The Logic of the Traditional Family Ideals

 In Patricia Collins's article, "It's All In the Family: Intersections of Gender, Race, and Nation",  she discusses how the imagined  traditional family ideal is the embodiment of intersectionality within the United States. Intersectionality is the theory that the overlap or combination of social identities, such as gender and race, contributes to systematic oppression and discrimination experienced by an individual. The term "family values" or "family ideal" is a type of intersectionality used in the United States, especially in politics. The common idealized family is a heterosexual couple who produce their own biological children; this type of family has a basic  authority structure with the father at the head of the table, making the money. The traditional family ideal constitutes power as an ideological construction and as a principle of social construction.

Family ties into intersectionality partly due to how it consists of the relationship between equality and hierarchy. In the idealized version of families, everyone protects on another and balances each other equally; however, a real family organizes itself upon patterns of hierarchy. Collins states, " Families are expected to socialize their members into an appropriate set of 'family values' that simultaneously reinforce the hierarchy within the assumed unity of interests symbolized by the family and lay down the foundation for many social hierarchies" (64). Families tend unify with common interests and socially organize one another based on "family values", which reinforces a hierarchy. The hierarchical structure is able to remain because it it naturalized. 

Another way family is intersectional is due to the concept of home, which is a significant factor. In the United States, the traditional family ideal views home as a place, space, or territory that provides privacy, security, and sanctuary for members. When viewing roles of family members, women are associated with being home, taking care of the family, cooking and cleaning. This leads to the home being seen as a private, feminine space, while the public is a masculine space. Neighborhoods, as well, are being separated between races and classes. In the imagined ideal, a mixed family is looked down upon and so is mixed racial and class neighborhoods. However, racial segregation and class segregation on physical spaces, such as homes, schools and neighborhoods, holds forms  of political, economical, and social segregation. 

The imagined family ideal is a privileged example of intersectionality and structures hierarchy. Various groups\s want to get rid of social hierarchy, but try to do so by using unexamined ideas of family.For example, the United States has analyzed  how this "family ideal" is harmful to women, and feminists have been longing for a sisterhood among all women. However, this sisterhood is hard to maintain with the politics of the United States focusing on the separation of race and class. Although families are formed through common goals and interests, many women are questioning their place in the feminist movement based on their race or the concept that "feminists are anti-family." 

I think resisting the traditional family ideal is possible, but will be really difficult because the United States has an intersectional view on family. Some people might not think they belong to a group because of a singular aspect, such as race or class. Similarly some women believe they don't belong to the feminist movement because of their race. Changing the traditional family ideal would require a change in all politics, social structures, and how individuals identify themselves within their own family. Resisting the family ideal needs to start within a family itself and how the members of a singular family relates to one another.