When It Comes to Family Life, Hollywood Should Preach What It Practices

Jane Fonda’s hit show “Grace and Frankie,” now in its sixth season, is about two gals, Grace and Frankie, who raised hell in the 1960s, got rich and settled down, but in their 70s, suddenly, their husbands come out of the closet and get married.

The ladies are hurt, but recovery comes quickly, and nothing, not even in the hearts of their children, is really broken. They move in together, crack jokes, and form a family of sorts, staying close with their exes, who, in their new role as besties, come by often. It is a springtime of freedom to explore men, sex, and an evolving definition of family.

As Hollywood plots go, it’s just one more example of how the industry depicts marriage as optional and family as bendable to one’s pleasure. Yet despite Hollywood’s reputation for live-and-let-live libertinism, many in the industry are stably married or are well on their way to becoming so.

That’s no surprise: As our new Institute for Family Studies report, “State of Contradiction,” shows, marriage levels for college-educated parents like these are about 20 percentage points higher than for less-educated Californians. Using American Community Survey (Census) data, we can see this divide even street by street. Take Los Angeles. Many South and Central LA neighborhoods, like Westmont and Inglewood, have few married households—less than 15 percent.

Continue reading at The New York Post . . . .