The Fake Middle Class

It wasn't until we did the exercise in the beginning of class that I noticed how much the shows that we watch all have the same class.  Whether it is Ray Romano who is a sports writer and his wife stays at home to the show my wife and kids with Michael being the boss of a trucking business and his wife not working.  In both scenarios they have kids and they seem to do well for what they have.  There are never any problems with money.  They may run into problems but never are they worried about losing their house.  I was also shocked when I thought about animation and how shows like family guy live a middle class life but he is a toy builder and Peter’s wife doesn’t work and they have three kids and a dog.  You really don’t realize it until you actually look for it.  My family consists of my dad who was a police officer and my mom who is a nurse and I have two sisters.  I know there was a certain point in our lives where we were not considered well off.  I now consider us middle class and we don’t have financial problems but that was because we went through a lot to be where we are now and my parents worked hard and you usually don’t see that in shows like Ray Romano.

The other thing that stuck out today was the husbands that were out of shape.  The husband in the king of queens has a gorgeous wife and he plays the role of the big funny husband.  The other show that I was thinking about that does this is According to Jim.  Jim and wife have the same roles.  Jim is comfortable with his weight and acts funny while his wife is gorgeous along with her sister.  This really makes you think, why do we need these roles?  Why do shows like friends live in gorgeous apartments but have low paying jobs for the most part?  People don’t see this because they look past it, they enjoy having an half an hour to escape and live someone else’s life.