Saturday, September 21, 2019
Typical Families Today Essay Example for Free
Typical Families Today Essay To even a casual observer of American society over the past five decades, drastic changes in the fundamental makeup of the American family and the perceived image of the American family are readily apparent. Many factors have contributed to the evolution of the American family; along with those changes, specific positive and negative impacts on the familial unit as a whole have been posited by sociologists and other observers and commentators. For many, the evolution of the American family signals a greater freedom for the individual; for many others, the evolution of the American family merely records a devolving of traditional cultural values and social support systems to modes of cultural disintegration.            Although it is difficult to determine with any reliability, the nature and true composition of a traditional American family, the surface-level societal image that stands as the most predominant is that of the nuclear family, which, while maintaining close ties among the immediate family members; mother, father, children differs from European (and other) cultures where family is extended much further into more distant relatives and tribal associations.             At any rate, and despite the differences between the nuclear family and deeper historical models, the American family as nuclear stands as the single most definable image of family in the recent past. This model emphasized a patriarchal power-structure with the father as provider and protector and the mother as home-maker and care-giver. Just as many familial models from other cultures prioritize the family itself as the focal point of preservation and development, the American nuclear model places scant interest on individual growth or happiness. Family conflicts and interpersonal estrangement were regarded as obstacles to be overcome within the inter-dynamics of the family itself; individual happiness was desired or permitted in relation to its overall impact on the familys security and foundations.            Although the model of the nuclear family was likely never more than a functional abstraction for many people, for others, it did comprise a model by which to live and, indeed, sizable amounts of people did live their lives under the auspices of the nuclear family. In time, cultural evolution suggests that the restrictions on individual freedom, identity and ambition played a crucial role in the eventual breakdown of the nuclear family.            Among other key elements, The sexual revolution, womens liberation, relaxation of divorce laws, and greater mobility have been cited as forces which are fracturing the traditional family structure, and these fractures are typically viewed as quite serious and with long-lasting consequences. In considering the sexual revolution it must be noted that this concept extends not only to unmarried couples with children, but to homosexual couples, childless couples, and those who are involved in some combination of the above. The opening of individual freedoms relative to sexual behavior has plunged the U.S into a rapidly changing family relationship landscape. Every assumption made about the family structure has been challenged, from the outer boundaries of single mothers raising out-of-wedlock children to gay couples having or adopting children to grandparents raising their grandchildren (Lebey, 2001, p. 20).            the increase in womens rights and legal recourses resulted in a rising number of divorces which contributed to the evolution of the American family. Single mothers and divorced couples rose in prominence among the statistical realities of how people actually lived rather than how Americans would like to imagine they lived. The evolution in traditional family structure started slow but maintained a steady pressure:            Fault lines in Americans family structure were widening throughout the last 40 years of          the 20th century. The cracks became evident in the mid 1970s when the divorce rate            doubled. According to a 1999 Rutgers University study, divorce has risen 30% since   1970; the marriage rate has fallen faster; and just 38% of Americans consider themselves     happy in their married state, a drop from 53% 25 years ago. Today, 51% of all marriages     end in divorce.                                    (Lebey, 2001, p. 20)            The basic shift is one from prioritizing the family, itself, as an end to be attained and the idea of the individual as the most important factor in developing life-relationships, career paths, sexual orientation, and lifestyle. Whereas by compulsion under the nuclear family, those family members who felt alienated or disregarded by their families were expected to deal with their alienation within the context of the family itself and certainly not by leaving the family, out-right, or out-right rejecting the familys primacy. If we grant Lebeys assertion that the four main societal changes [that have] occurred that have had an enormous impact on the traditional family structure. The sexual revolution, womens liberation movement, states relaxation of divorce laws, and mobility of American families then we should also take special note that her latter point: mobility of families and family members has probably played a larger role than any other single component in the actualization of the modern family. (Lebey, 2001, p. 20)             If our culture tends to focus on the individual, or, at most, on the nuclear family, downplaying the benefits of extended families, though their role is vital in shaping our lives it also protects and preserves individuals freedom of choice and freedom of lifestyle far above the sanctity or preservation of the family. Mobility is the most direct expression of individual freedom: The notion of moving on whenever problems arise has been a time-honored American concept. Too many people would rather cast aside some family member than iron out the situation and keep the relationship alive (Lebey, 2001, p. 20).            Mobility is not always a matter of choice but is often a matter of personal necessity driven on by employment conditions or other economic factors. Statistically, during the 10 years from 1989 to 1999, more than 5,000,000 families were relocated one or more times by their employers and this relocation is often driven by economic advancement and/or a safer place to raise children. From March, 1996, to March, 1997, 42,000,000 Americans, or 16% of the population, packed up and moved from where they were living to another location(Lebey, 2001, p. 20).            In addition to mobility, another aspect of lacing such a large emphasis on individual happiness and orientation is the idea that individual happiness is not only the paramount objective for personal decision making and interpersonal relationships, but that this idea of happiness should be also considered nearly inviolable. That is, the individual is socially conditioned to believe that any state that is less than happy is somehow abnormal, undesirable and should be remedied as soon as possible by whatever means: For at least 20 years, the pharmaceutical industry has learned how to cash in on the American obsession with feeling good by hyping mood drags to rewire the brain circuitry for happiness through the elimination of sadness and depression and this idea of constant happiness of course extends to ones marriages and familial relationships. (Lebey, 2001, p. 20)            If one begins to regard individual happiness and individual ambition as the primary points of consideration in resolving inter-personal conflicts and especially inter-familial relationships, it is far more likely that breaks rather than repairations will be the result when issue of personal alienation or the restriction of self-expression and lifestyle intrude upon familial relationships. The overall decrease in an individuals willingness to work out tehir problems whatever they are and wherever they find themselves, along wiht a corresponding increase in the idea of mobility, freedom, disposable jobs and relationship, brings about conditions which highly favor the radical evolution of the American family from its not-so-distant nuclear image.            The central question regarding the societal impact of the evolution of the American family on the societys well-being as a whole pivots on the idea of individual vs. collective rights. In other words, the evolution away form traditional family models toward those which encourage and encompass a much larger degree of individuality has resulted in a breakdown of the traditional family but also a breakthrough in individual freedoms and liberties. Whether or not the cult of the individual will provide a sufficient enough substitution for nuclear family values in terms of providing for a healthy, growing, and just society remains to be seem. What is obvious is that traditional family models: one man, one women with fairly rigid gender roles and social mores is, indeed, a thing of the past.            The increasing number of non-married couples with children, of gay and lesbian couples with children, of single-parent families, and other non-traditional models is a highly visible indication of the social changes now occurring in America. No less visible or impacting is the rise of individuality and individual-orientation in American society which has both occasioned the breakdown of traditional family models and been enabled by the breakdown of traditional social mores and images of the typical American family.       Reference Lebey, B. (2001, September). AMERICAN FAMILIES Are Drifting Apart. USA Today (Society        for the Advancement of Education), 130, 20.
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