Beyond a Bina- Opposition: The Changing Constructions of Woman on Early Halifax Television
BY Gina Stack
Submitted in paxtial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of History
Dalhousie University Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada August, 1998
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Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Chapter One : Exploring Gender and the Maritimes 22
Chapter Two: CBHT Halifax: 42 Reconstructing the Station
Chaptex mec: Don Messerrs Jubilee : 64 Gender Constructions in Progrdng
Chapter Four : Hot Persuasion: 97 Advertising and Gendet Ideals
Conclusion
Bibliography Acknowledgements
I would like to thank everyone who has helped make this thesis a reality. First, 1 would like to thank my parents,
Jane and Garry Stack, who have supported me throughout my entire academic career and have helped me strive to do my best. Second, 1 would like to thank my thesis advisors
Shirley Tillotson and Michael Cross for their help and guidance throughout the various stages of this project.
No less important are the people at the Public Archives of Nova Scotia, and in particular Barry Smith, who spent hours with me as 1 viewed Don Messer's Jubilee and other early CBC programming. 1 would also like to thank Doug Kerby at the CBC
Library for his help, and the countless other people 1 interviewed and spoke with along the way. This thesis could not have become a reality without the input and guidance of al1 these individuals. 1 sincerely thank you for pur support. Abstract
In the 1960s, the popular breadwinnedhousemaker gender constructs of the previous decade were challenged by £eminists and middle-class reformers alike, These challenges have been well documented by historians in the popular press, magazines and film, but the area of television has been largely untouched. Using CBHT Halifax as a case study, this thesis explores the changes and continuities in the medium's depiction of gender roles in a Maritime setting,
The introduction discusses the unique nature of television. Rather than presenting a completed picture to the viewer, the "nowness" of the medium, seen particularly in live coverage and panel discussions, invited the viewer to participate in the creation of gender meanings. In addition, the multiple levels of the medium - visual, audio, and musical for example - engaged the viewers on a number of different levels, increasing the possibility of multiple messages being taken £rom the same program.
Regional variations and national continuities in the construction of gender are examined in the first chapter.
Whife Nova Scotia was modernizing and becoming more integrated with North American culture, a distinct local flavour remained. The slightly lagging f emale participation in the workforce, a poorer economic climate and the invention of a Scottish "traditional" culture were major factors influencing the province's construction of gender.
The second chapter chronicles the history of CBHT in
Halifax. Through personal interviews with former employees, it examines how the institution and its staff supported existing constructs of gender and made space for change. In the third chapter, the invented tradition of Don Messer's
Jubilee is played off against more innovative womenfs and public affairs programming. The thesis examines new and longer standing roles for women that were presented in 1960 programs on CBHT. In addition to comparing different programs, it looks at the multiplicity of gender roles provided within each program. The world of advertising is explored in the fourth chapter. A stronger dichotomy of gender roles existed within these nationally aired spots, but there was still space provided to explore new roles for women.
The conclusion draws the preceding chapters together under the headings of institutional, political and commercial influences on gender construction. Drawing on evidence provided in the previous chapters, it-deduces that television provided a forum on which gender roles were negotiated.
vii Introduction 2 Television played, and continues to play, a crucial role in the way people view their culture, themselves and each other . This thesis will focus on the changing social construction of women in Halifax, Nova Scotia, as seen on CBHT during the first two decades of television, the 1950s and the
1960s- The medium of television is an excellent tool in which to view both changes and continuities in gender expectations of both sexes. However, this thesis will focus on the way television images of womenrs proper role began to fragment in the 1950s and 1960s. Although the thesis will focus on evidence from Halifax's CBHT, many of the changes it discusses appear to have been a North Arnerican phenornenon.
No one disputes that new technologies have profound effects on societies. Some of the most intriguing forms of technology over the last two centuries have been the mass media. The founding of the penny presses in early-nineteenth century England and America had a dramatic impact on these societies and other western nations. Popular newspapers have been credited with not only being the first modern mass medium, but also for creating mass society. Newspapers not only changed the way that people looked at news information, they changed the way people comrnunicated and viewed each other.
While historians and laymen have no qualms about stating the in£luence newspapers have had on society, the debate still rages about television. While one may presume that because television is the more technologically advanced medium that it is more futuristic and innovative in nature, in reality, the medium is viewed as a conservative reflector of society, rather than a leader of social change.' Whether the station was private or public, its programming was dictated by the need to keep as many viewers as possible tuned in - achieving this goal meant limiting controversy within unwritten societal norms . This bias was true of al1 mass media. Because the media were owned and operated by members of white, middle-class society, it was their changing values that were reflected rather than a more complex mix representing society at large.
This bias was also apparent in images of women. While historians like Suzanne Morton and Margaret Conrad document a long tradition of working-class women taking paid work outside of the home2, the "traditional" woman reflected on television
l~heconservative nature of television is discussed by Paul Rutherford, Primetirne Canada: When Television was Youna- 1952 - 1967. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1992), 94. Or Mary Vipond, The Mass Media in Canada. (Toronto: James Lorimer and Company, 1992) , 103.
2~eeSuzanne Yorton, ystomesticLife in a Workina-Class Suburb in the 1920s. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1995), 132. And Margaret Conrad, "Recording Angels : The Private Chronicles of Women £rom the Maritime Provinces of Canada, 1750 - 1450" in The 4 was the 1950s and 1960s middle-class ideal of wife and mother.
It was this conception of woman that was both perpetuated and
challenged by media in the period.
Although television has not been heralded as a great
leader of society, it has been credited with perpetuating and
spreading social values. The impact of mass newspapers in the
late nineteenth century was far from confined, but no
information technology has yet to surpass the permeation of
television. Confidence in the medium is beginning to wane,
and the Internet is getting ready to usurp its crowned
position as the predominant information provider, but these
are only recent developments in the life of television. For its first three decades, television held a position of
unsurpassed power over North American culture.
This thesis focuses on the content of the median of
television. However, the role that television plays in shaping its content is not insignificant.' Whether the consumer is listening to a report about a recent fad on the
Nealected Maioritv, eds. Alison Prentice and Susan Mann Trofimenkoff. (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1987), 40. 3These ideas are discussed by Marshall McLuhan in his book understandina Media: The Extensions of Man. (United States: McGxaw-Hill Ryerson Book Company, 1964). This thesis utilizes variations on his concepts of hot and cool media. Hot media being high definition and full of information and cool being low definition and engaging multiple sense like television. 36. radio, reading about it in the newspapers, or watching and listening to it on television has a dramatic effect on what information is emphasized and retained. Even if the words remain unaltered across the media, because of the inherent biases found in each medium, the consumer takes away a different message. It is within these messages that gender roles, along with other societal norms and ideals, are transmitted.
The medium of television played a significant role in the portrayal of themes and issues that arose on CBHT Halifax's programming in the 1950s. Television engages multiple senses of the viewer, both seeing and hearing, on multiple tracks. This complexity and its possible contradictions invite the viewer to participate in the creation of television's meanings. While a film is a finished product, television programs can be viewed as works in progress. The "nowness" of the medium, most evident in panel discussions and live coverage, provides space for viewers to negotiate their own meanings. In this way, the viewer becomes a participant in the creation, rather than a passive consumer, of the medium's message.
This point is illustrated in a 1963 study conducted by the CBC on a special, The Real World of Woman. The study strongly suggested that "each respondent saw as 'important' those particular aspects of the program, or topics discussed, that were most vital to her in terms of her presently existing interests or probleins Ideas that were intended, and others that may have been more subliminal - or even the opposite of what was desixed, could al1 have been taken away by the viewer .
Newspapers, books and other media can employ special techniques to create irony or dual interpretations, but they are not as well disposed to this pursuit as television. While a word like "ferninine" in a newspaper article is ambiguous and can hold different meanings to different readers, a television program can hold multiple meanings on a nurnber of different levels. Action on the screen, dialogue, narration and music al1 have the ability to not only contradict themselves, but also each other. For example, an unseen narrator may Say a women on the screen is happy while she softly cries and thunderous music plays. This is an exaggerated example of how the medium can contradict itself on multiple levels; however, actual examples of television presenting multiple meanings will be discussed in chapter three on programrning at CBHT and chapter four on advertising.
4The Real World of Woman. A study of audience relations to two special TV network broadcasts from a CBC- sponsored conference on womanfs role in he modern world. (Toronto: CBC Research, 1963), 19. Magazines like Cha telaine and the Canadian Home Journal are credited with focussing on middle-class women's changing
roles throughout the 1960s5, but at the same tirne, historians
tend to argue that 'the Canadian media stereotyped women in
the post-war years as happy homemakers who were dedicated
stay-at-home rnother~."~ Women's only role outside the home
was that of shopper. Women were encouraged to becorne wise
shoppers, but also frequent consumers of an increasing array of commercial products.
In A Diversity of Women, Joan Sangster backs up this
argument, stating that during the 1950s and 1960s "motherhood
was continually lauded as women's natural choice" in the media.' She further states that
television also reinforced traditional gender roles. In advertisements, women pursued either 'beauty or the cult of domesticity'; other CBC prograrnrning let wornen play only 'supplementaryr and 'decorative' roles while men were 'the masters of argument and fact."
Sangster and her colleagues have good reason to argue about the conservative nature of television. The medium's
lison on Prentice, Paula Bourne et al. Canadian Wornen: A Historv. (Canada: Harcourt Brace & Company, 1996), 385.
'~rentice et al., Canadian Women, 383.
7 Joan Sangster, "Doing Two Jobs: The Wage-Earning Mother, 1945 - 70" in A Diversj.tv of Women: Ontario. 1945 - 1980, Joy Parr, ed. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, l99S), 102. 'Sangster, "Doing Two Jobs," 102 - 103. 8 perpetuation of traditional gender roles cannot be disputed,
especially with regard to television advertising. At the same
time, however, this claim is a generalization. Television moved with the times and reflected developments within society, including new ideas about middle-class womenrs roles. While studies on Canadian women and television are
limited, a number of historians have used magazines to study
social changes and wornen. It is arguably impossible to draw a direct correlation between changes in womenfs roles and
images in the media, but Susannah Wilson and Gertrude Robinson attempted to in their studies of Canadian magazines.' Limiting their gauge of change to numbers of women in the workforce, the articles drew parallels between the number of
times working women were mentioned in magazines and the actual nurnber of working women. In both cases, the results contradicted actual trends. Wilson found women in magazines were more likely to be wage earners, and more likely to be engaged in glamorous jobs. Robinson found that on the issue of working women, "the media seem to be responding to social change and leading public opinion."Io In other words,
'~usannah J. Wilson, "The Changing Image of Wornen in Canadian Mass Circulating Magazines, 1930-1970'' and Gertrude Joch Robinson, 'The Media and Social Change: Thirty Years of Magazine Coverage of Women and Work (19504977)'' in Atlantis. (Vol. 8, No. 2, Spring 1983).
%ilson, 'The Changing Image of Women," 99. magazines over-represented women's participation in the wor kforce . Mary Vipondfs study of mass circulation magazines in the
1920~~revealed many of the same patterns that emerged in late 1950s and early 1960s television. Her study and this thesis focus on periods following a great upheaval of normative societal roles. As a result, Vipond argues that magazines "sirnultaneously ...looked both back and ahead."" She argues that the magazines presented women with traditional ferninine values, while attempting to recreate them as "modern" and scientific housewives. As a result, "two contradictory images existed sim~ltaneously."'~ Vipond reasons that this contradiction is possible because neither image disputed woman's primary role of "mothers of men.""
Following the Second World War, the same contradictions existed within the medium of television, but were taken to an entirely new level. While competing roles were presented within issues of magazines, it is unlikely that readers took away a different message from one article. In other words,
"~ary Vipond, "The Image of Women in Mass Circulation Magazines in the 1920s" in The Neolected Maioritv. Susan Mann Trofimenkoff and Alison Prentice, eds. (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1977), 116. I2vipond, 'Mass Circulation, " 122. "~ipond, "Mass Circulation," 124. the message of the article is explicit to the viewer.
However, because television engages multiple senses, there is a greater possibility of implicit messages. This allowed conflicting messages to exist not only between programs and advertisements, but within them.
The contradictory nature of television is discussed by
Lynn Spigel in her book Make Room for TV: Television and the
Family Ideal in Postwar America. She argues that television was welcomed 'as a catalyst for renewed domestic values" and its ability to restore family "togetherness" and consumer capitalism." However, Spigel adds that, in reality, television created unity and division al1 at once. She writes that
harmony gave way to a system of differences in which domestic space and family rnembers in domestic space were divided along sexual and social lines. The ideal of family togetherness was achieved through the seemingly contradictory principle of separation; private rooms devoted to individual family mernbers ensured peaceful relationships among residents . l5 For example, a General Electric ad, encouraging the purchase of a second television set, shows mom and daughter watching a cooking program in the kitchen, while dad sits in an easy chair in the living room watching football.
. . I4Lynn Spigel, Make Room for TV: Televlsl on and the Familv Ideal in Postwar Americq. (Chicago: ~niversityof Chicago Press, 19921, 2 - 3. '5~pigel,Make Room for TV, 67. I I Spigel argues that it was not a case of television creating unity or division, but both at once." This same argument holds true when applied to the creation of gender roles. While both American and Canadian networks attempted to mould their audience, doing so was not that simple. Once the program was on the air, its creator lost control over its effects; wornen were free to take the images, discuss them and negotiate their own relationship to themmL7 While the desire for advertising revenue caused television programmers to atternpt to create 'Mrs. Daytime Consumer" and have women conform to this mould, it was not that easy. Women took the images, cfiscussed and negotiated their own relationship to them.
While studies such as Spigel's and earlier ones on mass circulation magazines are beneficial in making generalizations about Canadian women and their changing roles, they do not address regional variations. During the mid-twentieth century, the Maritimes began to integrate with the rest of
North America. Cut off by distance, but more significantly, by a "cultural lag8', Nova Scotia lept quickly into mainstream
North American culture after the introduction of television.
Most Atlantic Canadians "sat spellbound in front of television
'%pigel, Make Room for TV, 37.
17spigel, Make Room for TV, 98. sets watching such delights as 'The Honeymooners,' '1 Love Lucy, ' and 'Our Miss Bro~ks.'"'~ The desire for local programming remained high in Nova ~cotia", but television
"brought mainstream North American culture to everybodyrs living-room, defining values, goals, and even speech patterns. "20 As a result of Nova Scotia's desire both to integrate into North American culture and to retain local variations, the province developed a "traditional" culture with regard to tourism while quickly modernizing. The 1950s saw the end to the isolation of rural sectors in the region." In Nova Scotia, the government expanded, health insurance was introduced, and a number of arnbitious projects - including the construction of the Canso Causeway - were undertaken, fully modernizing the province. By the 1960s, most Atlantic
Canadians were living in cities or towns, and the area was referred to as a "quaint mixture of 'traditional, and
18nargaret Conrad, "The 1950s: The Decade of Development" in The Atlantic Provinces in Confederation, E.R. Forbes and D.A. Muise, eds. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1993, 395. "~he1958 Halifax Studv of Leisure Time Activities in the Television Aue,- 'Preliminary Report No. 1, ~ttitudes Toward Local and Regional Television Programs." (Ottawa: Audience Research Division CBC, 1959), 2.
'Oconrad, "The l%Os, " 396. ZIConrad, "The l%Os, " 382, 13 'modernr ."*' While in many ways Nova Scotia became like other Canadian provinces, it held ont0 an imagined past, prompted in part by the growing tourism industry. In addition, Nova Scotians en joyed popular American television programming, but the desire not only to maintain, but also to promote local talent remained strong. These desires materialized in the creation of popular local programs like Don Messer's Zubilee. While
Don Messer's Jubilee drew on ideas of Maritime "tradition, " at the same time local women's programming looked forward, developing along the same lines as shows generated £rom other stations across the country. In this way, CBHT television was comparable to the rest of the country, and yet it maintained its own local flavour. This local specificity helped shape the develcpment of CBHT in Halifax, and influenced the gender roles presented to viewers at a local level.
Because of the availability of archiva1 material, this thesis will focus on the period between 1960 and 1970. It is also confined to CBHT in Halifax. Although a second network station, CJCH (CTV) began broadcasting in Halifax in 1961, no archiva1 footage of its programming has survived. Because no other archiva1 footage remains, this study is forced to rely solely on footage provided by the CBC at their own library and
22Conrad, "The 1950~~"393. 14 at the Public Archives of Nova Scotia (PANS). CBHT held a monopoly over Nova Scotian audiences for nearly a decade. After 1961, a combination of new technology that allowed better reception of American stations, and the introduction of
CJCH, made significant cuts in the station's audience share.
While the CBC was than forced to share its market, it generated a much greater amount of local programming than its private cornpetitors, making it a richer resource for this study.
