Quote:
Originally Posted by redwitch
I remember the fifties a lot differently -- it was a time of great fear because of the A-bomb. Women rarely worked outside of the home and, if they did, it was usually in a subservient role. Even professional women were pushed into the lesser roles (attorneys for estate planning, trusts, family law; physicians were ob-gyns) most of the time. It was okay for a male to have pre-marital sex and extra-curricular marital affairs were to be bragged about. A female was shamed. Minorities were kept in their place, separate but equal was the way of life, lynchings were common. It was acceptable to beat your wife so long as the stick was no bigger than the width of your thumb. Not only could parents spank their children, so could your neighbor or the principal and some of those spankings were flat out beatings. Sexual abuse was common and the girl was nearly always at fault, even if only ten. Miscegenation was a crime. So was homosexuality. And so on and so forth. The fifties were a time of violence, fear, cruelty and bigotry.
A lot of the values such as hard work, honesty, respect, trust are still prevalent today. Yes, the language is rougher today, chivalry towards females is gone, some of the niceties have disappeared. Even so, I'll take today's world. It's a lot more honest and, in many ways, kinder.
|
I would argue that there were millions of women who did not share your point of view during the 1950s.
Among them would be those women who had been forced out of their preferred feminine roles as housewives and homemakers to work in the various defense industries during the 1940s, building airplanes, tanks, arms and munitions for our military forces engaged in a world-wide armed struggle that we were by no means assured we would win.
During World War II, American women demonstrated their ability to perform in the mechanical crafts and trades which had previously been closed to them, and they developed a new pride and self-confidence in their abilities. But, most of them preferred to removed to the traditional "feminine" roles of the pre-war era; and most did, welcoming home their husbands, and expecting to again be the ruler of their households while their husbands brought home a paycheck.
One of the greatest aspirations of our military men returning to civilian life was to settle down with a wife and family in their own home, working at a good job, and enjoying life.
Technology which was developed in war time found civilian applications which blossomed quickly into "modern conveniences" such as tape recorders, AM/FM transistor radios, and
television. The 1950s was also characterized by the introduction of a wide variety of automobiles, and the American romance with cars began a decades-long love affair.
You mention lynchings, but you fail to mention that the Civil Rights Movement took wing in the 1950s, with such events as Brown vs. Board of Education, Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott, and the rise of Martin Luther King, Jr., as leader of the Civil Rights Movement. By the 1950s the Armed Forces had been ordered integrated, and minorities were moving into the supervisory ranks.
I don't know where you lived in the 1950s, but in none of the places where I lived was wife beating legal or accepted.
You properly decry the disparity in moral values between sexual promiscuity of men and women in the 1950s, but seem to feel that lowering the standard for women was the proper solution, while there are those of us who argue that raising the standard for men would have been the proper solution.
In the 1950s, I was a white, male, heterosexual teenager with a beautiful high school sweetheart who I later married, and a nice late model car to ride around in for trips to church, parties, and the beach. I did well in high school, attended church regularly, grew up in a two-parent family, with a younger brother who also did well.
I was aware of alcohol and drugs, but did not use them. I had a part time job in which I worked with a Black male who I considered a friend. I lived in a city in which White, Black, Italian and Spanish influences were all in evidence. I read a weekly newspaper that had articles written in English, Italian and Spanish. I ate "soul food," Italian food, Cuban food, and lots of sea food.
And I was happy.
Clearly, we have very different memories of the 1950s.