Functionalist View Of The Family Assigns

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

SSC09105

"My Mad Fat Diary"

This essay will be a critical essay, based on the E4 program "My mad fat diary". The essay will concentrate on the characters and their way of gender. In addition, high lightening, how and when particular characters do and do not fit with traditional ideas of gender/ roles. The specific issues raised in this essay will be in regards to episode three.

With the help of Biologist James Torrance (2006) and Ann Oakley (1985), the essay will begin with a look at the difference between sexuality and gender and discuss the role they have in identity formation. It will then discuss traditional ideas of gender roles as fixed and modern ideas of fluidity. The essay will look at the social/cultural codes of masculinity and femininity and discuss religious, legal and medical discourses, which order society and guide behavior.

The essay will look at how the program opposes Foucault’s theory of discourse shaping sexual values and the essentialist idea of a fixed identity. The essay will move on to discuss patriarchy, and how the position of women i.e. subordinate to men, is less fixed and more fluid than it has been in recent years. The essay will look at characterisations of particular adults in the program, and the relationships between said adults in relation to Andrea Dworkin’s et al idea that "women are assigned inferior status as men enjoy positions of power".

The discussion will move on to talk about the aspects of the series, which are in line with Weeks idea of uncertainty of sexual identity and Talcott Parsons theory of social systems. With help from Mulvery’s (1975) ideas around "the media objectification of women", the discussion will look at aspects of the program that show how the media manipulates ideas of normative gendered behaviour and how this can and does influence behaviour.

The essay will use Rachel Lea’s "The Shitful Body" and her thoughts on "the symbolic body" and Seymore’s research on "a body out of control and feelings of shame. To look at the social control over the physical body and discuss how the writer uses imagines of social taboos to shock the audience.

The essay will conclude, with a discussion on what the program actually portrayed in terms of the characters sexuality and social influences. It will end with social integration and the individuals need to have a fixed identity i.e. in a gender/sexuality category, with others who are the same.

The sex an individual is a matter of biology and biology identifies an individual as male and female. Biologically male and female does not mean fitting neatly into different or distinct categories. The male and female bodies are biologically alike i.e. neither the phallus nor the womb is an organ particular to only one sex. The clitoris is biologically equivalent to the male penis and the male vestigial womb is a cause of enlargement of the prostate gland. (Torrance, p110) As Levine puts it "the basic human form is female, man comes about through something added" i.e. the Y chromosome (Levine cited by Anne Oakley in Sex Gender and Society p22). Sex is also how the act of reproduction is denoted and for a biologist sex is "the exchange of cell material between mating types". (Torrance, p110)

Traditionally the functionalist view of the family assigns particular roles to men and women i.e. men are the authority figure and women the passive carer. The family, from a functionalist perspective, is an essential institution that teaches "the norms and values of the wider society" and thus reproduces the right way to be. It also instils in children tradition, expectation and a feeling of "shared belonging". Parson’s (1947) (cited in O’Byrne’s introducing classical sociological theory p31).

The functionalist perspective of gender roles within the family means the gender role learned by a man or a woman is a result of the reproduction of historic and traditional ways of doing gender. George Murdock views gender as the result of "the basic processes of social evolution" (cited by D, O’ Byrne in, Introducing Sociological Theory p99) which is apparently how society is ordered. Cultural and radical feminism view gender as a social construct. Beauvoir states in her book "The Second Sex" (1973)-"One has to become a woman, to learn the roles that society expects of women". Judith Butler refers to gender as "a performance, which we are engaged in doing" (cited by D, O’ Byrne in, Introducing Sociological Theory p100).

The functionalist view of gender seems to be describing gender and sex as a fixed state, shaped either by biology or by the ordered society. To an extent, this is accurate, society does have order because of the roles people play, and the socially acceptable ways of gender, over millenniums of social change did created and normalised, gender roles. These views may have been credible in the days when religion and legislation made homosexuality a crime and female desire a disease, treated with circumcision or complete removal of the citreous, but neither sex nor gender is static, especially not in western society today.

Evidenced of the fluidity of gender roles comes from the different roles performed from one culture to another. The social construction of gender roles is evident in every human society. There are expected roles for men and expected roles for women, but these roles are particular to the society and differ from one to the other.

