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Summary Of The 50's And The American Woman

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Since the beginning of time, women have been represented as a sexualised identity. All women were expected to cook, clean and care for their husbands while still having to look pretty. The article written by Vanessa Martins Lamb, “The 1950’s and the 1960’s and the American Woman”, uses language devices to convey the message that women in the 50’s were indeed represented as a sexualised identity and stereotypical gender roles were significant in society.

The author described the jobs a married woman had to do in order to be the perfect housewife, “have dinner ready, prepare yourself, prepare the children, minimize all noise, be happy to see him, listen to him, make the evening his”, puts emphasis on the fact that all of the woman’s duties …show more content…

The greater and grander the appliances the family owned, the happier they would be as it meant that the wife would cook and clean better for them. This quote also conveys how women were even expected to wear uncomfortable and impractical high heels while doing laborious housework. Not only that, but she also had to wear jewelry and do her hair nicely, making sure it’s neat all day long in order to look pretty for her husband and be the perfect woman. The reader is positioned to feel sympathy towards the women back in the day as they were not given any freedom or choice, unable to live the life they wanted and follow their dreams as it was condemned by society. The idea of an independent, smart and powerful woman was marginalized and instead the dominant idea was that of a submissive, dumb woman who was reliant on their husband, only knowing how to do housework and taking care of her …show more content…

There is also a wedding ring on her perfectly manicured hand. These are all attributes of a 1950’s housewife as they had a sexualised identity. She does not have her gaze diverted to the camera, but instead, her eyes are unable to be seen. In addition to that, she is laying down in a passive pose to suggest her lack of power and dominance. It is shot from a high angle so the camera looks down on the subject, making the subject, which in this case is the woman, seem insignificant and

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