An Analysis of 1950S and 1960S Popular Culture
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Happiness, Womanhood, and nuclear family, however, was faced with societal shame. Popular culture and media outlets of the Sexualized Media: An Analysis 1950s and early 1960s raised young women to be of 1950s and 1960s Popular sexually charged and hyperaware of their public appearances, but ultimately women were told to Culture channel their sexuality into marriage and Bridget O’Keefe procreation. Ramapo College of New Jersey Girls growing up in the 1950s experienced a flood of media unlike any other moment in the United States. The sensation of Walt Disney films captures the gendered messages of fairy tales, America during the 1950s and 1960s was grounded princesses and their virtues. The most popular in and centered on the conception of the nuclear Disney films of the 50s include Cinderella (1950), family. The suburbanization of white middle class Alice in Wonderland (1951), Peter Pan (1953), families after World War II yielded unique Lady and the Tramp (1955), and Sleeping Beauty conditions for both media outlets and the U.S. (1959). All of these films star a princess or virtuous government to push explicit messages on gender female character, one with beauty, passivity, roles to preserve the sanctity of the nuclear family. kindness, gentleness, and a peculiar knack for The widespread affluence of millions of suburban, getting into trouble. The precious damsel in distress white middle class families served as a marker of being saved by a handsome prince to live happily success for the U.S. in the international community, ever after famously characterizes these princess which was a matter of national security during the films. The fairy tale endings in these films play a Cold War. The preservation of the nuclear family, larger role in the psyche of young women. True however, was highly dependent on women in their love and marriage are presented as the only goals traditional roles as wives and mothers. Women for a female and the only path to happiness. 2 In across the nation were responsible for raising the both Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty, the main next generation of Americans, approximately 76 characters barely have a conversation with their million baby boomers from 1946 to 1964. 1 princes before the men are smitten. Their beauty is American greatness was to be determined in the what attracts the princes to them, but their choices and actions of these baby boomers and hardworking, docile, pure and innocent therefore many messages on gender roles were temperaments is what make the female characters strictly dictated to ensure that the nuclear family marriage material. and capitalism would be upheld for generations to Besides the damsel in distress narrative, come. these films also present other gendered messages. In These messages of tradition and stability all of the films, the villains or disliked characters were also mixed with the modernity and affluence are single females who have become evil because of of a postwar nation. Advertisements, television their power or independence. Cinderella is plagued shows, films and songs all showcased American by an evil, widowed stepmother who unrightfully technology and innovation. The mixed messages of abuses her because she has control of property. preserving the country through the nuclear family, Owning property is a distinctly male attribute in the while still attempting to be glamorous and modern traditional sense, so a female who obstructs this by keeping up with Hollywood trends proved to be important patriarchal element is deemed villainous. confusing and stressful for young women and girls. The Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland All forms of media promoted marriage as the menacingly taunts Alice and is depicted as mad. ultimate goal for the American female. Some She also emasculates the King of Hearts (in size and showed “true love” as the catalyst, while others personality) in a way that is laughable to the insinuated exciting yet dangerous premarital sex. audience, but most importantly her fits of rage and Any deviation from the capitalist blueprints of the 1 “Just How Many Baby Boomers Are There?” Population 2 Susan Douglas, Where the Girls Are: Growing Up Female Reference Bureau, last modified December 2002. with Mass Media (New York: Three Rivers Press, 1995), 28. 