Marriage, family and the media

 As well television families now have problems. Married with Children (87-97) showed what dysfunctional families could be like with The Simpsons (1989), becoming the most famous dysfunctional, working- class family on television. A single mother supported her family selling dope in Weeds (2005-2012), and House Husbands (2012) put the men in charge domestically. Redfern Now (2012)was a break-through in depicting Aboriginal families.

These diverse programs have helped to legitimise family life in all its verities.

But government is slow to respond to social reality. By 2004 government family policy was about ‘the good of the nation’ with the announcement of a new payment of $3,000 forall new mothers, irrespective of income, rising to $5,000 from July 1, 2008. Single parents, de factos, ethnics and welfare recipients were eligible. The emphasis was on having babies not on ideal family forms. Homosexual families were not part of the plan. That same year the Howard government changed the Marriage Act to prevent same-sex marriage.  

The diverse media we have available today continue to innovate and lead public opinion. Netflix has introduced us to Grace and Frankie, the wives of two lawyers who have been colleagues for 40 years. The wives are taken out to dinner to be told their husbands have fallen in love with each other and want to get married. They are old, over 70, but they have been at it for years.

Amazon’s first family series, Transparent, is about a 70 year old father of three grown children who comes out to his dysfunctional family, as a transsexual. The third series has been commissioned before the second goes to air. Where will it end? I read, in the USA transsexuals are demanding their own toilets.

But our Sisyphean Prime Minister is doing his best with his henchmen (Abetz, Fight for same sex marriage is not over, The Age, July 2) to keep us on the straight and narrow. Our Prime Minister may recall Sisyphus was condemned to an eternity of useless efforts and unending frustration.