Emily Simski
February 6, 2015
Second Blog Entry
Women
of the 40s, 50s, and 60s
Women
in the 1940s, 50s, and 60s were treated with not much respect as many people thought
that they would. This was the time that women were being broadcast to
American families across the country in the media and advertisement. In Andi
Zeisler’s book “Feminism and Pop Culture”, especially the second chapter “American
Dreams, Stifled Realities”, was not only the birth of modern pop culture, but
it was also the period when women were force to be covered up as well as “The
Curse of the Happy Housewife”.
This
whole idea of how women were treated in movies was through a system known as
The Hays Code. For those of you who don’t know what that is, The Hays Code was
designed to tamper with any image that may give people the wrong message. For
example, on screen kisses were brief, violence and crimes were handled in the
shadows, and the idea of showing belly buttons was a no-no. I can understand
why during this time people weren't allowed to expose themselves, but what if
someone wanted to take a chance? Apparently the code was, as page 31 of “Feminism
and Pop Culture” says, “designed to put the genie back into the bottle-and the
wife back into the kitchen”. Due to this, some movies such as The Divorcee, Red- Headed Woman and The Blue Angel were “covered up” due to “no-no
forms of media”.
It wasn't until the era of mid-1940s to early 1960s sitcom shows that made
Americans think about women in that era. Instead of focusing on the women
themselves, these shows decided to focus on the roles of women instead. Some of
these shows include The Honeymooners, I
Love Lucy, Father Knows Best and The
Donna Reed Show. Each of these women were known as “The Housewife” where
they did all the work while the husband was at work. However, women like
Lucille Ball (who played the title character in I Love Lucy), were never afraid to bring some humor to the screen,
even if Lucy did get in trouble with Ricky sometimes (or maybe every time). These
women weren't afraid to be loud and to “break away from the curse” of being a
housewife to the man and children.
Women
in this era were shown to be another use for ads as well as used in the media
as the housewife of the time. I find myself really enjoying this book of
Zeisler’s because I love how she uses topics that everyone knows as well as
relate to. Shows such as I Love Lucy,
in my opinion, are used as reminders today to show everyone that women don’t
have to be just the person who cooks, cleans and mends the clothes while the
husband is at work. These sitcom women weren't afraid of breaking out of their
comfort zone. While the women in the movies didn't have the same chance as the
TV girls, at least they were given a chance to share the screen with men.
I also found it interesting that it was a part of the Hays Code for women not being able to show even their belly buttons on television, they should have been given a chance to branch out and be themselves not be told what to do and who to be. I also agree with the fact women have always been seen as the "housewife," but it is good that woman such as Lucille Balle was able to bring humor to the screen because it was different for a women to do that type of thing, she was branching out and as you said it was good for Americans to notice that during this era.
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