
I’m so tired of being painted as some obsolete remnant of a moribund culture by the media and others with so lacking in depth that they can only conceive human beings as cartoon characters. That is definitely not what I am, and their knowledge of people is extremely limited.
jix on November 15, 2012 at 6:40 PM
The influence on culture and values that the media imparts is subordinated to the values that are inculcated in a person to begin with and to a lesser extent the age of the consumer.
If you are talking about impressionable minors then I am with you and melle to a certain extent – it probably is not a good idea to show a 10 year old an NC-17 movie for instance.
Beyond that, people start reaching and lack any kind of evidence beyond ‘well, it’s nasty so it MUST do something to certain types of people’. We see this after mass shootings for instance. The Columbine massacre duo liked to play violent video games. A lot of hay was made over that single fact despite the fact that millions of people play violent video games and do not, in fact, commit mass murder.
The thing is, Republicans need a more plausible explanation for defeat than the media. The game hasn’t changed, its just got more fierce.
CorporatePiggy on November 15, 2012 at 6:45 PM
How could an article on TV’s influence on the culture leave out the change in how women are portrayed. From 50s traditional wives, post-”Feminine Mystique” portrayals of outsized power over men: Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie, LOL even uber creepy My Mother, The Car.
Then came single career women: That Girl, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Murphy Brown. Finally, back to the nuclear family as at least her husband’s equal: The Cosby Show, Roseanne, Married With Children, Family Ties.
Ladysmith CulchaVulcha on November 15, 2012 at 6:54 PM
I love all of these “Obama won so let’s get hip with the times” articles. All they do is offer bandwagon arguments instead of engaging the issues.
Baerwulf on November 15, 2012 at 7:14 PM
^^^ This is the kind of subversive commentary that the new media needs to answer for.
(Good call on I Dream of Genie and Bewitched btw – they were the textbook definition of Misandry and you can trace the roots of the metrosexual menace back to those two shows.
Why? Because I say so.
CorporatePiggy on November 15, 2012 at 7:17 PM
I’m a conservative Christian woman, but I agree with the Daily Beast writer to an extent, at least in regards to church communities.
A lot of churches still cling to the “complementarian” view of gender roles and are narrowly focused on the 1950s marriage and family model, when times have in fact changed.
Some conservative Christians are what are called “egaltarians” and do not believe the Bible prohibits women from leading men in or out of church, or holding pastoral positions or other positions of authority.
Most people (including Christians) are not getting married at all any more, or their first marriage does not happen until past age 35.
If you are a Christian who is over 35 years old, never married, and have no kids and particularly if you are a woman, most conservative Christian churches will not offer you a true welcome or a place to do anything.
A lot of conservative Christians continue to incorrectly assume that all women have a maternal drive, so the only option they give Christian single women is to work in a church nursery.
I do think one reason the church is shrinking in numbers in the United States is that they do not reach out to those Christians (and Non Christians) who do not fit the out dated 1950s family model.
TigerPaw on November 15, 2012 at 7:33 PM
The process is not frozen in time and in relation to one generation.
It’s an ongoing process that started about 40 years ago.
The values that are in a person ‘to begin with’ are most likely not what was the starting point 5 or 10 years prior.
What may have negatively impressed minors 20 years ago is ho-hum to minors today.
This is because of the values that are implied to be “normal” and imparted by various forms of media..until they take on a life of their own thru acceptance and expectation.
Mimzey on November 15, 2012 at 7:47 PM
calbear, that same attitude is also rampant among conservative, Neo-Reformed groups, and some Southern Baptists, sadly.
They claim to respect women, but they really don’t. Some of them (the Southern Baptists and other conservative Christians) have gone on a crusade to trash any Christian woman who blogs or publishes books even questioning their views on gender roles.
They feel very threatened by any Christian who criticizes their views on this topic and they lash out, and that to me is one sign of several that something is very wrong with their traditionalist views on gender, and what truly drives their motives.
I was brought up Southern Baptist but no longer share all their beliefs on every issue.
A lot of those Christians (conservative ones who defend traditional gender roles) still believe the old stereotypes that women are tempters, are weak, will lead a man to sin, and some of them (including an instructor at a Southern Baptist campus, if I recall right), even as recently as about two months ago, wrote on blogs that married women should not work outside of the home, the man should be in charge of everything, the husband should make all decisions, and all the other sexist views from the past were upheld.
Some of these Southern Baptist and conservative evangelicals have even discriminated against women in the church workplace, getting them fired based on their gender alone.
Such Christians never even mention women over the age of 35 who have never married and had kids, either.
The view of some conservative Christians is so narrow, they assume everyone gets married by the age of 25 and has a few kids, which may have been true decades ago, but these days, most people don’t marry by 25 and have a baby.
People who don’t fit that mould of “married by 25 with a baby” are not even considered.
