TV Series - Shaping the evolution of behaviors?

Recently I was re-watching a TV show I used to love a few years back. 8 simple rules is an American comedy that went on from 2002 - 2005. While watching this show I noticed the family’s situation, and the first thing I could think of was the breadwinner system, and how this show defied it. The breadwinner system basically states that since the dawn of time, the man has always been that one that earns money to feed the family, while the woman stays at home and takes care of the kids and the housework.





For those of you who don’t know this show, it’s about a family of five, the parents, two girls, and a boy. The parents are trying to control their two teenage girls, while juggling work at the same time. But, opposite to the belief of the breadwinner system, this TV show does it differently. The mother is a workingwoman that sometimes has morning and night shifts in the same day. The father has a job too; but he works from home as a sports writer for a newspaper, and he’s the one who’s responsible for taking care of the kids, and sometimes cooking and cleaning. However, when the mother comes back from work, she is still expected to make dinner and clean.





A decade ago TV series like this one were viewed mostly in the west. When people watch TV shows that challenge and change social norms, eventually over time based on the cultivation theory, these new ways of living portrayed on television, become the social norm. This is one of the many reasons for this change.

Similarly, when we started watching these shows in the Middle East, the same thing began to happen. We started challenging these social norms, changing them, and calling it “modernization”. Due to the fact that not a lot of people in the Middle East speak English, only the ones that do have received this ideology from TV series. That is the reason why this new way of life hasn’t spread as much as it has in the west. However, I do believe that in the near future this change will spread drastically in the Middle East just like it has in the west.

Household Chores in My Family

Two weeks ago, our housemaid had to go back to her country, the Philippines, to look after her sick mother for a while. Since then, all family members had to share the burden of the household-chores. However, the work was not divided equally among all members in the family.

Everyone had to wash their own dish after every meal, and do their beds every morning, even my 11 years old brother. My dad likes to cook sometimes. so, whenever he feels like cooking, he would go and make something for lunch. However, my mom is usually the one responsible of cooking.

Since I am the big sister and my mom is working and doing her masters, most of the household work is assigned to me. Even though, my 16 years old sister is responsible enough to do the same work I do, I still have to do more than she does. This is because, as my mom claims, because I’m the eldest sister, and so I must hold most of the responsibilities among my siblings. My sister cleans two rooms and one bathroom, whereas I clean four rooms, three bathrooms and the Kitchen. When it comes to laundry and ironing, my sister and I take turns. My little brother is only responsible of washing his dishes, doing his bed, and taking the trash out.





It is interesting to see how gender roles and power play out in the family. Women do more house-hold work, and the parents try to give as much work to their children as they can because they hold more power in the family.

It also seems that my little brother have socialized to think that males are not supposed to do house-hold work, whether it is from watching my dad, watching TV show and movie, or from his friends. One day he was complaining to my mom saying that he doesn’t want to clean his plate because boys are not supposed to do this work, women are supposed to do that. however, my mom hold more power in the family than he does, so she forced him to clean his plate after all.