I'm not really much of a feminist, i swear. Well, not *really*.
Got this in the ol' e-mail today.
I received this picture in an email before, as i'm sure many of you have. But today i'm in just the mood to dissect the crap out of it.
Click for bigger / hopefully readable.
Being the ripe old age of 25, i've never had to live with this view of women. My mother, grandmother, even great-grandmother were all too "modern" to fit this stereotypical wife guide, as they were all productive members of their households and society. My great-grandmother, whom i wish lived long enough for me to meet, supposedly was the first woman on their block to go out to work in the factories during WWII when all of the boys were away overseas; even rallying the neighboring wives and mothers to join her in doing their part. Go, Great-Grandma. A fine example of girl-power in my family.
This article from a 1955 women's magazine is just so foreign to me, yet i find it fascinating. Were the majority of women really like this? I mean, you see it in all of the "Make Room for Daddy" and "Leave it to Beaver" reruns. But weren't those shows just basically propaganda at the time? They were trying to promote this standard for perfect families / women in the home, but did that crap really translate? Was my family really so different than the norm? I can't imagine what it was like to live in a time like this, as a capable, intelligent adult and be treated like a simple child.
The 19th amendment (women's suffrage) was ratified in 1920, however, the mentality of women as lesser people was still the norm in 1955, thirty-five years later (obviously). This was normal! WTF?
So now, my question is: If i lived during this time and was expected to live my life and treat The Boy as outlined in the above article, would I mind? Would i enjoy living like this? Would I FREAKING KNOW ANY BETTER???etc.
Who knows. I could quite probably be so used to living my life like this that the servitude and complete lack of self-worth would be totally normal and comfortable to me. I would make a roast turkey on tuesdays, clean the house every day of the week, get excited about the thought of bearing and raising children, fetch the newspaper and a pipe for my hubby-
Oh wait, i'm not married yet. In fact, i'm currently living in sin, aren't i.
Disaster averted, then.
I received this picture in an email before, as i'm sure many of you have. But today i'm in just the mood to dissect the crap out of it.
Click for bigger / hopefully readable.
Being the ripe old age of 25, i've never had to live with this view of women. My mother, grandmother, even great-grandmother were all too "modern" to fit this stereotypical wife guide, as they were all productive members of their households and society. My great-grandmother, whom i wish lived long enough for me to meet, supposedly was the first woman on their block to go out to work in the factories during WWII when all of the boys were away overseas; even rallying the neighboring wives and mothers to join her in doing their part. Go, Great-Grandma. A fine example of girl-power in my family.
This article from a 1955 women's magazine is just so foreign to me, yet i find it fascinating. Were the majority of women really like this? I mean, you see it in all of the "Make Room for Daddy" and "Leave it to Beaver" reruns. But weren't those shows just basically propaganda at the time? They were trying to promote this standard for perfect families / women in the home, but did that crap really translate? Was my family really so different than the norm? I can't imagine what it was like to live in a time like this, as a capable, intelligent adult and be treated like a simple child.
The 19th amendment (women's suffrage) was ratified in 1920, however, the mentality of women as lesser people was still the norm in 1955, thirty-five years later (obviously). This was normal! WTF?
So now, my question is: If i lived during this time and was expected to live my life and treat The Boy as outlined in the above article, would I mind? Would i enjoy living like this? Would I FREAKING KNOW ANY BETTER???etc.
Who knows. I could quite probably be so used to living my life like this that the servitude and complete lack of self-worth would be totally normal and comfortable to me. I would make a roast turkey on tuesdays, clean the house every day of the week, get excited about the thought of bearing and raising children, fetch the newspaper and a pipe for my hubby-
Oh wait, i'm not married yet. In fact, i'm currently living in sin, aren't i.
Disaster averted, then.
posted by claire at
10:19 AM
5 Comments:
"offer to take off his shoes"
??????
his SHOES?????
fuck that, i say.
By
surly girl, at 3/06/2006 5:30 AM
I took a class on the 30's in America in college. I loved the part of the class where we studied the different advertisements of the decade. They were truely hilarious!
I grew up with a dad who does most of the cooking and many of the household chores, on top of being an all around handy-man. Which leaves me with few domestic longings or skills. I say: A man's place is in the kitchen, at the washing machine, and on a latter somewhere fixing something. A woman's place? On the couch watching Sex & the City and eating popcorn.
By
Jess, at 3/06/2006 4:57 PM
And I mean ladder, not latter, as clearly being lazy has left me an idiot as well.
By
Jess, at 3/06/2006 4:58 PM
Jessica - Right on.
There is nothing wrong or emasculating about a man at the washing machine.
And laziness is purely up to ones own interpretation.
By
claire, at 3/07/2006 10:54 AM
My grandma, who WAS a housewife during this period, would have snorted at this article. She would no sooner have greeted her husband at the door with a drink than gone grocery shopping naked. He came home and made HER a drink, thank you very much.
I think this was a result of a kind of reverse Rosie the Riveter mentality...a "thanks, ladies, but our boys want their jobs back now."
By
Anonymous, at 3/08/2006 12:25 PM
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