Duck Dynasty

One of my new favorite shows is Duck Dynasty. I think it is good, clean humor that is appropriate for all ages. There's no swearing or dirty humor. Although they are millionares, they don't seem to mind working for what they've got. They aren't arrogant or snooty because of what they have and they seem pretty down to earth when we look at families represented in the media.

Given they are a deep southern rooted family, I disagree with the representation of the men and women in the show. It just plays out the typical male and female role stereotypes which don't seem to ring true in today's society, at least not in the cities and suburbs. Phil and Kay are the parents to Willie, Jase, and Jep. Each son is married and has children. They seem to have strong family ties and are very family oriented people. I disagree with the representation of the women in the show. Miss Kay is always in the house doing typical housewife work like watching after the grandchildren, cleaning and keeping the house in order, and having food on the table for whenever Phil decides he's hungry and comes through to eat. The wives of Willie, Jase, and Jep are very active in the church and keeping up appearences. They are always doing some type of volunteer work, shopping, and cleaning their houses.

The men in the show Phil, Si, Willie, Jase, Jep, Godwin (family friend), and Martin (family friend) are always seen outside in the woods doing "masculine" activities. They ride four wheelers and ATV's through the mud and the swamps, shoot up beaver dam's, cut down trees, go hunting, build fires, or some type of physical labor that their wives have requested. They always make fun of one of the other guys if one decides to something that may "take away from their manlieness" or something that may be a little more feminine. One example is when the family went to Hawaii and Willie lost his luggage, he bought a surong which is a typical Hawaiian skirt type of thing that many men in Hawaii wear. But all his brothers thought it was a dress and made fun of him the entire trip for it.

The one thing I find funny through all of this is that through all of these men's "masculinity", they are bossed around by the women and awful lot. When one of the girls says jump they all ask how high. Some attribute this to their southern ways and the respect for women they have. I'm not quite sure what to make of it. I do think that it reinforces how fast paced our lives are and the progress we've made in veering off the traditional gender roles.