Step-siblings are children born of two different families who have been joined by marriage. A male step-sibling is a stepbrother and a female is a stepsister. The step-siblings relationship is connected through law and is not a blood relation. Step-siblings are sometimes abbreviated informally as stepsibs.

Culture

In many fairy tales, the central character has a stepmother and the step-siblings serve as an extension of their mother.

Cinderella "Cinderella", or "The Little Glass Slipper", is a Folklore, folk tale with thousands of variants that are told throughout the world.Dundes, Alan. Cinderella, a Casebook. Madison, Wis: University of Wisconsin Press, 1988. The protagonist is a you ...

and

Mother Hulda "Frau Holle" (; ; also known as "Mother Holle", "Mother Hulda" or "Old Mother Frost") is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm in '' Children's and Household Tales'' in 1812 (KHM 24). It is of Aarne-Thompson type 480. Frau Holle ...

features wicked stepsisters who take after their parents. The story '' Kate Crackernuts'' serves as a counterexample where the daughter of the evil stepparent is a loving stepsister. Many

romance novel A romance or romantic novel is a genre fiction novel that primarily focuses on the relationship and Romance (love), romantic love between two people, typically with an emotionally satisfying and optimistic ending. Authors who have contributed ...

s feature heroes who are the stepbrother of the heroine. The step-relationship generally stems from a marriage when the hero and heroine are at least in their adolescence. Some family

films A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of Visual arts, visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are gen ...

and television

sitcoms A sitcom (short for situation comedy or situational comedy) is a genre of comedy produced for radio and television, that centers on a recurring cast of characters as they navigate humorous situations within a consistent setting, such as a home ...

feature a blended nuclear family including siblings as the center premise. In many cases, the step-family is large and full of children causing situations such as sibling rivalry, rooming, falling in love, and getting along amongst the children as popular plot-lines. This premise gained traction with the 1968 films '' Yours, Mine and Ours'' and '' With Six You Get Eggroll'' and the 1969 launch of the television sitcom ''

The Brady Bunch ''The Brady Bunch'' is an American sitcom created by Sherwood Schwartz that aired five seasons from September 26, 1969, to March 8, 1974, on ABC. The series revolves around a large blended family of six children, with three boys and three gir ...

''. Some contemporary family sitcoms have made the blended family sitcom more popular with the TGIF show '' Step by Step'' bringing about other shows such as ''

Aliens in the Family ''Aliens in the Family'' is an American science fantasy sitcom A sitcom (short for situation comedy or situational comedy) is a genre of comedy produced for radio and television, that centers on a recurring cast of character (arts), charact ...

'', ''

Life with Derek ''Life with Derek'' is a Canadian television teen sitcom that aired on Family Channel (English) and VRAK.TV (French) in Canada and on Disney Channel in the United States. The series premiered on Family on September 18, 2005, and ran for four s ...

'', ''

Drake & Josh ''Drake & Josh'' is an American teen sitcom created by Dan Schneider for Nickelodeon. The series follows teenage stepbrothers Drake Parker (Drake Bell) and Josh Nichols (Josh Peck) as they live together despite their opposite personalities. Na ...

'', and the short-lived

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

family sitcom '' Something So Right''. The

Disney Channel Disney Channel is an American pay television television channel, channel that serves as the flagship (broadcasting), flagship property of Disney Branded Television, a unit of the Disney Entertainment business segment of the Walt Disney Company ...

animated series ''

Phineas and Ferb ''Phineas and Ferb'' is an American animated series, animated Musical film, musical-television comedy, comedy television series created by Dan Povenmire and Jeff "Swampy" Marsh for Disney Channel and Disney XD. The series originally aired on t ...

'' also prominently features a blended family, chosen by co-creator

Jeff "Swampy" Marsh Jeffrey Kent "Swampy" Marsh (; born December 9, 1960) is an American animator, voice actor, writer, director, and producer. With Dan Povenmire, Marsh is the co-creator and co-star of the Disney Channel animated series ''Phineas and Ferb'' and ...

in part due to its under-use in children's programming, and his personal experiences growing up in such a family.

References

External links

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