We Failed You Dunphy Girls (Modern Family and AntiFeminism)

Chapter 1: The Preamble

Haley Dunphy is a character in the 2009 sitcom, Modern Family. The show shows the conflicts that a "modern" family would have in the late 2010's up to 2020. What makes the family modern is who it consists of: A Stubborn White Boomer stuck in his ways, his Latina Wife, His Flamboyant Son, An Overbearing Nagging Mom, A "Cool" Dad, An Over Sexualized Popular Girl, A Nerd, A Reckless Boy, Two Gay Husbands, and their Asian Daughter. That's crazy radical for 2009.

It's an American sitcom and sitcoms are made to be funny. Every sitcom has poor written jokes that don't land or age well. Of course, a sitcom centering around immigrants and gay people has its fair share of them. I'm aware none of the plot scenarios in Modern Family are meant to be taken seriously. It's for entertainment and we should treat it as that. However, every piece of media is a reflection of society. It's the age old question if life imitates art or art imitates life. I like to think that it's a bit of both.

Below I'll list the character arcs of the family members in Modern Family. I'll only be listing their negative traits so that we can see how they grow.

Chapter 2: Cast of Characters

Jay Prichett

Season 1: Homophobic, Conservative, Slightly Racist, Close Minded, A bit Selfish.

He cares about himself and values the old ways in life. He's also scared of growing older.

Season 11: Significantly Less Homophobic, Less Conservative, Embraces Culture, More Open Minded, Less Selfish.

He cares about others and tries to understand them more. He's attempted to correct his ways and he's more accepting of his age.

Gloria Delgado-Pritchett

Season 1: Mildly Selfish, A bit Superficial, Her Looks are her best feature

Gloria is an all-together very fun character. In the earlier seasons she values her looks over her other qualities, often her sexualized body being the butt of the joke. We see her selfishness in taking opportunities away from her sister such as stealing her way to come to the U.S.A., and how much she values material assets.

Season 11: Significantly less Selfish, Values her Intelligence

By Season 11, Gloria has made amends with her sister and values her other qualities as much as her physical features.

Manny Delgado

Season 1: An Extreme Romantic, Validation Issues, Lower Self Confidence

Manny's main issue over the seasons was his thirst for romance that was never met. He felt less than the other guys around him as well as sought validation from his biological and step-dad that he didn't get.

Season 11: Still a Romantic, Less Validation Issues, Values his talents

Manny ended up learning to accept his romantic heart and his value in life. By the end of the show, Manny stopped letting external validation define him.

Mitchell Pritchett

Season 1: Extremely Up-tight, Insecure about Masculinity, Superficial, Not Self Sacrificing

In Season 1, Mitchell is one half of the gay couple in the family. He's very up-tight, and lets his insecurity over his masculinity impact several parts of his life such as his relationship with his dad. He sees himself as better than country folk.

Season 11: Less Up-tight, Significantly Less Insecure, Self Sacrificing

By the later seasons Micheal deals with his insecurities and feels better about himself as he is. He also ends up sacrificing what he's known to live on the farm with his partner.

Cameron Pritchett

Season 1: Melodramatic, Extremely Energetic, Too Self Sacrificing while also Selfish

In the earlier seasons Cameron struggles with sacrificing everything for others in order to gain some excitement from their lives while he continues to not sacrifice for his husband.

Season 11: Melodramatic, Extremely Energetic, Values His Husband More

By Season 11, he values Mitchell a bit more.

Lily Tucker-Pritchett

Season 1: She's a baby.

In the first season Lily is a baby, so we don't see a lot of her traits.

Season 11: More confident.

Since Lily is only around 12 by the end of Modern Family there's not much to analyze but she does go through a confidence arc.

Claire Dunphy

Season 1: Up-Tight, Neurotic, Perfectionist, Selfish, A bit Lustful

In the earlier seasons we see how Claire is very up-tight. She's a perfectionist to an almost OCD level and she values her happiness over others. She butts into things she does not need to.

Season 11: Mostly the same, Embraces her Traits, Listens to Others

Claire does not change her traits by the end of the show, but she learns not to feel as bad for them. She also listens to others more and is at least a bit more understanding.

Phil Dunphy

Season 1: Tries Too Hard, Doesn't Take Responsibility, Lustful

Phil values being a "chill" dad and doesn't enforce his own rules. When he does, he's extreme. He also has lust issues.

