Questioning Television’s Resident Mother Figure: Who Was June Cleaver?
Picture this: It’s 1957, and America is on the verge of a psychedelic revolution. Television is in its beginning stages, and America is dealing with nuclear tensions regarding rough relations with the Soviet Union. Society is changing, as are the views pertaining to what the “perfect” American family should be. Throughout this turmoil, familial stability is more important than it ever has been, and everyone is looking for a guide to follow in order to form his or her own version of “the perfect American family”. At least, that is what the rumors tell us. When many people reminisce about this picturesque view of 1950s Americana that modern ideology has created for us, the woman that embodies the vision of this era is the iconic, June Cleaver, portrayed by Barbara Billingsley. With her memorable appearance as a pristine housewife who vacuums the house in pearls and high heels, June is often merely remembered for her portrayal as an obedient housewife on the influential 1950s sitcom Leave it to Beaver; however, June consistently reveals herself as a caring mother with poise, dedication, and influence throughout the duration of the television series. Because of her behavior and complexities of character, June should be remembered as a woman with strength, and not merely as a carbon copy of an uneducated housewife succumbing to the pressures of womanhood during the 1950s.
Leave it to Beaver, which began airing in 1957, has long since been regarded as one of the most iconic television series of all time. By highlighting humorous life situations, and using strategies to evade out-dating the television show, Leave it to Beaver has remained on the air, in some ca...
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...Beaver: The Complete First Season. Writ. Joe Connelly and Bob
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“Nobody Loves Me.” Leave it to Beaver: The Complete Fifth Season. Writ. Joe Connelly and Bob
Mosher. Dir. Norman Abbott. Shout Factory, 2010. DVD.
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Elaine Tyler May's Homeward Bound weaves two traditional narratives of the fifties -- suburban domesticity and rampant anticommunism -- into one compelling historical argument. Aiming to ascertain why, unlike both their parents and children, postwar Americans turned to marriage and parenthood with such enthusiasm and commitment, May discovers that cold war ideology and the domestic revival [were] two sides of the same coin: postwar Americans' intense need to feel liberated from the past and secure in the future. (May, p. 5-6, 10) According to May, "domestic containment" was an outgrowth of the fears and aspirations unleashed after the war -- Within the home, potentially dangerous social forces of the new age might be tamed, where they could contribute to the secure and fulfilling life to which postwar women and men aspired.(May, p. 14) Moreover, the therapeutic emphases of fifties psychologists and intellectuals offered private and personal solutions to social problems. The family was the arena in which that adaptation was expected to occur; the home was the environment in which people could feel good about themselves. In this way, domestic containment and its therapeutic corollary undermined the potential for political activism and reinforced the chilling effects of anticommunism and the cold war consensus.(May, p.14)
Television has always been an industry whose profit has always been gained through ads. But in chapter 2 of Jason Mittell’s book, Television and American Culture, Mittell argues that the rise of the profit-driven advertising television model can be traced back through American television history, and that the rise of the profit-driven advertising model of television actually helped to mold American culture both from a historical standpoint and from a social standpoint.
Ingram, Heather, ed. Women’s Fiction Between the Wars. "Virginia Woolf: Retrieving the Mother." St. Martin's Press. New York, 1998.
In chronicling how the family structure has changed in America, it is important to understanding how family was actually defined. When referencing Leave it to Beaver (further referred to as LITB) times, family took on a substantive definition, or the idea that family was equivalent to relative, or related by blood or law. While this definition of family served the time period, it failed to evolve with society. For that reason, sociologists set out to determine a “more inclusive functionalist definition,” that focuses on what families do. “A functionalist definition of families focuses on how families provide for the physical, social, and emotional needs of individuals and of society as a whole” (Witt). With that, the functionalist perspective identifies six primary functions, which include reproduction, socialization, protection, regulation of sexual behavior, affection and companionship, and...