A second obstacle in this paper was the condition of archiva1 material. Although the collection is large, some of the programs studied exist only in fragments. Parts of shows remain, but there is no complete episode left intact. The fragmented nature of these particular programs makes it impossible to see them in exactly the same context that the viewer did. Despite these drawbacks, CBHT provided an excellent case study for examining media presentation of changing gender roles not only in Halifax, but at CBC stations across the country. Almost one episode of every program produced at CBHT is on file at the archives. In addition, episodes of the programs most vital to this thesis exist in greater nurnbers, running from their first to last year of broadcast. The first chapter of this thesis examines social 15 constructions and roles of woman in a Maritime context. It
then considers theories of gender and social theory relevant to the analysis of gender meanings that follows in subsequent chapters. It discusses Joan Scott's and Judith Butler's argument that "woman" does not exist as a constant, but instead is a fluctuating social construction unique to its time and space in history. By applying the ideas of these and other cultural theorists, this thesis illustrates the part television played in presenting changes and ambiguities in the idealized role of women during the 1950s and the 1960s. In addition, a brie£ overview of women's roles on the eve of this period and their presentation in the media is provided here.
In particular, the question of Nova Scotia's cultural conservatism is examined. The second chapter provides a capsule description of CBHT
Halifax of the 1950s and 1960s, and considers in some detail perceptions at the station of women as broadcasters and as an audience segment. Drawing on interviews conducted with television personalities Rube Hornstein, Don Tremaine, Marilyn
MacDonald and Jim Bennet, and administrator Frank Stalley, the CBHT experience will be discussed. Don Tremaine was with the station from its first night on the air. In addition to being a staff announcer for CBC radio and television, Tremaine worked as a Halifax gatekeeper into the medium. Tremaine now laughs when he reflects on one of the many reasons why he was told not to hire women as full-tirne staff announcers:
Women generally didn't show up very much in radio or television and the basic reason was that early on ...the idea was that women particularly could not read the news on radio and television because their voices were not sufficiently authoritative."
Instead, women were hired on contract to cover 'womenrs" issues at both a local and national level. It was not until the early 1970s that Tremaine was given the green light to hire a woman full-time at the Halifax station. Tremaine added that women like Libby Christianson (Look in on Libby) and Joan
Marshall (The Joan Marshall Show), who managed to get on the air during the early years of television, were stifled by the corporation at both the local and national level.
Women in the CBC, the report of the CBC Task Force on the
Status of Women, illustrates the severity of the bias toward fernale participation in the medium. Published in 1975, the report found that while women were over-represented in clerical positions, they were failing to attain more powerful positions. For example, there were not and had never been any female producers. In addition, of a staff of 10,445 in the country as a whole, one-quarter were women and three-quarters men. The women were an average age of 35, and had seniority
23~hisinformation was provided during a taped interview with Don Tremaine on April 6, 1998. 17 of seven years, a salary of $10,090 and 61 per cent were single. On the other hand, the men were an average age of 40, had seniority of 11 years, a salary of $13,733 and 72 per cent were married. 24
The early 1970s was a period of dramatic change at CBC.
Although representations of women evolved over the first two decades of television, it was not until the Royal Commission on the Status of Women (reporting in 1970) that major movement in positions of aq~thoritybegan to occur at CBC. Women such as Maggie MacDonald, in charge of the CBC radio newsroom in
Halifax as early as 1952, were notable exceptions to this rule.
Chapter twors "reconstruction" of the first two decades of CBHT Halifax reveals the discrimination faced by women who wished to move beyond the gender noms that were prescribed to them by society at large, and that were given concrete form in unfair hiring practices. Tt also reveals the ways in which women challenged the boundaries set for them.
While a detailed picture of traditional middle class gender roles can be drawn £rom viewing 1950s and 1960s television programs, these gender constructions were not constant and did not go unchallenged during the period.
"~eportof the Task Force on the Status of Women, Women j.n the CBC (Canada: CBC, 1975), 4, 7. 18 During these two decades, women began to play a larger role in shaping the medium. They were a valued segment of the audience, and within the medium began moving into non- traditional areas like news reporting. Shows such as Homebase, aimed at a female viewing audience, both endorsed and challenged existing roles for women. While news programs remained dominated by men, Marilyn MacDonald, a host of
Homebase, broke the ranks in 1967 when she began working as a researcher for the public affairs program Gazette. By the early 1970~~she was on the air. Public affairs programs such as Take Thirty and Interrogative 3 had females hosts for a female audience, but in the late 1960s they expanded to appeal to audiences of both sexes. The gates were slowly opening up for women, but in addition to being talented they had to be beautiful. For example, the host of Interrogative 3, Marion
MacGillvary, had been a beauty pageant winner in the 1950d5
The third chapter moves away from the people behind the scenes to examine a nurnber of different television programs.
The chapter centres on Don Messer's Jubilee. The program aired regionally in 1956, and became a network program in 1959. Close to 50 episodes of the program (circa 1964 - 1969) are at the Public Archives of Nova Scotia. Hosted by Don Tromaine and starring Don Messer, the show
25~nterviewwith Don Tremaine, April 6, 1998. 19 provides an excellent base for the study of gender roles and expectations. The stars, Charlie Chamberlain and Marg
Osborne, presented wholesome, parental male and fernale roles to Canadians. The show provides a kind of benchmark against which to compare other programs that aired over the period.
It is important to note that while shows like Don Messer's
Jubilee were aimed at a general viewing audience, programs that emerged in the late 1960s were more tightly defined for particular segments of the viewing population. Sign-on time was slowly pushed back and daytirne programming, airned at women and children, increased. It was through the fragmentation of the medium that different representations of gender emerged to crack the facade of "woman" presented by earlier television programming. Family-oriented programs presented women in traditional roles, while many women's programs began showing wornen as career-oriented, or not entirely happy with their primary role of wife and mother.
Through women's programming, the medium worked to reflect changing social constructions of Haligonian women. By giving women space (women's programming) within the medium, television indirectly broadened the socially constructed definition of wontan,
The fourth chapter moves away from television programming to focus on advertkernents that were aired nationally- Because of the nature of the advertising genre, these clips are more focussed and appear, on the surface, to provide one- dimensional representations of gender roles. In al1 the advertisements held in the Public Archives of Nova Scotia and
the CBC Library from the 1950s and 1960s, three distinct gender constructions of women emerge. Women could be old and grandmother-like, a mode1 housewife. or a young sex-symbol - but never a mixture of the three.
While one might assume the narrow focus of commercials would decrease their power by appealing to a smaller number of wornen, popular-culture historian Stuart Ewen argues that it only intensified their power. By focussing the viewer's attention to convey one message, the advertisers increased their success .'6 Advertisements were more conservative than programming, tightly de£ining gender in a traditional fashion, and appealing to al1 females through their emotions. Fear of not properly fulfilling socially constructed roles was the most prominent emotion displayed by the characters in the ads.
The final chapter synthesizes the materials found in the
first four chapters. Bringing the theories, the people and the programs together, it reviews how CBHT television in
26~tuartEwen, Al1 Consumina Imaaes: The Politics of Stvle in Contem~orarvCulture. (New York: Basic Books, 1988), 58. Ewen argues that by focusing on selling one thing, e.g. the American Dream, many viewers desire to be the person in the ad. 21
Halifax both reinforced and redefined existing social constructions of gender. Chanter One:
Exploring Gender and the Maritimes She would have liked to be a singer.. .But that wasnrt practical. Music had no place on the Shore except in church concerts ...You stayed on the Channel Shore to work and marry. Or you got away from it to go into household service - but that was beneath a McKee. Or do stenography work or teach school. Not to sing."
Charles Brucers novel, The Channel Shore, is a work of fiction, but it speaks to the reality of Nova Scotia life at the time. Hinting at the working-class tradition of service work for women, it also espouses the middle-class ideal that women should only engage in professional work, and that preferably only as a stage before marriage. While working- class women may have worked as servants, the author suggests a white, middle-class woman could never resort to this degradation of their proper place, or assigned social role, in life. In the post war years, this social construction of womanrs 'prirnary" and so-called "traditional" role of wife and mother took on added significance. As in other pcrts of North
America, this middle class norm was aggressively applied to women in general. But as some gender and social theory suggests, even this conservative narrowing of women's roles in the 1950s and early 1960s left room for contradictory elernents and allowed the construction of "woman" to shift . Although today gender roles and expectations still exist,
''charles Bruce, The Channel Shore. (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1987), 10. in the 1950s and early 1960s the white, middle-class espoused a much stronger conception of what constituted proper gender behaviour to society at large. While the man was the breadwinner, the good woman ran the household and looked after her husband without protest and with flaire2' Among the middle class, motherhood was no less than a "social institution" and working middle-class mothers were blamed for increasing rates of child delinquency and divorces. '' The Second World War gave women job opportunities in fields where they had never before worked. 'Sexual boundaries were shifted temporarily" as women were recruited to fil1 male jobs due to labour shortages, but at the end of the war, al1 was expected to go back to "n~rrnal.'"~ Even for women who had spent the entire war at work, 'domestic duties were the central feature of the idealized woman's life."" While not every woman could fit into this role, there was "just enough truth" to perpetuate the myth of the happy housewife of the
1950~.~' Women began marrying younger than their mothers had,
"~ethLight and Ruth Roach Pierson, eds. No Easv Road: Women in Canada 1920s to 1960s. (Toronto: New Hogtown Press, IWO), 160 - 161. "~ight and Pierson, No Easv Road, 167, 174.
'O~ight and Pierson, No Easv Road, 255. 31~renticeet al., Canadian Women, 383. 32~renticeet al., Canadian Women, 341. having more children, and there was a slight drop in the
number of working women immediately following the war. Women
who did continue to work were pushed into the "pink collar"
ghettos as secretaries, caregivers and teachers?
In A Diversity of Women, Joy Parr argues that "flattered
and assured of their immense, if undefined power, women were
simultaneously trivialised at every opportunity."" The message sent to every woman, regardless of class, was that
being a wife and mother was their "real" role, and that working and other non-traditional pursuits were secondary,
took away from the proper role of women, and were even "subtly abnormal ." Parr argues that despite these assumptions, circumstances for women in Ontario during the post-war years were actually "diverse and conflicting ."35 Far from being traditional, the role of stay-at-home mom was just a dream for working-class women and many new immigrants.
Parrrs argument can also be applied to Nova Scotia.
Considered by many early historians as the "conservative" part
of the country, lack of progress in womenrs issues was
o or further elaboration on these points see Light and Pierson, No Easv Road, 300, or Joan Sangster, "Doing Two Jobs: The Wage-Earning Mother 1945 - 1970" in fi Diversitv of Women: Ontario 1945 - 1980, Joy Parr, ed. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1995 ), 101.
34~arr,A Diversitv of Women, 5.
A Diversitv of Women, attributed to the "backward" or "traditional" nature of the
area. Regional historians such as E.R. Forbes have challenged
these interpretations. For example, he claimed that "Maritime
women appear to have led the agitation for admission to the universities," culminating in the awarding of the first
Bachelor of Science degree to a woman at Mount Allison
University in 1870. 36
While Forbes manages to come up with a concrete example of how the Maritimes were not conservative, other historians are not as successful. In The Neglected Majority, Margaret Conrad suggests that she will challenge the title of
'stronghold of conservatism" that has been given to the
Maritimes with regard to womenfs rights, but she does not follow through." Conrad examined the diaries and journals of a number of educated, middle-class, white, Protestant women from the nineteenth-century. She found that instead of challenging traditional patriarchal structure head on, women often found solace in religion from "living in a society where women were legally and morally subordinate to their husband~."~~When econornic circumstances forced some of the
36~rnestR. Forbes, Challenaina the Reaional Stereotvoe.- (Fredericton: Acadiensis Press, 19891, 61. 37~onradf'Recording Angels, " 41. 38~onrad,"Recording Angels," 46. women to leave their homes and seek work in New England, their
journals reveal a constant emphasis on "the survival and value of family, kinship, and community networks" while they were away .39 Conrad rightly argues that the diaries give 'ample evidence on the role of religion, work, family, friendships, migration, class, and gender expectations for women whom we can no longer inter vie^.'"^ However, her emphasis on the importance of women's role in family and church does not challenge the emphasis on regional conservatism put in place by previous historians. In addition, slower urbanization and poorer econornic conditions in the region may explain why
Maritime women were reluctant to fight for the vote, but the fact rernains that, relative to western women, Maritime women were, in fact, more likely to be conservative on this issue.
The Great War gave al1 women of Halifax an opportunity to define themselves in completely new ways. Before the end of the war, they had gained the right to vote and to hold office at federal and provincial levels. In addition, their first aid efforts throughout the War and during the Halifax
Explosion gained the female residents of Halifax a place in history.
--
39~onrad,"Recording Angels, " 51.
40~onrad,The Nealected Maioritv, 57. 28 However, middle-class "feminists failed in their attempts to help women break out of traditional occupation^."^^ While
sorne jobs opened up in munitions factories during the War, its
conclusion led to a return to the roles of wife and mother.
While Forbes challenges a conservative interpretation of
Maritime history, he argues that women's attempts to move outside the home 'ran head on into the cult of dornesti~ity."~'
The 20 years of recession that followed the War helped cement
traditional gender roles. For some women, African Nova
Scotians or those in fishing communities, this meant low paid waged work, often in domestic service. For the majority, it meant economic dependence as a housewife. For ail, marriage and motherhood were the central images they were offered in mainstream discourses. 43
Writing about a working-class Halifax suburb of the
1920s, Suzanne Morton argues that men were supposed to be the breadwinners and wornen were the guardians of the home."
Respectability was gained by "an adherence to comrnunity gender
"~orbes, Challermino the Reaional Stereotv~e,61.
'*~orbes,Challenaina the Reaional Stereotv~e,85. "~eePatricia Connelly and Martha MacDonald, "Womenrs Work: Domestic Labour in a Nova Scotia Community," in Studies in Political Economv. (No. 10, Winter 1983), 56; Morton, Ideal Surroundinas, 73. 44~orton,Jdeal Surroundinas, 36-38. 29 ideals as they dictated that sexual division of labour and appropriate sexual behaviour and allocated the spheres of in£luence. 'f4' Church was a central part of life, and "rnost adult married women found their identity within domestic life. Women were responsible for being good wives, mothers, and da~ghters."'~ These middle-class values permeated the working class, but "regional economic change.. .made the ideal of a male breadwinner natta in able."^'
The Second World War necessitated women's participation in the work force once again, but when peace returned, wornen's opportunities to move beyond the home and non-traditional labour areas fared little better than before. While positions had opened up for women during the war, returning veterans, husbands, the governrnent and more conservatively minded women narrowed the dominant construction of women to that of wife and mother once again. The post Second World War years were ones of great change and development in Nova Scotia. Angus L. Macdonald resumed his reign as premier, actively increasing the role of the
Ideal Surroundinus,
46~orton,Ideal Surroundinas, 37.
47~orton,Ideal Surroundinas, 154.
"~uth Roach Pierson, 'Theyf re Still Women Af ter All, " in The Cha3 3enae of Modernitv. Ian McKay, ed. (Toronto: McGraw-Hill Ryerson Limited, 1992), 407. provincial governrnent in the lives of everyday Nova Scotians.
The Liberal leader created the first education department within the government, oversaw the construction of the Canso
Causeway and a bridge linking Halifax and Dartmouth that bears his name. While moving the provincers economy forward in a apparently modern way, Macdonald showed more restrictive tendencies in the area of culture. Cultural historian Ian
McKay argues that Macdonald was almost single-handedly responsible for the creation of the mythical Scottish culture of Nova S~otia.'~Within this new found cultural identity, was a strict dichotomy of masculine and feminine roles. Highland men were "al1 broad shouldered creatures with pale-blue opaque eyes, high complexions, gnarled hands and features so inelegant as to seem handsome. "50 Women faced similarly limited constructions. In his novel, Each Man's Son, Hugh
MacLennan describes the stereotypical Scottish lass:
Her body was çlim and her pale skin made her seem fragile, just as the eagerness of her srnile showed how vulnerable she was. She had a Celtic delicacy of skin with a rose flush over her cheekbones, and as she leaned back with her chin tilted towards the sky her face seemed even more fragile than her body. It was the younger- than-normal face of a woman who has lived for years with
an McKay, "Tartanism Triumphant : The Construction of Scottishness in Nova Scotia, 1933 - 1954" Acadiensis. (Vol. XXI, No. 2, Spring l992), 18.
50~c~ay,"Tartanism Triumphant," 24. 3 1
a child and for a child-
These new images served more to limit than to expand the social construction of gender within the province at the time.
In addition, the images easily crossed class lines, becoming the ideal for women of every income group.
In 1956, Nova Scotia passed equal pay for equal work legislation, "but no attempt seems to have been made to enforce the la^."'^ As with the rest of Canada, young women were encouraged to enter traditional professions like
'teaching, social work, nursing, and clerical ~ork."~~In addition, "strict quotas were placed on the number of women accepted into many of the professional programs in the region's universities, and women were barred by law and custom f rom the boardrooms, clubs, and taverns ."" Despite challenges and attempts to carve out new roles in the public world,
Conrad argues that the Maritime woman's primary objective, reiterated by books, rnovies, television, and time-honoured social conventions, was to find a h~sband."~~
"~ughMacLennan, Each Man's Son. (Boston: ~ittle, Brown and Company, 1951), 4.
52~onrad,'The 1950s, " 387.
'%onrad, "The 1950s, " 388-
54~onrad,'The 1950s, " 387.
