Am I secretively a Feminist?

After going through some more documents, yes, I am bored, I found 2 more papers that wreaked of feminism. Did I take some feminist pills in college, or am I seriously a woman lover? Hell, I love myself, but I don't love many women. Especially the bleeps and the snoots.

The “Nifty Fifties”: An Era of Domestic Conformity

When most people think of the 1950s, they envision poodle skirts, happy families, Elvis Presley and the Civil Rights Movement. The 1950s was an era ruled by mass media that portrayed the 1950s as a time of new prosperity with consumerism and job growth and as a time of new peace with the idea of desegregation of schools. The depression was over and people began to spend more money while enjoying greater leisure time. Starting and maintaining a family became a task that all men and women were required to accomplish if they wanted to fit the role of the stereotypical, successful American. Although many people may recall the 1950s as being a period of growth and improvement, it was not like this for the entire American society. Women, especially, were stereotyped and forced to conform to the idealized gender roles created by the American society. This did not bring women a new era of peace and happiness, but rather a new era of stress and dissatisfaction.

In the 1950s, mass media played a major role in how people viewed society. Television shows, movies and magazines all portrayed the typical American family in the same way. Television shows like “I love Lucy” and “Father Knows Best” both featured middle-class, white American families with the working father and domestic mother. Because the American society was so preoccupied with the media and the lifestyles it portrayed, people felt the need to conform to such lifestyles in order to meet the standards seen in television and in movies. As a result, women were stereotyped and given a concrete, idealized role in society. The “independent career women of the 1940s were replaced by ‘dumb blondes’ and cute help mates (847).” By making women seem unintelligent in movies, the media constructed an image of women that made them inferior to men. Women were portrayed as perfectly put together mothers who loved to vacuum and take care of the children while the father went to work. Even if this was not the case, women felt the need to perform such tasks in order to be a significant part of society. This idea urged women to stay home to tend to their domestic duties.

Not only were women pressured by the media to conform to take on their ideal role, but they were also pressured by the people around them to conform to the role given to them by society. Many scholars like Dr. Benjamin Spock, urged women to stay in the home in order to provide warmth for the children. Scholars like Spock did not realize how stressful being a woman trapped in a domestic sphere could become. If men were considered superior to women, then they should have been capable enough to help tend to the housework and the children. However, in the 1950s this was not the case. Women were given the stress of making sure the house and the children were in order while also trying to keep their husbands happy. A woman’s role was to be a helpmate to her husband and a full time mother to her children (845). This left no room for women to do things for themselves. Women were so busy catering to their husbands they did not have time to stand up for their own rights and opinions.

Women were forced to give up their rights to listen to society preach domesticity. In one movie, an actress declared that “a woman is not a woman until she’s been married and had children (845).” People of the 1950s made marriage and children so important that if a woman wanted to work or have some free time she would have been ridiculed and looked at as somewhat unordinary. Society did not care if a woman was incapable of having children because no matter whom a woman was she needed to have children to be a “positive” influence on society. Society did not think about women’s inspirations or goals. Society made it clear that women were supposed to get married and have children. This made women feel useless and dissatisfied because they were not allowed to have goals or to follow their dreams. The only goals a women were allowed to have in the 1950s were to get married and to have children. Marriage was so glorified that it became stressful for women who were not married or did not have children by a certain age. Women in the 1950s had their lives planned out for them before they even became adults. Getting married and having children were the only two “accepted” life options for women.

Women went to school knowing they would become mothers and wives. Their teachers reinforced cooking and typing as activities suitable for women (845). Guidance counselors told women not to go to college because getting married was more important. Women pushed their dreams aside to rush into marriage. Women joked about getting their Ph.T (putting hubby through) instead of doing what they desired. The 1950s did not allow many opportunities for women, which made many women feel useless and dissatisfied. Society pushed the idea that women were only needed to complete domestic chores. Women who went to college were questioned on their motives because men did not need a “smart” girl. The fact that men “didn’t need a smart girl,” is a good example of the immense level of influence men had on women’s lives. Women of the 1950s were not allowed to live for themselves. Women never did things to fulfill their own dreams, but instead did things to fit the stereotypical role given to the women of the 1950s.

The 1950s can be considered an era of prosperity, peace and happiness for America as a whole; however, many people forget to remember the struggles that smaller groups, like women, had to overcome during the era. Women were unable to express themselves and it was not acceptable for women to step out of their domestic sphere. The 1950s was an era of idealized gender roles and domesticity. Even though America as a whole was growing and improving as war and the Great Depression ended, women were being negatively stereotyped. Women were expected to conform to the role that society had given them which led to several unhappy women looking for their purposes.