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The 50’s and the “other” 50’s Image of the 1950s as a time of great prosperity, security, peace, religiousness. Reality – increases in teenage pregnancy, unwed motherhood, 25% of population living in poverty, (no food stamps, Medicare, housing programs), spousal and sexual abuse. Why the huge difference between perception and reality? • Legacy of War and Depression. • Efforts to get women out of the workforce after WWII led to stricter gender roles. The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit (Organization Man) The Happy Housewife • Reinforced by ad campaigns, magazines, books, experts • Dr. Spock’s Baby and Child Care • The Modern Woman: The Lost Sex • “Mommyism” • Reinforced by consumption, made possible by GI Bill and credit • Buying consumer goods became “patriotic duty” and a status symbol. (& weapon of the Cold War) • You weren’t “A man” unless you could afford a house in the suburbs, with all the latest “time-saving” gadgets for the housewife. • Suburbanization: urban poor, ghetto-ization • Suburbanization + shopping malls, franchises = suburbs full of women & children. Very isolating. • Fashion for women reinforced femininity: padded bras and full skirts, small waists, very high heels. Functioned to constrict women. • Sexuality to be controlled, just like communism. Television • By 1952, 15 million households had TVs, by 1955, 2/3rd of households had TVs. • Shows like Leave it to Beaver, Father Knows Best and Ozzie and Harriet reinforced the traditional nuclear family. • Dad works a white collar job, mom stays home and cooks and cleans in a skirt, heels and pearls, the kids look up to and respect their parents (never get caught stealing or getting pregnant or anything realistic). • Other shows told you what would happen if you stepped out of that role. • I Love Lucy, later I Dream of Jeannie and Bewitchedthe danger of women stepping out of their traditional roles. TV vs. Reality • Most people’s lives were nothing like what they saw on TV, but they figured that meant there was something wrong with them, because everyone was presenting their lives as a mirror of the TV myth. • Many men felt isolated and unhappy with the grind of work-turned to alcoholism and/or domestic violence, felt like their kids were strangers and their wives didn’t understand what they were going through. • Women-many were college educated, and very unsatisfied with their lives, but assumed they were doing something wrong. High instances of valium use- “mother’s little helper” • Also, many women had to work outside the home, for families to be able to afford to keep up the appearance of a middle class lifestyle. Concept of “Keeping up with the Jones’” • Kids-ashamed and embarrassed their families didn’t live up to the standards on TV. Fear of the bomb • More and more emphasis on communist infiltration and potential nuclear war scared the hell out of kids. • Nightmares about Soviet attacks, Duck and cover drills, etc… • Will have a profound affect on the “Ban the bomb” movement in the 1960s when these kids reach college and learn just how useless the duck and cover drills were. • Emphasis on religion as a contrast against communism. • As long as you fit the right image-religious, heterosexual, nuclear family, etc…, could avoid communist label. • “under God” added to pledge. • Additionally, most minorities couldn’t even pretend to fit these stereotypes. • GI Bill gave opportunities to African American men, but still experienced discrimination from private institutions (banks, real estate, etc…) • The majority of African American women had to work outside the home, usually as domestic servants. • South still segregated. De Facto segregation in the North as well. The “Other” 50’s • Underneath this façade, existed another America. • Jazz had been popular since the 1920s, but experienced a resurgence w/the youth in the 50s • Jazz and blues clubs with integrated audiences. (often seen as a precursor to rock and roll). The Beats • Youth subculture • generally is big cities (like Greenwich Village in NY) • hung out at jazz clubs, wrote poetry, wore all black, smoked pot. • Challenging their stereotypes and trappings of their parents’ generation. • Jack Kerouac's On the Road, Allen Ginsberg’s Howl, America, etc… Science Fiction • Underground movement, considered “pulp” • Used as a metaphor for Cold War fears • Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Blob, etc… Also a way for people to be critical of Cold War propaganda and repression. Satire • another way to attack status quo and repression. • Mad Magazine Playboy • Gave men an