55Conrad, 'The lgSOs, " 388. Writing about campus life in the 1960s, Wendy Morrow provides evidence of some middle-class womenfs adherence to a limited construction of gender norms. She States that while there was a radical element to university life at Dalhousie in the late 1960s amongst both men and women, many young women in the early to mid 1960s were happy with conditions that gave them less freedom than men. The Dalhousie Gazette asked 75 girls who lived at Sheriff Hall residences, 'So who wants to be equal? 98 percent of the girls were unable to even conceive of the notion of freed~rn,"~~The women were perfectly happy to be subjected to a curfew and other rules not applied to the men living in Howe Hall.
In his masters thesis on Halifax men in the 1950~~Chris Dummitt attempts to challenge the assumption that gender roles were clear and woll defined during that period. He argues that "despite the perceived norrnalcy of the breadwinner- hornemaker family, other perspectives - some contradicting this ideal - were present in cultural dis course^."^' Dmitt argues that rather than finding a unique Halifax experience, "the more striking theme in this period is Halifax's integration
s6~endyMorrow, "Competing Visions : Women, Sexuality & Campus Life in Canada During the 1960~~"History honours essay. (Dalhousie, 1997), 53. 57~hrisDummitt, "Better Left Unsaid: Power, Discourse and Masculine Domesticity in Postwar Halifax, 1945 - 1960," History Masters Thesis. (Dalhousie, 1997), 5. 33 into Canadian and North American mass culture. While
Dummitt rightly argues that Halifax - and indeed al1 the Maritimes - were becoming more integrated with the rest of
Canada in the postwar years, a poorer economy and an invented
Scottish tradition gave a unique shape to the region's perceptions of gender.
The literature of the period by MacLennan, Bruce and
Ernest Buckler rornanticized the region, portraying it as a rugged land almost drowning in tradition and its pasL5' Al1 three men create characters that are intricately linked to not only their persona1 past, but their community's past. This point is made most clearly by the character David in Buckler's
Canadian classic, The Mountain and the Valley. The first half of the book "celebrates the cohesiveness of an exceptionally close farnily in a stable, interrelated rural cornmunity in intimate communion with nature."60 The second half of the book tracks David's inability to reconcile this "perfect" past with his present situation? While Buckler originally acknowledged
5B~ummitt,"Better Left Unsaid, " Il.
"~eeBruce, The Channel Shore, MacLennan, Each Mant s SM, and Barbara Pell, A Portrait of the Artist: Enerst Buckler's The Mountain and the Vallev. (Toronto: ECW Press, 1995).
60~ell,A Portrait of the Artj st, 24.
"~ell,A Portrait of the Artist, 72. 34 the Maritime conflict of balancing past and present, this tension disappeared in his later work. His 1968 novel, Ox
Bells and Fireflies, is described as 'a charming fictive mernoir of the Annapolis Valley, tinged with nostalgia but grounded in realism. . .Bucklerr s poetic style seems particularly appropriate to this evocation of a lost idyllic world.
Magazines and newspapers backed up these romantic and regional tendencies. While Maclean's was looking at "The
Second Revolt of 'Modern' Women, Atlantic Advocate was still serving up recipes and giving women advice on how to put on eye rnakeup. In 1965, the magazine began a belated women's page (relegated to the back of each edition) . The first issue included a recipe for never fail icing and showed the reader how to knit potholders .64 The column continued in much the same manner until September of 1967 when it was discontinued.
The page appears to have been replaced with regular fashion updates in alrnost every issue of the magazine ranging from
"Fashions For Fa11 In a Tender Mood" to "Why Are Women So
"~ell,A Portrait of the Artist, 75. 63~obertFulford, \'The Second Revolt of 'Modern' Women" in Maclean's. (Vol. 77, July 25, 1964), 7.
64Vera L. Ayling, "Women' s View" in Atlantic Advocate. (Vol. 55, No. 6, February l96S), 84 - 85. Frightened of FU^?"^^
When the magazine portrayed a working woman, the ways in
which they conformed to societal noms were often ernphasi~ed.~~
For example, in an article about a woman sea captain, it is
emphasized that "Mrs. Adams [can] put on a deft performance with the skillet and keep her snug, seaside home as tidy as the proverbial Dutch kitchen," as well as sail a ship. Her physical description reinforces her femininity. She is described as a "pleasant, soft-voiced woman, with a smart coiffure. "67
Employrnent statistics also suggest that although more
Nova Scotian women were working in the postwar years, they did not join the workforce at the same rate as women in other areas of the country. While the number of women working in
Canada increased from 24 per cent in 1951 to 29.5 per cent in
1961, provincial statistics reveal a more conservative nature in Nova Scotia. While the number of Ontario women working increased £rom 26.5 per cent in 1951 to 32.6 per cent in 1961,
65Gwen Cowley, "Fashions For Fa11 in a Tender Mood" and Norman Hartnell, "Why Are Women So Frightened of Fur?" in Atlantic Advocate. (Vol. 58, No. 1, September 1967), 67, 65.
66~hisargument is based on selected readings in the Atlantic Advocate dating from 1957 to 1970.
67~.1. P. , "Woman Sea Captain" in Atlantic Advocate . (Vol. 47, No. 5, January 1957), 63. in Nova Scotia the figures were 19.9 and 24.5 per cent respectively. This puts Nova Scotia well behind Ontario and the national averagesO6' In his essay on Maritime sexual politics, social commentator Rick Williams argued the middle-class was conservative the 1950s and 1960s. Williams describes the
Annapolis Valley of the late 1950s as
a repressive and backward sexual culture. It was an environment in which anyone who was different £rom the rigidly prescribecf norm was subject to ridicule and persecution: boys who were intellectually or artistically gifted were inevitably "fruits"; girls who were flamboyant or openly expressive of their sexuality were "loose. "" Williams argues that Nova Scotian men of the 1950s and 1960s denied women full status as human beings. He argues that
"this sexually repressive society was one in which women were denied a place as complete persons and as equal subjects of sexuality (and any other kind of cultural expression) .'#'O Men were preoccupied with sex, he recalls, but did not know how to deal with the wornen in front of them. While Williams argues
68~ensusof Canada Series 7.1, "General Review: The Canadian Labour Force Catalogue 99 - 522. (Dominion Bureau of Statistics: Vol. VII, Part l), 12-96.
6g~i~kWilliams, "Growing Up In A Man's World: Maritime Sexual Politics," in Towards a New Maritimes, Ian McKay & Scott Milson, eds. (Charlottetown: Ragweed Press, 1991), 237.
'O~illiams, "Growing Up In A Man's World," 237. 37 that women were denied any kind of sexual expression because they were not fully understood by men, his recollections also suggest that women rnay have played a part in creating the climate of sexual conservatism. Even if this conservatism is understood to have been primarily in men's interest, it need not be seen as entirely in men's control. In other words, lines are never clearly drawn between the subjugator and the subjugated. In effect, there is no one who is ultimately powerful or powerless; negotiations are always ongoing. By understanding the concept of cultural hegemony, historians can
"reconcile the apparent contradictions between the power wielded by dominant groups and the relative cultural autonomy of subordinate groups whom they victimize.""
While societal and media constructions of gender in the
Maritimes rnay have appeared clear, no cultural hegemony is static. In other words, any group within a specific society has the potential to affect the dominant discourse, as long as they can form an ideology to which enough people will agree."
In this new institution, CBC television, some women in the
1950s and 1960s were given a chance to form such an ideology
'l~hese ideas are presented by T.J. Jackson Lears in "The Concept of Cultural Hegemony: Problems and Possibilities" in American Historical Review. (Vol. 90, No. 3, June l985), 568.
72~ears,American Historical Review, 57 1. 38 and to broadcast it. Although they necessarily worked within an existing discourse, middle-class women employed at CBHT in
Halifax were able to expand the social construction of their gender . The term "wornan" aided these women in the forrning of a new ideology. Russian literary critic Mikha.: Bakhtin argues that al1 terms like 'woman" have a plurality of rneanings.
Meanings are always being negotiated and changing due to the situation and the medium which presents them. As a result, "even the rnost successful hegemonic culture creates a situation where the dominant mode of discourse - and each visual or verbal text within it - becomes a field of contention where many-sided struggles over meaning are constantly fought out."73 In other words, language is fluid. So, too, is the category of "women," and its fluidity also helps explain why the women at CBHT were able to challenge feminine norms. If we look at the women of the
1950s as a monolithic category, uniformly defined by the middle-class domestic ideal, we may miss the significance of influential minorities such as the women of CBHT Halifax.
These women existed in relation to the norms of femininity but they were able to work and live at a critical distance from them. One of these women especially made this point, that she
-- ')~ears,American Historical Review, 591. was emphatically not a "traditional" woman. She saw herself
as having to consciously remake the image of femininity as she
worked. In effect, she recognized that "gender was made in circumstances [and is] likely to Vary within time as well as across time, for the circumstances that framed gender were not always the same..."" The women of CBHT were aware that they were taking on
roles. Their effectiveness is explained in part by ideas such
as Judith Butler's. Eutler argues that while sex is predetermined, we put on our gender on a daily basis. In other words, gender is a fom of play-acting with a very well defined script. She points to the irony between acting and daily life. While people accept, even applaud, actors who
step beyond gender constructions on stage, it is not acceptable behaviour off stage. This is because gender
constructions in daily life are not acknowledged as such. People act on stage, but people do not act in "real" life. She argues that when the theories of performance are applied
to gender,
it is clear that although there are individual bodies that enact these significations by becoming stylized into gendered modes, this 'actionf is immediately public as
"~oyParr, "Gender History and Historical Practice" in The Canadian Historical Review. (Vol. 76, September 1995), 375; Roberta Hamilton, Genderina the Vertical Mosaic: Feminist Pers~ectiveson Canadian Societv. (Toronto: Copp Clark Limited, l996), 71. well. There are temporal and collective dimensions to these actions, and their public nature is not inconsequential; indeed, the performance is effected with the strategic airn of maintaining gender within its binary frame .75 Butler's theories are backed by David Harris. Like Butler, he argues that persona1 identities have a social base and that
"identities are provided (in various ways), supplemented and negotiated, and reinforced in concrete social settings ."" He argues that socialization begins with the family and continues throughout life. However, it is with the family that the child begins to learn that s/he is male or female, and later gain masculine or ferninine traitse7' This theory is backed by sociologists who argue that 'by the age of two children are aware of gender stereotypes and by the age of four or £ive they can identify 'menf sr and 'women' sr jobs ranking men's of greater importance. Harris's and Butler's ideas allow us to see why television was both conservative and a force for change.
Television personalities, whether a singer on Don Messer's
Jubilee, or a serious staff announcer on The Gazette, can be
75~~tler,Theatre Journaa, 526. 76~avidHarris, A Societv of Sians? (New York: Routledge, l996), 177.
77 Harris, A Societv of Siuns?, 179.
78~.~.Wilson, Women, The Familv and The Economv. (Toronto: McGraw-Hill Ryerson Limited, 1986), 33. 41 viewed as being, in a sense, actors. By placing television within the realm of entertainment, like theatre, gender boundaries become acceptably crossable. At the sarne time, documentary and news programs were supposedly designed to reflect accurately the lives of the people they portrayed. In these aspects of television the importance of maintaining traditional gender constructions increases, giving television less flexibility than theatre to play with gender roles. As a result of its ambiguous position, television as a whole found itself in the unique situation of being able to cross gender boundaries, and also to clairn to reflect daily life.
The ability of television to sit between the realm of reality and fantasy allowed the exploration of new gender constructions to take place. Television becarne a site for the negotiation of new gender roles, while at the same time a place for repeated enactment of normative social positions.
While programs like Don Messer's Jubilee appealed to a mythical past, programs like the Gazette offered Maritimers new directions. Such ambiguity meant that no single gender role was imposed, but that gender could be truly 'what is put on, invariably, under constraint, daily and incessantly, with anxiety and pleasure. ""
"~utler, Theatre Journal, 531. CBHT Halifax: Recons tructing the Station 43
On January 30, 1950, a television aerial was placed on the roof of Blighrs Radio on Quinpool Road in Halifax. The aerial allowed some residents to pick up limited amounts of
American programming. During that same period, residents of
Yarmouth reported limited reception in their end of the province, but most people did not have televisions. Three years later, the CBC had opened its doors in Toronto and
Montreal, but Nova Scotia was still without a television station. City dwellers who owned television sets remarked that reception was better in warm weather than colde0, but there was still no Canadian programming for them to watch. A
CBC study about life before television described Halifax as 'one of the very few centres in Canada, probably the largest, which was not within range of first class television reception ."'' The Canadian governrnent feared the influence of American programming on the Canadian viewing public. In order to limit the impact of American culture entering Canadian homes via television, one of the rnost important goals of the Canadian
Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) was to "create and transmit
w~alifaxMail-Star. (October 1, l953), 3.
''A Studv of A Canadian Communitv Before ~elevisioq (Ottawa: CBC Audience Research Division, 19561, 1-2. Canadian culture. While CBC television was modelled after the BBC and CBC radio, rapid changes brought about by the new medium created instability within the institution. As a xesult, space was provided for women as broadcasters and audience mernbers to negotiate new gender roles. Following quickly at the heels of its Arnerican neighbour, the CBC began operating out of Toronto and Montreal in 1952.
In October of 1954 the CBC expanded to the Maritimes, opening a temporary station at the College Street School in Halifa~.'~
For the most part, Haligonians were ready and waiting for television to reach their city. Most receptive to the new medium were "the middle age groups who [were] more or less established and whose children would be of school age.""
Lower income families were more hesitant about the new medium due to economic constraint~.~~In anticipation of television's arriva1 in Halifax, sets were airlifted to the city by TCA
North Star throughout 1954.86 On December 20 of that year, the
"~ary Vipond, The Masç Media in Canada. (Toronto: James Lorimer & Company, 1992), 50 -51. "DOU~Kerby and Geoff DfEon, CBC Halifax: Historv. First Internet History Project prepared by Doug Kerby for Ryerson History of Broadcasting Pilot, April 12, 1996.
"A Communitv Before Television, 1-18.
"A Cummunitv Before Television, w'~elevision Sets Corne By Airlift" The Halifax Mail- Star (December 21, 1954), 3 regional station made its broadcasting debut with local radio star, Don Tremaine, reading the news. He was followed by Max Ferguson, Pat Connolly and Rube Hornstein in the first edition of the oldest and longest running program, Gazette, now known as First Edition. In the cramped quarters of one of the oldest schools in Halifax (dating back to the nineteenth century) the new medium of television attempted to establish itself as the "regional anchor for the network in Tor~nto."~' Under the control of Maritime Regional Director Captain
W.E.S. Briggs (CBC vice-president 1960-1967) and Director of
Television Fred Brickenden, the small station gained a stronger presence in the region over the next few years. On
June 24, 1955 a 1000 kilowatt antenna was placed on top of
Geizerrs ~ill This permanent antenna expanded the stationfs coverage to the Annapolis Valley, the South Shore and al1 of
Central and Eastern Nova Scotia. In October of the next year,
CBHT Halifax opened its studio and auxiliary facilities on
Bell Road where it has remained to the present day. Approximately 1,200 people partook in the official ceremony opening the new ~tation.'~ In 1956, official sign-on time at
"~erb~and Df Eon, CBC Hal ifax HistoTV.
"~erb~and D'Eon, CBC Halifax: Historv. ""0ver 1,200 View Opening of New CBC Building Here" Halifax Chronicle Herald (October 22, 1956), 1. And also see: "Colorful Ceremony Marks Opening Of CBC Studios" ,W. 46
CBHT Halifax was 4:30 p.m-, this was gradually pushed back to
9 a.m. throughout the 1970s and 80~~~~
Halifax was one in a number of expansive regional
stations that branched out of the English head office, CBLT
Toronto and French head office CBFT Montreal* Unlike the
United States governrnent, Canada's federal authorities decided
that "in the interest of equity, no competition [would bel
allowed; each market area could have only one station until most of the country had some service."g1 This resulted in
forty-seven stations in Canada by 1960, 'nine CBC and the rest privately owned CBC affilia te^.''^^ A second station - CJCH - which was affiliated with CTV on the national network, did not open in Halifax until 1961. By this time, more than three quartsrs of Canadians owned television sets and "television had become the number one in-home leisure activity of canadians. "93
With a central office dictating policy to regional stations across the country, CBHT Halifax developed in a similar fashion to other CBC stations. For the most part,
- - Halifax Mail-Star (October 22, 1956), 3.
"~erb~and DtEon, ÇBC Halifax: Historv.
"~ipond, The Mass Media In Canadq, 48.
92~ipond,Mass Media, 48, 49.
93~ipond,pass Medj,a, 49. 47 television was an old boy's club, A quick look at the list of
CBC chief officers from its founding in 1936 until August of
1975 illustrates the power of this bias. Not one woman was a chief officer of the corporation during the first 40 years of its existenceag4 As for the on air positions, the men who had made it big in radio, simply switched hats and proceeded to create the same tradition in the exciting new medium, In the early days of television in Halifax, CBC television and radio duties were often shared by the same men. As part of the job description of staff announcer, employees were expected to work wherever the company sent them. For former staff announcers Jim Bennet and Don Tremaine, this often meant radio duties at noon, followed by television ones later in the dayog5
Unlike today when broadcast journalists and personalities are hired on a contract basis for specific programs, the CBC's staff announcers appeared on programs ranging from musical entertainment to news. While Jim Bennet became associated with the Singalong Jubilee and Don Tremaine with Don Messer's
Jubilee, they also worked for the Gazette and could appear
%~erb~& Dr Eon, ÇBC: A Brjef Historv, 27.
