In the 1950s, the image of the perfect suburban wife who is efficient, patient, and always charming was often portrayed by the media in television, radio and magazines. In reality, the wife's life at home is burdened with housework, child care, and boredom (Out of Many, 27.2.2; Suburban Life). The article "Young Mother" illustrates how boring and unattractive middle-class women could be. In the article, a woman named Mrs. Petry told that the chores that she have to do everyday causing her to spend very little of time with her children and husband. In her words, she stated "I would also like to have a little more rest and a little more time to spend in relaxation with my husband" (Young Mother, p. 4) It is also stated in the …show more content…
That means profit for the business community as American teenagers have emerged as a big-time consumer in the U.S. economy. (The Teenage Consumer, p. 1) Many industries are booming and businesses who were selling food, entertainment, beauty products, and home items were making a lot of money from these teenage consumers. As an example, the ice cream industry sold more than 145 million gallons a year at that time consumed mainly by teenagers. To add to that, the article also stated "teenagers spent $20 million on lipstick and $25 million on deodorant that year." Businesses were spending millions on advertising and promotions to catch the attention of the young consumers. (The Teenage Consumer, p. 2) While many parents at that time expressed fear of the separate world their teenage children are living in, it was clear that the business community did not panic about the growing spending in the youth market (Out of Many, 27.3.3; Almost Grown) Instead, they embrace the opportunity by spending millions on advertising and promotions to catch the attention of the young
In an article titled, “Food Advertising and Marketing Directed at Children and Adolescents in the US,” by Mary Story and Simone French, it talks about how advertisers are targeting children and teens. Based on what I read, in the U.S. alone, adolescents spend 140 billion dollars annually while children spend 12-25 billion dollars annually. Youths are spending money that could go towards their college funds and things that they need. (add something about article facts about marketing to children) In fact, in an article titled, “$211 Billion and So Much to Buy American Youths, the New Big Spenders,” it talks about how people ages 8-24 years old spent $211 billion in 2012. If they spent this much money in 2012, the cost most likely went up in 2017 since youths have so many ways of being exposed to ads currently. This can lead to many that shouldn’t be a
During the 1950’s, Canada experienced numerous scenarios which sparked its citizens to be proud. These events included the teenage outbreak, a rise in consumerism and the sudden growth in population. The teenagers were a huge deal in the development of Canada. Teenagers wanted to differentiate themselves from adults and the rest of society (Armstrong et al. 134). Teenagers dressed themselves different along with acting different as well. (Armstrong et al. 135). The new products were being created and sold through the process of consumerism. The new technologies helped shape the look of the new Canadian culture (Bain et al. 219).Lastly, the sudden growth in population was the “baby boom”. The baby boom was a period after WW2 in which babies
In the beginning of television series with childless couples, the wife was the one that stayed at home, cleaned, cooked, and did the laundry. The husband was the one that made the money by going to work. Television series always portrayed women as the weaker characters. “Women in the early 1950s family were weak, secondary characters, and as such were usually dominated by their husbands and their own conceptions of marriage” (Hastings, 1974). Certain episodes of these shows always tried to prove that women should stay at home. When I Love Lucy came out with a woman as the main star, they still had her stay at home, cooking and cleaning, but still made her seem useless. “Women characters frequently were shown as less mature and less capable human-beings and their husbands often took a quasi-parental role by...
The baby boom was a big contributor to the new word “Teenager” as in “The 10 years from 1946 to 1956, the population increased by 20 percent, in Canada. Those new kids demanded new furniture, new clothes and more food be produced, along with new houses, and new cars and lots of other services like schools and playgrounds, and swimming pools and hockey rinks. Lots of ne...
Teenagers in the 1920s had a lot in common with today's teens. Just as today's teens are celebrating a new century filled with excitement and promise for the future, the teens of the 1920s also celebrated the marking of a new century and all the promise of tomorrow. A popular activity among tweens and teens today is dancing. Artists such as Soulja Boy have come up with hit songs and all the right dance moves to go alongside the song. Teens in the 1920s also had dances that were new and provocative for the time, such as the Charleston, Tango, and the Shimmy.
The 1950’s was a time in history when America began to flourish, through its advancements in music, technology, and its emphasis on the individual. The emergence of Rock and Roll contributed to the birth of the ‘rebel’ by giving teenagers an excuse to disobey their parents through the expression of music. Adults of the 1950’s insisted that Rock and Roll corrupted the minds of the youth. This revolution in music not only affected the decade from an entertainment standpoint, but also from a fashion perspective. Teenagers wore leather jackets, poodle skirts, slicked back hair, and beehive hairdos. Through sports and the civil rights act, blacks began to be more accepted into the 1950’s society. Although segregation was still alive, many blacks swore they could see freedom in the near future. Black athletes, like Jackie Robinson, proved that talent outweighed skin color. Existentialism became a popular philosophy during the 1950’s, which emphasized the individual. The true meaning of this movement was vague, but followers believed that society was trying to control their every action. Many authors and philosophers of this decade wrote on the subject of existentialism, including Flannery O’Connor. Flannery O’Connor’s short story, “Good Country People,” was published in 1955 and demonstrates the 1950’s view of existentialism through the use of symbolism and irony.
Though the idea becoming a wife and mother was the most common occupation for women in the 1950’s and by no means was it simple. Women experienced immense pressure to act and be a certain way. The conformity of the 1950’s frowned upon things that weren’t apart of the established way of doing things. In the movie The Man in the Gray Flannel S...
