Every once in awhile, shows such as Leave It to Beaver or Father Knows Best come up while surfing the tv guide. While these are two examples of remarkably popular television shows of the mid 1900’s, they also portray the gender normalities of the time period. Gender roles were simply and precisely defined. Men went to work and made the money, while the women stayed home to take care of the house and kids. However, as humanity enters the sixteenth year of the twenty first century, this precision begins to blur.
I Love Lucy, one of the famous television shows of the 1950’s, depicted a zany housewife balancing chores and a growing family intermingled with a series of continuous mishaps. Aside from the show’s entertainment value, the setting provided a sense of cultural critique. In this paper, I explain the presence of patriarchal norms and degradation of female characters in the show in addition to the breaking of societal taboos brought about by the driven post-war era. A key part in understanding the setting of I Love Lucy is to understand what the values were key in 1950 American society. This post-war era was filled with a rise in suburban living.
The period of the twentieth century, specifically the nineteen-twenties, was a historically significant event in history due to the dramatic changes politically and socially. In this time period there was many altercations between two specific groups who had completely different outlooks on change. Modernists, or people who tended to be in favor of new ideas, styles and social trends, embraced the idea of change during this time period whereas traditionalist, or people who are opposed to change, had deep respect for long held cultural and religious values that they believed should not be broken under any circumstances. The disputes between the traditionalist and modernist over religious beliefs made way into the woman’s lives leaving pop culture
‘Ahhh, the good ol’ days.’ When people hear this, they think back to a time when they remember happiness in the 1950’s. However, people tend to only remember the happiness that the media portrayed and not the negative aspects of this time period. Looking at texts, and comparing them to the television shows from this time period shows that the media is an unreliable portrayal of the majority of family living and gender roles from this time period. The families in the televisions shows are conformists; a happy suburban home, a father who works, a mother who stays at home, and the three children who rely on their parents.
In 1900, only six percent of women that were married worked, instead these women were housewives and took care of the home and children. However, fifty percent of non-married women worked, but they likely stopped working once married. Only thirty-three percent women that were divorced or widowed during this time worked, and those that did worked out of need. These percentages are compared to an eighty-six percent of men, married or not, that were employed during this time period.
Second wave feminism was out in full force by the start of the 1970’s, although the concept of gender equality were now becoming more mainstream, television were still trailing behind the changing position of women in society. Although the television sitcom was trailing behind the feminist movement and it’s influence. The Mary Tyler Moore Show was the first sign of a new era of female representation being on the horizon for television. The era of new woman had replaced the likes of housewives like Lucy. The Mary Tyler Moore Show was widely regarded as “television’s first serious concession to a changed world where middle class daughters leave home, earn their living, and remain single”.
At the start of the 1960’s, the stereotypical American family was portrayed as white, middle class, and patriarchal. “Today, ‘family’ includes a vast array of configurations, such as households formed of two or more ‘blended’ families of divorce, unmarried couples, childless households, and even gay parents,” (Oswald 310). Various social institutions, the broadening of culture, and marketing strategies diversified what was known as the American family. Marketers focused on certain groups within the family, such as kids, teens, and adults, creating consumer segmentation. Individualism furthered in the late 60’s when institutions such as wealthy businesses, the government, marriage, and universities were being questioned; fixed social roles were
Teens of the Silent generation would be subject to American society’s increasing skepticism of the government, the hippie movement, and the sexual revolution. By the end of the 1960s, mass media had started targeting this generation as a market. Later, gender roles would shift even more and the color-coated clean film that had covered the 1950s via mass media would rip into a revolution. Betty Friedman’s The Feminine Mystique would be published in 1963, detailing the suburban housewife’s depression and regret.
Growing up as a female in the nineties had its ups and downs. Being a female who was interested in typically ‘masculine’ activities was ten times harder. Ignoring the fact that I didn’t really play with barbies so much as pretend I was batman or a power ranger most of the time, I grew up with the standard belief that women in television were only good as a plot device to make the male lead look like the hero when rescuing the damsel in distress.
Images of women have been used to sell products and send subliminal messages since we could remember. Today, it has become apparent that the way these women are photographed and used for advertisements is creating a concept that women are just objects. Over the past few centuries the objectifying of women has only increased. When television was first invented in the 1950’s families would come together and spend time watching their favorite shows. One thing the shows on TV during the 50’s has in common in are the stereotypical gender roles with no sexuality application.
The 1970's Mary Tyler Moore show was the begin of changing the underrepresentation of ladies in the media business. Beating the cliché ladies, The Mary Tyler Moore show was about a working lady that was not hitched. In spite of the fact that this was noteworthy for ladies, I would contend that the signature melody scrutinized a ladies' capacity as it said "This world is outrageously huge, young lady this time you're isolated… you're going to make it all things considered." These verses were attempting to demonstrate that regardless of being all alone without the nearness of a "masculine" figure, it would appear that will make everything all alone as an autonomous lady. Driving into present circumstances, changes in the male to female proportion was seen, yet at the same time ladies played steady and once in a while ever predominant parts that were regarded principle characters.
Mae is a hardworking woman who is seen as “the backbone” of a diner that is flooded with truckers daily (Steinbeck 154). Mae not only supports herself, but she works endless hours trying to get extra tips. Due to the fact that she is a single woman with a job, Mae is not made out to be anything other than a hard working individual just trying to get by. Steinbeck’s portrayal of Mae can be connected to the independence that was seen in many other single women that held jobs during the 1930s. Although they faced less criticism, working single women endured an internal struggle similar to that of married women.
In the 1970’s women were expected to stay at home and take care of the household. They were usually not expected to further their education, but instead take care of the children or tend to their husbands’ needs. In 1972 Judy Brady decided to let the readers of Ms. Magazine know how she felt about her “duties”. In her short essay, “Why I Want a Wife,” Brady uses pathos to connect and appeal to the reader’s emotions while explaining why she wants a wife.
The ways in which women are portrayed in the 1960’s to date have significantly changed. Cultural changes have altered the roles of women in American society. More females have entered the paid workforce, increasing the resentment among women in regards to differences in pay and the opportunity for promotions in the work place. The Parent Trap films from 1961 and 1998 clearly illustrate the evolutionary changes in culture and society. Scenes, roles, identity, and purpose, among many other things, can clearly be compared and the differences studied while watching each film.
Throughout history, women’s behavior and opportunities have had severe restraints placed on them by society. From strict rules on proper attire to entire guides on how married women should behave, what a woman did or how she acted was not up to her. Despite the advancements made in the 20th and 21st centuries, such as the 19th Amendment and the Equal Pay Act of 1963, many stereotypes still exist and impact the lives of women today. A contributing factor to this is the prevalence of these stereotypes in media from all centuries: literature from the 19th century shows women’s only responsibility to be caring for her family, as did television shows, like Leave it to Beaver, from the 1950s and 1960s. However, in recent years artists have been
