Modern Family’s Claire is the Perfect 'Husband-Wife'

Though life has dealt Modern Family's Claire the cards that (initially) keep her at home with her three kids, she actually doesn’t fit the stereotypical housewife mold. So how did she become the perfect husband-wife?

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[chrissiem]

The episode where Luke mistakenly thinks Claire and Phil are splitting says it all, I think:
When Claire assumes that Luke wants to stay with Phil because he is the 'fun parent', and Luke corrects her and says, '... I think dad would need me more....'
That small 10 second bit of the scene is so touching, because Luke seems to think that his dad isn't as emotionally strong as his mum and therefore wants to be there for him, but as soon as he says it, Claire tears up herself.

[alexanderklepp]

I really like how this video gives Claire a lot more credit than I felt that she deserved. I always felt that some people would go a little too far when they say Claire doesn't deserve Phil because he's more laidback, more emotionally present and less controlling. But Claire's personality shows that the family needs that kind of personality sometimes to keep things from falling apart.

[tanyajustine]

Claire gets unnecessary hate. She's a wonderfully fleshed out character.

[trinaq]

I love how similar Claire really is to Haley, even though they couldn't be more different on the outside. Claire dated a lot of guys before meeting Phil, more predominantly her high school boyfriend who hasn't matured since he was a teenager. Haley's boyfriend Dylan is similar. In both cases, Claire and Haley get sick of dating jerk guys, and fall for sweethearts like Phil and Andy.

[auroradalen]

In that episode were Phil accidentally pushes Claire over because he's focusing on another woman, it makes me so annoyed. She never gets an "I'm sorry", instead her entire family makes her feel crazy and like she has to prove what happened because no one believes her.

[JasminLovesSloths]

I love how the show was so literal with their portrayals of the “Modern Family”. We got to see families where common tropes were flipped on their head. A masculine mother, a age-gap couple and a homosexual couple, with a different race daughter.❤️
I love shows and movies that bring stigmas/things you haven’t thought about, to the main stage…feels very humanizing

[aeh]

Claire is underrated. She had to raise 4 kids (including Phil lol) and Julie Bowen’s reactions to the crazy situations they find themselves in are hilarious

[chloekrol]

I think Claire's tendences to "crush" Phils dreams and beeing sometimes cruel are similar to how Mitchel acts with Cam. They both were raised in unhelathy environment as kids and took a lot from Jay, even tho Mitch was not so close with him. The only reason why Mitch and Jay did not act THAT cruel, because their partners are less emotionally developed and sometimes over-react. So in order to keep peace in home, Mitch and Jay try to not upset their partners that often, while Phil are the one who often does not mentioned when he is hurt. Hence, Claire does not have a tendency to keep some things for herself. And all of Pritchets were ctisized for that kind of behaviour, for example, in episode, where Cam, Phil and Gloria turned out to have some sort of allianes to hide their mistakes from Pritchets.

[AzeKano]

Shes's an ideal mom. She's very open to her kid's and supportive but practical.

[yveqeshy]

I've always felt that the comparison people give between Claire and Gloria to be unfair, sure Gloria is very fun and loving but she's not dealing with 3 growing kids who all have so different personalities and needs. Claire is very open to her kids, she gives them the support they need and is trying very hard to not have the same the relationship she had with her parents especially her mother with her kids. I also appreciated how she opted to go back to work after the kids were all grown up showing them it's OK to change your life however many times you want if you need to and that time she tried running for office she showed them its OK to take chances. The person who I feel wasn't given much attention on the show was Alex, especially as she got older. Luke and Manny were given more showtime and as they got older their stories also kinda became drab.

(Edit) re-watching this breakdown a year later, I really wish the show gave us more of the relationship between Claire & Alex, they both have very similar personalities, perfectionist, hardworking, obsessive, nitty picky, very methodical and straight minded in their approach to things & you can see their similarities as Alex comes into her own, she is very much her mother's child. Claire is to Alex what DeeDee wasn't to her, instead of competing with her she encourages her to be her powerful self

[MsDaydreamr]

*TROPE SUGGUESTIONS:*
*-The Fallen Woman Trope:* Specifically, how it contrasts with the Fallen Man trope. When a male character goes down a dark path, he's treated with sympathy, like his tragic fate was inevitable (i.e. Walter White, Michael Corleone, Macbeth). But when it's a woman (i.e. Anne Boleyn, Lillith, Britney Spears) the attitude is always "Well you had this coming, b*tch."
*-The Sibling Rivalry Trope* (examples: Thor/Loki, Cain/Abel, Zuko/Azula)
*-The Weird Boy Trope:* There's a duality to this trope. On the positive side, you have characters who contrast with toxic masculinity like Edward Scissorhands or Jughead Jones. On the negative side you have incel-like characters who perpetuate it like Mark from The Social Network or Martin in Love, Simon.
*The Trainwreck Trope* (examples: Marissa Cooper from The O.C., Amy Schumer's movie of the same name, etc.)

[josefk]

The mother does not get to be the fun parent. That is the same as most stereotypical mothers who are not like Claire. Most shows do not allow the mother to be the fun parent.

[liste]

Thank you for this video! Obviously, Phil is every modern family fan's favorite and for some reason Claire got so much hate, which I neither understood nor did Think she deserved...
Phil is the "fun" parent, the one who lets you do anything you want but the reality is that children need to know that not every behavior is okay and someone HAS to show them that. With Phil acting like another sibling to his kids, Claire was kind of forced to be the "party popper" in the family

[shellyhill]

Modern Family never got the kudos it deserves. I hope you do more about it.

[throughthebookingglass]

i love claire. i love how interesting and fully fleshed out the pritchett family dynamic is- dede’s narcissism and jay’s emotional constipation- it’s all so clear in claire and mitchell’s characters.

[triciacarey]

Modern family did some really cool things in the dynamics of the family. Dede is clearly a narcissist, and the show repeatedly shows how badly it harmed both Clare and Mitchell. And it even has the more old school toxic masculine Jay soften and learn some healthy masculinity

[soundarya]

Bottom line, Claire and Phil have such a real-ish, yet wholesome and heartwarming relationship. The series does a beautiful job

[pfytoyd]

I like how they show Claire as the opposite of a stereotype mom. Not all mom are loving, emotional or nurturing, but that doesn’t make them a bad/horrible mom. They just have more masculine traits & that’s _totally_ okay.

[mnt]

I've always wondered what would happen if Claire Dunphy and Monica Geller were in the same dirty room together...

[toshigem]

I love this analysis for Claire. I hope you guys do more of the modern family characters!