Fam(ily)

As I was studying for my sociology exam, I was reading about how people perceive families in contemporary society. There was a lot of information, but one certain part really hit me in the heart. The perception of families in today’s society is ridiculous. The assumptions in this book really irritated me. My book went on about how female headed households are more likely to live in poverty over male headed, how stepfamilies face unique problems because of the blending of households, and also how gay and lesbian households challenge traditional heterosexual definitions of “family”. The book also states that it is difficult to actually define the word family because of all of the diversity in the world. I think this whole chapter is a bunch of bullshit. This whole book is a bunch of bullshit. Who are they to sit here and judge other people’s families and how they are run? There are plenty of families in the world who are thriving and succeeding that are not a “contemporary family”.

 Female headed households are becoming more and more popular in today’s society. I know multiple families that don’t even have a male in the picture, and the female is more than successful when it comes to keeping her family in order. What makes people think that a household run by a woman is going to be such a failure? 

Stepfamilies are also very popular in today’s society. This one personally hits me. My mother was raised by her step-dad, and I grew up knowing my step-grandfather as my real grandfather. Never once did any of us look at him differently because he wasn’t part of the biological family. My grandma had three children with my mom’s biological father, and one with my grandpa. None of us look at my auntie differently because she doesn’t have the same father as the rest of the family. We’re a family, and we always will be. Nothing will ever change that.

This also continues into the lesbian and gay households. Just because they don’t follow the heterosexual definitions of a family doesn’t mean that they will fail as a family. Recently there was a video circulating around facebook about a 19 year old named Zach Wahls who was raised by lesbian parents. Wahls was speaking to the Iowa House of Representatives about the possible ban of same sex marriage. He went on about how successful his family has become and how successful he has become as an individual. He is proud to have been raised by two strong, independent, caring women. Wahls made multiple overwhelmingly true and positive statements throughout his speech. He never once looked down on his own family. Sexual orientation has nothing to do with the content of your character. Don’t judge people’s ability to succeed in society via who they fall in love with. 

People in today’s society are too damn judgmental. Let people live their lives the way they want. Just because a family doesn’t have a house with a white picket fence, two children, a dog, and a mother and a father doesn’t mean they won’t be a successful family. A family is a family no matter what the contents are.