alternative gender role, other than that of father/breadwinner. • Focus on consumerism for oneself, centerfold to avoid homosexual (and therefore communist) stigma. • Also gave women other opportunities besides homemaker, nurse, teacher, stewardess, and secretary. • Celebration of female sexuality outside virgin/whore binary The Kinsey Studies 1948 Sexual Behavior of the Human Male 1953 Sexual Behavior of the Human Female Alfred Kinsey Scientific, factual study Both were best-sellers Betty Page and the Klaw Studios • Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka Kansas, 1954 Civil Rights • NAACP had been working on finding a way to overturn Plessy v. Ferguson for years. Finally found their case. • Thurgood Marshall, lawyer for NAACP. • In the middle of the case, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court died. George E.C. Hayes, Thurgood Marshall, and James M. Nabrit • Ike replaced him with Earl Warren • Previously had a very conservative record. • As soon as he got on the bench (appointed for life) completely flipped his position and became one of the most activist justices ever, ushered in era of activist supreme court. • Pushed for necessity of a unanimous decision. • Found separate but equal inherently unequal and unconstitutional. • Ordered the states to desegregate with “all deliberate speed.” • Marshall appointed to Supreme Court by President Johnson in 1967. • Huge victory for African Americans. • Problem-Supreme Court has no enforcement power. African Americans have to keep fighting the system, but this victory hardens their resolve. 1955 – The Emmit Till case • From Chicago, visiting family in Mississippi • “Reckless eyeballing” • His body was found in the Miss. River, so badly mutilated he had to be identified by a ring. 1955 – The Emmit Till case • His mother insisted on an open casket funeral so “the world can see what they did to my baby.” Images in papers world-wide. Horrified people in the North who didn’t really realize what was going on in the south (if I can’t see it, its not happening, NIMBY) 1955 – The Emmit Till case • Also seen as an international relations nightmare. • Segregation + Till case + Independent African Nations = bad publicity for U.S., especially when trying to convince the 3rd world that the U.S. are the “good guys” and the Soviets are the “bad guys” • USSR had been condemning U.S. racism and segregation since WWII. • Example from Yalta: FDR-”What about Poland?” Stalin-”What about Mississippi?” 1955 – Montgomery Bus Boycott • Rosa Parks, NAACP • SCLC – Southern Christian Leadership Conference Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. 1957 - Desegregation of Central High School, Little Rock, AK Gov. Faubus used national guard to keep the nine black teens from entering. Ike had to send in an division of the army and nationalize the state guard to guarantee their safety. 1960 – The first Sit-in • Greensboro, NC, Woolworths. • Student initiated and student led. • CORE (Congress On Racial Equality) helped out, then SCLC. • Sparked interracial sit-ins across the country. • Student activists eventually forms SNCC (Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee). • Many of these images received international attention as well. • David Richmond, Franklin McCain, Ezell Blair, and Joseph McNeil • Harlem, N.Y. • Orangeburg, S.C., 1960 • Woolworth sit-in, Jackson, MS. May 28, 1963 • Joan Trumpauer (now Mulholland), and Anne Moody, Coming of Age in Mississippi The Student Movement • • • • • SDS-Student for a Democratic Society Port Huron Statement objection to “parentals”, Free Speech. Cross over w/civil rights. Adopt non-violent resistance tactics. • Continues throughout the 60s. Eisenhower’s Admin • 1956-Interstate Highway Act, as a military necessity, 41,000 miles of highway. • 1954-Housing Act-slum clearing, no alternative housing for poor • More conservative than FDR/Truman. • Less government intervention in economy, regulation, balance budget, increase military spending. • Lower taxes, especially for businesses, corporations • Government-business cooperation. Eisenhower’s Farwell Address • Warns of the dangers of the “militaryindustrial complex” • Alliance between government and industries building for the military. • Basically warning that if we develop a sector of the economy that is dependant on us having a ever-increasing military (especially with reference to technology), then it will be in the best interest of that sector to promote war. Election of 1960 VP Richard Nixon (R) vs John F. Kennedy (D) • Issue of Religion • Ike’s “endorsement” • TV debates • African American vote • Kennedy wins by a narrow margin