Sociological Perspective

Sociological Perspective

Each week from across the country, two families with very different values are chosen to take part in a two-week long challenge. The wives from these two families exchange husbands, children and lives (but not bedrooms) to discover just what it's like to live another woman's life. In the first week of the swap, the wives move in with their new family and adopt their very different lifestyle. They agree to follow a manual written by the departing wife that sets out the rules of their new household - how they parent, shop, do the house work, manage their budgets and their social life. But then, in the second week, everything changes. The new wives take charge. They introduce their own set of rules and get to run the new household their way. At the end of the show, the two couples meet for the first time. In a highly-charged exchange of views, both couples make a frank assessment of each other and talk about what they've learned from the experience.

The prospective that this show was viewed was symbolic interactionism. The two families involved are almost perfectly opposite clones of each other. The Alcorn family is focused on physical fitness and a healthy structured lifestyle. The matriarch of the family is an undefeated boxing champion who runs her home like a training center. The other featured family is a laid back, unhealthy family whose patriarch is a speed eating champion. The mother of this family does not ask for the others to share the load of chores in the home and is content with the circumstances.

A theorist using symbolic interactionism would find the results fascinating from this experiment of switching wives between families. Members of a society share the social meanings of symbols. (Schaefer, 2006, p.17). The symbolism in this episode would be the healthy lifestyle. The Alcorn family is a picture perfect example of a fit and trim family. The three children all train as though they are Olympic hopefuls. They accomplish this with a number of exercising regiments and healthy dieting. The booker family, in contrast, are moderately to dangerously obese. The father weighs in at 470 lbs and the son at touch of 200 lbs at age 12. The contrast in lifestyles is the basis for the change which is met with strict opposition.

Mrs. Alcorn’s impact