Family outside of conventional marriage, including pre-marital
Family values are political and social beliefs that hold the nuclear family to be the essential ethical and moral unit of society. Familialism is the ideology that promotes the family and its values as an institution. 1 Although the phrase is vague and has shifting meanings, it is most often associated with social and religious conservatives. In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, the term has been frequently used in political debate, to claim that the world has seen a decline in family values since the end of the Second World War. 2 Definition edit In the United StatesTypically, the term is used by the media to refer to Christian values, but in a 1998 Harris survey it was defined as “loving, taking care of, and supporting each other” by 52% of women and 42% of men, as “knowing right from wrong and having good values” by 38% of women and 35% of men, and as the traditional family by 2% of women and 1% men. The survey also noted that 93% of women thought that society should value all types of families.
3 edit Conservative definitions Since 1980, the Republican Party has used the issue of family values to attract socially conservative voters. 4 While family values remains a rather vague concept, social conservatives usually understand the term to include some combination of the following principles (also referenced in the 2004 Republican Party platform):5 ? Promotion of “traditional marriage” and opposition to sex outside of conventional marriage, including pre-marital sex, adultery, polygamy, bestiality, and incest6789 ? Support for a roll back of aspects of feminism and support for a traditional role for women in the family. 10citation needed ? Opposition to same-sex marriage5 Support for traditional education and parental involvement in that education, including such things as vouchers for private, non-secular education. 11 ? Support for complementarianism121314 ? Opposition to legalization of abortion and support for policies that instead encourage abstinence and adoption15 ? Support for abstinence education exclusively regarding risks associated with early sexual activity such as teen pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases5 while not teaching such topics of sex education as human sexual behavior, safe sex and birth control16 ?Support for policies that are said to protect children from obscenity and exploitation17181920212223 Social and religious conservatives often use the term “family values” to promote conservative ideology that supports traditional morality or Christian values.
24 American Christians often see their religion as the source of morality and consider the nuclear family to be an essential element in society. Some conservative family values advocates believe the government should endorse Christian morality,25 for example by displaying the Ten Commandments or allowing teachers to conduct prayers in public schools.Religious conservatives often view the United States as a “Christian nation”26 For example, “The American Family Association exists to motivate and equip citizens to change the culture to reflect Biblical truth and traditional family values. “27 These groups variously oppose abortion, pornography, pre-marital sex, homosexuality, certain aspects of feminism,28 cohabitation, separation of church and state, and depictions of sexuality in the media.
edit Progressive definitionsAlthough the term “family values” remains a core issue for the Republican Party, in recent years the Democratic Party has also used the term, though differing in its definition. For example, in his acceptance speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, John Kerry said “it is time for those who talk about family values to start valuing families. “29 The Democratic Party definitions of family values often include items that specifically target working families such as support of: ? a living wage ? universal health care ? the acceptance of adoption by gays the acceptance of the non-traditional family (single parent households, same-sex marriages) ? social programs and financial aid for families Other liberals have used the phrase to support such values as family planning, affordable child care, and maternity leave. 30 For example, groups such as People For the American Way, Planned Parenthood, and Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays have attempted to define the concept in a way that promotes the acceptance of single-parent families, same-sex monogamous relationships and marriage.This understanding of family values does not promote conservative morality, instead focusing on encouraging and supporting alternative family structures, access to contraception and abortion, increasing the minimum wage, sex education, childcare, and parent-friendly employment laws, which provide for maternity leave and leave for medical emergencies involving children. 31 While conservative sexual ethics focus on preventing premarital or non-procreative sex, liberal sexual ethics are typically directed rather towards consent, regardless of whether or not the partners are marriedChinese culture and Confucianism In Confucian thought, family values, familial relationships, ancestor worship, and filial piety (Chinese: ? ; Mandarin: Xiao; Cantonese: Haau) are the primary basis of the philosophical system, and these concepts are seen as virtues to be cultivated. Filial piety is considered the first virtue in Chinese culture.
While China has always had a diversity of religious beliefs, filial piety has been common to almost all of them; for example, Historian Hugh D. R. Baker calls respect for the family the only element common to almost all Chinese believers.
