Family values

From Freepedia

This article discusses "family values" as a moral concept. For the rock music tour, see Family Values Tour.

Family values is a political buzzword first used in 1966 to describe a set of moral guidelines for defining the "proper" structure and role of a family and its members. Most often, the term connotes a conservative ideology that supports what they consider to be traditional Christian morality or Christian values and conventional gender roles, and that opposes abortion, pornography, and, in the media, profanity, violence, and sexuality. Often this ideology also opposes feminism, birth control, and divorce. It also generally opposes the interests of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered persons, and opposes same-sex marriage.

Alternatively to the view of family values envisioned by the Christian right, efforts by such liberal groups as People for the American Way, Planned Parenthood, Democratic Party, and PFLAG, have recently emerged who are attempting to redefine the concept of family values in a way that promotes liberal interests and ideology, including normalization of single-parent families, same-sex monogamous relationships and marriage, and unmarried monogamous couples. This understanding of family values focuses less on promoting conservative morality, and more on encouraging and supporting alternative family structures, access to family planning, abortion, sex education, childcare, and parent-friendly employment laws.

Contents

Historical perspective

Family values do not remain fixed and rigid; they change in response to economic, political, and cultural developments. They vary from country to country, and even between different households. Prior to the 20th century, for example, in most places and at most times the idea of a married woman seeking status and recognition independent of her husband would have constituted a breach of family values, as many societies expected women to focus exclusively on household duties. Also, as societies have shifted economically from agriculture to industry, extended families have given way to nuclear families.

Family values in U.S. politics

Since 1980 the Republican party has used the issue of family values to attract socially conservative voters, especially those in the South and Middle America. The use of "family values" as a term became widespread after a 1992 speech by Vice President Dan Quayle that attributed the Los Angeles riots to a breakdown of family values. It remains a core issue for the party, playing a significant role in President George W. Bush's re-election in 2004. The Democratic Party has also tried to used the term of family values, using their definition, to attract social conservatives to its own ranks. However at present the Democratic Parties definition of family values is incompatible with social conservatives, indeed social conservative Democrates are now increasingly attracted to the Republican party for this reason.

While family values remains a rather vague concept, social conservatives usually understand the term to include some combination of the following principles:

  • Support for marriage as a lasting bond between one man and one woman
  • Family organization which has the husband as head of the household and the wife primarily as homemaker
  • Support for laws, public education, and popular media that promote (or at least act compatibly with) the current view of traditional Christian morality
  • Support for two-parent families as opposed to single parent families
  • Parental responsibility for and control over their children's education.
  • Discipline of children, sometimes including corporal punishment.
  • Rejection of homosexuality as a natural sexual orientation, and behavior or appearance inconsistent with traditional gender roles
  • Rejection of abortion, and sometimes contraception as well.

Organizations that promote conservative family values

See also

Books

  • Bennett, William J., ed. The Book of Virtues: A Treasury of Great Moral Stories. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1993. ISBN 0671683063.

External links

Retrieved from "http://en.freepedia.org/Family_values.html"


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