Stereotype

   C and I watched the movie "The Way Way Back" recently. C had seen this movie before and enjoyed it. He wanted me to see it too. It was a good movie although not one that I'd want to watch over and over again. C told me that part of the reason why he liked it was because it was more realistic. He did have a point.
   There was one thing about it that really bothered me. The movie is about a boy spending a summer vacation with his mother and his mother's boyfriend in a beach town somewhere. The beginning of the movie starts out with the boyfriend asking the boy, on a a scale of one to ten, how he saw himself. The boy is obviously uncomfortable and chooses not to answer. The boyfriend keeps pressing the issue until the boy chooses six. Then the boyfriend proceeds to tell the boy that he thinks a three would be a better answer. The rest of the movie was littered with instances where the boyfriend is subtlety abusive to the boy.
  The reason why this bugs me is because it is another shining example of a stereotype that just doesn't ever seem to go away. I can't think of a single movie where a stepparent is portrayed in a positive light. Either the stepparent is mean and cruel or the stepparent is incompetent. (I'm not even going to start or the subject of "real" parent vs. stepparent.)
  You may be thinking that I'm making a mountain out of a molehill. It's no big deal.
   It is to me. I can think of two other women who are stepparents and enjoy good relationships with their stepchildren. I'm sure there are many, many more who are out there. Still TV and movies continue to perpetuate the stereotype. I'm willing to lay odds that if you say the word "stepmother" to most people the first thing that will pop into their heads is the evil stepmother from Cinderella.
   It doesn't have to be this way. Television and movies can change the way people view things. At first TV couples were portrayed as sleeping in separate beds, it wasn't until the late 60s early 70s when this changed. What was once considered unthinkable is now accepted as normal. In fact looking back at those old shows the separate beds seem rather silly. When Lucille Ball was pregnant, the pregnancy was written into the show. It was a very big deal at that time. It had never been done before. Now no one thinks twice about a pregnant character on TV. At one time a single mother on TV was a widow. Now it is common to see single mothers on TV who are divorced. Many things that were once controversial have now become common with help from TV and movies.
  Why can't writers show a stepparent as positive influence? Get rid of the image that we are mean at best and abusive at worst. Show a more realistic picture of a blended family.
   Media is so powerful in shaping how people view the world. It's time to put the Disney concept of the stepmother on the shelf and replace it with reality. I think it would help many families and create better relationships.