All in the Family vs. The Secret Life of the American Teenager

Previous to watching "All in the Family" in class I had never seen the sitcom, which turned out to be quite fine with me. I found Archie, the father, to be extremely irritating, arrogant, and a bigot and I wondered why this show would ever be liked enough for regular viewing because of his flamboyant hatefulness. Although much of the audience during this time period may have disagreed with the issue at hand in the episode that we watched, homosexuality, the father's slander and incessant loud-mouthing seems like more than enough for someone to grow tired of the attitude. The episode treated the issue of homosexuality using two very different arguments, Archie's which was one of utter disagreement and his daughter's and son-in-law's whose seemed practically passe. The only thing is, Archie being the reigning male of the house who pays the bills and whatnot had the dominant opinion. Whether this situation was simply the writer's way of showing two sides to an issue or a way to show that father knows best is unknown to me. Regardless, the gay issue was evident and important enough to dominate an entire episode.
On another end of the television spectrum is a relatively new sitcom called "The Secret Life of the American Teenage", this show not only has a homosexual male character, but a teenage mom, another pregnant teenager, a promiscuous lot of high school students, a plethora of divorcees, infidelity, and a whole slew of what used to be seen as risque and unspoken of issues that were immoral elements of society. But as we see in this show, and several others mind you, those elements are real, they are exposed, and they are normal in our current every day society. Unlike "All in the Family" "The Secret Life of the American Teenager" provides a tolerant, if not positive, view of all of these issues. In no way is homosexuality ever negatively regarded, in fact the character plays a quite prominent role and one of the father's in the show enjoys his company and friendship with his daughter. I personally find most of the issues addressed in "The Secret Life" to be somewhat realistic of many U.S. families, to be somewhat realistic of many U.S. teenagers, and to be highly inappropriate for viewing. This is where "All in the Family" ties in to this all too real sitcom, although "All in the Family" is a bit irritating to the ears and difficult to sit through, in my opinion of course, it at least did not present material that was grossly and blatantly inappropriate for younger viewers but rather took on a more subtle and modest approach to a current issue. "The Secret Life" fails to be anything but explicit, while this is a reasonable approach in certain realms, such as politics, it can lend itself invariably to the actions and behaviors of teenagers themselves. After seeing the issues in the show rather shamelessly played out in front of them, many young adolescents may find themselves involved in similar situations.
Although both sitcoms target, or targeted, a younger adult population and their families each show differs in the way that they presented a similar issue: homosexuality, with "The Secret Life" portraying it as normal and an every day occurrence, and "All in the Family" revealing a different side of the issue through the eyes, and mouth, of Archie the father.

Here is a look into "The Secret Life of the American Teenager":

An Audience's Demand for More Waves

Although technological change, industries or institutional factors, regulation and government intervention, and audience demands each aided in the shaping of what the radio industry is today, the demand of the audience is the key factor that has spurned the revolution from the beginning and until even today. As the idea of modern radio began to take flight with Mr. David Sarnoff just around 1920, many were critical of the abilities that Sarnoff attributed to the radio's potential, but many were also curious, and in turn, demanding of the evolution of this highly technologically advanced object of it's time. As the waves began to move into the lives and homes of family's every day lives an increased interest and pleasure that was found through the radio were only signaling towards an increased demand to hear more. More comedies, more actions, more music, more news, more about the lives of fellow Americans in general that others did not have previous knowledge of. This new insight into the lives of people all over that country guided any American who listened to the reports and programs on the radio, it became a gateway into other ideas and experiences, there was much to know about how people lived in New York City when you were a California resident. The textbook explains this in the quote: "This had enormous impact on culture as people became more aware of how those in other parts of the United States lived. It also increased awareness of national issues; the experience of being a national audience inspired a feeling of being more of a nation" (Media Now). Prior to this invention were only letters, newspapers, magazines, and other circulatory notes, all of which took quite a while to travel to other areas. There was also more code, but the average American family was not likely to own such a device for every day use. Moreover, there were telephones, but connections were not always reliable and many families would not have been likely to be able to afford this type of luxury.
A very important factor to consider is the timing of the invention of the radio, the twenties were a prosperous time in the American society, the themes of every day life were shaped around prosperity and the working class who found wealth but as the Great Depression hit a decade later money grew scarce and the necessities of health and well-being were hard to come by but those radios fueled the spirit and hope of families across the country. This era elaborated on the previous demand of the audience for music and entertainment and turned the media into a necessity, and society has hardly changed since. Although the television has in many ways taken the place of the radio in current society, it still plays an important role in our everyday lives. As many wake up early to drive to work they tune in to early morning talk shows to hear the news and a little music. The TV may have taken the role of the radio as the centerpiece of family time in the family room, it has only moved to dominate much of the populations vehicle experience. Audience's demand of the radio's ability to connect people from across the nation, and now the globe, has not died off but has only perpetuated the radio's existence.

A popular singer on the radio in the 1920's, and one of my personal favorites of all time, was Billie Holiday.

