Up All Night Thinking About Gender Roles...

The recent trend in newly piloted t.v. shows is gender role reversal. The show, Up All Night, help's support my discovery.

Up All Night is a show which features a married heterosexual couple who are new parents. The mom Reagan, played by Christina Applegate, and father Chris, played by Will Arnett, try to balance their lives by maintaining a stable family environment while also trying to keep their social lives.

Unlike other t.v. shows, Reagan is a producer for a popular television show, while Chris gave up his job to be a stay-at-home dad. Throughout the very first episode, you see the couple constantly struggling with issues such as Reagan needing to work longer hours and Chris therefore needing to stay in with their newborn daughter Amy. In that moment, you see Chris show his disappointment in a more "feminine" spotlight. He tears up, but he knows he signed up for this. See, it wasn't just the fact that Reagan had to stay at work, but also because it was their anniversary and he had made plans. It amazes me because I feel like the issues that stay-at-home mom's face, are being addressed in this episode, and hopefully the rest of the show, and placing men in these scenarios. Although men primarily stay home with their children and women being the primary breadwinners is still not common, I feel as though Up All Night is opening our society's eye's to new possibilities and helping close the door on stereotypical gender norms.

But, one positive and/or negative aspect I see, is the use of popular celebrities. The show also features famous actors such as, Nick Cannon and Maya Rudolph. I feel like this could be positive because if the show continues to show positive gender role reversal, the famous actors and actresses could shed a positive light on many issues and let viewers see that possibly even celebrities have "modern" viewpoints and support shared gender roles. And the negative side could be, the opposite, that if this show, for example, has Reagan failing at keeping an equal balance of family and work and Chris becoming resentful and resigning from being a stay-at-home dad.