95~hisinformation was provided by Jim Bennet, Don Tremaine, Rube Hornstein and Frank Stalley in personai interviews conducted between May and July 1998. wherever a talking head was req~ired.'~
Along with the new duties came excitement for those
involved in the early years of the medium. Frank Stalley, who
worked in management in Halifax, began his career in music.
Born in Stratford, Ontario in 1924, Stalley studied music for
a year in England and spent the war years at the University of
Toronto. Not completing his music degree, Stalley rnoved ont0
the Royal College of Music where he cornpleted an English
degree and began teaching school. The work dissatisfied him,
and he soon found himself heading back to Stratford to take a
job at the radio station that was run by a close family
f riend. From there Stalley' s broadcasting career took off.
He headed to North Bay, followed by New Mexico, Los Angeles
and San Francisco. Fearing the draft during the Korean War, he returned to Canada where he become radio program director with the CBC in Sarnia, Ontario. In 1953, Stalley joined CBC
television as a staff announcer in Toronto. He remembers the atmosphere around Canada's largest station fondly:
Nobody knew anything about TV. You used to go into work everyday and it was a learning experience because we were al1 thrown in the deep end of the tank together; we had to learn by trial and error, that's how you learned. It was great fun. ''
%~imBennet referred to staff announcers as "talking heads" in his interview in June, 1998.
97 Persona1 interview with Frank Stalley, July 1998. Like radio, CBC television purchased popular American programming from the start." As a result, the CBC decided to make its mark in the separate areas of serious news reporting and documentaries. In Halifax, local and regional programming were especially vital. A survey conducted in 1954, just weeks before CBHT Halifax opened, found those surveyed wanted a heavy influence on Maritime programming, "but while dogmatically subscribing to this principle, there was little consensus on what such programs should be about."* Four years later, little had changed. While a rnajority of 666 people surveyed (56 per cent) were satisfied with the amount of local programs of primarily local or regional interest, 33 per cent felt there was too little, nine per cent didn't know and only two per cent felt there was too rnu~h.'~~Middle aged viewers
(between the ages of 35 and 55) were most likely to want more local coverage, but sex and education level did not influence these numbers .'O1 When asked to identif y particular local
"~ipond, The Mass Media in Canada, 50.
99A Comrnunitv Before Television, 1-19. While no gender breakdown is given with regard to opinions, there were slightly more women than men surveyed in accordance to the local population. lW"~ttitudesToward Local and Regional Television Programs" The 1958 Halifax Studv of Leisure Time Activities in the Aae of Television, (Ottawa: CBC Audience Research Division, l959), 2.
"'~ttitudes, 1958 Halifax Studv, 2,3. programs they would like to see more of, men more easily identified particular shows. Womenrs "interest [in particular programs] seemed to increase with their educati~n."~~~ Programs in highest demand were those publicizing and promoting the Maritimes. Fifty per cent of the respondents asking for more local programming requested these types of shows. Next in line were requests for musical programs, especially shows like Don Messer. Taking a close third were documentaries, interviews and panel shows like Gazette. Much
further down the list, and grouped together with children's programs, was women's programming. A mere four per cent of those surveyed felt more women's and children's programs were needed. More noteworthy is the fact that "men and women mentioned the various program types in almost the same order ...age, like sex, made practically no difference in the order of preference expressed for various types of regional-
interest programs. "lo3
During the time of the survey, the only CBHT program directed specifically at women was The Joan Marshall Show. This program will be discussed in the next chapter. Audience
Io2~ttitudes,1958 Halifax Studv, 5. This fact has a footnote which reads: "because of the small sample size, however, the probability is only slightly less than 1 in 5 that this difference is due to chance sample variation." "'~ttitudes, 1958 Halifax Study, 7. 5 1 feedback shows that women rated the importance of Gazette, Don
Messer, City Reporter, news and weather and Souvenir (a short musical interlude) as more important to them than The Joan
Marshall Show. In addition, although statistics are within a few percentage points, the program appears to have attracted a larger following among women over the age of 55."' Jim
Bennet was CO-host on the show and remembers the program had moved £rom radio to television. It was the first women' s . television show in Halifax "which was a daytime show because al1 the nice little housewifies were home at noontime. It was crafts and cooking and the stuff you'd find on the women's page in the newspapers of the day."lo5
Since no other audience studies were undertaken at CBHT
Halifax, one can only speculate as to why there is a lack of a gender gap between programs enjoyed by men and programs enjoyed by women. It would, however, suggest that a binary opposition did not divide local men's and women's tastes in television, This, in turn, could explain why women's programming headed towards public affairs over the next decade, gaining a strong following by both sexes. Since men and women were looking for the same things in programming, it stands to reason that wornen began to play a larger role in the
IW~ttitudes,J958 Halifax Studv, Tables G & H.
'05~ersonalinterview with Jim Bennet, June 1998. creation of al1 kinds of programming on television during the
1960s. Women did not put great value in women's programrning, so it makes sense that those programs eventually disappeared, or were replaced by current affairs prograrns aimed at a more general audience.
While the space for change is notable, changes were slow.
Marilyn MacDonald was one of the first women to move into the male world of news reporting. MacDonald was born in the small town of New Waterford, Cape Breton, but moved to Halifax with her family at the age of ten. MacDonald attended public school at Queen Elizabeth High on Tower Road with her younger sister. Remaining in the city, she completed both a B.A. and
M.A. in English at Dalhousie. She went straight to work at the Chronicle Herald in 1965, but moved to CBHT within the next year. MacDonald, who became the first full-time female host on the suppertime news program Gazette, remernbers the atrnosphere at CBHT Halifax when she began working there in
there were women there who were full time staff employees, but they tended to be script assistants, clerical workers, secretaries, librarians, etc... There were some women on air, very few, and mostly relegated to what would be known then as the women's ghetto, that is daytime programming. There were to the best of my recollection, certainly no women in the newsroom, and there were no women announcers. 106
'%ersonal interview with Marilyn MacDonald, June 1998. 53 Jobs at the station were divided into male and female categories. Men read the news, produced shows and managed the station. Women were their secretaries, script assistants, or handled programs of specific interest to women or children.
No laws were laid down in writing, there was just an understanding that that was the way things worked, and for the most part, both sexes agreed to the arrangement.lo7
While women were missing from the managerial ranks, news programming and production j obs, a women' s interest department was set up at CBC Toronto in early 1955. Frank Stalley worked in this department with Helen James and her assistant Kay
McIver. He remembers the department as being very influential, its biggest success story being Take Thirty and its predecessor, Open House. Perhaps as a result of its success, the womenfs interest department was eventually absorbed by the public affairs department at head office, and a specific womenrs interest department disappeared during the
1960s.
While Take Thirty dealt with controversial issues like abortion, Stalley says the program and the corporation as a whole were always careful not to push things too far. The
107~onfirmedby Marilyn MacDonald, Don Tremaine, Jim Bennet and especially Frank Stalley who worked in management. Stalley made direct reference to the "unwritten law ." 54 program "tried to lead in a way, but not get out in front of the public to the extent that the public would shut thern do~n."'~~When pressed about how the CBC knew what public opinion was, Stalley said no surveys were taken, managers just relied on their "gut instincts" to determine what the public could or could not handle. This resulted in the station leaning towards the conservative side of the spectrum.
The same method was used with regard to advertisements.
Stalley remembers a meeting with regional heads and the CBC president Alphonse Ouimet at head office in Ottawa, during 1965 or 1966. He said that there was a list of about 25 products which CBC television refused to advertise. The list included over-the-counter drugs like Nytol, womenrs bras and toilet tissue. The debate that day was on whether or not to begin accepting advertisements for womenr s bras and toilet tissue. Stalley says the English network managers from
Toronto were pushing to allow the advertising to increase revenue. However, the men did not get their way, and at the end of the day, "the president finally ruled, this was
Alphonse Ouimet, 'No, we will not do it. It's too soon; the public is not ready for this.' "log A study conducted in April of 1967 by the research department found that ads for toilet
108~ersonalinterview with Frank Stalley, July 1998. 10g~ersonalinterview with Frank Stalley, July 1998. paper were actually quite popular, but viewers did not enjoy
ads for women's underwear."' Caution with such intimate
products was, again, emphasized.
While debates raged on in Toronto, personalities at CBHT
Halifax carried out the running of their station with little
knowledge of behind the scenes workings. In interview after
interview with former CBC employees, the men rernarked that the lack of women in the newsroom was just taken for granted. Jim
Bennet explained the mindset of most men and women working at
the station:
Women were never auditioned [for news] , it was just taken for granted. They didnft apply, they were not auditioned, so it was de facto a man's job as the script assistant was a woman's job.. .I never stopped to think about it. As with al1 prejudices, that's just the way it was, it was ingrained, you were barn into a world like that and unless you had reason to be a reformer, that was the way it was.l1'
Don Tremaine and Rube Hornstein, who spent years together
working on Gazette, remember the arguments given as to why
women could not read the news. Tremaine stated that "the idea was that women particularly could not read the news on radio
and television because their voices were not sufficiently
l1Osee tables 3 and 5 in 'A CBC Research Report: Public Attitudes & Reactions to Certain Aspects of Television Advertising with Particular Reference to the Advertising of Persona1 & Intimate Products" (CBC Research Ottawa, TV/67/36, April 1967), 7, 12. ersona on al interview with Jim Bennet, June 1998. authoritative. "'12 Although Stalley pushed for wornen's advancement into management positions in the 1960s, to this day he believes that wornen are not capable of delivering the news in the same way that men are. Looking back, he said that the news had an aura around it and it was felt that men were the "best to read the news because of the timbre of their voice and it was more effective than a fernale voice reading the news." He added, '1 may be old fashioned, but 1 still think that today that the male voice, and itfs not anti-women because I've laid my career on the line more than once in my career to get a woman promoted in management," is bettes for reading the newswn3 As Jim Bennet stated, most men at the station were oblivious to feelings their female counterparts had of discontentment. However, Don Tremaine remembers one conversation he had with Libby Christianson (Look in on Libby) during which she expressed a desire to change her prescribed gender role at the station:
1 knew Libby used to get very upset. She knew al1 kinds of sociological things, scientific things, she was very well educated, she thought, "God, here 1 am stuck with a bloody cookbook here when 1 could be doing a whole lot more interesting stuff," but it wasnrt in the cards at
ersona on al interview with Don Trentaine, May 1998. '%ersonal interview with Frank Stalley, July 1998. the time. And that applied nationally t~o."~
While on one level, doors appeared shut to women, they were never locked. Television never excluded women to the extent of radio, and eventually gender roles began to loosen permitting women to move into new areas. In 1967, Marilyn
MacDonald said she didn't know what producers were expecting when they asked her to host a womanfs program called Homebase, but with a Masters Degree in English £rom Dalhousie and a background in the new field of journalism, MacDonald had no intention of making it a traditional woman's prograrn."5 Given the space and freedom from her producers, MacDonald said she was able to create new gender roles on television, ones that she could identify with, and ones she felt were missing from the CBC lineup. She describes women's programming that came before as "traditional." By this she meant aimed at housewives, rather than the growing number of career-oriented, single and married working women, or even women with interests beyond their husbands and children. MacDonald saw herself in a different manner from the images presented to her on CBC television. Conscious of the fact that her program would reach thousands of viewers, she used the medium to shape gender roles. She said, '1 didn't
ersona on al interview with Don Tremaine, May 1998. er ers on al interview with Marilyn MacDonald, June 1998. see myself in that mold [traditional woman] and obviously if
1 was going to do something it would not have beer. possible for me to perfom in the traditional mold that had constituted womenrs programming on the CBC.""~ At the same tirne, it was not smooth sailing for MacDonald,
1 do remember being called into the program director's office once and being told, "We like what yourre doing, itfs very good, but we hope that yourre not going to forget your audience. And werre not saying that you have to be a home economist, but you don't have to be a political economist". And 1 thought, "Oh, ohf I know what Ifrn hearing here.""'
MacDonald began working for Gazette as a researcher in
1967. In 1969, she was asked to join the staff on-air.
Marion MacGillvary and Libby Christianson had both read on the news and did an interview for the program on occasion, but
MacDonald was the first full-time woman host on CBHT's most popular show. She remembers the problerns producers had with her voice, "1 did hear that quite often, could you speak up, could you speak up was always coming at me in the studio and there was certainly a legitimate problem, at least they thought in managing the fernale voice because of course the equipment had never been designed that way.""8 MacDonald said that the voice problem disappeared with the introduction of
ersona on al interview with Marilyn MacDonald, June 1998. er ers on al interview with Marilyn MacDonald, June 1998. ersona on al interview with Marilyn MacDonald, June 1998. FM, but when she left Gazette in 1972 during pregnancy with her first child, she had never read the news once on the air.
MacDonald said her biggest hurdle on Gazette was the audience. She said that 'as [far as] the audience was concerned 1 tended to stick out more and therefore there was a great deal more attention paid to what 1 did, what 1 wore, definitely what 1 wore, how 1 wore my hair.""9 She added that she knew it was part of the job, but on a persona1 level she couldnft help resenting the fact that it was her long-style hippie dresses the audience comrnented on, and not her abilities as an interviewer.
MacDonald served a brie£ term on the Nova Scotia Advisory
Board on the Status of Women, but was never what she would cal1 an active feminist. She always befieved in the cause, but chose to express her support through her work on television. Like Tremaine, Hornstein and Bennet, she remernbers the atmosphere at CBC as being very amicable.
People got along and no one seemed to question her ability to do her job. But in retrospect, she says that she now sees there were barriers that would have limited her abilities to rise to a higher position at the CBC. MacDonald said, there was certainly a glass ceiling, therefs not much question about that and 1 think that it is difficult £rom rny point of view, 1 was so happy to be doing the work
ersona on al interview with Marilyn MacDonald, June 1998. that 1 was doing that 1 quite honestly canrt Say that 1 spent a great deal of tirne.. .I think about it more in retrospect than I did at the time.'"
In addition, MacDonald said that she was constantly harassed on the job: 'It could be touching, arm around the shoulders, pat on the behind, a kiss on the cheek that you didnrt ask for or request...it was a pretty gamey atmosphere. "lzl While she recognizes that she was harassed by
1990 office standards, at the same time, she said that she did not feel like a victim; instead, she was angered:
1 guess 1 never thought of myself as being helpless in those situations, but it was infuriating from time to time, 1 mean, 'Who asked you to do this kind of thing, or speak to me in this way?" You would try to be polite, but they were colleagues and you tried to think of them in that way and you tried to be professional, but then you would go away just burning. 12'
MacDonald looks back with a slight bitterness at an interview she had that would have seen her return to Gazette after the birth of her first child. She never got a response
£rom the producer, but heard later that he had found her very intimidating. Loosely speculating, MacDonald added, "1 don't know what he meant, but maybe 1 didnrt simper and giggle much. She says the harassrnent she faced at work may have
mu ers on al interview with Marilyn MacDonald, June 1998. er ers on al interview with Marilyn MacDonald, June 1998.
'2~ersonal interview with Marilyn MacDonald, June 1998. er ers on al interview with Marilyn MacDonald, June 1998. 61 led her to be superprofessional, resulting in the loss of some of her natural warmth on the television screen. In other words, the discriminatory conditions forced MacDonald to alter the gender role she would have liked to present to the audience. Despite barriers and discrimination that were typical of al1 mixed-sex work environments during the period, women like
MacDonald, Christianson and later, Sheila Urquhart and their male counterparts consciously and unconsciously challenged and changed gender roles at CBHT Halifax. While beauty and brains went hand in hand as job qualifications for women, by the late 1960s, wornen were beginning to move into traditionally male roles at the station in increasing numbers. There is not one explanation as to why the changes happened, but the women's movement combined with pressure from strong women within the station were two of the most important influences.
