Talk:Nuclear family

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Nuclear family article.

Article policies
Archives: 1, 2


Archive
Archives
  1. May 2006
  2. June 2006

Contents

[edit] Congrats

I'd like to congratulate everyone for the current, apparently stable version of the article. I think it is far more balanced and informative than it was a mere month ago! Kudos! DavidBailey 15:30, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Dismissive of Gay relationships, missing a wider analysis of the term

I feel personally that this article may have been written to be balanced, but I must come from a different point of view and state I don't feel it is. I feel that it dismisses homosexual relationships, emphasizing it only affects a 'minority', and that is not accepted in most countries, but using these two points I feel it puts gay relationships in a negative light even if it wasn't intended. Further I would like to point out a wider discussion about the nuclear family, in that for some Socialists, the nuclear family is by-product of capitalism, and is therefore merely the 'Bourgeois Family’. This ‘family’ in Socialist Feminist thought is the origins of Patriarchy and the systematic oppression of women. We assume as westerners that the nuclear family is the most desirable and normal, but in pre-capitalist society families were in a communal setting and often polygamous. Judeo-Christianity in the west has created the structure of validating sexual intercourse through a ceremony of a man and a woman. However ‘Bourgeois Marriage’ was the contract between two families merging/exchanging capital and assets see dowry system. This article should explore a much wider context, which it currently doesn’t and is based on western assumptions about the natural structure of the family we call the nuclear family. I do not dismiss any good intentions of this article or homophobic intent, there very good articles in wikipedia about homosexuality, however this article isn’t one of them. —Preceding unsigned comment added by PiousTrent (talk • contribs)

The extensions proposed are excellent, i tried to extend it some time ago, but was prevented by the common understanding of the term, nuclear family. A wider sociological examination is required. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.41.211.99 (talk • contribs)
The article quotes George Murdock's description of NFs: "It contains adults of both sexes, at least two of whom maintain a socially approved sexual relationship..." This permits polygamy, but not monogamous gay relationships(?...) I, personally, consider gay couples with children "nuclear families," and I think most Americans anyway do. userX 23:30, 15 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Sentence moved from divorce section

Society assumes these families can only be fixed through another marriage, and the single parent status is only temporary and can be overcome. [citation needed]

This statement is unsupported and seems fairly POV to me. It's here until someone can rewrite it to include references. DavidBailey 12:55, 12 December 2006 (UTC)

Frankly, upon reading the whole divorce section I think it's not that relevant or well-written to begin with. I guess the question is, what happens to a nuclear family when a divorce happens. If it's no longer a nuclear family by definition, then it isn't "challenging" the nuclear family, it simply ceases to be one. If it still is a nuclear family, then it still isn't challenging the nuclear family, because it still is one. Anyone else think it needs to stay, if so, what does it need to state? DavidBailey 13:00, 12 December 2006 (UTC)

Here's the whole divorce section. If it needs to be in the article, it needs to written better than this.

The number of single parent families in society is challenging the idea of the nuclear family. Divorce has given rise to different living arrangements for parents and chidren. These post-nuclear families have been described as “broken because the marriage bond has been broken”[1]

DavidBailey 16:06, 1 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Contemporary Perception

Since this article began some have inserted commentary on the family itself. For instance, this section is more of a commentary on family itself rather than on the nuclear family structure. If there's no objection, I'll move it to the 'Family' article instead. DavidBailey 16:16, 1 January 2007 (UTC)

This has been moved to the family article. DavidBailey 03:15, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Suggestion from a wiki-newbie: remove parochial reference in the opening paragraph

I'm new here. I cannot figure out how to edit the opening paragraph.

I suggest that the penultimate word in the opening section should be amended from:

"[...] in the nation."

to:

"[...] in that nation."

Pendant 08:04, 28 September 2007 (UTC)