SOC 202 Chapter Notes - Chapter 2: Serotype, Machismo, False Consciousness
5 Jun 2016
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Why television keeps re-creating the male working-class buffon. Throughout these past decades, the few working class men were being portrayed as fools. This is the character of the husbands in almost every sitcom depicting a breadwinner in a working class household. For most part of this history, there were few buffoons in middle-class series. Most typically both parents were wise and shared equal roles in raising their children in partially perfect families such as the brady bunch . In these shows, the humour came from the misfortune and quirks of the children. The few middle-class buffoons were usually the giddy wife, while the professional/ managerial husband was the sensible, mature partner. Inverting gender status in working class, but not middle-class sitcoms makes this statement more about class than gender. The 1990s brought a shift in parts of this pattern. There was a significant increase in the number and percentage of working-class families represented in domestic sitcoms.