The Gazette's meteorologist and popular personality, Rube
Hornstein, would suggest it was the element of beauty that allowed women to advance as quickly as they did in the medium of television. After completing degrees in physics at Western and the University of Toronto, Hornstein began working in weather for the Eastern Air Comrnand Headquarters during the war. He later moved into public weather reports on radio and became a local icon on the Gazette. Hornstein theorizes that while the non-visual radio was considered male territory, a
pretty face on the television screen was much harder to resist. He earnestly said,
womanrs physical appearance would give them an advantage in television which they did not have in radio. The male attention is riveted on them just for the looks, then it turns out that not only do they have looks, but they have brains and they're able to use those brains, then they' ve got the thing made. May not be the right way to go about things, but thatfs the way life is.lZ4
Bennet added that while television was a bastion of patriarchy, it was not the last barricade to fall. He sees
the entire CBC as being conservative, but also as moving grudgingly along with society at large. Speaking about the
corporation, he said it did not change the world, but followed it . It "went along with the manners and mores of the time and it reflected them. What you see is what you got. And complete with the sirnrnering resentment Ifm sure there waSr itrs not obvious, itrs not blatant. Very subtle and
subdued . "lL5
The new medium of television posed a number of obstacles
to the perpetuation of gender roles established in previous media. Television reached thousands of viewers and unlike the
writer's cutline under a story in a newspaper, the broadcaster's face and words were beamed directly into
"4~ersonalinterview with Rube Horns tein, June 1998. 'U~ersonalinterview with Jim Bennet, June 1998. 63 viewersr homes. The openness of the forum helped it to reach a diverse audience, and so multiplied the opportunities for multiple interpretations. While women were initially relegated to women's programming, their beauty and brains gave them the power to move beyond the restrictive gender division of labour the CBC attempted to establish. Chamter Three
Don Messer' s Jubilee : Gender Construction in Progrdng 65
While designating certain jobs masculine and others ferninine was one way in which the CBC created gender roles, it was not the only way. Television programming also drew on a number of inconsistent constructions of gender provided by society at the time. As discussed earlier, gender roles are an abs tract notion rather than expressions of bodily dif f erences . Consequently, they are able to fluctuate in order to fit the dominant discourse of a particular society at a particular tirne in history. However, as discussed in chapter one, changes in discourse and in the social formation interact, so that the fit between gender roles and other aspects of the culture may be disrupted. In such circumstances in the 1960s, even a generally conservative force such as CBHT Halifax both maintained and challenged traditional gender roles.
The 1960s was a period of both continuity and transition for Canadian women, those of Halifax being no exception. While the number of single wornen in the labour force increased modestly in the post-war years, the number of married women working increased dramatically. Between 1951 and 1961, the number of married women in the Canadian workforce increased by
151.5 per cent. Nova Scotia did not lag far behind, boasting an increase of 134.5 per cent in married female workers compared with a 140 per cent increase in on tari^."^ This
phenomenal increase did not change the fact that married women were still less likely than single women to be wage earners.
Even though the number of single working women in Nova Scotia
decreased by 3.7 per cent between 1951 and 1961, they were
still 47.1 per cent of single women in 1961. By contrast that
same year, the enlarged group of married women workers
represented only 17.2 per cent of married women. "'
In some ways, as part of the national patterns of change in married women's work, Nova Scotian women' s wage earning moved as rapidly in the new direction. Nova Scotia's women's labour force was similar to Ontario's in that both suffered a
3.7 decrease in the number of single women working. Nova
Scotia, however, lagged behind the trend, led by Ontario of a growing number of wage earning morns in the workforce. '28
Labour force participation was not the only change in the wind. Ferninist Betty Friedan' s book, The Ferninine Mystique, not to mention Gloria Steinem's ferninist journalism, had widespread appeal and influence over gender roles. These and
lZ6~eneralReview: The Canadian Labour Force, 1961 Census of Canada (Queen's Printer and Controller of Stationary: Ottawa, 1967) 12-102, 12-104.
"'~ercentages derived £rom 1961 Census of Canada, 12- 96.
"'~eneral Review, Census 1961, 12-96. 67 other powerful women pushed the limits of traditional femininity. Equal pay for equal work, but more basically, equality of the sexes was the most important goal of the liberal feminists- These social forces culminated in the striking of the Royal Commission on the Status of Women in
1967, abortion debates, Ms. magazine, burning bras at the Miss Arnerica Pageant and the decaying of the post-war nuclear family through divorce. Surrounded by these blatant threats to established middle-class gender roles, especially with entertainment programming, television's conservatism often appeared to "def y social realities . Popular entertainment such as Don Messer's Jubilee largely ignored the changes taking place outside of the studio. Entertainment programs were designed simply to entertain, not to enlighten or challenge the viewers. With its traditional wholesome music and smiling asexual hosts, Don Messer's Jubilee could not have done a better job at providing this needed distraction from reality .
At the same time, television provided space for changing gender roles. While the Atlantic Advoca te left womenrs issues beyond the kitchen and fashion to Chatelaine and other national magazines, Halifax television dove into the North
American pond, portraying women in new ways. While Don
'29~pigel,Make Room for TV, 4. 68 Messer's Jubilee bespoke comforting familiarity, new gender roles radiated £rom womenf s and public affairs programs on the television set. Whether as an instigator or reflector of expanding gender roles during the 1960s, television programming illuminates the dramatic changes that were afoot. While the 1960s was not a period of spectacular change at CBHT Halifax, programming in this period set the stage for the restructuring that would take place in the 1970s and 1980s at
CBC stations across the entire country. While these changes were reflected in public affairs programs of the 1960s, social commentator Rick Williams argues that Maritimers in the 1950s and 1960s chose "to sing sea shanties and romanticize the rugged life of these simple folk by the sea, rathex than to point out where al1 the bodies are buried."13' Don Messer's Jubilee is the kind of program that confirms Williamfs observation. That this variety show is part of a larger pattern is suggested by the fact that at least hal£ of the material from the early years of television at the Public Archives of Nova Scotia deals with the lives of fishers, sea songs and life at sea."' As stated, gender roles do not smoothfy move from one stage into the next. This argument is clearly illustrated
'3%illiams,"~rowing Up In A Manrs World," 237.
Halifax Binders 1-3 #0038. PANli. through the existence of innovative "wornan's" programming like
the national program, Take Thirty, and locally produced
Homebase, alongside more "traditionally" minded shows li ke Don
Messer's Jubilee. Take Thirty was one of CBC television's
longest running productions and had a viewing audience of
close to half a million throughout its entire run. At the
same time, Don Messer's Jubilee ran as a national program for more than a decade and rounded up 3,396,000 viewers as late as
March of 1969."2 For a brie£ period in 1961, Don Messer's
Jubilee rose so high in the CBC ratings that 'it was the most popular show throughout Canada, ahead of Hockey Night and Ed
Sullivan.""' This chapter will explore these two popular, yet very divergent, programs and the different gender roles they presented to CBC viewers.
Don Messerfs Jubilee
Don Messer's Jubilee began as a regional prograrn in 1956.
Its popularity soon reached beyond the region and in 1959, it went on the national net~ork.'~"oor an entire decade, the
132~nformationwas provided by CBC Toronto £rom A.C. Neilson and BBM random audience data.
'33~aulRutherford, When Television Was Youna: Primetirne Canada 1952 - 1967. (University of Toronto Press: Toronto, l99O), 206.
134~hisinformation was found in CBC Halifax Historv, a binder at the CBC Library prepared by Doug Kerby as an Internet history project for the Ryerson History of Broadcasting Pilot, 12 April 1996. 70 program was broadcast across the country to an audience of millions, becoming one of the most famous national programs
originating frorn CBC Halifax. It was a musical variety show.
Fiddler Don Messes and his Islanders had begun their career in
radio during the 1930s, but the advent of television brought a new direction to them. Making the best use possible of CBC
Halifax's limited budget, producers Jack O'Neil, and later
Bill Langstroth, created with Don Messer's Jubilee, a hit television program. "5
The thirty-minute program aired weekly and revolved around Marg Osborne and Charlie Chamberlain. Don Tremaine hosted the show, introducing each number and engaging Don Messer, Marg, Charlie and the guests, in short banter between performances. In addition to these characters, the eight mernber Buchta Dancers troop was part of the weekly lineup.
Don Meçser's Jubilee was the prototype in wholesome, f amily television entertainment. Well past the age of 50,
Marg and Charlie provided a family-like structure to the program with no sexual tension. Musical numbers on the program consisted of old favorites and theme nights. The
French Canadian episode featured Charlie, Marg, Don Tremaine and guest Margo Grave1 singing "Alouette", while the "Indian" episode featured songs such as "Little Mohic" and the cowboy
135~~~~Halifax. Binder 1 #0038. PANS. 71 song, 'My Madonna of the rail"."^ After twenty-minutes or so of singing and dancing, the
show prepared to wrap up with quiet tirne. While Charlie
Chamberlain and special guests often joined her, Marg led the quiet time song. Whether they sang "May the Good Lord Bless
You and Keep You", or "Did You Stop to Pray This Morning?",
the selection was always religious. The hymn was followed by thanks to the guests by Don Tremaine and an upbeat send-off
number from Don Messer and his Islanders.
Viewing episodes from 1964 through to 1969 contained at
the Public Archives of Nova Scotia, one sees few changes in
the format over the years. While the once staple ad for
Massey Ferguson eventually shares the spotlight with ads for Timex, Jell-O, Shake and Bake and other convenience products,
the show itself attempted to remain the same. The biggest
changes were the temporary introduction of Catherine MacKinnon as a regular singer, and the eventual addition of Johnny
Forrest as a regular alongside Marg and Charlie. While Johnny appeared in the show weekly, he remained a separate entity, always leaving the frame in the opposite direction of Marg and
Chârlie.
Johnny Forrest gave viewers across Canada a taste of Nova
136p on Messes's Jubi.lee, Fb1723 Mf254-1 January 6, 1964 and Fb1725 Mf254-3 January 31, 1966. Scotia's Scottishness. Building on the myths developed by Premier Angus L. MacDonald and others in earlier decades, Johnny wore a kilt and sang exclusively Scottish songs.'" On occasion, he spoke affectionately of the homeland and played up his accent to the best of his ability. He always stood alone and did not seem to fit into the farnily structure that Marg and Charlie had created. He was a lone Scotsman on the program,
While Johnny upheld the myth of Scottishness in Nova Scotia, Marg upheld Victorian ideals of womanhood. She dressed well in fancy dresses, but as stated above, was always asexual. In addition, by making quiet time hers, Marg was in charge of the religious portion of the show. This too followed the Victorian gender roles which placed women as the guardians and enforcers of morality and family values.
By holding a job at CBC and appearing on a national program, Marg was arguably not following 'traditional" gender roles. But the image she presented on Don Messer's Jubilee outweighed the fact that she was a working woman. In addition, being an older woman with grown children, she would not be considered to be neglecting her duties as a mother.
an an McKay discusses these myths and the role of former Premier Macdonald in creating a Scottish culture in Nova Scotia in his essay "Tartanism Triumphant" in Acadiensis. Canadian media historian Paul Rutherford describes Marg as "a plump, cheerful woman who struck observers more as a housewife than as a television ~elebrity."'~~
While Marg can be viewed as asexual, it is interesting to note that the attractiveness of talented women who appeared on the show was always noted. For example, rhen Lynn Shaw appeared on the Saint Patrick's Day special wearing an above- the-knee, fitted dress and her blond hair coiffed in the latest style, Johnny Forrest remarked to guest host Gerry
Foggerty that "when you know a pretty young colleen that sings well, you just donrt let out that secret, you've got to tell everyone about it .
Don Tremaine also played up to the attractive female guests and the Buchta Dancers. In one episode, Don takes the hands of each female dancer to help thern stand up after a routine. Jokingly, he says, 'Ah, mes chéries, vous êtes très charmantes". While he announces the upcoming sponsor, Don looks at the dancer to his left. As he finishes the plug, he growls sexually at the dancer, and she replies with a nervous giggle as the camera cuts to the c~rnrnercial.'~~
138~utherford,Primetirne Canada, 205.
'39~onMessert s Jubilee, Fb2143 Mf254-36, January 16, 1967.
160~on Messer' s Jubilee, Fb1723 Mf254-1, January 6, 1964. Don Messerrs Jubilee remained basically unaltered throughout its run, but its summertime replacement program,
Singalong Jubilee, moved with the times. As a result, in
1969, Don Messerfs Jubilee was canceled and replaced by the more young and modern feeling Singalong Jubilee. Public outrage ensued as it was revealed that the show nad been "axed because it lacked youth appeal .""' In addition to not catering to the large and young baby-boom generation, the show was canceled because it had "become a joke in Toronto."
Retired CBC administrator Frank Stalley said,
The attitude of the people in Toronto was one of scoffing at it, they saw it as having outlived its usefulness and it should be shut down. That it was too corny a show and that by the late 60s, we were getting pretty sophisticated and that didnft fit in with the sophistication of Toront~."~
While Don Messerfs Jubilee was canceled, its sumertirne counterpart was given the opportunity to take over the national reins. Singalonq Jubilee was produced by and starred Bill Langstroth and his banjo. Bill led the jubilee and swapped intros with host Jim Bennet. Musical numbers included a mix of traditional folk music and local favorites like
"Farewell to Nova Scotia." The show fit in nicely with the large folk revival that was sweeping North Antericars youth
14'~~therfordrPrimetime Canada, 449. I4'~ersonal interview with Frank Stalley, July 1998. 75 scene during the period.
When the program began at a regional level, it consisted of a large choral group that sat or stood still while singing.
Like Don Messer's Jubilee, the men al1 wore suits and the women wore matching sailor dresses. The set had a nautical- look with ropes, lobster traps and buoys. Highly innovative, the thirty-minute program featured video-like segments set in popular venues across the province like Peggy's Cove and Mt.
Uniacke. Unlike Don Messer's Jubilee which symbolized "solid,
earthy, old-time, no-nonsense, " 14) the program changed its shape annually to fit in with the latest trends in fashion and manners. Each season, the men's dress became more and more casual, while women dressed in popular clothes of the time. Short, fitted, sleeveless dresses with psychedelic patterns were the rage for women, while men wore polo shirts and sweaters. In addition to dressing more casually, the Jubilee Singers began to break up into various musical ensembles and solo acts. Catherine MacKinnon and Anne Murray are arguably the most famous solo acts that emerged from the program.
Unlike Marg, who was quiet and traditional, Catherine
MacKinnon was pulling women's roles in a new direction.
143R eDo r t.,(Toronto: CBC Research, 1967) TV/67/46, 7. Catherine dressed stylishly, wore her hair in the latest
styles, used lots of make-up and was visibly working on a
career in the music business. A documentary film, "A Nova
Scotia Girl", produced by 20/20, featured Catherine traveling
to London. In addition, it showed her dressed professionally, discussing a recent recording with other business people. 14'
During her brief appearance on Don Messer's Jubilee, Catherine was rated the number one performer by people who did not like
the program. Since 73 per cent of the audience was over the age of 18, it was decided that "Miss McKinnonrs fresh and youthful appeal" which was 'hardly ...old-time tradition" attracted different people to the program.L45
Despite these contrasts, the examples of fernale sexuality
found in Don Messer's Jubilee and even the Singalong Jubilee can be seen as playful or innocent. However, exarnples f rom other music programs were more overtly sexual. Another local program of national success, Frank's Bandstand, featured go-go dancers, mini-dresses and a lot of hip movement On another musical program, Joan Marshall sang a number presenting women as frivolous and shallow: But years later she stated that in
144'~ova Scotia Girl" 20/20. Fb434-436 Mf195-13, June 26, 1966. PANS,
14SR rt On Don Messex' s Jubilee , 3, 9- 146~h Aaain, episode #2, CBC Library. DID 131. April 26, 1997. addition to having no regrets about singing the musical number by Richard Rodgers '1 Enjoy Being a Girl," she believed in everything the Song stood for. In the Song she says she enjoys dressing in frilly clothes, wearing make-up, doing her hais, talking on the phone for hours and getting a complimentary whistle because "she is strictly a fernale female'0.147 In an interview for the CBC series, Then Again, Jean stated she was not, and is not a fan of the women's movement:
1 think there was very distinct role for men and women thirty years aga. It wouldn't be acceptable today, [but] thatrs what women did they were housewives primarily at 35 years ago, nobody objected because that was acceptable, but it isnrt today.. .It might be offensive today, things have become so politically correct. You have to be so careful, ferninist this and that. You didnrt have to be then, you could have fun, 1 mean, that was fun. I could get into that and enjoy it.I4'
The gender role of woman as sex object will be discussed in greater detail in the next chapter dealing with advertising. Creating a sexual role for women was not only meant to appeal to men, but also women who desired masculine admiration. The way to adopt this role was through emulation, but more importantly, the purchasing of consumer products.
In hindsight, it rnight appear that Singâlong Jubilee was more with the times, while Don Messer's Jubilee looked ta the
'"~hen Auain, pilot episode, CBC Library, April 17, 1997.
14'~henAaain, pilot episode, CBC Library. ~pril16, 1997. 78 past. However, the incredible popularity of Messer's program illustrates viewers' willingness to not only accept, but enjoy the gender roles being presented by the program. In an age of fluctuation and great upheaval in gender roles, Don Messer's
Jubilee provided stability and consistency that spoke to millions of Canadians.
Public Affairs Progrdng
While viewers found a comforting feeling in the stagnant gender roles of Don Messerfs Jubilee, public affairs programming was attempting to carve new roles for women. The
1960s saw bland, one-dimensional women' s programming transform into innovative and challenging public affairs shows that appealed to both genders. However, rather than leaving behind programming aimed at housewives, the shows simply expanded their coverage of women to present additional and more varied roles.
Ir, the early days of television women's programming was not innovative. Borrowing £rom the already established womenrs pages of the popular press, television designed its first daytime programs around cooking, sewing and the home.