The idea of what is masculine and what is feminine behaviour is particular to each specific culture, for example, in 1859, the Kgatla culture (tribe of South Africa) "the women do all the work while the men have no regular work and spend days on end merely lounging about". Schapera (1971) (cited in Sociology by M. Haralambos) in comparison, an article in the Saturday review in 1859 highlights the Victorian view of work (outside the home) and women, it read, "No woman ought to know very much of the mass meanness and wickedness and misery that is loose in the wide world. She could not learn it without losing the bloom and freshness which is her mission to preserve". Hudson (1970) (cited in Sociology by M. Haralambos)

Early ideas of sexuality and sexual morality came from the bible and the predicted intonation of the men who translated it. The ideas of appropriate sexual conduct according to the bible i.e. married heterosexuals for reproduction became part of the fabric that constructed society and ordered behaviour via the institutions/discourses of legal, academic, and medical. Arthur Schopenhauer referrers to religion as, "the master of the art of animal training, for it trains people as to how they shall think". (http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/s/schopenhauer/arthur/index.html)

Ideas and beliefs around sex and gender today have changed, as have the expectations regarding behaviour/gender roles. Today sex and gender are fluid, for example, an individual can completely change gender, with the use of surgery and medication. Alternatively, they can keep the sex they are and create a sexual identity through the reproduction of the discourse of the other gender i.e. sexual identity can be enacted and adopted through the clothes an individual wears or the job they choose to do and can be farther reinforced by the way they choose to act e.g. transvestisms. The creation of a sexual identity can come from the adoption of masculine or feminine behaviours. The individual who conforms to a traditional gender role today is the exception, eventually the traditional gender role, as we know it, will be gone.

The characters in "My mad fat diary" perform gender in a way that contradicts the essentialist view of sex as a natural instinct to reproduce. The distinction between a male and females sexual needs i.e. men having a stronger sex drive and more prone to promiscuity, is reversed in the way the characters do gender. Foucault’s (1981) discourse theory i.e. the discourses of; medicine, psychiatry and religion have created a view of "the body and the bodily pleasures" this then shapes our sexual "values, beliefs and the meanings attached to the body", (cited in Making Sense of Sociology by Ian Marsh p279) is also brought into question, most notably by, Ray’s mother.

Rays mother performs gender in a completely opposing way to an essentialist or Foucault ideas of female sexuality/gender roles. Her mother’s only hint of conforming to the traditional female role of nurturer/carer is she provides food. However, the food she stocks the cupboards with is an abundance of unhealthy sweets, cakes, and crisps.

The portrayal of the mother is not in any way traditional i.e. her children’s needs above her own and uninterested in sex, unless it is for her husband’s pleasure. She has an insatiable sexual appetite and is definitely not having multiple daily sex sessions for the purpose of procreation. In addition, she is also not behaving in a way that conforms to the law, religious or medical discourses on sexual behaviour i.e. she is harbouring an illegal immigrant with who she has unprotected sex.

However, the program does to an extent support the functionalist view of the family institution as essential in the teaching of social norms and values. There could be a link between the mother’s promiscuity and Rays heightened sexual urges (nightly masturbation) and desperation to have intercourse.

Some feminists believe Patriarchy reproduces the idea of male superiority over the female, through religious and economic practise institutions e.g. the prevention of women from taking positions of power within the church. Some religions have labelled women whores and the cause of the fall of man. Historic/traditional notions of women as having lower sexual drive than men and sex as pleasurable only for men, and normal within a heterosexual, monogamous married relationship, is an example of patriarchy reproducing dominance over women. It is also an example of the creation of shame and its use by legal, religious, and social institutions, as a tool for controlling behaviour and ordering society.

In terms of "My mad fat diary", Ray does not conform to the cultural rules and expectations that structure the way we perform gender roles, in western society i.e. the socially developed norms, rules and expectations around masculinity and femininity. (Hogg et al, 2006) Rays masculine characteristics have aided her social integration (sense of belonging) into the male circle. This acceptance from the lads gives her a sense of equality of belonging to the group. Ray’s way of performing gender has masculine characteristics (as perceived by the male group members) and feminine characteristics (when she is with the girls). This acceptance of Ray as one of the lads means they want her at all the "boys only" activities and she likes to be included, but when she develops a thing for Finn, this becomes problematic. Ray’s leather jacket, pint drinking, and outspokenness, now poses a threat to her potential sex life. The perception of Ray as one of the lads means she is not girlfriend material.

Andrea Dworkin argues that pornography is central to patriarchy, "Patriarchal societies consistently eroticize women’s sexual subordination to men". (p106) The issues of male dominance over women addressed in "My Mad Fat Diary" poses the question, is equality or the lack of it an issue only when it serves a purpose? The perception of being one of the lads and enjoying a different sort of relationship with her male friends than that of the other females in the group is great in Ray’s eyes, that is, until she develops a crush.

