Why Are All The Mother's Dead Analysis

Growing up, I had always believed that families operated on a balanced system set in place by a mother and a father. I never saw the man as the main provider of the household or the woman as the lesser counterpart. In my family, both my mother and father contributed to our family equally. I do not mean to say that both of my parents were bringing in equal paychecks, because that was not the case, I am saying that where one parent slacked in a certain area the other picked up for it. The balance was what kept my family together. I had also always believed that a family worked well together if the mother and father married for the correct reasons. Of course, I believe the only reason to marry someone is because you love them, but I have learned …show more content…
Very rarely do our minds see a struggling father working to provide for his kids. In Boxer’s essay on “Why Are All The Cartoon Mother’s Dead?” she questions the reality of children’s movies. Boxer states, “Did you know that 67 percent of U.S. households with kids are headed by married couples, 25 percent by single mothers, and only 8 percent by single fathers?” (90). If the majority of realistic families are married couples and mothers then why do so many Disney movies portray the father as being a single parent? The only reason I can think of for this unrealistic portrayal of mother/father roles is the ever-lasting belief that men are superior to women. In the text, “From Marriage Markets: How Inequality is Remaking American Family”, the authors June Carbone and Naomi Cahn look at the gender gap in income and determine that it is narrowing. Females are starting to earn higher grades, stay in school longer, and get more successful jobs then men (80). This may be terrifying to our traditional country and could be the reason as to why movies are portraying men as heroes. Simply put, children’s movies are trying to show the public that men are still superior even if in today’s world they may not be completely