In Halifax, women were treated to such programming as Around the Town with Abbie Lane. This short series featured Abbie sitting and reading community events and announcements from
Halifax and Dartmouth. Although the daily program sometimes ran more than fifteen minutes, it must have had problems holding viewers for more than five. Abbie was very casual on the air - reading from her notes, making lots of errors and demonstrating a lack of self-consciousness by scratching the side of her nose as she read.I4' Don Tremaine described the program as "a waste of timeff.I5O
While Around the Town With Abbie Lane was considered womenrs programming, The Joan Marshall Show was more typical of its era. It was the first full-length womenrs show produced in Halifax. The thirty-minute magazine-style show was "traditionally" minded, but gave women a place to grow and change the shape of women' s television and gender stereotyping at the CBHT Halifax. No episode of the program remains in existence, but CBC personalities of the time remember it as being a "typical housewife" program with cooking and entertaining as pivotal focuses. A brief program description does remain on records and provides a slightly contrary view to these mernories. The record states that the program was aimed at women, but featured "topics ranging from politics to household hints to automobiles.'f151 Perhaps these objectives
14'~round the Town With Abbie Lane. Fb2126 Mf279-1, October 27, 1958- PANS. lS0contained in a persona1 interview with Don Tremaine. April 1998.
151~~~~Binder 1 #0038. PANS. were a preliminary goal of Joan Marshall's, rather than the shape that the program she starred in actually took.
While The Joan Marshall Show has been Left in the uncomplimentary category of womenfs programming, later shows fared much better . Halifax-produced Homebase and its national counterpart, Take Thirty, were leaders in innovative wornenr s programming. Beginning in the 1960s, these programs started expanding gender roles for women on CBC television, and chipping away at the pillars of womenfs programming. By becoming popular far beyond the realrn of domesticity, they crossed gender lines and bent the roles of men, but especially women.
Take Thirty debuted on Monday, September 17, 1962. As its title suggests, it was a late afternoon program aimed primarily at women at home, taking a break from ho~sework.'~' However, the show attempted to distinguish itself from the ghetto of daytime television that catered to the homemaker.
In an article published in a CBC newsletter announcinq the new program, it was pointed out that
giiests from many different walks of life will appear frequently during the series, which is directed toward a general audience, not just the ladies. Interviews, discussions of controversial subjects, household features and items on sociology are among the dozens of topics to
152~~~Times, September 8-14, 1962, 31. be covered .153 In the Thursday episode of its premier week, Take Thirty discussed legalized abortion. No topic was too racy, or too ordinary, for the eclectic program. CBC audience research showed that the most popular issues discussed were consumer advice, talks by doctors about health, the law and how it works, cancer and talks about other parts of Canada, while the least popular topics discussed were sailing and boating, reading from plays, mountain-climbing, driving racing cars and the ballet .154 The series had a strong following throughout the 1960s and well into the 1970s. According to A.C. Neilson ratings conducted between November 1968 and January 1970, Take
Thirty had a regular viewing audience of about 500,000 each episode .'55 Unlike the other programs discussed in this chapter, Take
Thirty originated out of CBCT Toronto. Although the show was taped in Toronto, its interviews and contributions were generated from a number of regional bureau, including CBHT
Halifax. In the summer, regional contributors took turns
lS3c~cTimes, September 15-21, 1962, 31. '%~hesestatistics are found in 'Take Thirtvf A Com~endiumof Available Audience Data. (CBC Research, TV/68/55, July 1968), table 20. 155Providedby CBC Toronto Head office £rom a survey conducted by A.C. Neilson for CBC Toronto records. 82 producing Thirty From ...Montreal, Ottawa, Vancouver, Winnipeg, Edmonton and Halifax.
In Halifax, Thirty From duties were shared by Jim Bennet and Marilyn McDonald. Libby Christianson and Joan Marshall also made contributions to the national program on a regular basis. One episode of Thirty From Halifax and a number of segments contributed to the national program during the regular season remain at the public archives in Halifax.
Dating back to as early as Novernber 1962, these segments illustrate the diversity of the program.
The 1962 episode shows local school teacher, Robert
Kennedy, giving a physics lesson on the Principle of Archimedes. In April of 1963, viewers received a softer picture with the Kindness Club. The Kindness Club was a children's group designed to promote kindness to anirnals, especially injured birds. On December 17, 1965, viewers were taken into the world of space exploration. Libby Christianson conducted an interview with an unidentified man describing the different exercises necessary for men who wished to travel in space. Asking tough questions about a mission to the moon, Christianson took the program to a high level of sophistication. At one point, she herself gets inside the simulator to drive the moon buggy on the moon.'56 Women watching the program were presented with an adventurous woman who was successfully attempting to perform a 'man's" job, driving the sirnulator, on national television.
Three years later, Marilyn McDonald took viewers on board the submarine M.IS Ojibwa. Like Christianson, MacDonald asked the naval captain tough questions about life aboard the sub.
She also drew in homemaker viewers by asking how the men could handle being separated from their families for such long periods of time - did it take a special temperament to work aboard a sub? Her persistency was rewarded with a reply of,
"Thatrs a very difficult question." In addition to an in- depth interview and a complete tour of the ship on land, viewers are also treated to a short sub ride where they can see the various components of the sub at work.I5' It is interesting to note that Jim Bennet could have been sent out for the more masculine tasks of touring the sub, but as was the case for the moon simulator, a wornan was chosen.
Take Thirty knew no bounds in terms of coverage, and contributions f rom Halifax ref lected its topical diversity.
Between 1968 and 1969, Halifax's segments included scenic
156"~pacePreparationJf Take Thirtv. Fb942-943 Mf219-3 December 17, 1965. PANS. 1S7'~ubmarine - Ojibwa" Take Thirtv. Fb944-946 Mf219-4 July 5, 1968. PANS. 84 views for tourists, shots of a mining town, a feature on foster homes, youth migration and hippies in Victoria Park,
Halifax and a special on Tancook Island. One contribution worth discussion in greater detail was a short segment on womenrs sport in Nova Scotia. The segment juxtaposed women in and around Halifax playing various sports with their homema ker equivalents. For example, the first scene shows a woman playing tennis. She is reaching to hit the bal1 back over the net, This scene fades into a women stretching in the kitchen to clean her window and reaching to get in the cupboard. In other words, cleaning windows and reaching into high cupboards is just like playing tennis. Movements between field hockey and vacuuming are also compared, while softball is compared with catching dirty laundry and a mock-angered housewifefs attempt to hit someone with a rolling pin.'''
While sports like field hockey would certainly not appeal to a large nurnber of homemakers of the time, by comparing sports to housework, the creators drew the viewer into the program. The show was specifically designed so that housewives could see the parallels bêtween their role in the home and other roles outside of the home. These parallels between the gender role of housewife and other images were
158"~omenrsSports in Nova Scotia" Take Thirtv. Fb2110 Mf219-11 July 14, 1969. PANS. also used by MacDonald on her own program, Homebase.
In addition to showing women alternative gender roles,
Take Thirty challenged the viewerrs rnind set. It dealt with the issues of racism and legalized abortion head-on. The
Halifax contingent was eager to include its contribution to
the thought-expanding elernent of the program. In an interview with local doctor, John Savage, Marilyn MacDonald discussed
the development of a family planning clinic in North Preston, and the implications it would have in that comrnunity. They spoke frankly about sex education and when it should start.
They also spoke about sexual frustration. Savage stated that often women corne into his office complaining of a lower back ache when she is actually afraid to Say "she has an unhappy sex life". In addition, Savage argued that abortion was a band-aid solution, and that sex education that will allow children to grow into well-developed adults, must start in the home. lS9
While the show challenged viewers to re-examine their values, MacDonald was careful not to take a side on the issue that could have isolated more conservative viewers. Although he was working at a family planning clinic, Savage admitted to
MacDonald that he did not like abortions and would choose
L59"Interviewwith John Savage" Take Thirtv. Fb2414 Mf219-13 July 15, 1970. PANS. 86 other solutions. In addition, the family planning clinic was
in North Preston. North Preston was a poor, black cornmunity, and Take Thirty was aimed at the intellectual, middle class
housewife who was more likely to be white and living in
Halifax or Bedford. By placing the controversial issue
slightly beyond the realm of the viewer, abortion and family planning became safer topics to discuss and even to hold less traditional viewpoints on.
The only complete episode of Take Thirty at the archives is the Halifax taping of Thirty From Halifax. Starring Jim
Bennet and Marilyn MacDonald, the episode looked at human rights. The series opens with Lorne White (of the Singalong
Jubilee's Dropouts) singing an African Song and relating the history of Black Nova Scotians. Marilyn and Jim then take turns speaking with various participants in a Human Rights
Conference that was held in Halifax in Novernber 1968. While one comrnissioner argues that Black pride is needed, another argues for "meaningful" integration, a term which is never defined.160 Two students, one black and one white from Queen
Elizabeth II High School in Halifax, are then interviewed.
The white boy, Dave Stewe, states that things are okay at their school, but the black boy, Louie Dixon, rebukes Dave
'60"~urnanRights - War of 1812" Take Thirtv. Fb948-949 Mf219-6,7 August 29, 1969. PANS. 87 asking him when he has ever invited him to his house, since they consider each other friends. The debate then opens up to a group of students from the high school, with MacDonald mediating. She asks some tough questions, for exarnple,
'Should you accept your parents' values?" and the students do their best to answer them.16' These questions could have been asked to challenge student-viewers at home during the summer months, but they also could have been aimed at parents. One boy had left home because he said that his father was a racist and he could not tolerate it. The high school student could serve as a warning to viewing parents, most likely mothers, that not only children, but they themselves, would have to expand their horizons to survive in the changing world.
While Marilyn MacDonald and other Halifax contributors helped add to the diversity of coverage on Take Thirty, it was with her own program that MacDonald focused her energy towards challenging conservative gender roles. Homebase creators were planning to make a typical homemaker show with household hints and topics of light interest to female viewers, but once at the helm, MacDonald took the show into her own hands. In an interview, MacDonald said,
When 1 started with Homebase, 1 donrt know what they
16'~akeThirtv, "Human Rights", August 29, 1969. thought they were getting, but 1 was quite determined that it would not be the traditional, fluffy sort of women's program of old. And 1 think we were successful at that. We rnanaged to retain some of the interesting features that would legitimately be of interest to women, but at the same time bring a little more edge to it, get into issues.
MacDonald was asked to woxk on Homebase in 1966, and remernbers it as a period of great opportunity in wornen's prograrnming, as it "was a period of time when that was beginning to happen to a number of so called traditional women's shows".i63 Citing
Take Thirty as an example, she said that program was moving in the same direction she took with Homebase.
While the final say was not left with her, MacDonald had basic control over Homebase, choosing most of the topics that would be covered, and the way that things would be covered.
MacDonald gives credit to syrnpathetic producers and luck for the direction she took the show in:
When 1 started Homebase, 1 think it had been reclassified recently and it then fell under the purview and control of the public affairs department. So 1 was lucky in a way that my view of the program and where I thought it should go - [it was] just good luck more than anything else, it had been put in a department that was going in the same direction. 164
As a direct result of these conditions, the show chose to
162~ersonalinterview with Marilyn MacDonald. June 1998. '"~ac~onald,interview, June 1998. 164~ac~onald,interview, June 1998. 89 blend the old with the new. The role of homemaker was presented to viewers, but it was often challenged, or presented in a non-traditional light. For example, in one episode, MacDonald interviews a Mrs. Lucas who has won a competition for consumer of the year. Ironically enough, though, Mrs. Lucas does none of her own shopping. Confined to the home, she relies on her three daughters to hunt down the best bargains and bring them back to her. There is no husband mentioned and Mrs. Lucas explains that they live on a small, fixed income (perhaps a disabilities cheque?) and they only survive because they own their house, and do not have to pay rent. MacDonald and Lucas talk about the girls and the great budgeting skills they are learning at a young age, and Lucas adds that, "If and when they get married, they should make very good ~ives."'~~
Homebase was a master at mixing traditional with contemporary. A number of episodes on fashion illustrate this preference. A 1968 example is an episode on the bathing suit. The collage opens with a 1920s scene and women wearing Long, lacy bloomers, sleeveless tops and hats in the water. It then moves on to a bathing suit competition and women wearing more revealing one-piece suits and high heels. Moving through the
165'Consurner of the Year" Homebase. Fb520 521 Mf202-14. May 1969. PANS. century, the last scene, shot in colour, shows modern day women on the beach in small bikinis in bright orange, yellow and green shades? By mixing the old with the new in terms of not only bathing suits, but womenrs fashions and also relationships, the program created a sense of linear history, or progression £rom one era to another. It encouraged women to look forward rather than backward, and to see themselves evolving, rather than stuck in stagnant gender roles.
It was MacDonald's goal to challenge complacency, and to present different gender roles to women. She argues that she didnrt see herself as being a traditional woman, and
certainly it didnrt seem to me that that's al1 women could be and the women 1 knew were interested in things way above and beyond the rather meager diet they were getting from television at that point. 1 didnrt see myself that way, I couldn't believe that 1 was unique on this earth therefore there must be women out there that thought the way 1 did and would respond to the kind of programming that 1 wanted to do - and there was. 167
Although MacDonald had left the program by then, two episodes from 1969, the final year of the program, stand out as following from MacDonald's sense of mission. In October of
1969, the program did a mock-trial in which the last man on earth was charged by a galactic magistrate with humanicide, the destruction of not only his own kind, but most life on the
166"~athingSuit" Homebase. Fb504 505 Mf202-3. January 10, 1968. PANS.
167~ac~onald,interview, June 1998. earth. Although it may sound humorous, the episode was very sornber and included cuts to scenes of pollution (like
smokestacks) in Halifax. The episode ends with the man being found guilty. In his deliberation, the judge condemns al1 the people of earth. Everyone, including the viewers quietly sitting and watching the program, are to blame. He states that action must be taken at an individual level and move up through the system. This powerful episode may have encouraged viewers to look at themselves in a new light and become active pollution f ighters.
The program invited women to be more, think more and take on new roles which ultimately challenged the legitimacy of traditional gender roles, such as the homemaker. In an episode called, "Karen in the Kitchen", the viewer is presented with a full time housewife on the job in her kitchen. The images are narrated by an omnipotent male voice- over that assures the viewers that every woman should be able to perform her wifely duties with ease and grace. However, the actions of the woman presented in the skit show that everything is not as easy as the omnipotent voice makes it sound .16'
168"~ollution"Homebase. Fb57O 571 572 Mf202-51. October 31, 1969. PANS.
16'"~aren in the Kitchen" Homebase. Fb551 552 Mf202-35 June 20, 1969. PANS. 92 The sketch opens with "Karen" standing in the kitchen, dressed in a pretty dress, smiling and ready for a busy day.
The male voice explains that being a housewife is a full time j ob with endless tasks to be performed including budgeting, laundry, home and school meetings, cleaning, sewing and
"countless other jobs involved in a modern household." Karen nods and smiles, proud of her abilities as the voice asks,
"Should this deter her?" She shakes her head no because she Is well organized and efficient.
Things then take a turn for the worse. The voice continues, "She can do al1 these things and more and still arrive at the end of the day fresh and unruf fled. While engaged in selecting a favorite baking recipe for instance,
Mrs. Modern can simultaneously be placing a phone cal1 to a fellow committee member of the ladies auxiliary and assembling ingredients."l7' While the narrator reads this dialogue, Karen gets herself in a mess. With hands covered in flour and egg dough from the recipe, she goes to the laundry and mistakenly places it in the oven instead of the washer, then she gets out the sewing (putting dough al1 over it) and ends up pricking her finger on the needle.
Next, the narrator coos, "No need to forgo personal benefits as the morning goes on." At this point, with hands
''''Karen in the Kitchen'', Homebase. June 20, 1969. 93 still covered in dough, she pours herself a cup of coffee as she chats on the phone. She is so involved in the conversation that she pours coffee al1 over herself. Alarmed she hangs up the phone and dumps two heaping teaspoons of sugar in her coffee- "No sugar for the weight watchers," chides the voice-over as Karen sticks her tongue out at him and continue to drink the coffee.
The situation continues to deteriorate as the ironing catches on fire, she gets batter in her hair and struggles with the "easy, modern packaging." Amidst the chaos, the calm male voice assures that al1 is well and Mrs. Modern can handle the situation,
The voice-over then suggests that Karen will now prepare for the return of her weary husband from his hard day at the office. She brushes her hair which is hopelessly full of batter and smudges lipstick al1 over her face- The voice over is satisfied and, oblivious to the situation, states that she is "set for an evening devoted to cocktails and the theatre.
Perhaps entertaining and bridge, or just being together." As the narration ends, Karen flops down on the counter in utter exasperation .17'
The narratr~r's voice in the sketch is reminiscent of popular ads aimed at women of the time. In most ads, an
'""~aren in the Kitchen" Homehase, June 20, 1969. 94 authoritative male voice leads the woman through her domestic duties, ensuring viewers that al1 can be done with ease. In an ad for Ajax cleanser, cleaning duties are made so simple that the woman £lies out of the kitchen and into the living roorn.L72 Advertisements will be discussed in greater detail in the fourth chapter. However, while the women are victoxious and always as unruffled as the narrator suggests in the ads, in the Homebase episode, things turned out much dif ferently for Karen.
