Families of the 1950s
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The Myth of the 1950's Family
At the beginning of this class, if you would have asked me to write down ideas of what I thought the family was made of and what my ideas were of the 1950's family, my visions would deeply contrast with how I would answer that question right now. I always wondered what was so great about the 1950's family that it was often brought up and compared to our family values today.
Though changes in the family have occurred since the 1950's, there should not be such considerable reason to wish of past times in the 'good old days' because the portrayed 'ideal' family is often understood through myths and half-truths.
Through this research project, I have learned what are considered the 'good old days' do not necessarily hold the novelty that many of us are conditioned to believe. I also would have liked to call this paper "The Way We Never Were," coined by author Stephanie Coontz, or "The Traditional Family That Wasn't," masterminded by a famous sociologist. I have learned that the so-called 'traditional family' was in a much bigger crisis than we all might have hoped to believe and it might cause one to rethink about this phenomenal myth of the family. But what was really shocking, after all this debate, is that the nuclear family is possibly the shortest-lived familial system ever developed (Davey 1996).
We are in a nostalgic trap when it comes to seeking help from what we believe was the traditional 50's family and by trying to solve society's problems today by comparing modern families to the past may only lead us to bigger, more complicated problems. Coontz clarifies, "To find effective answers to the dilemmas facing modern families, we must reject attempts to recapture family traditions that either never existed or existed in a totally different context" (5). It may just be time to tear down the white picket fence that holds the visions of the 'golden age' because not only are many of these visions false, but for years they have portrayed a series of half-truths that we have been conned into believing...