Family Myth
Family myth – a system of well-integrated beliefs shared by all members of a family, as well as a system of relations among them and of their mutual positions within the family, which family members do not question despite obvious discrepancies with reality.
A myth sometimes resembles a fairy tale, since it easily promises family happiness. For example: “When I get married, I will become happy, successful, rich, and so on,” that is, something like: “A prince on a white horse will come…” Some myths regulate relations between family members, for example: “In marriage, partners should be as little selfish as possible and should always think about the interests of the other”; “When everything goes wrong, someone must be found to blame”; “Good sexual relations inevitably lead to a good marriage.”
One of the most widespread family myths is the distribution of family responsibilities according to which housekeeping should be performed by women. This myth in fact reinforces gender inequality and continues a tradition that goes back to the patriarchal family (Hornostai, 2004, p. 146).
From the perspective of gender and feminist theory, family myths are important because they naturalize unequal gender roles and present them as normal, desirable, or morally correct. Such myths may support the idea that women are primarily responsible for domestic labour, emotional care, child-rearing, and the maintenance of family harmony, while men are associated with authority, provision, or decision-making. In this way, family myths can reproduce patriarchal expectations within everyday family life.
Reference:
Hornostai, P. P. (2004). Genderna sotsializatsiia ta stanovlennia gendernoi identychnosti [Gender socialization and the formation of gender identity]. In Osnovy teorii genderu: Navchalnyi posibnyk [Foundations of gender theory: A textbook] (pp. 132–155). Kyiv: K.I.S. [in Ukrainian].
Leave a Reply