The sketch is designed to poke fun at the rnyth that looking after a household is an easy task. Although it is a fictitious and comical situation, it had parallels with real life at the time. The argument it presents was legitimized by actual debates such as the one surrounding the Mrs. Chatelaine contest . In an article about audience response to the competition, Valerie Korinek identifies the gap between gender roles idealized by the magazine and its competition, and the everyday reality of its readers.L73
Korinek argues that the competition "rewarded a middle- class, heterosexual and ultimately, extremely conservative
"'CBC Library, 9223.Xr 'Old Commercials 1966-1970. "
173~alerieJ. Korinek, \' 'Mrs . Chatelaine' vs . 'Mrs . Slobr: Contests, Correspondents and the Chatelaine Community in Action, 1961 - 1969" in Journal of the Canadian Historical Review. (Volume 7, l996), 251. 95 vision of Canadian women." She added that single women were automatically disqualified, as were "working wives and mothers, older women, working-class-women and lesbians ."''' As a result of these limitations, the readers of the magazine
"ignored or challenged the 'pref erred meanings' offered by the magazine." The result was the Mrs. Slob competition where reader after readex admitted shamelessly that they not only didn't live up to the feminine roles presented by the magazine, but had no desire to either? Unlike the Mxs .
Chatelaine debate, which had definite feminist undertones, the sketch can also be viewed as illustrating the difficulties involved in running a modern household. While it can be seen, in this way as valorizing the job of housewife, the jarring pokes at the man's view of a womanfs role also make available a critical view of the status quo.
Programs like Homebase and Take Thirty created a place on television for new gender roles that were becoming more common since the end of the Second World War. The programs were not controversial, but presented women with ideas that were already in existence, or on the edge of emerging in the dominant rniddle-class society. However, by giving a place to new gender roles, wornen and men working within the
174~orinek,"Mrs. Chatelaine, " 252.
'"~orinek, "Mrs . Chatelaine, " 263. 96 conservative medium helped to legitimize new roles and challenge existing ones. They made a place for working women that was not defined by the stark necessity that had driven wage-earning women in earlier decades; they offered, sometimes with conscious political intent, models of intellectual activity and citizenship that announced women's presence outside domesticity. Television, while in many ways conservative, helped make this degree of innovation possible because of the complexity of its live action and the intrinsically multi-dimensional nature of the medium. In this sense, women were given a voice within the dominant discourse, and unwittingly, the ability to mold it to advance their own agendas. Cha~terFour :
Hot Persuasion : Advertising and Gender Ideals 98 The scene is an escalator in a busy shopping centre. A
woman with short, dark, brown hair makes her way up the
escalator with her husband, Jim, at her side. As they reach
the mid-point of their ride, a pretty, blond woman comes into
view on the escalator going in the opposite direction. The
blond lady, Betty Johnson, and the brunette exchange glances
as a female voice-over begins to run over the visuals. The
soft voice extols, Ill never forget that day, we were
shopping, and suddenly there was Betty Johnson, 1 hadn't seen
her for years. We agreed to meet in the coffee shop."
In the next scene, Betty is gone and the brunette is left
with her husband. As the two continue their trip up the
escalator, the voice-over continues: ''1 told Jim we were friends from school. He said she looked younger than me ." At this point, the camera moves in for a tight close-up on the brunette. She is visibly upset by her husband's remarks, and
scrunches up her face in a look of failure and despair. As
the camera moves in, the woman is seen at her worst since the zoom shot highlights al1 the fine lines and wrinkles on her
face. With the brunette's downfalls in plain view of the audience, the voice-over continues: "1 felt awful, but it was
true; Betty did look younger."
With this said, the viewer is taken to the coffee shop to
see Betty in al1 her glory. Betty's blond hair is curled up 99 just below her ears, and she is dressed very stylishly.
Instead of moving in for another close-up, the viewer is presented with a medium shot of Betty, as she sits across from her friend in the coffee shop. The medium shot allows the viewer to focus on Betty as a complete picture, rather than emphasizing a particular area, like her face. More significantly, the medium shot is less harsh than the close- up, creating a much more flattering picture of Betty than the earlier shot of her brunette friend. The voice-over continues to finish the story: "That iresh lovely complexion. She told me her secret, Palmolive care,"
At this point, the viewer is whisked away from the mal1 scene and presented with the product. An authoritative male voice cornes up to confirm what the women believe they have just learned: mild Palmolive will help women keep their complexion looking younger .
A number of characteristics make this ad a product of its time. While the girlfriend tête-a-têtes are still a popular component of ads today, husbands are not usually present in such ads, and certainly men do not react negatively to the woman in the ad. While products are still needed to improve their lives, the overall confidence level of women is higher
lT6C~cLibrary, "Toronto Items, Archiva1 News 1 tems,
ARC-0564-BM. " 1O0 in modern ads. The cut to the male voice-over to confirm the virtue of the product is also no longer a component of ads.
Although a voice-over is often present, it is not necessarily male, and is not meant to carry the same weight as the ones in early television ads. Rutherford argues that lifestyles ads came into full bloom in the 1960~.~" The middle-class conception of lifestyles in the 1960s meant the husband came home from work to be greeted by his beautiful and adoring housewife who was always ready to serve him. ''' In the 1980s, ads depicting extended families, disabled, Black, Native and other non-traditional situations reflected changes in society by offering a different view of the family.L7g
The Palmolive commercial is part of a small collection to be found at the CBC Library in Halifax. It won no awards, but is significant in the fact that it was one of many commercials shown regularly during the 1960s on CBHT Halifax. This particular commercial was aired, among other times, during the
January 20, 1964 broadcast of Don Messer's Jubilee. Like television programrning, commercials played a significant part in the creation of female roles during the
'"~aul Rutherford, The New Icons? The Art of Television Advertisinq. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1994), 37. 17'~utherford, The New Icons?, 115. The New Icons:, 101 1960s. However, their part was unique. It is impossible to
determine what kind of relationship consumers had with the
products they saw advertised on television, and often
purchased. But what can be deterrnined here are the admaker's desired rneanings and the role advertisernents played in the
social construction of gender. Advertisements revealed hopes and fears that advertisers believe existed in their consurners. They presented their gender ideals as attainable goals for both sexes. In doing so, they played on the gap between gender ideals and individual realities, while at the same time promising to eliminate it through the use of their product.
1 n this way, ads are conservative in their nature- Rutherford backs up this point stating that "ads are imaginative treatments of the familiar [that] borrow their shape from the popular culture to ensure as wide an acceptance as possible. "18'
Beginning in the late 1950s, and continuing throughout the 1960s, many advertising experts argued that the key to a good commercial was "clarity and sirnplicity, a unified impression, logic or emotion (but not both), an emphasis on video (show not tell), involvement of the viewer (highlight the benefits) , and a definite sel1 (don't hide the
laO~utherford,The New Icons?, 68. 102 message) ."18' While not al1 television cornmercials followed
this pattern, many did. Looking back at the two women re-
united at the shopping centre, one can see this theory was
employed. First, the commercial is simple. The viewer is presented with two basic facts: Betty looks younger than her brunette friend; and Betty uses Palmolive. This is al1 that the viewer is asked to retain from the commercial, The male voice-over at the end, combined with gratuitous shots of the product, also ensure that the advertiser's message is clear.
In addition to being simple and clear, the commercial played on the viewer's emotions. While the viewer would like to identify with Betty, she is asked to identify with the unnamed brunette who is telling the story. This is important to note as it shows how ads fit into the social construction of woman. The viewer is invited to partake in the adrnaker's particular presentation of gender roles. In addition, the viewer is encouraged to identify with a character who is inadequate because she has failed to use the product being sold. This is the case with the brunette who theoretically could have looked years younger had she used mild Palmolive li ke her f riend.
le1~aulRutherford cites New York's Sixth Avenue theatre owner, Horace Schwerin, as saying this after experiments in 1956. In The New Icons? The Art of Television Advertisinq. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1994), 11. 1O3 While advertisers presented clear-cut pictures of what they thought the ideal woman should be like, they often placed their viewers short of this goal (Le. in need of their product to reach the desired land). Advertisers appealed to the womenfs desire to meet favoured gender roles, but ironically, in doing so they unwittingly revealed that the gender roles they presented were nothing more than social constructions. Butler argues that "gender is an act which has been rehearsed, much as a script survives the particular actor who makes use of it, but which requises individual actors in order to be actualized and reproduced as reality once again.'818z The products, or more importantly, the images and styles being sold through advertisements, can be seen as the scripts that viewers are asked to take up. Failure to do so places the viewer outside of the theatre known as mainstream society . The danger of an individual deciding not to perform prescribed gender roles is evident in the advertisement for mild Palmolive. The advertiser is asking the brunette (or the viewer) to take up the script in order to move from the unknown into the world of Betty Johnson. However, if one takes a closer look at Betty, it becomes evident that she does not represent an actual person; she represents the "perfect"
- 1B2~~dithButler, TheatreJournalf526. I O4 construction of woman in the eyes of the ad-maker. While on one level she exists only as an ideal, the ad suggests that the viewer might embody her qualities if she buys rnild Palmolive. In other words, advertisements mistakenly present gender ideals as concrete objectives.
Because cornmercials presented woman as a social ideal, one might argue that ads were sites where females had the potential to see gender roles as constructs rather than hard reality, and to challenge prescribed roles. However, this is most probably not the case. Advertisements were designed to appeal to females' fears and desires. While the viewer could probably identify with the less pretty female in the Palmolive ad, or the housewife whose floors were a du11 grey instead of a brilliant white, the advertiser did not encourage them to remain in this position. Tirne and time again, advertisements portrayed an unhappy woman who was pleased once she conformed to the role presented by the advertiser. For example, in an ad for Colgate toothpaste, a young women is scorned by her lover because she has yellow teeth. She is deeply disturbed, but uses Colgate toothpaste to win back his approval and love.le3 This and other ads were a testament that although females had yet to fit perfectly into preferred social constructions, the ideal was attainable. In addition, if they
''%Bc Library, 9223 .X, "Old Commercials 1966-1970 ." 105
did not buy the products being presented, they might become
less attractive than other women to their husbands and
boyf riends .
It is interesting to note that while in the commercial
for Mild Palmolive the brunette was married, Betty was
traveling alone and could perhaps be free to compete for Jimrs
affection. Likewise, in the world of ads the wonan who got
her husband's and childrenrs clothes the whitest was somehow more of a woman. As a result, she had the duty to share her
knowledge with others of her sex, so that they too might help
turn gender ideals into expected gender roles. In other
words, buying products that allowed the viewer to act out
preferred gender roles would help the individual gain
acceptance within the society.
While this paints a rather gloomy picture of the "weak- minded" woman, sex difference research in the 1950s and 1960s provided advertisers and broadcasters with research that
defined women in precisely these ways. According to author
Janet Wolff whose book, What Makes Women Buy, was cited by CBC
researchers in 1959, "wornen' s 'habitr of putting themselves
wholeheartedly into situations which interest them is a
natural result of their mental make-up - 'their proneness to
identification, personalizing, and creating imaginary situation^.^'^^ In addition, audience research affirmed that women defined themselves in terms of a successful heterosexual relationship. A survey conducted by the CBC in 1962 with regard to a special broadcast called The Real World of Women revealed that more than half of the
viewers tended to idealize the traditional functions of housewife and mother. When occupations outside the home, were mentioned as being 'right' for women, these tended to be occupations which, it was felt would not interfere with a woman's primary responsibility to her home and family .las Perhaps even more interesting is the fact that "younger women did not select ...non-traditional £ields any more frequently than did older women," nor did the bettes educated, or those from urban, suburban and rural parts of Canada? As late as
1971, a survey of Grade 12 girls in an Ontario high school revealed the girls ranked 'a rewarding relationship with a man" as their nurnber one priority, followed by raising children.la7 Although sex difference research in the 1950s has been criticized for its ideological over-emphasis on womenfs
''''~he Dilemma of Daytime Programming," Audience Research Bulletin. (Ottawa: CBC Audience Research Division, May 1959)' 2. Real World of Woman. (Toronto: CBC Research, June l963), 7, 19.
le6~heReal World of Woman, 20.
1a7~ilson,Women. The F&lv and The Economv, 24. 1O7 distinctivene~s,'~~the finding of these CBC studies do provide
enough substantial data to show that, in fact, many viewers
willingly embraced gender roles presented by advertisers.
In his study of Arnerican advertising, Stewart Ewen helps explain why this was so. He argues that rather than forcing
viewers to conform to gender roles presented to them, the advertisements are used by viewers in their search for a full
identity. He rightly argues that gender constructs create a
fragmented, rather than unified, sense of identity to both
sexes, and that material products are a tool used by people in an attempt to create a feeling of completeness. Speaking about style in particular, Ewen argues that the "utility of style ..As to find for oneself, and for others, the evidence of meaning in one's life." He goes on to add that the
"assembling of a comrnodity itself, this 'dream of wholeness,'
implies a sense of partialness and fragmentation that resides
'"DOU~ Owram, Born at the Riaht Tirne: A Historv of the Babv-Boom Generatio~. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1996), 20. Owram argues that underlying these beliefs was a "tremendous success of the social sciences in achieving an authoritative voice in society." Veronica Strong-Boag backs up his argument, citing popular and academic social scientist of the day as saying "collective happiness and well-being were most likely when women concentrated on the home front" in "Home Dreams: Women and the Suburban Experiment in Canada, 1945-60" The Canadian Historical Review. (Vol. LXXII, No. 4, December lggl), 475. just beneath the surface."L89 In other words, there is no such thing as a stable identity or a single gender role and it is people's desire to find this stability that motivates them to buy consumer goods. Addressing television in particular, Ewen argues that
without ever saying so explicitly, the media of style offer to lift the viewer out of his or her life and place him or her in a utopian netherworld where there are no conflicts, no needs unmet; where the ordinary is - by its very nature - extraordinary .''O If we see commercials as a script that viewers must take up, the viewer lacks agency and is forced to take part in the performance to maintain social acceptance. Using Ewen's theory, it is the viewers' desire to find a sense of wholeness that motivates them to buy into advertisements. In other words, motivation to create a role or image of self cornes from within the individual rather than from outside pressure.
However, by looking back at the Palmolive or Colgate ad, one could turn this theory around by arguing that the consumer's agency is limited by the advertiser who determines what products can be purchased in the quest for wholeness. But still, the viewer has the power to subvert prescribed meanings of the product. For example, the trend of ripping jeans in the 1980s can be seen, it its origin, as a way of defacing the
le9~wen,All Consuminu Images, 1988), 79.
lgO~wen,Al1 Consumina Imaaes, 14. 1O9 product while consuming it. This point was also made in chapter three as Canadian women chose to continue purchasing
Chatelaine magazine, but subverted the intent of the Mrs,
Chatelaine cornpetition to meet their own needs. By applying
Ewen's theory to consumption of culture in general, the consumer ends up at the same point (product in hand), but the way that s/he arrived there is different.
Up to this point, this chapter has looked at how ads convey to consumers who they are, or who they should be. Ads do this through the presentation of distinct gender roles. In doing so, they illustrate what the historically constructed woman is, and is not. Paul Rutherford explored this same theme by documenting the binary oppositions that structured the stereotypes in hundreds of award winning comercials.
In his chapter titled, "Reading the Bessies," Rutherford makes charts of the clusters of binary oppositions he found in his research on these ads from the late 1940s to the early
1990s. Models included work/ play/ home, nature/ tradition/ modernity, possession/ deprivation, child/ adult and ferninine/ masculine.191 For the purpose of this paper, the binary opposition cf ferninine/ masculine is of greatest significance.
Rutherford breaks down accepted gender roles as follows:
lglseechapter 4, "Reading the Bessies" in Paul Rutherford work, The New Icons? Feminine Masculine
. . . . - .. . Physique wea k strong
Traits emotional rational delicate rugged warm cool sociable cornpetitive narcissistic masterful
Display body authority
Domains home workplace private public1g2
While the number of commercials on record at PANS and the CBC
Library is considerably smaller and less illustrious than the collection Rutherford viewed, the same binary opposition emerges . Whether the advertisement was for Colgate
Congestaide, or Ajax cleanser, the woman was almost always placed inside the home looking after it, her children and her husband. The emotional/rational dichotomy, along with other feminine/masculine traits, were also played up in the advertisements. The best examples in the Halifax collection are a series of ads for Timex watches. The ads were specifically designed to appeal to the company'ç male or female markets.
The ads aimed at men appealed to the masculine traits identified by Rutherford in his study. The accuracy, durability and reasonable price of the watch were al1
192~utherford,The New Icons?, 108. 111 stressed. One ad featured a close-up shot of a man's watch ticking away. While the viewer watches the visual, a male voice explains that more people buy Timex than any other watch in the world. The vcice goes on to Say the watches are accurate, waterproof, available in 75 styles and inexpensive-
This ad assures the male consumer that he will fit in with a
Timex. The single visual of the ticking watch also emphasizes accuracy, precision and technological superiority. Finally, the focused single visual and emphasis on its reasonable price appeal to the manrs rationality. lg3
A second advertisement aimed at men appealed to the masculine sense of adventure, ruggedness and the outdoors.