56 tyrannical rule of the kingdom make her the villain 5 of the film. Tinkerbell is not the villain per se in Television shows of this era presented Peter Pan, but her jealousy of Wendy is presented average Americans with the perfect family, highly negatively and envy is often attributed as an dependent on the perfect housewife. The character, undesirable female trait. Aunt Sarah’s character in Donna Stone of The Donna Reed Show (1958-1966) Lady and the Tramp is an old spinster who takes too is the prototypical housewife; she dons heels and much control of Lady’s house while her owners are pearls to perform chores and has a positive away. She is deemed the villain for her overbearing temperament when disciplining her children. Most personality. Lastly, in Sleeping Beauty, Maleficent importantly, Donna Stone is very active in her plays the villain as an evil witch who tries to take community, helping to organize charity events and over Aurora’s kingdom. The Disney films of the local theatre productions. This particular 1950s feature this single, overly powerful female representation of the American housewife is figure that is created to send the message that carefully constructed because it shows Donna being marriage and the private sphere are the only able to perform an important societal role of acceptable futures for women. 3 Their community leader, i.e. something intellectually independence is extremely threatening and painted stimulating enough to keep her content, but is not in a negative light. radical enough to show Donna competing with men These films reach an impressionable in the workforce. Leave it to Beaver (1957-1963) audience and media has been determined as a also represented the housewife, June Cleaver, in a “major means by which children assimilate traditional role, even more so than Donna Stone. culture”. 4 Disney films would be the earliest form June also wears pearls and heels when doing of media that children of the late 1940s into the housework and the Cleaver life is dependent on early 1960s were exposed to. Therefore, the large traditional and formality with the family always masses of white, middle class suburbanite children eating dinner in the formal dining room. She has who had access to these films and would identify impeccable hair and makeup, but is never seen with the white, beautiful characters are learning that tending to it, implying that beauty and selflessness appearances and a pleasant demeanor are essential should go hand in hand and that her beauty is to future happiness, and if one rejects those something expected. These female characters were attributes she is doomed to a life of loneliness and beautiful, but not necessarily sexy or glamorous. evil-doing as the Disney villains are. 1950s television was largely sterile in its excitement Messages of the female societal role are or dangerousness. The virtue of 50s television seen elsewhere in 1950s media as well. The most housewives is similar to that of Disney princesses; popular television shows at the time provided all of the positive representations of women in the similar nuclear family type narratives, where the 1950s were ones where the female is effortlessly father is the breadwinner and the mother is dutiful beautiful, kind, innocent, and a protector of the and pleasant. Sitcoms like I Love Lucy, Adventures family. 6 of Ozzie and Harriet, Leave it to Beaver, The Television and film of the 1950s aimed to Donna Reed Show and Father Knows Best created reach a wide audience, so universal messages were the illusion that American homes were dominated used to instill conformity. As Andrea Press notes, by the nuclear family with the wife staying at home these representations “presumed a unified American to raise the children. In reality, thirty-eight percent majority identity”; an America without minorities, of women over the age of sixteen held a job by the social problems, or poverty.7 Television and film year 1960, including twenty percent of mothers who was sometimes used as a tool to present the “best had children under the age of six. 1950s television aspects” of America, even though they were not did not show this growing truth of U.S. households. 5 Susan Douglas, Where the Girls Are: Growing Up Female 3 Susan Douglas, Where the Girls Are: Growing Up Female with Mass Media (New York: Three Rivers Press, 1995), 43. with Mass Media (New York: Three Rivers Press, 1995), 29. 6 Ibid., 27 4 Lori Baker-Sperry and Liz Grauerholz, “The Pervasiveness 7 Andrea Press, “Gender and Family in Television’s Golden and Persistence of the Feminine Beauty Ideal in Children’s Age and Beyond,” Annals of the American Academy of Fairy Tales,” Gender and Society 17, no. 5 (Oct. 2003). Political and Social Science 625, (Sep. 2009): 140. 57 particularly accurate. In the height of the Cold War, years. Teens were excited about “issues of sex, race, the display of perfect families on television was and class in a culture dedicated to ignoring them important to make Americans feel safe. The and [they felt] liberat[ed] because of it”.9 Rock stars government and media executives tied the nuclear usually represented the working class and always family and capitalism into one, so that both are insinuated sexual promiscuity. dependent on each other. With heavy importance Elvis Presley, for example, used hair grease, placed on women to be beautiful and perfectly a tradition taken from African-Americans who, domestic, there was a huge commercial market for “had their hair straightened and curled into curious female products ranging from makeup to kitchen shapes”, as Wini Breines notes.