Faith Beglane
6 February 2015
Women in Television
As men headed out to war, women
headed into the workforce. This gave women a new opportunity and a bright
looking future. In Feminism and pop
culture by Andi Zeisler, she focuses on women in the 1940’s, 50s, and 60s
in the chapter American Dreams, Stifled realities. For the first time, women
had the opportunity to show men what they were capable. Women had been forced to
sit in the house while their husband would go to work. Women roles were very
limited and people thought their abilities were too. Women were told that they
couldn’t work, to now being told that it was their patriotic duty and that they
had to work, “More than six million women answered the call of duty, thanks in
part to the propaganda efforts that flattered women by positioning them as
central to their country’s success in the war” (Zeisler 27). But when the war ended, women were sent back
into the kitchens of their homes while the men went back to work. This was the
start of the second wave of feminism and the women were not going down without
a fight.
Television
of the mid 1900’s, now started to feature more women. Shows like I love Lucy,
and Leave it to Beaver, were just some of the most popular shows at the time.
Lucy’s role was a housewife but she was always up to no good where her husband
Ricky, had to help her get out of trouble. All television stations had to
follow the Hays code which set certain standards for sexuality shown on the
screen. The women’s role remained the same throughout the stations, “The new
female figure in film was one who was somehow imperiled-by love, by sickness,
or by circumstance-and it was around this figure that a new genre of film
caused ‘the women’s picture’ revolved” (Zeisler 31). The female role was now in transition from
housewife to workforce. Although these shows may have not reflected every women
in society, I think that Lucy was a good example to show how women could be a
housewife but still not do everything that a man wanted her to do.
I agree with what you'e saying, women were very limited with pretty much everything but then they started to show men that they could do the same things.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you completely. I think Lucy was a very good example to of how a women could listen to her husband but still do the things she wanted to.
ReplyDelete