Grey's Anatomy- Single Parent Families

In the popular television show Grey's Anatomy, single mother Bailey gives this speech about the difficulties many single mothers face.  The fact that this is shown on TV portrays the diversity in families that many people live day to day, further showing the publics growing acceptance.  

More Disney Diversity

There are also many single parent families showing up on children's television shows.  This shows increasing acceptance of these families as they are obviously now deemed "appropriate" for even young viewers.  Shows such as Hannah Montana, which features a single father (widowed) and The Suite Life of Zac and Cody, who are being raised solely by their mother, because their father is simply not frequently in the picture.    

Our Class Families

And in contrast to the "google images family"previously posted, here is our class family photos. 

Single Parent Families- Around the World

Call to Action

Our call to action is for you to look at your family.  To look at each other’s families, and realize that you are not so different from one another.  Gay family, single parent family, heterosexual family, interracial family-- which are you?  What are your friends? What is the difference?  Diversity is all around us, and it’s part of what makes our culture so great.  The media is beginning to show this diversity, and with this increased presence comes an increased acceptance.  As Edward Schiappa, a professor of communications at the University of Minnesota said, “TV and movie representation matters,”  He’s shown in multiple studies that the presence of gay characters on television programs decreases prejudices amongst viewers of the programs.  Similar findings have been shown for interracial families, single parent families, and the like.  

So we ask you first to open your minds.  If you are unsure about diverse families, take a closer look.  See the love in them.  Realize that these families are not so different from your own-maybe they are your own-and they are normal.  Families with diversity are just another family, and deserve to be treated as so.

If you already feel this way, we ask you to show it!  Watch TV! TV with gay families, TV with a spanish dad and an African American mom, where they fight, and then make up!  Just like my husband and I.  Just like you and your brother, or you and your mom.  Show networks that you like it!  And that you want more!  If enough people show their content with the programs, then more networks will show more programs with more diversity, and more people will be able to realize that these families are normal.  Just like mine.  And just like yours. 

South Africa

These Daso ads from South Africa speak for themselves.  They both say the same thing in the caption: "In OUR future, you wouldn't look twice".  They are making a similar point to what we are attempting to make- that these diverse couples and families are normal, and that one day, we will hopefully be able to realize that. There has been much controversy over these ads, but nothing to convince Daso to discontinue their use.  So we can see that though some areas may seem to be more advanced in this area than the US, there is still much contention surrounding it, no matter where you go.

Italy

The United Colors of Benetton campaign in Italy has made leaps and bounds in the form of diversity amongst families in the media.  This has clearly sparked a great deal of outrage and backlash, but the campaign continues to make way.  This is awesome.  It may seem bold now, but it is very necessary, or we may never be able to move forward with embracing these families as normal.

Here, we see two women, of different race, with a child of yet another race.  Here, we see a family. 

First Interracial Kiss- UK

The first interracial kiss on TV in the UK occurred four years before the kiss in the United States.  It was between a White man and an African American woman, on the soap opera "Emergency Ward 10".

Google Family

This is a screen shot of what came up when we searched Google for "family."  While there are some families of different race, and there appears to be a few single parents in there, most of what came up were 'nuclear families'.  One mom, one dad, two to three kids, and possibly a dog in there somewhere.  There are few interracial families, and NO same sex families.  Our hope, through this project, is to prove that increased presence in the media does increase levels of acceptance of diverse families, and that if we increase the presence of diversity in families on TV, we may see a very different, and more diverse result when we put in the same search 5-10 years from now.

Disney Diversity

     Though this specific example is from a movie, and we are choosing to focus on television media, I thought it is important to point out that even cartoons geared at very young children are beginning to show interracial couples.  Disney's "The Princess and the Frog" is a great example with an African-American princess and a Brazilian prince, living happily ever after (of course!).  There was still some backlash over this movie, mostly because the prince was not African-American as well, which made some of this population feel that it was showing discrimination against men of color.  In our opinion, a great depiction of a diverse, happy couple.  To Disney, we say Nice Work!  You are showing our younger generations that diversity is okay.  You can't please them all, but this sure is a great start!

Celebrity Couples

Whether we like it or not, celebrities act as role models for not only the youth, but the majority of our nation.  When we see celebrities doing something, we often come to think of that something as acceptable or 'cool'.  Participating in interracial relationships are no different.  Celebrity couples such as Lamar Odom and Khloe Kardashian, Heidi Klum and Seal, and Zoe Saldana and Keith Britton show the world that interracial couples can be successful, and if they are not, it is not because of racial differences, but just your average couple complications.
            
            Khloe and Lamar                              Heidi and Seal                               Zoe and Keith

A Brief History

In the late 1600's, Virginia, along with many other southern states, enacted laws against marriages of different races.  Richard Loving and Mildred Jeter (pictured above) sought to change this, after being criminally charged in Virginia for their marriage to one another.  On June 12, 1967, their efforts were successful when the Supreme Court ruled in their favor, deeming laws against interracial marriage unconstitutional.  This was a turning point in history for interracial marriage, and we expect to see similar findings in the future for similar laws concerning same sex marriages.  

Swedish Commercial- Divorced Parents

Never mind the title...but Ikea makes another commercial (they have others with gay parents and interracial couples) portraying a differing family style.  She/He are co-parenting due to a divorce, so neither is a single parent, but this type of family once again is not normally shown in US commercials. 

