Constructions of family relationships in a COVID Christmas: An analysis of television advertisements on YouTube

Abstract

Christmas time is a site of intensified domesticity, a reliance on traditional norms, and centring of family relationships. Christmas in the year 2020 was unique in this regard, given how the COVID-19 pandemic widely disrupted home life and shifted family relationships. Feminist researchers have previously noted how analysis of contemporary cultural artefacts, such as online media, can be a useful way of exploring how different relationships are constructed to serve various functions. Therefore, we thematically analysed 11 television advertisements on YouTube to investigate how family relationships are constructed through a lens of feminist psychology in the context of a COVID-19 Christmas. Our analysis generated three dominant themes. First, the television advertisements in our sample constructed nostalgia as women's work. Second, family relationships were positioned as a means of reclaiming power and purpose in an effort to instil a new normal. Lastly, television advertisements constructed family relationships as a critical site for representing gendered norms. We discuss these themes in relation to feminist scholarship on the function of family relationships, during COVID-19 and beyond.

Digital families: Gendered relationships in online spaces

“…We begin with a paper from Sharon Tugwell (2022, pp. 318–335), examining breastfeeding selfies, also called “brelfies”, where mothers post images of themselves online whilst breastfeeding.…”

“…Next, Madeleine Pownall, Eve Eyles-Smith, and Catherine Talbot's paper (2022, pp. 357–375) takes as its subject matter another annual celebration – Christmas.…”