The Sociological Imagination and Media

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The Sociological Imagination and Media
Most people’s lives in the 21 century are in some way affected by media and it is affecting the way individuals preform daily tasks. Television shows are a great example of this; they show the development of characters over a period and display how greater social forces shape what they have become. C. Wright mills uses a term the sociological imagination, it is the theory that people’s lives are shaped essentially by greater social forces and society’s expectations rather than biology and genetics. The show Modern Family is a good example of the sociological imagination because it has a diverse cast and the characters have many personalities, wants, and desires. Modern Family is a television show that has stories of separate individual families who are related. Claire and Mitch are siblings and Jay is their father. The families are Claire, Phil, Alex, Hailey and Luke. Mitch, Cam and Lilly and Jay, Gloria and Mani.
In episode 1 season 5 it is summer vacation and Claire and Phil are trying to coordinate their children’s summer camps and vacations so they can have time alone with no kids in the house. Mani is planning on taking his first solo trip back to Columbia where he is from but Gloria keeps “loosing” his travel documents. So, Jay and Mani end up having to go down to the city hall to pick up a new birth certificate. Same-sex marriage becomes legal and Cam and Mitch can finally get married to each other, the problem is that they both want to be the one to propose so they keep avoiding the other’s proposal. Mitch asks Claire to help him think of the perfect proposal and Cam asks Gloria to do the same thing. While at dinner the night they were both planning to propose Gloria and Jay and Cl...

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...g more accepted and the feelings behind masculinity relating to males and femininity relating to females are slowly disintegrating. Same-sex marriage becoming legal allows for even more expansion on these thoughts. Cam is the more feminine figure and Mitch is more masculine. This could be a result of how they were both raised. Mitch was raised by Jay who although supports Mitch he is uncomfortable talking about gay marriage and does not always know what to say. This behaviour may be the reason why Mitch has turned out more masculine. Modern Family is a representation of the sociological imagination because Cam and Mitch are gay and in their society they grew up in it is socially acceptable to be gay; it would not be likely that they would have come out if they were in a country like Russia or Iran where society does not accept being gay and same-sex marriage.

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