Modern Family: Mother's Day Episode

One of my favorite shows is Modern Family. The show has been a huge success and has just started its 3rd season. As the name of the show implies, it is based on new family structures. Meaning, types of families that divert a patriarchal family structure. The modernization of family. For example, gay families. Cameron and Mitchell play a gay couple in the show with an adopted daughter. One of the episodes that stands out to me is the episode on Mothers Day. Because Cam and Mitchell aren't a traditional couple, in this episode they had trouble adjusting themselves this celebratory holiday for mothers. Obviously neither Cam or Mitchel can be categorized as a mother to their daughter because they are both males. However as the episode went on everyone kept congratulating Cam on mothers day, which he was highly upset about. Their friends and family made the assumption that Cam was the "mother" in the relationship.For those who watch the show we know that the assumption was made because Cam doesn't work and stays at home watching their daughter. Mitchell on the other hand work at a law firm. The fact that Cam was categorized as the mother in the relationship further reinforces what society defines to be the responsibilities of a mother and consolidates some of the stereotypes for a woman's role. Another thing i picked up on is that no matter how modern a family structure is we still try to apply ideologies of the traditional heterosexual couple. Even though Cam and Mitchell are a homosexual couple, we try to make them a heterosexual couple(sometimes subconsciously) by making one of them the woman or the man based on gender related roles and expectations we hold for men and women. Even in a modern world were families like Cam and Mitchell's are becoming more accepted, its hard to detach our minds from traditional family ideologies.