Two american families is a sociopolitical documentary hosted by Bill moyers following the lives of two families, one black and one white, living Milwaukee. This film starts following the lives of the Neumans and the stanleys in 1992 and follows their struggles, hopes, growth and change until 2013. Trials faced by these two families and the ways they continue to live their lives show multiple connections to the textbook for our class. Aspects from our text that this film highlights are the difficulty of upward mobility, the increasing downward mobility, the empowerment of the the female gender, the stigma toward people of different race or ethnicity and the model for american middle class structure. Upward mobility is very difficult in
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Cordelia Fine wrote in her article that society associates the characteristics of being “delicate and dainty” and more “faithful and constant” and that these traits are reserved for girls. This is seen when Terry neumann first starts to support the family by getting a job a truck driver. She feels empowered because she is now perceived as more authoritative and powerful or as she puts it “I get a lot more looks than sitting in the kitchen, cooking muffins.” Yet society 's ideal for the female role is so ingrained in her way of thinking that despite her new feeling of growth and empowerment, she feels guilty for now being a stay at home wife and mother. This is seen when she says “ I still feel that way, but under the circumstances— we’re put into a situation where we don’t have a choice” and begins to tear …show more content…
In this film there are multiple examples of ideas expressed by articles in the textbook and the fact that these families live in what was once one of the best places to live in for working class families makes it an even better reference. The struggles to achieve upward mobility, yet fall downward in class, the ways women are perceived by american society, the difficulties of being a stigmatized race and how lack of power expresses their lower class all connect directly to the theories expressed in the
Cordelia Fine wrote in her article that society associates the characteristics of being “delicate and dainty” and more “faithful and constant” and that these traits are reserved for girls. This is seen when Terry neumann first starts to support the family by getting a job a truck driver. She feels empowered because she is now perceived as more authoritative and powerful or as she puts it “I get a lot more looks than sitting in the kitchen, cooking muffins.” Yet society 's ideal for the female role is so ingrained in her way of thinking that despite her new feeling of growth and empowerment, she feels guilty for now being a stay at home wife and mother. This is seen when she says “ I still feel that way, but under the circumstances— we’re put into a situation where we don’t have a choice” and begins to tear …show more content…
In this film there are multiple examples of ideas expressed by articles in the textbook and the fact that these families live in what was once one of the best places to live in for working class families makes it an even better reference. The struggles to achieve upward mobility, yet fall downward in class, the ways women are perceived by american society, the difficulties of being a stigmatized race and how lack of power expresses their lower class all connect directly to the theories expressed in the