Wife Swap: King Curtis Episode

Even though "Wife Swap" aired from 2004-2009 in the U.S., I still think we can learn a lot about American culture with it. I re-watched an episode where the Brown family owns their own boot camp and believes in strict discipline and a strict diet for their six and eight year old. The Holland family believes that the parents and the children should be equal and anything the children want they get which includes chicken nuggets for breakfast. Something I noticed that was repeated in the show was the fathers' lack of respect to their new wives. They were very adamant to changing their lifestyle even when the wives made good arguments. This shows that although American families can extremely differ from each other they are all stubborn and upset with other people telling them they are living their life wrong. Nobody wants to be told that they are raising their children poorly. Something else that repeats is that Cliff, the Holland father, constantly mentions that money is not important to his family and makes fun of Joy's massive diamond ring. Joy even retorts that she has not mentioned money once since living in their house. This shows the tension between classes. Cliff believes everything revolves around money with Joy while Joy wants to show him what achieving monetary goals is like. He is not comfortable with her name brand clothes and jewelry and she looks down on his everyday relaxed clothing. Something that repeats in every episode of "Wife Swap" is the extreme differences in the types of families they switch the wife in. Another episode I've seen before is where an extremely atheist wife swapped lives with an extremely Christian wife. This simply shows that families in America can be very different. Another thing that repeats in every episode is that eventually each family gains something new. The Brown father realized his children do need a little more fun in their life and the Holland family realized their eating style was a little too unhealthy. This shows that despite American family differences there is a balance they can eventually agree on. No family on the show is shown as perfect and every family has something new to learn. I think "Wife Swap" has a fairly neutral view on culture. Both families are usually so extreme that it balances out to normal.