After watching an episode of ABC’s critically acclaimed show “Modern Family,” I was struck by how clichéd and unimaginative the relationships between characters were, with particular regard to Phil and Claire Dunphy. Though the show has been touted as progressive due to its inclusion of a gay couple, Phil and Claire’s relationship simply recycles tired TV stereotypes of the “average” middle-class American family. Phil takes the role of the irresponsible, buffoon husband, while Claire is the intelligent and competent stay-at-home mother to their three children.
In the episode I watched, called “Good Cop, Bad Dog,” Claire is fed up with being undermined by her goofy and immature husband when disciplining their family and decides it’s time for Phil to dole out the punishment when the children misbehave. This role-reversal, however, completely backfires: Phil, always portrayed as being more or less “whipped” by his wife, becomes borderline abusive to his daughters when he gets a taste of power, refusing to let them eat and threatening to cut off his daughters' hair. And Claire, who decides to take her son and 11 year old step-brother go-karting, seems to be incapable of having fun; she runs over her son’s hand during the race and unwittingly intimidates him into eating so much junk food that he becomes violently ill. The episode is then resolved by the parents agreeing that “things [need] to go back to the way they were,” even though this means Claire will again be seen as the “bad cop,” while her husband shirks all responsibility.
Though the show prides itself on being contemporary, the characters of Phil and Claire follow the same template as the husbands and wives in famous sitcoms throughout television history. Modern Family’s Phil is practically a carbon copy of The Flintstones’ Fred or The Simpsons’ Homer, who are seen as “well intentioned, even lovable, but no one to respect or emulate,” according to Richard Butsch’s article “Ralph, Fred, Archie, Homer, and the King of Queens: Why Television Keeps Recreating the Male Working-Class Buffoon.” Butsch reveals that writers of these television shows are well aware of the stereotyping, “but argue its necessity on the basis of time and dramatic constraints. Typecasting is easier and much quicker.” The conformity of Phil and Claire's characters to stereotypical TV gender roles show us just how old-fashioned the writing of Modern Family is.
I had never thought of Claire and Phil's relationship and conventional but reading your blog post made me realize that these characters have been done before. Phil reminds me of Ray (Everybody Loves Raymond). They are both idiots when it comes to helping around the house and raising their children. Although the buffoon thing is tired it has its positives and negatives when it comes to women portrayal. They are either looked at as strong, decisive women who stand their ground or they are nagging and controlling. These programs do make it seem like the men dont care to raise their kids as much as the women and they also seem to devalue the women when it comes to their work at home.
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