Season 11: Tries a TINY bit Less, Takes Responsibility, Lustful but Takes Care of His Wife

By the end of the show Phil tries less to be "chill" and does what he chooses. He takes more responsibility and though he's still lustful he takes care of Claire more.

Luke Dunphy

Season 1: Reckless

Luke is the typical boy. He's a bit dumb, very reckless, and very goofy.

Season 11: Less Reckless

He's getting his future together by the end of the show.

Chapter 3: We Failed You Dunphy Girls

The character arc of both of the female Dunphy children is interesting to say the least. Previously, the other characters seem to fall in line with sitcom archetypes. I don't believe the arc of the other characters (Not including Mitchell and Cameron) are very harmful to the audience. The second most troubling arc excluding our gay couple would be Gloria, as her depiction fetishes Hispanic and Latina women. Often, Hispanic and Latina women are seen as sexual beings in American media. Though the plot mostly addresses Gloria's body and not her ethnicity, the two cannot be separated in the eyes of a young audience. However, in the end Gloria starts to value her other talents such as her ability to cook and her intelligence.

The two Dunphy girls have a slightly more degrading arc.

Haley and Alex are sisters born in proximity to each other. Haley's archetype is the desirable, dumb, reckless one who could have any boy she wants and sleeps with all of them. Alex is her opposite. The show frames Alex as undesirable, extremely intelligent, and the focused one who could not get any boy except her younger brother's friend to sleep with her. Both of these messages are damaging. It shows that a young girl who is smart and driven is not desirable and will not be seen as worthy as her peers. It also shows that the girl who is pretty and desirable must stay dumb for men to be attracted to her.

Haley doesn't have other qualities besides being pretty and stupid. When Haley tries to do productive tasks in her life such as get new jobs or start new businesses, the writers always make sure she fails. Haley is not allowed to succeed in life. Even though Haley is only 15 when the show starts, by the end of the show she has had the most love interests of the entire cast, which is between 10 and 12. Haley is sexualized from a young age and is constantly sleeping with new people, usually those who have age gaps with her. Every time Haley does well in life, she ends up falling into the arms of a new guy. Her story is consistent and predictable. She's reckless -> She hates her life -> She starts something productive that she enjoys -> She falls back into a man's arms. The second longest love story she has had was with Andy Bailey who she had a slow-burn with until he randomly left to pursue another job. The show constantly teased their relationship before she chose another guy and ended that relationship shortly after. By the end of the show, Haley ends up with the first boyfriend we are introduced to, Dylan. She's becomes pregnant with twins and moves back into her parents house. She is constantly stuck in a cycle of failure and sex that ends with her becoming a young mother dependent on a failure's income and her parents. Her mother and Haley have almost the exact same arc. Claire used to be as reckless as Haley and slept with several guys. The one that was disapproved by her father she got pregnant with and had to scrape by to make ends meet. Now, the story has repeated itself as Claire strongly dislikes Dylan.

Alex's arc isn't significantly better either. Alex Dunphy is constantly compared to her sister and how even though she is smarter and more productive, she is far less desirable. People see Alex as smart, not pretty. They judge her by her grades and she holds herself to an impossible standard that leads her to burnout. Although she ends up letting herself take more breaks, it often makes her feel as if she were a failure. Her family constantly undermines her and talks bad about her. When she was stationed in the Antartica, they ignored her and her calls. She eventually learns that she can also be sexual and starts to sleep with other men just as her sister. In fact, her family starts to notice her when she becomes a sexual being who sleeps with several men. Her arc is that she learns she can be hot, and though on its own it can be seen as empowering, it reduces her to a sex object just as it does her sister. Instead of always knowing she was beautiful and always being respected by her family, Alex has to discover her desirability much like a flower blooming. In a way, her arc was simply her loosing her virginity.

Chapter 4: Why This Matters

The reason this matters in the first place is that it teaches young girls that their value comes from their sexual desirability rather than their own qualities. It also perpetuates the stereotype that girls cannot be more than their sex. Haley never gets to exist past her desirability and Alex is only recognized as important after she is desirable. Young girls internalize these ideas into what they believe. This harms girls in their desire to learn and do what they are passionate about and encourages them to base their worth on the sexual aspects of themselves.

It's perfectly find for young girls to want to be Mothers some day and raise a family, but they should not be reduced to it being what defines them and gives them meaning in society. They deserve to feel good about themselves from a young age. What children see in media influences how they'll behave in life. We should not condone such practices, even if they are in our favorite American sitcoms.