Priming the Minds of Young Americans

The priming theory holds that once a certain idea has been presented to an individual on enough occasions it will become a natural reaction or common knowledge to that person. The repeated exposition to that concept will prime their minds to act in accordance with the concept presented. In the American society cartoons are a popular pacifying device that parents use on their children, whether to occupy them, to console them, or just to amuse them. The consequences, though, are seemingly catastrophic and ill-fated as these children grow more and more desensitized to violence, sexual activity, profanity, and a whole slew of ideas and issues that are too mature for them to really even know exist. Many cartoons such as Tom and Jerry,The Simpsons, and Spongebob Squarepants portray violence against another character as commonplace and often times it never results in any sort of punishment or reprimand. How many times can a mouse drop a massive, heavy anvil or piano onto a cats head before it dies? The children who watch these types of shows often may never know that there is a limit to aggression. Without seeing negative consequences to negative actions, the kids of today's American society may grow up with a blurred view of the line that divides violence and play.  Aside from violence, several other issues arise among habitual cartoon viewing, such as a distorted view of sex and gender roles through innuendos and the portrayal of men and women in specific ways that may or may not accentuate their sexuality or status quos of their respective gender.
Cartoons, however, are not the only source of priming for children that the media uses, it can also be manifested in advertisements specifically made for children. For instance, not very many ads in magazines for a child's toy would picture a young boy playing with a Barbie doll or a little girl wheeling around a Tonka truck that is carrying her Transformer figurines. This is because more often than not do we see stores selling their toys to gender specific groups of children, as a result young boys and girls grow up seeing the media set a standard for what is appropriate according to each gender thus often leading to masculine or feminine complexes that will guide these young people into life believing that they must act a certain way, buy a certain thing, or stick to a specific sideline with others of their sex.
In our time, the minds of children are being saturated daily with beliefs and ideas about who they must be, what they should act like, or how others should see them by the priming of the American media. They are emitting images, cartoons, and ideas that are working on these young people until they react the way that they are seeing the media portray. I do not personally believe that watching cartoons or having toys is unhealthy or damaging, unless those shows or toys are providing a distorted idea of what is acceptable or unacceptable. Much needs to be done to regulate the mainstreaming of certain cartoons that are said to be for children, high standards must be placed and revisions must be made, but in all reality these changes will never happen as long as the media and companies affiliated are making money and increasing in popularity. In which case we can expect to see no change in the attitudes of the children in our lives without serious correction.

Example of violence in cartoons: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xm6hZVCF9B4

Hegemony: The Real Force Behind the Power

Hegemony, the very epidermis of the American advertisement agency, is the medium through which those agencies infiltrate the minds of America, specifically women. This medium is defined by answers.com as "The predominant influence, as of a state, region, or group, over another or others." In other words, hegemony can be used to describe the position of ad agencies as being at the top of the media hierarchy where they can actively and daily reach an audience of millions who are actively and daily receiving them, many with open arms. This reality is particularly disturbing to me as I see the portrayal of women as objects plastered in the windows of stores, in almost all magazines (possibly excluding Cat Fancy), and even on the sides of buses. Advertising, obviously, is necessary if a merchant desires to actually sell their products, but is revealing the most intimate areas of women's bodies and character the only way to sell? If so, I believe that our beautiful nation must review what it holds as freedom and delve deep into the core values that are said to lie right in the heart of the American dream. Although the imposition of ads affect everyone, whether positively or negatively, I believe that women take the brunt of what the ads seem to be selling. Are they selling products, merchandise, and services? Or are they selling an ideal, shoes to fill, and a physical mold for the body? The concept of hegemony not only has revealed the force that lies behind the advertising super head, but I have come to better understand what this means to me as a woman and a subject. It is clear to me now that the agency really does have a strong hold on our culture and every day lives, although I have always been aware of this concept I have never really been in the light of the real power. As a young girl in junior high I immediately was aware of the inadequacy of my own quite curvy body by "American standards" when I saw advertisements in Seventeen magazine such as the Bongo Jeans and Victoria's Secret ads. I quickly knew that I would never measure up according to these standards, unfortunately in my youth I was ignorant to the fact that most girls never would either and that beauty is defined by myself, not the media. Several, several other merchants use a woman's sexuality and body to sell their products, but my question is why is this what sells? If most American women find themselves in much different bodies than those in the ads and cannot relate to the images themselves, then who are they really partitioning? Men? They are not likely to by themselves a wonderbra, a pair of True Religion super skinny dark denim, or that new MAC bronzer to make you look like a goddess. If none of these are true then who is buying this? The sad truth is we are, in one form or another we women are buying these products, because whether consciously or sub consciously we desire to look similar to those gangly, curvless women. In which case, I wonder if we are also to blame for the media's powerful role in our nation and their successful influence on our minds and desires. Until we truely begin to actively turn away from those ideals and standards, change will never happen, industries will continue to feed us images of powerless and bodiless women and until we stop catering to their capital we will just have to get over it.