Clean Out Your Junk Drawer Character Analysis

In an episode of Modern Family Season 7, Ep. 8 Clean Out Your Junk Drawer that aired on December 2, 2015 on ABC network, the episode title refers to everyone getting their feelings out. During this episode, it refers to getting emotional baggage off of their mind, it means coming clean to whoever is in their life. Gloria wins a bid at the school auction for a family seminar with author of 'Clean Out Your Junk Drawer', Debra Radcliffe. The episode started out with the three parents Mitch and Cam - a gay couple, Claire and Phil – a modern american stable family, Jay and Gloria - an interracial couple. The seminar totally gone wrong in an uncomfortable exposed secrets by their partners. At the end, everyone ends up saying too much.
Jay is pretty much retired and have been married to a sassy Colombian women way younger than him. In this episode, Jay is being portrayed as a dominant male character. Jay became mad because Gloria was insisting him to let go of his emotion and wanted to get out of what he called a ridiculous
session. Jay typically explode when he became angry since rage remains the exemplary male emotion. Jay is afraid of being ridiculed if he express the softer emotions, especially in the presence of other people. Of all the couples in the room, it’s Jay who manages to get the most out of therapy though he’s reluctant to admit it at first. When the session begins, Gloria pushes him to take things seriously, but he refuses to do anything. Having been told by Gloria, Claire, and Mitch that he’s always acted tough and refused to help even his children understand emotions, he reveals that he didn’t grow up in a household that taught him to wear his feelings on his sleeve. Instead, Jay admits, he could never properly talk about emotions, not even when he went through heartbreak. And as he remembers his most painful instances, he starts crying.
In another episode of Modern Family Season 7, Ep.
20 Promposal that aired on May 4, 2016 on ABC Network, Gloria, a sassy Colombian woman being portrayed as based on the creation of the gender stereotypes that society and prime time television through the years have place upon women in general and women in relationships. Gloria does not have a job and her role as a mother that stays home, clean the house, cook, and take care of their children. This stereotype presents women as weaker and inferior to men, they do not contribute to the family in terms of income, and the men have power over the household. She even went rampage to an old lady who named Auntie Alice who stole her hot sauce recipe. It is clear that women would pick a fight if someone stole their original cooking recipe. The lesson learned by Gloria in this episode is always fight for what is yours. Gloria is being depicted as a woman who is loud and expresses her feelings in unfashion
way.
My personal look at gender roles in the episode that I have watched is that people have the biased notion that men simply do not have feelings. This is far from the case. The problem is in the fact that women believe men should feel things the way they do. The truth is that men have a much harder time processing these feelings. Men are taught from an early age that they need to be strong, confident and tolerant. They begin to equate emotions with weakness, Modern Family also elevates traditional gender roles and stereotypes of women and race. The series depict women as having a weaker stance in society.

Works Cited
“Clean out your junk drawer.” Wikia. Modern Family Wiki, 2010. Web. 6 June 2016.
Li, Shirley. “‘Modern family’ recap: Promposal.” Entertainment Weekly. Entertainment
Weekly’s EW.com, 2015. Web. 6 June 2016.
“Promposal.” Series, Comedy. DirectTV. ABC Family, 04 May 2016. Modern Family. Web. 05
June 2016.
“Clean out Your Junk Drawer.” Series, Comedy. DirectTV. ABC Family, 02 December 2016.
Modern Family. Web. 05 June 2016.