The Pew Research Center found, from a representative survey of 2,691 people, that Americans find families with gay or lesbian parents are more acceptable than families with single mothers. Linda Carroll discusses this in her article for MSNBC, also stating that 99 percent of skeptics and 98 percent of rejectors think that single mother families are bad for society (it is important to know that this survey did not address single fathers). These survey results may not be shocking to most Americans, but they may be more so when confronted with the actual numbers on how many families are composed in the US with a single parent as the head. According to the 2008 US census, 29.5 percent of households with children are single-parent households, and 40.6 percent of all live births are to unmarried women, to see the whole compilation of data click here.
But how do these results and feelings relate to the portrayal of these families on television? In 1992, Vice President Quayle delivered a speech addressing the Los Angeles Riots and the subsequent plans for the Bush's administration with regards to addressing social and economic inequalities, however his comments on the television character Murphy Brown becoming a single mother that took center stage in the media. He stated“Bearing babies irresponsibly is simply wrong...We must be unequivocal about this. It doesn’t help matters when prime-time TV has Murphy Brown, a character who suppopsedly epitomizes today’s intelligent, highly paid professional woman, mocking the importance of fathers by bearing a child alone and calling it just another lifestyle choice,” sparking a debate in the country about the role of family, including welfare policy and economic opportunities. Most of the feedback was negative, showcasing the shift in thought for a growing number of Americans that this was an acceptable form of family.
Murphy Brown 1988-1998
Jump to later television and more single parent families begin to surface. However, most are portrayed as widowed parents, not single parents who have children out of wedlock, or because one parent left or is simply not in the picture for some reason. Some early examples include The Brady Bunch, but this still shows once the two families come together, almost stating that this is a more acceptable form of family than the two single parents raising their children alone.
The Brady Bunch 1969-1974
Another step in the direction of diversity of the family structure on television was the portrayal of a single father on the show Full House (1987-1995). He is still a single parent due to his spouses death, but a single dad as opposed to a single mother as the head of household shows an increased portrayal of diversity. It presents a family living life day to day, just like any other family structure deemed acceptable in America during this time period. However, as was the case in The Brady Bunch, Danny has his two friends move in to help raise his girls, not overtly stating, but hinting toward the social idea that one person cannot parent alone.
Full House made an effort to always make it clear that Danny was a single parent because of becoming a widow, but it does show this family in a light which shows that they still do normal everyday things and face the same problems as the "traditional" or more "acceptable" family structure of the time.
In 2000 the show Gilmore Girls stared airing on TV, and portrayed a single teen mother who raised her daughter alone. The two live alone and Lorelai is shown as a successful business woman, a change from the stereotypical struggling teen mother, another increase in television single parent family diversity. Lorelai and her daughter Rory have a strong mother/daughter relationship, showing that this too can be a successful family structure. And unlike most earlier shows, Lorelai is not a single parent as a result of becoming a widow, Rory's father is just simply not in the picture. However, still keeping in the examples of The Brady Bunch and Full House in being a drama/comedy type sitcom.
And even more recently there has been an outpouring of new TV shows that include single parent family structures of many different forms, and not just in the comedy/drama sitcom mold. There are full on drama television shows, serialized series, and comedy television shows as well, all further developing the diversity of the American Family structure in television media.
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