Representing the Family

by Deborah Chambers

• ISBN13: 9780761964735
• ISBN10: 0761964738
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-08-09
• Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd

Summary

Looking at how the family is represented by the media, and by scrutinizing the manner in which it is regulated, this book uncovers the ways in which academic research and welfare policy have colluded with political rhetoric and the popular media to re-invent a mythical ideal family. Representing the Family: combines perspectives from a range of theories including media and cultural studies, sociology, and social history to show how certain types of family life are pathologised; highlights the discrepancies between contemporary representations of the "ideal" family and lived experience; and compares the British experience with that of the United States and Australia. Representing the Family provides a rich and an engaging illustration of the ways in which the media produce meaning. It also demonstrates the ways in which critical social issues are played out across a range of discursive sites - academia, politics, and public policy.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	viii
Acknowledgements	x
Representing `The Family'	1	(32)
Moral Godfathers and Political Rhetoric on Family Values	3	(7)
Sociological Research on the Family and Constructions of Race	10	(5)
White Studies	15	(2)
Academic Reinventions of the Nuclear Ideal	17	(3)
`Transformations of Intimacy' and the `Normal Chaos of Love'	20	(5)
Pure Relationships and Confluent Love	20	(3)
Individualismand Chaotic Love	23	(2)
The Family as a Discursive Construct and Regulatory Ideal	25	(4)
Faculty Families	29	(4)
Myths Of Familial Origins	33	(27)
The Myth of Family Origins	35	(1)
Nationhood, Race and Familial Heritages	36	(5)
The Regulation of the Modern Patriarchal Model of the Family	41	(2)
The Idealogy of the Separate Spheres	42	(1)
Sexology and the Regulation of Marital Heterosexuality	43	(6)
The Rise of the Modern `Functional Family'	49	(3)
`Bad Mothering' and the Regulation of Maternal Responsibility	52	(3)
The Construction and Inferiorisation of `Non-white' Families	55	(2)
Conclusion	57	(3)
The `Golden Age' Of The Modern Family?	60	(32)
Regulating Feminine Individualisation through the `Companionate Marriage'	61	(3)
The Rise of the Dysfunctional Family	64	(11)
The Ideology of Motherhood in Hollywood Melodrama	67	(4)
Popular Culture's Dysfunctional Families	71	(4)
Representations of the Family by the Family: the Photograph Album	75	(14)
Reinventing Family	76	(6)
The Meanings of 1950s Suburban Family Albums	82	(5)
Visual Dialogues about the between Public and Private Spaces	87	(2)
Conclusion	89	(3)
Dysfunctional Families	92	(23)
Popular Media Representations of the White Nuclear Ideal	93	(5)
News and Popular Media Morality Tales of `Family Man'	98	(6)
Representations of White Fatherhood in Mainstream Films	104	(5)
The Dysfunctional White Male	109	(4)
Conclusion	113	(2)
Hybrid Families and Celebrations of Difference	115	(25)
Performing Families of Choice	117	(6)
Hybrid Familialism and Celebrations of Difference	123	(3)
The Familial Self	126	(2)
Intimate Relationships and the Crisis of Moral Commitment	128	(9)
The Crisis of Moral Commitment	130	(3)
The Recovery of Romantic Love a Identity	133	(4)
Conclusion	137	(3)
Discourses Of Family Crisis	140	(24)
American Political Rhetoric on Neo-family Values	142	(2)
The Politics of Anxiety: British Moral Panics about Lone Mothers and `Pretend Families'	144	(17)
The Moral Panics about Lone Mothers	145	(4)
The `New National Moral Purpose': Supporting Families	149	(3)
Moral Panics about Lesbian and Gay `Pretended Family Relationships'	152	(1)
Lessons in Mariage and `Stable Relationships'	153	(2)
Moral Leaders and the Moral Majority	155	(3)
The Morality Debate in the House of Lords	158	(2)
Inventing Enemies of the Traditional Family	160	(1)
Conclusion	161	(3)
Conclusions	164	(16)
The Family as a Site of Cultural Struggle	165	(2)
New Family Narratives	167	(9)
Sexual Dissidents	170	(1)
The New Fantasy of Postmodern Familialism	171	(1)
Moral Individualism	172	(2)
Troubled Parenthood	174	(2)
The Value of Cultural Approaches to the Family	176	(4)
Bibliography	180	(11)
Index	191