Paper #2

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Darya Chumakova

Lydia Hearn

EWRT 2

February 12th, 2013

The Supercilious Modern Families

Each family is a building block to a society and through the analysis of values and morals

in families, we can glean the values and morals of the society as a whole. The show Modern

Family attempts to portray daily life of a typical, “perfect” American family. The show touches

on many obvious aspects of American families, such as our dependence on technology and our

liberal views on controversial topics. However, rooted deeply in the show is a sense of

superiority of American culture over other cultures. In the TV show, Modern Family, American

culture is portrayed superior to other cultures due in part to our endorsement of technology as

part of daily life and to our accepting society in which people can shamelessly be their true

selves.

The show glorifies American life and portrays American culture superior to other cultures

through first of all mocking cuisines and traditions of foreign cultures. The attitude toward other

cultures in the show is portrayed through Gloria, a young, beautiful Colombian woman, who

marries an old patriarch of a wealthy, white family, Jay Pritchett. In the episode, when Gloria is

cooking traditional Colombian food, Jay says, “Why can’t we eat regular food like normal

people? … My dead uncle Joe demands we have steak tonight.” Jay’s negative attitude toward

Colombian cuisine suggests Americans view food of other cultures as inferior to American food,

such as steak. After Jay makes fun of Gloria’s Colombian dish, Gloria decides to make up silly

Columbian customs for Jay to follow in order to get back at him. She demands Jay to scream

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while slapping the raw meat for her dish and later to wear shoes around his neck during dinner.

By making up these rather senseless, fake customs, Gloria portrays her culture negatively and

mocks the true traditions and customs of Colombia. The show touches upon the fact that many

Americans enjoy criticizing and mocking other countries, viewing them as inferior and

suggesting they imitate the American culture, government and economy in order to succeed.

Indeed, it is because of its supercilious attitude that America seems to always strive to fix

problems in other countries, even when our help is not needed. Our arrogance in thinking we are

superior to other countries is evident in the show’s mocking of Colombian cuisine and customs.

The show also endorses common offensive stereotypes of Hispanic cultures. In one of the

episodes in season four, Jay is explaining why it was easy to get Gloria pregnant by saying, “She

is Latina, you just have to look at her funny.” Most of the time Gloria does not deny the

stereotypical insults thrown her way, and in doing that, she is showing her acceptance and

support for Hispanic stereotypes. Although some stereotypes appear to be broken, such as the

fact that Manny, Gloria’s 13-year old Hispanic son, is shown exceptionally intelligent, his

intelligence is constantly mocked as “abnormal” and made fun of in the show. The show uses

offensive stereotypes to once again portray Americans superior to other cultures.

Gloria’s poor knowledge of English and her Spanish accent are constant topics for jokes

in the show. In this particular episode, Gloria makes a toast to her grandmother during dinner and

her guests roll their eyes as they struggle to pronounce her grandmother’s complicated Spanish

name. English language is put above all other languages in the show and not knowing English is

frowned upon and made fun of. All the different ways the show mocks other cultures through

characterization of Gloria and Manny while revering the American culture reflect our sense of

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superiority. One of the reasons we feel superior to other nations is because of our endorsement of

technology as part of daily life.

Modern Family mocks older generations for not knowing how to deal with technology

and embraces technology as a natural part of modern family life. When Jay’s printer is broken,

he unwillingly asks his son-in-law, Phil, to help him fix it. Phil is ecstatic when Jay asks for his

help because in doing so Jay admits his inferiority when it comes to technology. Phil mocks Jay

further by treating him as a dummy with technology and singing “The computer and the printer

must talk, talk, talk in order for the printer to work, work, work” while fixing the printer. Phil’s

attitude shows older generations are mocked for not embracing technology into their lives and

suggests that being good with technology is expected from modern families. Indeed, technology

has become a big part of our lives and we naturally rely on our devices to get us through our

daily routines. Not only do we desperately need technology in our lives, but we also want the

best devices available in the market.

Newest inventions are revered, and the need to have the newest technology is emphasized

throughout the show. An episode in season one, “Game Changer,” (Season 1, Episode 19)

focuses entirely on Claire’s struggles to buy her husband, Phil, the newest iPad for his birthday.

When Phil finds out Claire had overslept and the local store sold out, he is completely

devastated, which causes Claire to get the entire family to try and somehow buy Phil an iPad.

The need to have the newest technology is engraved into our culture because of our obsession

with wanting new and improved things to outshine others. This is human nature and we will

never be satisfied and feel competent until we know our devices are the fastest and most up to

date. The show reflects our egocentrism and portrays buying new technology as a natural part of

family life in America.

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People’s need to share their honest thoughts with the audience by giving private

monologues to the camera reflects our society’s dependence on the internet to express our minds.

Characters give individual interviews to the camera, often contradicting the responses they give

to other characters in the show, which reflects our need to share our real thoughts on Facebook,

Tumblr, Twitter etc. In this episode, Claire first tells Haley that she was good during her teenage

years, and then admits to the camera that although she did bad things as a teenager, she would

never tell her daughters about her past. Later in the episode Gloria admits to the audience that the

customs she made Jay perform were made-up. Throughout the show, it seems as though people

only reveal their true feelings and motives to the “camera,” and not their family, which reflects

our need of the internet’s anonymity to share what is really on our minds and shows how much

the technology is rooted into the lives of American families. Coincidentally, the show highlights

the lack of technology in other countries; for example, the episode in which Gloria’s sister comes

to visit from Colombia and asks where the river for washing clothes is suggests lack of such

basic technology as a washing machine in Colombia. By showing the contrast between

technology in US and Colombia, the show implies America’s superiority over other countries

because of our endorsement of technology in our daily lives. Another way the show conveys a

sense of American superiority is through emphasizing acceptance of people for who they are.

Individuality is endorsed and finding courage to reveal the truth, no matter how

unpleasant the truth might be, is a theme throughout the show. In the episode, Claire realizes that

telling her kids the truth about her past will help her connect with her kids and that she shouldn’t

be ashamed of who she used to be. Claire finally admits to her daughters that she wasn’t a

perfect teenager and tells them a story about a time she was arrested naked for trespassing. While

she is ashamed to tell her kids the truth, the truth finally helps her connect with her daughters.

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Telling the truth about the past is encouraged in the episode and the idea that a person will be

loved no matter who he/she was in the past prevails. The episode reflects American culture’s

acceptance of people for whom they are.

The show also enters very controversial ground as it supports gay rights and encourages

gays to be comfortable showing affection in public. Mitch is uncomfortable kissing Cam in

public when the two go shopping in the beginning of the episode. He promises to Cam he would

try harder and by the end of the episode, applauded by friends and family, the two share their

first kiss in public, which is in the fact the first gay kiss on the show. While it has always been

difficult for gays to come out and be their true selves, America is one of the most accepting

nations when it comes to gay rights, and most Americans take pride in that. Americans feel

superior to other cultures because of our accepting society and our toleration for people of

different beliefs and sexual orientations.

It all goes back to the American dream. Pilgrims and other segregated religious groups

came to America to be themselves, to practice a religion of their choice without anyone telling

them what they can and cannot do. The Civil Rights Movement and the Feminist Movement

further shaped the American acceptance of everyone regardless of gender or ethnicity. As

portrayed in Modern Family, American culture still values acceptance and individualism. As our

nation grew and developed, we also took pride in our industries and our innovations in

technology. Because of our acceptance of people and our endorsement of technology, we feel

superior to other countries and the show Modern Family reflects this.