ABC Family and their portrayal of families

The Secret Life of the American Teenager is a show aired by ABC Family in which the plot revolves around this teenager who just had a baby at 15. I must admit the show is corny, badly written, and the actors are not Emmy-worthy, but this show reminds me of the “novelas” back home so it’s one of my guilty pleasures. One of the characters in the show is called Adrienne. She is a grade older than the main character (Amy) and frequently messes around with the father of the teenage girls’ baby (again, Amy). Adrianne is of Latin background and this is enforced by her body frame and some Spanish lines she has during the show. While Adrienne represents a minority in this show, the cast consists of mostly white-American characters (with only two black characters...who are actually siblings) and they are all teenagers concerned about sex before marriage (as I mentioned before…this show is really corny).
I feel like Adrienne’s character and the differences in behavior between her and the other characters show the hegemony of the ruling class. The show is portraying Latin people to be promiscuous and not like the common ‘’American Sweetheart’’ because Adrienne’s attitude in the show is a promiscuous one and she is the only character in the show that has sex frequently with different partners. This hegemonic attitude is not only seen in her character, her mom is a single mom who never got married and has extramarital sex with the father of the Amy (who’s married at the time). Adrienne has an estranged father whom she finds in one of the episodes of the earlier seasons and is already married with a stable family. Once the father reconnects with Adrienne's mom, he leaves his wife and gets back together with Adrienne’s mom. This shows a hegemony in the portrayal of the ‘’All American’’ family structure. From the character of Adrienne to her parents, we can see that our culture is being exposed to a belief that a family that is not White American is composed of dysfunctional characters, that each have their own back story and specific issues and that teenagers raised with a Latin background are more promiscuous and ‘’slutty’’. It also portrays the Latin person as someone who is wrecking the common American household. Adrienne makes Ricky (the baby’s father) not be with Amy (the baby’s mother), her mom breaks Amy’s family, and her dad leaves his wife which ultimately wrecks that family too. It shows Latin people as people that come in to destroy the American household. and if we think a little more outside the box, as so many Latinos keep immigrating to the USA, shows who casts Latinos like this transmit the message that Latinos come to America to tarnish the principles of the American culture and ultimately damage the image of Latinos in American culture.

Here is a link to the show's first preview if you want to check it out
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAxXSfZWi-A