Dana Macaluso
Blog post 2
One of
the issues I choose to explore that is related to televisual technology is the
relationship between television and suburbanization. Most television shows that
are on now are shows based around a middle class family going through typical
problems that people living in the suburbs would endure. For example, I chose
to analyze the show Everybody Loves Raymond. This show is based around what is
believed to be the typical suburban family. The show consists of a husband and wife, their
three children, the husbands overbearing parents and his brother who is jealous
of his brothers so called "perfect life". The ideas that are depicted
in this show correspond to what Morley explains in his text. He explains how
the sitcom creates an idea of suburban life that many people aspire to achieve.
"It is a defensive, possessive, anxiety-driven politics, based on
normalized homogeneity of experience, and on a relative absence of
"strangers" which is the result of the general exclusion from
suburban life of all those forms of otherness associated with city life(the
poor, ethnic minorities) who might tarnish the suburban idea. This is
characteristically, the racist, sexist, homophobic and segregationist ideology
of the narratives of suburbia's indigenous genre, the sitcom." (Morley,
129).
The
reason this show ties so well into what Morley is describing is because of the
family dynamics in the show and what makes this show a sitcom. The plot of the
show is based around Raymond, a man who lives in a typical suburban
neighborhood with his family. His wife Deborah is a stay at home mother, and the comedy
behind her character ties into what Morley describes as "gendered
suburbs". She is always trying to
establish herself as an independent woman whose role isn't to just take care of
her children and needy husband(which can be described as a problem woman face
when dealing with what society believes their role should be in suburbia),
which Morely explains as "while suburban conformity is almost always
feminised - and it is women who "embody the shackles of suburban
constraints""(Morley, 130).
Overall,
Everybody Loves Raymond is a perfect example of a sitcom that plays off of
problems that families living in the suburbs have to deal with, which is why
many people who live in the suburbs find it comical because they too share
these everyday issues. Shows like this one and others are created to attract
this type of audience, which is why this a great example of the relationship between
television and suburbanization.
Works Cited
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