Analysis of ‘All Male Fox Panel Laments Female Breadwinners’

This clip of an all-male panel discussing the changing role of women in society seems to take a very patriarchal stance. Rather than bringing this controversial debate to the forefront, the video presents one side of the argument, asserting opinion as fact. I will find my focus upon the initial interaction between those on the male panel, who refer to American women gaining employment equality, and becoming the ‘breadwinner’ of a family, as ‘terribly wrong’ and as a ‘scandal.’ This highlights significant differences in attitudes relating to gender roles in society, and, perhaps, the polarisation of these views.  

Having grown up in a family with both mother and father providing financially, the description of this as ‘concerning and troubling’ or resulting in ‘a negative impact on the generations to come,’ I find it difficult to relate to this view point. These highly conservative values, seem to contradict my every ideal. However, it is important to consider changing attitudes concerning equality of power across the genders, and also how these attitudes have affected our use of language. Within this encounter, those involved use extremely emotive language, for example with the utterance ‘hurting our children.’ We can also notice the semantic field that much of this language comes from, as we are able to group lexis like ‘disintegration,’ ‘torn,’ ‘dissolve’ and ‘hurt.’ This semantic field is one of destruction, suggesting to its audience that if women were to be of equal power in society, the society would breakdown or suffer as a result.