Ray no longer wants to be one of the lads; instead, she wants the lads to like her for her femininity, and to be desirable. Dworkin makes some good points regarding the ability of the male to dominate and abuse the female, but I am sure women have been dominated and oppressed for more years than pornography has been accessible to men. Therefore, I do not quite understand how it can be the cause.

"My Mad Fat Diary" addresses a modern reproduction of patriarchy. The character of Archie behaves in a way that identifies him as one of the group i.e. masculine heterosexual, but he has an identity crisis. He thinks he may be "socially integrated" into the wrong sexuality group/category, i.e. he thinks he may be attracted to males. His circles of friend are all strictly heterosexual, at least in the way they behave towards each other. Archie wants to be the same, but does not feel attracted to girls, even though he has never even kissed one.

Archie flirts with Ray hoping when he kisses her he will feel something that means he is normal, just like his friends. They go on a date and Archie kisses Ray and touches her breast. He walks her home and promises to meet her the following evening. Ray worries about what to wear and pours threw magazines looking for an idea. She ditches her biker jacket and adorns herself with media guided ideas of femininity, copied from a magazine.

Archie does not show up and Ray takes to her bed with thoughts of food and self-harm. She tries to go back to the hospital, but her friend Tix persuades her to confront him. Ray heads for the sport centre to confront Archie. When she arrives, she is extremely aggressive towards the receptionist and barges threw when she sees Archie disappear into an equipment cupboard. Ray follows Archie into the store cupboard; ready for a confrontation, to find him looking threw a peephole into the male changing room.

This makes Archie’s objectification of Ray, in order to test his own heterosexuality and his voyeurism of the male changing rooms, in Ray’s eyes, understandable and ok. This is another example of patriarchy using women to suit/meet the individual males’ needs. In addition, an example of the perceived female gender role/identity, influencing the acceptableness of this treatment.

This modern example of patriarchy i.e. women’s role as gratifiers/objects of male sexual desire is also an example of what Weeks (1981) would describe as "an uncertainty of sexual identity leading to a desire to assert sexuality as fixed". (Cited in Making Sense of Sociology by Ian Marsh p279) Archie’s need to be the same sexuality as the other group members and his distress caused by the possibility that he is gay, as well as the way he chooses to address the issue i.e. pretend to fancy Ray, supports Connell’s (1987) opinion that "interaction between genders recreate/create gender identities". (Cited in Making Sense of Sociology by Ian Marsh p278)

Archie pretending to fancy Ray would have implied heterosexuality and maintained the impression of sameness and part of/belonging in/to the group. Alternatively, from a post modernism point of view, Archie in public and Archie in private is the same person performing different identities.

This storyline also highlights the power the media has in influencing our sense of identity and the right way to be and in addition, supports Connell’s (1987) view that, "degrees of masculine and feminine fluctuate". Rays Gender role during this story line is fluid. Her belief that making her appearance more feminine will result in her being noticed as a desirable female, cause her to search for the outfit that will do just that. She loses the leather jacket and dresses in a white mini skirt and leggings, and announces she is drinking Lambrini from now on (the wine too girly for boys to drink). However, when Archie stands her up, she then becomes very masculine when angry i.e. she spends a short while doing what girls do and cries she then gets angry and storms off to confront him.

Mulvery (1975) would argue "the image of women as passive raw material for the active gaze of man results from the ideology of the patriarchal order of female representations on/in film". (p6) Most representations of the female form in the media are beautiful, big breasted, blonde-haired people who are skinny. The influence the constant bombardment of these images has is it encourages a perception of this as the optimal vision of what is attractive. This can, and does create problems, especially in young females. The media images of the perfect female may well help to sell products; however, it also creates feelings of being abnormal, overweight, or unattractive. Subsequently the need to identify as a particular sexual identity can cause an individual to turn to cosmetic surgery or develop anorexia.

The writers of "My Mad Fat Diary" use particular behaviour and bodily functions, guided by social controls and our ideas of guilt and shame, to shock the audience. The aspects of the body, governed by social control, are not just about the social norms that guide gendered behaviour. Social control guides the way we regulate and control our physical biological body e.g. we do not just defecate wherever we feel the need, we excrete in private, hidden from the public view. Different cultures contain different structures, which inform our sexuality and shape ideas of pleasure, shame, and guilt. Freud (1933) (cited in Atlas, sex and the kitchen p224) spoke of shame as a "female characteristic par excellence".

Cultural taboos, norms and expectations differ from one culture to another and when broken cause shame and embarrassment. The banishing of menstruating woman in one culture (to the edge of her community for the duration) or the woman not preparing meat during menstruation in another, in western societies, the menstruating woman is a hidden phenomenon. All these practices hold an element of shame and subsequent embarrassment for the menstruating woman.