The ad placed the man's Timex watch through a torture test. The watch was tied to a string, placed on the back of a snowmobile and then taken on a high speed-ride through snow and over jumps. In the final scene, the watch was examined for damage and seen to be in perfect working order. In othex words, the watch is built tough and will last like the man who wears it. lg4 It is, in effect, a metaphor for his potential manhood, should he take part in the performative act of wearing the watch.
lg3containedin an episode of Don Messer's Jubilee. Fb1728 Mf254-6, December 25, 1967. lg4CBC Library. 9223 .X, 'Old Comrnercials N66-N7O. " 112 Rutherford's dichotomy is applicable to women also, as the ads portray them as home-based, narcissistic or very
sexual. While the Timex ads aimed at 'men" appealed to their
cool rationality and sense of adventure, "women" were encouraged to act on vanity and sexuality. In the first commercial aimed at women, the viewer is presented with a woman sitting at her vanity in her bedroom.
She primps in front of the mirror as she prepares to go out, or maybe just downstairs to host a dinner party. She wears a simple, but classic dress to which she adds beads around her neck. She finished off the look with her fancy, gold coloured Timex watch. While she admires herself and the watch, a male voice extols the virtues of the watch. He refers to the wide range' of styles and colours available (a woman must Wear the right watch for the right occasion) and adds that this particular watch is electric. While the technological nature of the watch may be considered as appealing more to masculine viewers, the time saving nature of a no-wind watch is stressed as one less thing to fret about, thus appealing to the ferninine need for ease and comfort. The ad is home-based, the woman is preparing for a social function, her body is seen as delicate and classy, and by placing her at her vanity, she can be seen as narcissistic.
The second Timex advertisement aimed at women appealed to 113 younger womenf s sexuality and sense of adventure. The ad opens with a tall, blond model heading towards a boat. She wears a sleeveless, fitted dress that falls above the knees.
As she walks, a male voice-over alludes to Masefield's classic poem saying, "Timex is for girls who go down to the sea in style." Suddenly, Caribbean drum beats begin and the viewer sees shots and reads signs identifying the visuals as Antigua,
Barbados and Trinidad. As the dxum beats, the blond model moves with exotic natives from a daytime scene, to a sexual dance around a campfire. While the viewer is engaged with the erotic visuals, the male voice-over explains that women "must
Wear the right watch at the right time" and that women need many watches in their wardrobe.lg5
This second Timex ad was aimed at young women who were most likely single with disposable income. Unlike the first ad which was set in the womanys home and emphasized style and class, this ad was set in the public sphere and emphasis was placed on adventure and sexuality. In other word, Timex watches make young women sexy. Again, by applying
Rutherford's dichotomy, the fernale is seen as narcissistic and there is a strong emphasis on displaying the body. While the ad moves women well beyond the Victorian notions of
L95~hisadvertisernent is contained in an episode of Don Messer's Jubilee, Fb1726 Mf251-1, March 1, 1967. asexuality, it is still very much a product of its time, The ad presents the beautiful, young woman as almost hyper sexual, like Marilyn Munroe and other movie stars of the time. In this way, the ad does not really give the woman control over her sexuality, it simply makes her sexual. The mode1 is more like a decorative object (or a piece of meat by the campfire) than an individual expressing her sexuality. An advertisement for Control hair groomer confirms this position of woman as accessory. In the ad the man is rewarded by not only getting his hair under control, but having a number of sexy women draped over him in exotic situation^.'^^
The series of Timex ads helps establish the existence of a strong binary opposition of masculine and ferninine rcles in early television advertising. Whether the ad was for Timex watches, mild Palmolive, Halo Shampoo, or Super Suds, women were consistently presented filling Rutherford's gender stereotypes. Looking at the Bessies from the late 1970s and
1980s, Rutherford argues that the awards
amount to interpretations of whatfs perceived to be reality. That reality is excerpted, condensed, flattened.. .What makes the Bessies dif ferent from a painting, newscast, or a movie is that the commercial almost invariably presumes a reality where the gospel of consumption reigns supreme.lg7
lg6~hisad is contained in an episode of Don Messer's Jubilee- Fb1730 Mf254-IO, March 4, 1968.
lg7~utherford,The New Icons?, 104. 115 He goes on to add that while the Bessies "reflect and interpret the views of the social mainstream" in their use of binary oppositions, they can also be used to probe "the resistance to that hegemony, how people evade, mock, or even rej ect social disciplines. "'g8 In this way, they are closely related to the women's programming discussed in chapter three.
Also related to chapter three was the marked division of women's lives into three stages: young and beautiful; housewife and mother; and elderly grandmother. Along with the development of a youth culture, and the invention of the
"teenager," these categories were part of the fragmentation of universal family programs into specific markets, or target groups. While women were presented at al1 three of these stages in commercials, the most prominent image was that of pretty, white, middle-class, mother and housewife. Again and again, this particular gender role was appealed to by not only advertisers, but programers. Four sirnilar categories were identified by Susan Bland in her study of advertisements in
Maclean's magazine. Rather than using age a divider, Bland used occupation identifying the categories of housewife,
------
lge~utherford,The New Icons?, 105. working woman, single woman and 'any woman. ' lg9 In a study titled, "The Dilemma of Daytime Programming," the CBC stated that "an observer might hypothesize that most
Canadian housewives do most of their heavy housework ("making" beds, dusting) in the mornings ...for many housewives, the early afternoon is a less hectic peri~d."'~~It therefore, seemed that programming for women should be broadcast in the afternoon, but it was 'also in the afternoon that housewives in upper incorne, educational and social strata attend club meetings, bridges, teas and other social gatherings ." Luckily, these women tended to form a small part of the total housewife population, but it did not change the fact that most women did their shopping in the afternoon, placing them outside of the home and revealing the dilemma of daytime programming .'O1 While advertisers and stations struggled over when was the best time to reach their target audience, there was no debate about the division of women into three stages of life.
This division is most clearly illustrated in an advertisement for Ajax. The ad opens with a wide shot of a young girl with
'''M. '''M. Susan Bland, "Henrietta the Homemaker, and 'Rosie the Riveter': Images of Women in Advertising in Maclean's Magazine, 1939-50" in Atlantis. (Vo1.8, No. 2, Spring 1983), 65. ce Research Bulletin, 2.
201~udienceResearcb Bulletin, 2 Il7 long, blond hair sitting on the back of a moped and holding ont0 her boyfriend. As they pass by the centre of the screen, she turns to the camera and shouts, "1 don't need it." The next scene is the front porch of a home. An elderly wornan in a flowered dress sits on the porch, and is framed in a medium shot by the camera. She too turns her attention to the viewer and proclaims, '1 don' t need it ." In the final shot, the viewer is presented with a close- up of an attractive women in her late 20s or early 30s, sporting a page-boy haircut and a house dress. The camera has moved £rom the Street with the young girl, to the porch with the elderly woman and moves theoretically through the house to the backyard, where the housewife looks to the camera and says, 'Well I certainly do!" At this point, a male voice-over begins to explain to the viewer that "the woman who needs real cleaning power in her laundry detergent needs new Ajax." A white knight then comes galloping across the screen, magically touching the housewife's husband and son, and immediately whitening their clothing. The happy housewife looks on pleased as the jingle cuts in: "Ajax, stronger than dirt ."'Oz
This ad clearly illustrates the division of women into three different stages of life, with the middle-aged mother
*02~hisadvertisement is contained in an episode of Don Messer's Jubilee. Fb1726 Mf254-1, March 13, 1967. 118 being the prime consumer. The different ads for ladiesr Timex
watches could also be seen as appealing ta the housewife and
to the younger woman. While the Young, single woman is placed
outside the home in both ads, the wife belongs in the home.
Each of the three age groups was marketed to in a
slightly different manner. The older woman was considered
past her spending peak and appeared less often in the
advertisements. She was the focal point of only one ad in the
Halifax collections. This ad saw the elderly woman taking
care of her sick husband. The ad for Aspirin featured an older couple with the woman much too dressed up to be at home.
The voice-over explained that her husband is "like a stone, except when he gets sick" and he needs his wife to take care of hirn?03 It appealed to her nurturing qualities which needed to be exercised, even after the children had left the nest.
Young, single women was the next group that advertisers appealed to. Unlike the older and middle-aged women, their nurturing or mothering aspect of femininity was not featured in these ads. Instead, their vanity, bodies and sexuality were exploited to make the sale. In an ad for Lux soap, movie star Yvonne DeCarlo speaks into the camera about the wonders of the product. She wears a double pearl necklace, evening gown and is in full make-up. The soap was available in a
'''CBC Library, 9223.X, 'Old Commercials 1966 - 1970." t 19 number of "pretty" colours in order to create the illusion of variety and the productrs ability to appeal to al1 women.
This ad, along with the Colgate and Timex ads, illustrates that for young women, beautiful appearance was an important part of their gender role, and vital to the dating game and catching the right man. The final and largest group of ads aimed at females were directed at housewives. The ads stressed the importance of taking care of the home and family. These duties included buying the correct food, accessories and rnedicine for the family, as well as keeping the home, clothing and everyone inside clean and happy.
While it is difficult to view most advertisements as doing anything but reinforcing conservative gendar roles,
Ewen' s and Rutherfordfs theories on subversion could be applied to one ad for Ajax cleanser. The ad can be viewed as traditional, or as exploring new roles for women. Among other times, the ad ran during the December 25, 1967 edition of Don
Messer's Jubilee. The ad features mom acting like a drill sergeant and ordering the family to clean the home properly.
While the woman is placed traditionally in the domestic sphere, the way in which she takes charge of the home seems to challenge her subjugation to her husband. Clearly, where the home is concerned, mom is the ultimate boss. 120
The ad starts with mom walking down the line her family has formed in the kitchen and saying, "Clean-up time, mop, sponge, Ajax cleanser" while she hands the products to her husband, son and daughter. After she had handed the cleaning items to her family, she says, "Ajax liquid cleaner, couldnr t clean the house without it," and ther- proceeds to bark out orders to the family. She walks around the kitchen inspecting the family' s work and commanding, "Move out. Clean that sink, clean that corner, that light switch, put that Ajax to work on the floors." The husband mops while the two children scrub the kitchenm204
The Ajax ad presents the home as the army barracks with mom as sergeant- Unlike the other advertisernents for cleaning products, the mother in the ad does no cleaning, instead, she ensures that her men (Le. her family) do the job properly.
In this way, the ad can be seen as challenging a typical family nom of the period, that wives were subordinate to their husband. However, the ad also follows traditional gender roles. Mom is, after all, put in charge of the home, not the office, and although she is never seen cleaning, it is still a male voice-over at the end of the commercial that confirms Ajax cleanser is the greatest cleanser in the world.
*04~hisad is contained in an episode of Don Messer's Jubilee. Fb1728 Mf254-6, December 25, 1967 . 121
In this way, the Ajax cleanser ad can be seen as either challenging, or working with traditional gender stereotypes for a humorous effect.
Whether attempting to instigate laughter or fear in their audience, advertisers were powerful purveyors of gender roles.
As Ewen and the final commercial for Ajax suggest, there was space to subvert maditional gender roles within the genre; however, as the rest of the collection illustrates this option was not often as clearly available. Ln addition, Rutherfordfs and the CBC Library's collections reveal the presentation of the admaker's gender ideals (in the form of stereotypes) was the norm. Because the purpose of ads was solely to sel1 a product, they had to be less controversial in order to reach a wider audience. By presenting more "traditional" and idealized roles, ads followed the conservative nature of Don
Messer's Jubilee rather than the innovative nature of public affairs programming. Conclusion 123 While television prograrns and cornrnercials were only a small part of the world cf Haligonian women in the 1950s and the 1960s, they provide an interesting glimpse at gender roles valued by that society. They illustrate dual threads of conservatism and modernism that characterized the province during the period. Although Nova Scotia was behind places like Ontario in terms of female participation in the workforce, it was not completely out of touch with the values and the mores of the time. During its first two decades, the medium of television was very quickly integrating the province into the rest of North America. As a result, the widely accepted role of Maritime women - that of homemaker and mother - fragmented. For the rnost part, married women were still stay-at-home wives and mothers, but other roles were emerging and being taken up by an increasing number of women.
Gender roles served institutional, political, commercial and purposes. The gender roles portrayed by CBHT Halifax, and the CBC itself, were institutional. The gender roles portrayed by CBHT Halifax, and the CBC itself, were part of the structure of the institution. Through unfair hiring practices and preconceived notions of which jobs were for men and which jobs were for women, the CBC legitimized traditional gender roles. While CBC television was a new and innovative medium to explore, older models, such as CBC radio, served as 124 directional guides. While the institution was new, it attempted to legitirnize itself by adhering to gender roles defined by the ruling class. However, because of the nature of the medium, this attempt was not fully successful. Women gained prominence on the screen, giving female viewers strong role models in new areas of the working world. While CBHT was apt to relegate women to the secretarial pool rather than the newsroom, its programming was more arnbiguous when it came to the proper role for women. Both conservative and progressive politics generated particular gender role in this period. Like the culture of the province, a modern/conservative rnix was illustrated in the wide array of programming that aired during the 1960s. For the most part,
Don Messer's Jubilee espoused "old-the" values while women's and current affairs programming began to push these values in a new direction. Dealing with issues like abortion, racisrn and sexism, the shows challenged their viewers to seek out new roles for themselves.
On the surface, Don Messer's Jubilee revealed the conservative nature of not only Nova Scotia, but al1 of rural
Canada when it became one of the CBCfs biggest success stories. In a period when women were entering the workforce in record numbers and divorce rates were soaring, the program assured al1 Canadians that there was still a place for 125 supposedly traditional values within the new and emerging
gender roles. The show spoke to a mythical past that many
Nova Scotians were attempting to recapture along with their
premier, Angus L. Macdonald.
This mythical past was rooted in both imagineci tradition
and modernity. It portrayed the past as a simpler and happier
time, but it was also designed to help make over the
provincial economy in a new form by attracting millions of
tourist dollars. This particular combination of modernization
amidst invented tradition carried over into the medium of
television. Looking at Don Messer's Jubilee, the irony is not
hard to identify. The latest technology was being used to transmit "down to earth," wholesome values to its audience.
The role women played at CBHT, in acting out their gender, was political. Their presence in the new medium helped shape new roles for middle-class women. People like
Marilyn MacDonald, Libby Christianson and Marion MacGillvary were confident, intelligent women who were not afraid to put
their talents to use in the traditionally male domain of the media. Facing discrimination in the workforce, they persevered and within these limits, made some changes.
Relying on their good looks and their brains, these women pushed the conservative medium as far as they could, never moving fully outside of the dominant discourse. 126
At the same tirne, the roles that CBHT women took on illustrate both the changes and continuities of the period.
While Marg Osborne was portrayed as a typical housewife, she was a working women, starring on a nationally broadcast television program. Catherine MacKinnon took the other route-
While dressing and acting as a modern rniddle-class business women she sang traditional Maritime folk music to gain success.
At the sarne time that local programming and hiring practices at CBHT Halifax painted the station as rather conservative, advertisements from the period revealed a national bias toward the housewife/breadwinner roles.
Advertisements put forth their own conception of gender roles with the unclouded agenda of commercial gain. This meant creating gender roles that their viewers would want to embrace, and then playing on their fear of not being able to perforrn the desired role. And yet, advertisers were unable to avoid the ambiguity caused by the medium. Was the young Timex wornan a sexy role mode1 for women, or a piece of meat for male viewers? Was the drill sergeant mom exercising new power in the Ajax commercial, or was she just ruling over her domestic domain? The discontinuity of the medium provided space for more than one interpretation of al1 its portrayals of gender. As stated, the nature of television allowed contradictory 127 gender roles to exist within the same images. These
ambiguities within programming, through narration, visuals, or
music, made different interpretations of gender roles possible
on multiple levels. As a result, viewers may have seen the
Homebase episode "Karen in the Kitchen" as glorifying the role
of the housewife, or a political statement in an attempt to
break down the stereotype of the happy housewife.
In addition to their multiplicity of levels, some kinds
of television programs are works in progress that involve
viewers in a unique way from other media. Panel discussions,
such as the one on racism presented on Take Thirty, invite the
viewer to become involved in issues, The condemnation of the
passive viewer on Homebasers episode on pollution also
illustrates the level of audience involvement expected by the
producer. This implicit invitation to participate in the medium makes determinacy impossible in the presentation of
gender roles. In addition, It also provides the perfect
conditions by which to alter the hegemonic discourse because as Butler, Parr and others point out, woman is not presented
as a stable category, This thesis cannot pretend to understand fully how
audience members reacted to programming, and what messages
they took away. However, it does illustrate an array of gender roles that were presented to them by people within the 128 industry who believed they were providing the audience with what they wanted. While changes to the conservative middle- class gender roles presented on CBHT were not al1 encompassing or even dramatic during the 1960s, the ambiguous and open nature of the medium provided space for alternative roles to be explored, Bibliogtaphy Prima- Sources
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Private Records
Kerby, Doug and Geoff D'Eon. CBC Halifax: Historv. First Internet History Project prepared by Doug Kerby for Ryerson History of Broadcasting Pilot, April 12, 1996.
Dummitt, Chris, "Better Left Unsaid: Power, Discourse and Masculine Domesticity in Postwar Halifax, 1945 - 1960." MA Thesis. History Department, Dalhousie University, 1997.
Morrow, Wendy. "Competing Visions: Women, Sexuality & Campus Life in Canada During the 1960s." BAH Essay. History Department, Dalhousie University, 1997. IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (QA-3)