University at Albany, State University of New York Scholars Archive History Honors College Spring 5-2019 Nuclear Families for the Nuclear Age: Disney's Part in Creating Gender Roles in the 1950s Carlee T. Litt University at Albany, State University of New York, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.library.albany.edu/honorscollege_history Part of the History Commons Recommended Citation Litt, Carlee T., "Nuclear Families for the Nuclear Age: Disney's Part in Creating Gender Roles in the 1950s" (2019). History. 13. https://scholarsarchive.library.albany.edu/honorscollege_history/13 This Honors Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Honors College at Scholars Archive. It has been accepted for inclusion in History by an authorized administrator of Scholars Archive. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Nuclear Families for the Nuclear Age: Disney’s Part in Creating Gender Roles in the 1950s An honors thesis presented to the Department of History, University at Albany, State University of New York in partial fulfillment of the requirements for graduation with Honors in History and graduation from The Honors College Carlee Taylor Litt Research Advisors: Mitch Aso, Ph.D. & Kori Graves, Ph.D. May 2019 Abstract The 1950s was a revolutionary period for American youth culture. The Walt Disney Company played an important role in forming and conveying a new image and set of ideals associated with childhood. My paper examines the Disney Company’s messages about growing up, in particular, the gendered expectations surrounding love that revolutionized the way Americans viewed family life. For both ideological and business reasons, Disney promoted an idealized concept of the nuclear family to children. My paper pays close attention to the conversation occurring between Disney and the American public by analyzing both 1950s Disney storylines, disseminated in multiple mediums such as movies, toys, and books, and the public’s reactions to them. My paper presents its findings in three main sections: parenting, growing up, and building a family. In each section, I look at the marketing strategies and public’s reactions. Previous scholarship about Disney has tended to focus only on Disney movies. By comparing multiple media for their message, my paper allows for a greater understanding of the reciprocal impact of Disney and the American public. And, as anyone with children, or who was one in the twenty-first century knows, the conversation between Disney and the American public is still going strong. ii Acknowledgements This work would not have been possible without the support of my Honors Thesis Course for all the peer editing and feedback given in the process of building my research. I would also like to express my gratitude for my advisor, Professor Kori Graves, for her patience and expertise throughout this process; she constantly encouraged my research and pushed me through hard questions and insightful comments. Moreover, I thank my friends and fellow classmates for the thought-provoking discussions, for the countless days we spent writing together, and for all the fun we have had in the last four years. This paper would not exist without our weekly study sessions and all the reminders to take some breaks. However, nobody has been more meaningful to me in the pursuit of this thesis than the members of my family. Words cannot express how grateful I am to my parents whose love and guidance are with me in whatever I pursue and for their continuous support of my education. I wish to thank my sister and brother, Jaymie and Hunter, who I initially watched Disney movies along with, my youngest sisters, Jordyn and Dylan, for reintroducing me to Disney and providing me an opportunity to nuance the notion of gender roles. iii Table of Contents Abstract ........................................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................................ iii Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 1 The Nuclear Age ............................................................................................................................. 6 Disney Enters the 50s...................................................................................................................... 9 Disney Takes on the Changing Landscape ............................................................................... 16 The Creation of the Teenage Years .............................................................................................. 21 Gender Portrayals in the Media .................................................................................................... 23 Parenting.................................................................................................................................... 26 Coming of Age .......................................................................................................................... 36 Building a family ....................................................................................................................... 44 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................... 52 Bibliography ................................................................................................................................. 54 iv Introduction “So this is love, so this is what makes life divine.” – Walt Disney, Cinderella 1 The ongoing conversation about whether a child wants to become a prince or a princess has become ingrained into society. Disney fairytale stories are known for reaffirming gender identity through characteristics, appearances, and actions. Boys and girls play extremely different roles in these iconic storylines within the family, during play, and in love. The Disney Company is a staple in any middle-class home, especially in the 1950s, with its books, toys, and movies. This proposes the following question: what are the messages about gender that these products and their stories underline in their marketing strategies? To dive further into this subject, questions have been brought to attention when researching about Disney’s hidden gendered messages. They can be summed up into these main questions about parenting, growing up, and love. For example, what makes a good parent? What is a mother’s role, and what is a father’s role in the family when it comes to dealing with the children? When discussing the transition phases in growing up, how do children develop and grow into their identity? In focusing on love, scholars have asked how did Disney describe the ways people met their significant other? How they fell in love? Ultimately, some scholars have questioned, what is the conversation between the Disney Company and adolescent environment of teenagers and prepubescent children?2 1Geronimi, Clyde, Hamilton Luske, and Wilfred Jackson. Cinderella. Animated musical fantasy. RKO Radio Pictures, 1950. Film 00:53:11 2Nicholas Sammond, Babes in Tomorrowland: Walt Disney and the Making of the American Child, 1930- 1960 (Durham: Duke University Press, 2005). 1 Walt Disney is known for his happily ever after creations. He along with his staff embraced the 1950s environment through a strong notion of love. This concept of love included the love for oneself and the love for others such as family or partners. This paper analyzes Disney’s marketing and production messages of gender in relation to the dating and romance norms of the US in the 1950s. It does so by compiling the various mediums Disney used to portray gender expectations. In other words, my project asks how Disney’s marketing and production in the 1950s tried to influence children’s ideas about “modern dating” and family life. In particular, I will focus on the changing conceptions of romance and gender roles among young people brought about by the fairytale genre that Disney helped to popularize. Disney combined these issues of identity, gender roles, and family dynamics into the films that were popular in the 1950s. These included Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, and Sleeping Beauty. The storylines depicted in Disney merchandise, books, and motion pictures can be broken down into various categories that demonstrate changes in popular conceptions of identity, gender roles, and family dynamics. Therefore, the first section of this paper will assess Disney’s depictions of parenting. The second section discusses growing up and coming of age by learning and accepting society’s gender expectations. My third and final section looks at teens who try to create their own family dynamics. The paper continues with people’s reactions to romantic teenage relationships and looks closer into the gender roles within those relations. Through these various sections I look at the conversation between the Disney Company and the adolescents and teenagers. Disney marketed the different mediums in a new way utilizing multi-variable marketing that expanded how the content of the Disney stories were shaped by the new environment of teens and how Disney then influenced the new generation of children. 2 Throughout this paper, I rely on evidence from the original motion pictures and movie scripts