Female hygiene products have allowed women to maintain their daily life during menstruation without anyone being any the wiser. Menstrual blood conjures feelings of revulsion and in a patriarchal society, prevents women from functioning as a wife i.e. no intercourse and no cooking. This revulsion causes feelings of shame so we keep it hidden.

In terms of "My Mad Fat Diary", the writer draws the audience farther into the story by stimulating emotions, using culturally created taboos regarding menstrual blood. In episode three (wearing the white mini skirt), Ray has started her period. While sitting in the cafe with her male friends. She quietly excuses herself and slips out only to run into the town bully. She turns to walk away and the sight of her menstrual blood seeping through her white skirt gives the audience mixed feelings of pity, shock, revulsion, and humour. The bullies then taunted her with remarks of revulsion, uncleanness, and she feels engulfed in/with shame.

Shame according to Lynd (1958) cited in Sex Shame and vulnerability, by Helen Resneck-Sannes (p3) is "the feeling of being bad wrong or disgusting" and stems from a sense of weakness, inadequacy and incompetence, loss of self control and esteem". Rachel Lea in, The Shitful Body talks about "the body as a symbol" and "the exits and entrances to the body and the stuff that comes out of or goes in to it a potential danger to the identity of the whole and consequently is guarded carefully". (p 2) In a research project on paralysis Seymour (cited in "The Shitful Body" by Rachel Lea) talks about participants’ distress at "a body out of control" and "the shame and embarrassment at having to involve someone else" (1998)

In conclusion, "My Mad Fat Diary" does not portray sexuality and gender in the traditional way of understanding. Representations of sexuality and gender in the program are of fluidity. The programs intention is not to categorise any character a particular sexuality or gender, it provides a good visual aid for the understanding of the difficulties surrounding identity, sexuality and the right way of being, pubescent individuals face. In addition, "My Mad Fat Diary" is an excellent example of social controls, which shape and inform behaviours. It also highlights how these controls cause distress and shape beliefs, for example, the need to integrate/belong to an accepted/fixed category of sexuality and the distress over any confusion around, which one, if any, an individual identifies with.

"My Mad Fat Diary" does support, to an extent, feminist theories of patriarchy, and the subordination/objectification of women and the learned female mind set about what is acceptable treatment from men. The program is also in line with the functionalist view of the family as the place that teaches the wider values/norms of society and subsequently moulds gender behaviour. Overall, the program is a postmodern representation of the shaping of individual identities by various social forces, internal dilemmas, and life experiences.

Words 3300

Appendix:

"My Mad Fat Diary" is an E4 television series set in the 1990’s, about Ray, a sixteen-year-old girl who is overweight and self-harms. Despite this, she is loving, caring, music daft, and desperate to get a boyfriend and have sex. The program begins with Rays discharge from hospital following two months in a psychiatric ward. Ray lives with her mother and the mother’s lover (an illegal immigrant). The mother and her lover cannot keep their hands off each other and their sexual exploits are often and noisy.

The story is mostly about how Ray reintegrates herself back into her circle of friends and how her thinking is in regards to the issues associated with growing up, e.g. boys and sex. The series has a diary format and articulation of Ray’s internal thoughts, feelings, and dilemmas is via a voice over.

Ray attends weekly therapy sessions with the unconventional Dr Kester Gill, the only adult male with English dialog (so far in the series). Dr Gill has his own issues that he addresses (unknown to Ray) during and alongside Ray’s therapy. Ray returns to the hospital weekly to visit Tix a girl who has an eating disorder and a phobia of being touched and Martin a schizophrenic boy.

During these visits Ray, talk to Tix about the boys she likes, the worries she has concerning how she looks and dilemmas about how she should dress, behave and communicate with particular boys she likes. Ray’s interaction with Martin is always in regards to giving Ray an insight into how boys their age think.

The only other characters directly involved in the story are Ray’s five friends. Chloe has been Ray’s best friend since childhood. She is popular, attractive, and slightly narcissistic. She is also having a sexual relationship with one of her old school teachers. Archie is a slightly geeky boy who thinks he is asexual, after he kisses a girl and a boy and "feels nothing". Finn is a quiet, attractive boy who cares for his elderly grandmother. His character always seems moody or on the verge of tears. Chop is the boisterous friend, always cracking jokes and speaking without thinking. Chop has a tendency to hurt people’s feelings unintentionally. Izzy is Chops naive girlfriend and if he is not acting the clown, he is kissing Izzy, every fat teenage girl’s nightmare. She is popular, attractive, skinny and driven by her teenage hormones i.e. boy daft.