thesaturnyear:Sorry to be that person who adds comments to gifsets, but I have to talk about the per
thesaturnyear:Sorry to be that person who adds comments to gifsets, but I have to talk about the perfection of this little exchange.The Fosters subverts the traditional family narrative in a lot of ways. Some are obvious - two mothers, mix of biological, adopted, and fostered children, and multiple races/ethnicity represented within one family. But some are more subtle, and I think it’s these subtle moments that make the show so great. Let’s break down the above scene, for example. We’ve seen this scene many times before - the teenage daughter is going out on a date with a boy, and a parent (usually the father) is reiterating the curfew. The boy answers with some variation of “yes, sir" and the teenagers go on their way. This scene, played over and over again on almost every TV show I can think of, has shown generations of girls that boys are responsible for them. That the boy is the one in charge.But Lena’s not having that. She wasn’t talking to Wyatt when she gave the curfew; she was talking to Callie. It seems like such a small thing but it’s really a huge thing, because it tells Callie (and all the young women like her who are hopefully watching this show) that she is responsible for herself. That she has agency, that she is in charge of her own actions. I consider myself a feminist and a “modern" parent, but I honestly didn’t even blink when Lena gave the curfew and Wyatt responded, “Got it.“ I expected the scene to end there, because that’s what we’ve seen time and time again. But I am so glad The Fosters exists to make me re-think my expectations. This show is constantly challenging our perceptions of what it means to be a family, and in doing so is perhaps teaching us something about how to best parent our children in this changing world. -- source link