These traditions were sometimes enforced by law; during parts of the Han Dynasty, for example, those who neglected ancestor worship could even be subject to corporal punishment. The term “filial”, meaning “of a child”, denotes the respect and obedience that a child, originally a son, should show to his parents, especially to his father. This relationship was extended by analogy to a series of five relationships or five cardinal relationships (?? Wulun): 1. ruler and subject (?? ), 2.
father and son (?? ), 3. husband and wife (?? , 4. elder and younger brother (?? ), 5. friend and friend (?? ) Specific duties were prescribed to each of the participants in these sets of relationships. Such duties were also extended to the dead, where the living stood as sons to their deceased family. This led to the veneration of ancestors. In time, filial piety was also built into the Chinese legal system: a criminal would be punished more harshly if the culprit had committed the crime against a parent, while fathers exercised enormous power over their children.
Much the same was true of other unequal relationships United States politics edit History A woman at the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear holding a sign that declares her ideas of family values. The use of family values as a political term became widespread after a 1992 speech by Vice President Dan Quayle that attributed the Los Angeles riots to a breakdown of family values. Quayle specifically blamed the violence in L. A. as stemming from a decay of moral values and family structure in American society.In an aside, he cited the fictional title character in the television program Murphy Brown as an example of how popular culture contributes to this “poverty of values”, saying: “it doesn’t help matters when primetime TV has Murphy Brown—a character who supposedly epitomizes today’s intelligent, highly paid, professional woman—mocking the importance of fathers, by bearing a child alone, and calling it just another ‘lifestyle choice'”.
Quayle drew a firestorm of criticism from feminist and liberal organizations, and was widely ridiculed by late-night talk show hosts for saying this. In an interview years after the incident, Quayle said it was an off-hand remark and that he had no idea it would ignite such controversy, nor had he intended for it to. The show’s star Candice Bergen herself said in an interview after the show was cancelled that she agreed with him. 37 The “Murphy Brown speech”38 and the resulting media coverage damaged the Republican ticket in the 1992 presidential election and became one of the most memorable incidents of the 1992 campaign. Long after the outcry had ended, the comment continued to have an effect on U.
S. politics.Stephanie Coontz, a professor of family history and the author of several books39 and essays40 about the history of marriage, says that this brief remark by Quayle about Murphy Brown “kicked off more than a decade of outcries against the ‘collapse of the family'”. | |Chinese |Americans | |Conception Of the|Collectivist: Higher value placed on group cooperation|Individualist: Higher value placed on self-reliance. | |Self |and individual modesty.
Self-promotion is more accepted. High value placed on | | | |”freedom”from externally imposed constraints. | |Social |Formal, hierarchical. People most comfortable in the |Informal, egalitarian. People most comfortable with | |Relationships |presence of a hierarchy in which they know their |their social equals; importance of social rankings | | |position and the customs/rules for behavior in the |minimized.
| | |situation. | |Friendship |Small number of close, lifelong friends who feel |Large collection of “friends” and acquaintances which | | |deeply obligated to give each other whatever help |changes over time and involves only limited mutual | | |might seem required. |obligations. | |Obligation |Relationships with other people involve reciprocal |People avoid interdependent relationships and | | |obligations. |situations that might entail long-term obligations. | |Task vs.
Relationship-oriented: Maintaining a harmonious |Task-oriented. Relationships are less important than | |Relationship |relationship has priority over accomplishing tasks. |getting the work done. | |Orientation | | | |Harmony vs. |Avoid direct confrontation, open criticism, and |Willing to confront directly, criticize, discuss | |”Truth” |controversial topics. Concern maintaining harmony and|controversial topics, press personal opinions about | | |with “face. |what they consider “the truth.
Little concern with | | | |”face. ” | |Role of laws, |More faith in personal relationships than in written |Written rules presumably apply to everyone and are | |rules, and |rules and procedures for structuring interactions. |assumed to produce fair, reasonable procedures and | |regulations | |decisions. |Time |Relatively more attention to the past and to the |Less interested in the past; eye on near-term future. | |Consciousness |longer-term future.
| | |Ascribed vs. |Traditionally, a person’s status in the society was |People’s status is based mainly on their own | |Achieved Status |based importantly on inherited characteristics such as|achievements, including education obtained and level | | |age, gender, and family. This is changing. |of success realized in their line of work.
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