There are segments of conservative Christianity who hate or disrespect white Christian women.
I get that too. Most online friends I make happen to be liberal, and I don’t tell them right away I am a conservative Republican.
They are shocked when they find out I’m not left wing and one of the first things they say is, “but you’re so nice,” as if every single conservative is mean and hateful.
TigerPaw on November 15, 2012 at 7:49 PM
Could be.
Another reason could be because of the hand in hand workings for similar goals of the liberal left politician with a focus on “social justice”..”fairness”. and gay marriage..”Palestinians” are “freedom fighters”..etc.
You basically seem to be saying that religious principles should keep up with the hipsters view of everything being relative and based on changing social values.
Mimzey on November 15, 2012 at 7:58 PM
TigerPaw on November 15, 2012 at 7:49 PM
The wonderful thing about religion and church is there is another one right around the corner. Don’t like the ones you have been going to- change. As far as segments of conservative Christians being disrespectful of women– that happens in ALL segments of the population even one who say they support womyn’s rights. And there are some racists in all segments and some homophobes etc. even those that claim to be the most tolerant. Intolerance is not just limited to the Conservative Christian community nor is the majority view in that community. The conservative Christian community is just the only community that is still politically correct by both the right and the left to dump on and mischaracterize. We have become parodies of the church lady and the preacher in the movie Footloose.
melle1228 on November 15, 2012 at 8:00 PM
Nicely done.
CorporatePiggy on November 15, 2012 at 8:02 PM
No, I don’t think that’s what I’m saying.
The reality is that a lot of people are not living, or cannot achieve, the 1950s nuclear family ideal anymore.
I certainly did not plan to stay unmarried as long as I did, but it happened – and the church has no place for me or those in the same situation as me.
The continued emphasis on family (mom + dad + kids) has not stopped the church from shrinking membership the last few decades.
It’s not so much that the values need to change – but how you treat people should. If you are making people feel excluded, that is not ‘biblical,’ and it’s not helping your cause.
TigerPaw on November 15, 2012 at 8:08 PM
Thanky!
Ladysmith CulchaVulcha on November 15, 2012 at 8:10 PM
No.
We have been portrayed that way. Weak minds take it to be accurate.
(not referring to you, but far too many in the general population)
Mimzey on November 15, 2012 at 8:13 PM
Some segments of conservative Christianity really and truly do exemplify the “Church Lady,” which is something I am seeing the older I get.
It’s not just “liberal Hollywood” making conservative Christians appear unloving or judgmental in TV shows – some of them really and truly are that way. (Running in to such Christians almost caused me to abandon the faith.)
If you have not experienced being ostracized or excluded because you don’t fit the accepted conservative Christian criteria (married by 25 with one or two kids) you have no idea what I’ve gone through, or how alien church feels.
I’ve been a conservative Christian my whole life, and I am a social conservative myself, but the older I get, I do see problems with some of them, and I see where some of their blind spots are.
It is not as simple as you make it sound.
I am a social conservative/ Christian/ Republican / single woman.
(1) My theology is biblical, orthodox, and conservative, but (2) I do not share the “complementarian gender” view.
Therefore, I don’t fit in with most conservative denominations or the liberal ones.
The “liberal” churches:
I don’t agree with their watering down of the Gospel. They will let women lead (usually), which is good and biblical, but they deny that Christ is God and was raised from the dead and so on. I would not want to attend such a church.
The conservative ones get their teachings about Christ’s deity (and other central doctrines) correct, but as I said above, if you are a Christian woman who is single past the age of 30 and does not have a child, they do not welcome you, and they do not permit you to into positions of leadership or anything of interest to you.
Most conservative Christian churches have no room or role for a woman that falls outside of raising babies, babysitting in the church nursery, or baking bread.
God not gift me in those areas, nor do I have an interest to serve in those areas (child rearing, baking cookies, teaching Sunday school to children).
Many, many other Christian women are just like me and do not fit in such churches, and we don’t agree with the liberal theology of liberal denominations.
I’ve also heard from single Christian men past the age of 30 and 40 who feel just as excluded from church as the women do, but the males are permitted more to do, they are not prohibited from certain activities or leadership roles because of their gender.
TigerPaw on November 15, 2012 at 8:20 PM
TigerPaw on November 15, 2012 at 8:20 PM
I understand what you are saying. I am not very religious(so walking out of a church would be much easier for me), but my husband is. He attends a Baptist Church with a very good couple friend of us. Both him and my friend’s husband are the most wonderful men you would ever meet and they both have strong willed wives that do not fall into what you have said are traditional gender roles. This church does not relegate single women in the nursery. They have many single moms and single women in the church. So when I say to change your church I mean that there are traditional doctrine churches out there which make nontradtional people feel welcome.
melle1228 on November 15, 2012 at 8:27 PM
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