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Portrait Of A Family Against A Background Of A TV Set

August 29, 2003

The entire history of mankind shows that no society can do without families. Only the family is capable of bringing up a full-fledged citizen, who is physically, morally and socially strong. A healthy family is a basis of a healthy society. However, today the family is ill - it experiences a crisis and it is in need for help. Russian sociologists wonder if the mass media could facilitate the recovery of the family. The study has been performed with support of the Russian Humanitarian Research Foundation.

Sociologists of Moscow State University believe that some TV programs support the crisis family model rather than facilitate strengthening of family values. This opinion was driven by attentive watching of the "Eh, Semenovna!" program. The sociologists have been constant spectators of the program for four months. The sociologists have been impressed by what they saw. People of different age, sex and social status were singing rather frivolous chastooshkas (short songs), some of them including ribald words, the singing being accompanied by expressive gestures. The singers were not embarrassed by a large audience including children. It is particularly surprising as the singers were sober. The majority of the chastooshkas performed in the program were devoted to the sphere of human relations which had been previously considered private and secret. Nowadays, people sing about sex openly and without confusion.

It should be noted that chastooshkas changed a lot in the course of its existence. The scientists have compared 1,874 contemporary chastooshkas, inluding the ones from the "Semenovna" program, with 1,847 chastooshkas dating back to the beginning of the 20th century. Topics of chastooshkas have been preserved within one hundred years. Undoubtedly, new ones have been added - homosexuality, crime, AIDS, Internet, drug addiction, fight with excess weight. The priorities have slightly changed. For instance, people are singing more about politics now than they did at the beginning of the 20th century, instead, fewer chastooshkas are devoted to work. The topics quite popular previously, such as war and conscription, church, are not mentioned at all. By the way, judging by chastooshkas, our grandparents were more patriotic then we are. Fewer songs are devoted to parents and grandparents. However, once they are recalled, the people sing not about their parental functions but about various sexy situations they sometimes get into.

Perhaps, only love, relations between man and woman remain at the same level of popularity. However, expressive means and degree of openness have changed. Old chastooshkas paid more attention to romance, dreaming, emotional experience. One of chastooshka's variety was even called "suffering". More attention is now paid to physiological aspect. Ribald expressions are used more often. Previously, matrimony and sex were inseparably linked, currently, sexual relations are completely independent and more than one third of contemporary chastooshkas are devoted to them. A significant part of romance chastooshkas were previously devoted to the problem of choosing a helpmate. Now people are looking for a partner. Such words as fiance and fiancee have practically disappeared from chastooshkas. The audience of chastooshkas has also changed within one hundred years. These short songs originated as a youth genre, now they are more oriented towards people in their 30s to 50s.

Informnauka (Informscience) Agency