People in these Montana prairies had an isolated life where “Every generation relearns the rules its fathers have forgotten”, cursed nature when it threatens their livelihood, yet realized that “This land owes you nothing” [p. 60]. This was a time and region where the difference between what was expected of men and women was paramount. Children grew up working hard, knowing their place in their society and grew up quickly as a result. Being somewhat of a tomboy, Blunt could handle farm equipment and chores as well as her brother, yet was still expected to learn how to cook, clean and care for the men. As with previous generations, it was expected that she follow a planned path to becoming a rancher’s wife. But Judy Blunt always felt there was something more to this hard, bleak life and began a long journey towards breaking clean from the constraints of her upbringing.
In the 1950’s becoming a wife, having and raising children and taking care of the home was the primary goal for most women. Post war brides were marrying young, having children at significant and unrivaled rates, and settling into roles that would ultimately shape a generation. This ideal notwithstanding, women were entering the workplace like never before and changing the face of American business forever. In the movie The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit directed in 1956 by Nunnally Johnson, we get an inkling of the type of voice American women would develop in the character of Betsy Rath. We are introduced to a wife and mother who leverage her role in the family to direct and influence. The decade of the 50’s signify the beginnings of the duplicity that women would embrace in America, being homemakers and independent women.
Hartmann, Susan M. The Home Front and Beyond: American women in the 1940s. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1982
The era of I love Lucy, Leave it to Beaver and Father knows Best, brought about a time where family values were necessary, family life was wonderful and no one was worrying about politics and the Cold War. These families had the molds of women constrained in the home, men bringing home the bacon and all in the homes of white middle class families. Women in the 1950s were often depicted as dependent on men and were encouraged to get married young. (Bloom and Breines, 6) It took large media input from movie stars like Marilyn Monroe, to influence many women to join the workforce and reject the “traditional feminine roles”. (Bloom and Breines 6) This mold would be challenged by the introduction of the Birth Control pill in 1954 and the growing unhappiness of women who would seek to break the walls that trapped their mothers. (Bloom and Breines, 5) More women would venture out of the homes and into the workplace between the two decades, “from 25 percent in 1950to 32 percent in 1960”. (Bloom and Breines, 5) The introduction of the Birth Control pill allowed for women to avoid unwanted pregnancies or even marriages and encouraged the sexual liberation that would be seen in the sixties.
After viewing an episode of I Love Lucy, positive aspects of family and financial issues can be clearly seen in the 1950s. The Ricardo's are middle class, Ricky works as a club band leader and Lucy stays home and `poured all her energies into their nuclear family.' (37) This is a positive side of the 1950s because compared to a few decades before, `women quit their jobs as soon as they became pregnant,' (36) and concentrated more on raising children. These families were much more stable and made almost `60 percent of kids were born into male breadwinner-female homemaker families,' (37) which is a important factor for children to have a good childhood.
“Teacher’s Pet.” Leave it to Beaver. Perf. Jerry Mather's. CBS. 22 Nov. 1957. TVLand. Web.
The gender expectations in Leave It To Beaver appear to be consistent with the time period. The Cleavers live in the prosperous suburban town of Mayfield2. Mr. Ward Cleaver works outside the home, he is fair and gives lots of advice to his sons, as well as having a very cordial relationship with his wife. Mrs. June Cleaver is a homemaker, she performs the tasks expected of her as a mother and wife very cheerfully, Wally and Beaver are respectful to their parents, but also make mistakes. Each episode follows a familiar formula, there is a conflict that is resolved by the end of the episode, usually teaching something to Wally or Beaver. The Cleavers are the quintessential model American family. They fit all the criteria,...
In Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris’ 2006 movie Little Miss Sunshine, they depict the tribulations of a dysfunctional family trying to get their daughter to a beauty pageant, while encompassing strong portrayals of common issues in the United States today. It communicates the individual’s struggle to be perfect, as well as the difficulties of the average middle class family in society. In this paper I will analyze three characters; Olive, Dwayne, and Richard Hoover, identifying their life stages, psychosocial development, role in the family and their resiliency through the stories challenging circumstances.
THOSE OF US WHO grew up in the 1950s got an image of the American family that was not, shall we say, accurate. We were told, Father Knows Best, Leave It to Beaver, and Ozzie and Harriet were not just the way things were supposed to be—but the way things were
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
The 1960s provided a reality time of suppressed females and overindulgent males within the society spectrum. Yet the nostalgia aspect of this manifests in the idea of the perfect housewife and the graci...