UK Commercial- Single Parent Families

A commercial shown in the UK for a flooring company.  It showcases some of the struggles a single parent faces, but while including the daughter, in a fun and childlike way, almost to show both sides of parenting.  The mother points out she is a single parent, something usually hidden or unseen in United States commercials.  More single parents are included in US television shows than commercials, if they were shown more frequently in this form of television would acceptance increase even more within the community? Or are sellers too afraid to lose customers to be this daring? 

Bristol Palin on same-sex marriage and TV show Glee

President Obama explained his evolution of his stance on gay-marriage, and how it was influenced by his daughters. "You know, Malia and Sasha, they have friends whose parents are same-sex couples," Obama said in the ABC interview in which he made his announcement. "There have been times where Michelle and I have been sitting around the dinner table and we’re talking about their friends and their parents and Malia and Sasha, it wouldn’t dawn on them that somehow their friends’ parents would be treated differently."

Bristol Palin was not satisfied with the President’s statement and blamed TV show, Glee, for influencing Obama's daughters' view on same-sex marriage. Below is the facebook message she posted on the matter.

“While it's great to listen to your kids' ideas, there's also a time when dads simply need to be dads. In this case, it would've been helpful for him to explain to Malia and Sasha that while her friends parents are no doubt lovely people, that's not a reason to change thousands of years of thinking about marriage. Or that – as great as her friends may be – we know that in general kids do better growing up in a mother/father home. Ideally, fathers help shape their kids' worldview.

In this situation, it was the other way around. I guess we can be glad that Malia and Sasha aren't younger, or perhaps today's press conference might have been about appointing Dora the Explorer as Attorney General because of her success in stopping Swiper the Fox.
Sometimes dads should lead their family in the right ways of thinking. In this case, it would've been nice if the President would've been an actual leader and helped shape their thoughts instead of merely reflecting what many teenagers think after one too many episodes of Glee.” – Bristol Palin, May 10, 2012

Palin's comment made many people react. JWow, from reality TV show The Jersey Shore, tweeted "Bristol should keep her uneducated ignorant mouth shut. If Ur living in the past u wouldn't have a kid w/out marriage #hypocrite. It's 2012!"
  Read more on the Huffington Post.

Political meme on same-sex marriage

This meme compares the protests against same-sex marriage with the protests against interracial marriage, which happened about 40 years ago.

 

 





A Family is a Family is a Family

This is a trailer for the HBO documentary by Rosie O'Donnell titled "A Family is a Family is a Family."  This is a clip essentially sums up the purpose of our project.  Families can be diverse and still be normal, and when this is expressed in the media, evolution and progression can occur. 

Reactions to this clip on youtube.com show the varied and strong opinions on this topic.

"doesn't matter if you have 2 dads or 2 moms or one dad and one mom, a family is a family."

those children are so much smarter than most adults! the world would be a much better place if everyone thought like them.

Sandro Aurélio 1 year ago 10 

wrote: "oppression does crazy stuff to the brain"

Interesting that you should speak of oppression. The straight families feel oppressed by YOUR gay activism. What do you expect from straight people? If they feel uncomfortable with it, then who the hell are YOU to say that they must accept it? When you activists go out there and SCREAM that the straight population MUST accept YOUR views and ideas of a "family", are you not also oppressing the straight couples too?

TheWNMan in reply to 420yesboy (Show the comment) 10 months ago 7 

Here is a reaction from someone in Spain, which shows the cultural variances on the subject.  According to this comment, something that is such a hot topic here in the US is seen as perfectly normal in other parts of the world.

Dear. I live in spain. I red a lot of history books. In fact that is very related to my profession. I live in a country where same sex adoption are considered normal and accepted. In fact I have firiends they have adopt. I see them every week. I see their children grow up beautiful and healthy. I see hoe lucky and happy these kids are, having parents, grand parents, aunts and uncles, and people all around them loving them. Do what you think is right. But you will be responsible for denying happy

premenstruals in reply to TheWNMan (Show the comment) 3 months ago

meme on same-sex families

Popped Up on Facebook

Powerful Speech of Same-Sex Families

On January 31, 2011 Zach Wahls, "a sixth generation Iowan", addressed the Iowa House Judiciary Committe in a public hearing for a proposed consitutional amendment to band gay marriage in Iowa. Raised by two mothers, Wahls believes that "The kids of gay families bring a new face and a new argument to the [issue of same-sex families]."
This video went viral two weeks after it was posted with 1.5 million views, and currently boasts over 17 million views.
The Economist commented on this video with "This is what it looks like to win an arguement."

Neil and David - America's Gay Family

Neil Patrick Harris is a magician, singer and actor who is most well known for his role as Barney Stinson on CBS's popular show How I Met Your Mother. David Burtka is a chef and actor who hosts the E! Network.

Neil Patrick Harris and David Burtka have created "the most stunning gay-american family portrait" with twins Gideon and Harper.

David and Neil pose with their twins

At the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center, Jane Lynch thanks the couple for "putting a beautiful face on America's notion on what a gay family looks like."

 

The couple focus their speach on family at 5:40

 

In an interview with Oprah, Neil and David speak about why having children and making a family is so important.