As World War Two came to a close, a new American culture was developing all across the United States. Families were moving away from crowded cities into spacious suburban towns to help create a better life for them during and after the baby boom of the post-war era. Teenagers were starting to become independent by listing to their own music and not wearing the same style of clothing as their parents. Aside from the progress of society that was made during this time period, many people still did not discuss controversial issues such as divorce and sexual relations between young people. While many historians regard the 1950s as a time of true conservatism at its finest, it could really be considered a time of true progression in the American way of life.
However, social conditions made it less feasible for families to live this way. As the 1960s approached and consumption was in high demand, women were yet again, forced to join the work force; but only a quarter of the women joined the workforce, whereas in the 1990s about “two-thirds of women who had children were in the work force (Coontz 55). Coontz (1997) explains how by 1973, “real wages were falling for young families, and by the late 1970s, government effectiveness had decreased (Coontz 54). It was because of economic factors that the nuclear bread-winning family could only be a lifestyle a few can afford. Nonetheless, women joining the workforce created a new understanding of women-hood, changed women’s status in society, and created conflict within the household. Women did not have the time to complete all the household tasks which contributed to the increased divorce rates, but left women happier due to the fact that they had that ultimate
A house is not a home if no one lives there. During the nineteenth century, the same could be said about a woman concerning her role within both society and marriage. The ideology of the Cult of Domesticity, especially prevalent during the late 1800’s, emphasized the notion that a woman’s role falls within the domestic sphere and that females must act in submission to males. One of the expected jobs of a woman included bearing children, despite the fact that new mothers frequently experienced post-partum depression. If a woman were sterile, her purposefulness diminished. While the Cult of Domesticity intended to create obliging and competent wives, women frequently reported feeling trapped or imprisoned within the home and within societal expectations put forward by husbands, fathers, and brothers.
During the post WWII period in America, the face of the nation changed greatly under the presidency of Truman and Eisenhower. America underwent another era of good feelings as they thought themselves undefeatable and superior over the rest of the world. Communism was the American enemy and American sought to rid the world of it. Because of the extreme paranoia caused by Communism, conformity became an ideal way to distinguish American Culture from the rest. Conformity became a part of every American Life to a large extent. It became evident through the medium of culture, society and politics throughout the era of the 50s.
Have you ever sat and wondered what it was like in the fifties and what the people looked like? This was time was for recovery from war and new music of rock and roll, the fashion was also a huge statement in this time period. This was a big time for change coming out of war and then hearing new music and different genres of it. This is why the 1950’s is the best decade because of the historical event, music, and fashion that influenced the pop culture.
In “Housewife No Longer a Dirty Word,” Lucy Cavendish uses personal experience to bring light to the world of a stay-at-home mother. She reminisces on times when she loved to play dolls and bake but never thought of it as something that she might do all day. Her mother never loved staying at home; she worked for a significant amount of her life, until she married Cavendish’s father. Even then she complained about how boring home life was and stressed the importance of education to Cavendish and taught her about historical figures of feminism, like Germaine Greer, Kate Millett, and Simone de Beauvoir, that influenced both of their belief that they could be anything they wanted. At one time Cavendish believed she was a firm advocate of working women against men, but she and many other women have changed their minds. She argues that the way women
The women of the 1950s struggled to fit into the mold that the American culture wanted them to be in. Women were meant to be the caretakers of the family and were expected to do whatever it would take to make sure that everything was perfect for their husbands. In a magazine article from Housekeeping Monthly that came out in 1955, there are a list of things that a woman must strive to do in order to be the ideal wife. This includes things such
Of all the 1980’s films, that can be described as “Eighties Teen Movies” (Thorburn, 1998) or “High School Movies” (Messner, 1998), those written and (with the exception of “Pretty In Pink” (1986) and “Some Kind of Wonderful”(1987)) directed by John Hughes were often seen to define the genre, even leading to the tag “John Hughes rites de passage movies” as a genre definition used in 1990s popular culture (such as in “Wayne’s World 2” (1994 dir. Stephen Surjik)). This term refers to the half dozen films made between 1984 and 1987; chronologically, “Sixteen Candles” (1984), “The Breakfast Club” (1985), “Weird Science” (1985), “Ferris Bueller's Day Off” (1986), “Pretty In Pink” (1986) and “Some Kind Of Wonderful” (1987) (the latter two being directed by Howard Deutch). For the purpose of this study, “Weird Science” and “Some Kind of Wonderful” shall be excluded; “Weird Science” since, unlike the other films, it is grounded in science fiction rather than reality and “Some Kind of Wonderful” as its characters are fractionally older and have lost the “innocence” key to the previous movies: as Bernstein states “the youthful naivete was missing and the diamond earring motif [a significant gift within the film] was no substitute” (Bernstein, 1997, p.89). Bernstein suggests that the decadent 1980s were like the 1950s, “an AIDS-free adventure playground with the promise of prosperity around every corner … our last age of innocence” (Bernstein, 1997, p.1). The films were very much a product of the time in terms of their production (“suddenly adolescent spending power dictated that Hollywood direct all its energies to fleshing out the fantasies of our friend, Mr. Dumb Horny 14 Year Old” Bernstein, 1997, p.4), their repetition (with the growth of video cassette recorders, cable and satellite with time to fill, and also the likes of MTV promoting the film’s soundtracks) and their ideologies.