L'idée de progrès (document en anglais)

The Idea of Progress

I would like to point out the notion of the idea of progress. We can say that the idea of progress consists in believing that the world can become better in terms of science, technology, liberty and quality of life. They had shaped most of western civilisation’s vision of history. Progress implies changes, evolution from an old order with old traditions to a new and modern order.

I will tackle this notion throughout the evolution of family over the time. Thus we are going to explain how does the evolution of society influences family structures?

Therefore, I will illustrate my arguments with the following documents: two films poster. On the one hand, The Cosby Show which deals with an African-American family where they live in Brooklyn, in New York in 90’s. On the other hand, Bend it like Beckman released in 2002. The film talks about a girl who loves football. The problem is that her family is traditional Indian so they don’t want her daughter to play football because they think football it’s for a boy. The third document is an article called “the good wife’s guide” from Housekeeping Monthly published the may of the 13th in 1995.

First, in 50’s there is not equality between women and men, “a family is a social unit where the father is concerned with parking space, the mother with closet space and the children with outer space” is Evan Esar’s definition of the word family. Indeed, the family’s structure was composed of parents and children. The couples married earlier and divorce didn’t exist. The women didn’t work and she making all over house work. As for the men, he has to work to bring money for his family. Furthermore, the advertisement and poster show the important women’s role within the family. An article called “the good wife’s guide” from Housekeeping Monthly published the 13th of May in 1955. This article gives several advices to be a good wife; “Have dinner ready”, “don’t greet him with complaints and problems”, “a good wife always knows her place.” We can notice that wife was selflessly devoted to her children and submissive to her husband. Her only ambition is to satisfy her husband’s desires.

Nevertheless, the society has evolved and family’s structure too. The women began to work so they were become increasingly important inside the family. There were laws in favour of women’s rights such as the Veil law in 1975 which allow aborting show those women can become independent.

Therefore, the world and society has more evolved and today we can see that there are different types of families such as The Cosby Show. Indeed, this is another family because they are more modern than the family in 50’s. We can see a blend family. They were funny and free family. Nonetheless, on the other hand, some family resist on the evolution of family structure like Bend it Beckham. On this poster, we can see two modern girls. They seem happy. In the background, we can see a traditional Indian family. They seem angry and incomprehensible. In fact, the girl’s family doesn’t want her to play football because they think it’s for a boy. So it creates a gap between the family and the girl. She wants to move forward and break the tradition.

Nowadays, there are not families blended. There are interracial couples, single-parent family or even “gay couple” parents,

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