Professional Documents
Culture Documents
10236
1
The public voicing of private desires: Transforming Gender
Ideals through Popular Print Material in 1950s America
The post war decade was one of patent progression for American
popular culture, morality and society. The optimism of post-war
affluence, its thriving cultural landscape, the Civil Rights Movement that
brought faith in public political contribution towards social change, the
automobile revolution, all point towards the breaking of traditions of a
nation that moved forwards in all senses. Despite clear markers of
liberating impulses, scholars have been too ready to accept the
conservative, Ozzie and Harriet style depiction of 1950s America. This
assignment seeks to revert the assumption of sexual reticence and
static gender norms that commonly define the decade, concerning in
particular white, middle class Americans, as the principle targets of
consumer ideology, chief members of the affluent society, and those
most persistently caricatured as housewives and breadwinners of the
suburban American Dream. In my opinion, the Fifties merit greater
recognition as the decade that stimulated social and cultural change
that paved way for greater revolutionary fervour in the Sixties.
2
values and attitudes of a given society at a given time.
We must bear
2 Elaine Tyler May, Homeward Bound: American Families in the Cold War Era (New York:
Basic Books, 1990), p.16.
3Joanne Meyerowitz, Beyond the Feminine Mystique, in Not June Cleaver: Women and
Gender in Postwar America, 1945-1960, ed. by Joanne Jay Meyerowitz, (Philadelphia:
Temple University Press, 1994), pp.229-62 (p. 231).
3
awakened new senses of individual fulfilment and sexuality,
destabilising therefore, traditional gender dichotomies. I have chosen to
focus in particular on the Maidenform underwear companys I
Dreamed campaign from 1949-1960 and Thomas Marios food
articles in Playboy magazine from 1954-1959 as windows into
progressive gendered ideologies towards sex, work, politics and the
opposite sex.
the first
4
magazine helped shape. Millions of Americas men, psychologically
affected from battlefield experiences, returned home to soon find new
contradictory roles mapped out for them: the loving breadwinner of the
nuclear family of the nuclear age, (Tyler May, p.3.) virile antiCommunists, and successful competitors of the affluent society.
Playboy reassuringly merged such antagonistic male concepts with the
fantastical Playboy bachelor, who was at once comfortably attuned to
conformism and domesticity, but also prided a masculine demeanour of
(hetero) sexuality and professionalism. Thus, both progressive gender
constructs reflected the social currents of America itself, and its path
towards modern liberalism.
What
5
Before the politicised revolutions of the Sixties, the initial
voicing of private desires through popular culture was manifested in the
Fifties. It was only a matter of time before Americans stopped dreaming
and started doing.
6 Nancy A. Walker, Womens Magazines 1940-1960: Gender Roles and the Popular
Press (Bedford: Bedford/St Martins, 1998), p.2
6
which sold 90 million units in more than 100 countries from 1949
through 19787, is revealing of the brands remarkable understanding of
what women wished to wear, be and feel.
eventually surpassed
7
attitudes and their enhanced sexual appeal The first advert, I wish I
went shopping in my Maidenform bra (Image 1 in appendix) captures
the sentiment of post-war American women entering a new world of
abundance after wartime economy struggles. The overjoyed model,
prancing around in a surreal setting of a shop with flying foods captures
this joyous post-war relief and emergence of womens new purchasing
power. On one hand, the surreal image reconfirms the womans
domestic, maternal essence, but on the other, her exposure in just a
Maidenform bra and skirt connotes something untraditional, nonmaternal, and refreshingly daring.
but at the same time endorsed what could and should be deemed
8
version of todays superwoman11 rather than Friedans unfeminine,
unhappy [woman] with professional ambitions to be [a] poet, or
physicist or president. (Friedan, p.13) Assuming that these two adverts
mirror the female consciousness from the start to end of the decade,
Maidenform successfully understood how female consumers aspired
more towards sexual confidence and independence as the years
advanced.
9
After the war, womens jobs in manual labour may have
been returned to men, but one domain in which women could fill the
professional gap was politics. The Maidenform woman fantasised about
winning the election (Image 4) in her bra and surprisingly, this dream
was not beyond womens capacities. In 1957, at the peak of the baby
boom, seventeen women served in Congress in the general elections,
as opposed to nine in 1944.
13
10
Time Women Took Direct Action (January 1952) and They Do ItYou
Can Too (April 1956) These motivational messages were
unambiguous. By praising politically active women, Hickey encouraged
women to do more than just vote. She stressed the rewards of
multitasking politics and domesticity for the LHJ readership who were
largely housewives and mothers. Make politics your business, she
said. Office holding, raising your voice for new and better laws is just
as important to your family as the evening meal.
16
17
18
16 Whats the US to you? April 1950 p. 23 cited in Meyerowitz, Beyond the Feminine
Mystique, in Not June Cleaver, pp.229-62 (p. 240).
11
20 Maureen Honey, Creating Rosie the Riveter: Class, Gender and Propaganda during
World War II (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1984), p.179.
12
beautiful women in military uniform and applauded their multiple duties
as homemakers, fighters working alongside American men and symbols
of morale. (Image 5) On one advert, Constance Luft Huhn, head of the
House of Tangee described lipstick as:
The war may have been over in 1945, but the coexistence
of work, domesticity and femininity endured. David Halberstams
generalised assumption of the post war redefinition of womanhood, that
to be feminine, women must not work, and if she did, it made her
hard and aggressive and almost doomed to loneliness
21
may
13
social experience,22 is valuable in understanding womens heightened
sense of self in the new consumer age. Although cosmetics and the
manufactured beauty industry were well established in America for
many decades, the post war conditions harnessed a unity of beauty and
consumerism as a powerful market, and which focused on sexual allure
and desire as key attributes of the normal female psyche 23 as wartime
sexual containment was over. The revolutionary creations of the Fifties,
such as hairspray, Clairols home hair colouring kit and Revlons array
of Fire and Ice lipstick shades allowed women great choice in adopting
different appearances and offered a psychological boost. . Through
advertising, cosmetics brands sold playful sex appeal and individualistic
values as well as products. Clairols home hair colouring kit, advertised
with the suggestive slogan Does she or doesnt she? boosted sales
from $25million when the advert was launched in 1956, to $200 million
by 1962.24 As with Maidenform, its phenomenal success reflects how
influential advertising of female consumer goods helped nurture and
liberalise female psyches.
14
underestimated. Beauty culture and its advertisements were part of the
consumer capitalist ideology that inherently fostered self-esteem and
sexual confidence. Maidenforms marketing of the beautiful,
independent self was a breath of fresh air from the wartime mentality of
sacrifice for others; and even for married mothers the reminder that
they were also individuals was important. It would be wrong to assume
they had lost their femininity or had no identity other than as a wife
and mother as Betty Friedan put forward. (Friedan, pp.23-6) Equally,
the fostering of self-esteem through cosmetics and fashion can be
viewed as a precursor to politicised feminism, whereby women would
demand for self-recognition to be defined by personal capacities rather
than just appearance. The socially unifying element of beauty culture, a
system of meaning that helped women navigate the changing
conditions of modern social experience
25
15
made up of women, half of them working full time.
26
Likewise, in 1956,
one third of the sixty-six million Americans working away from home
were women. Of these twenty-two million women, six million were
single and the rest married. (Walker, p.87) Female jobs were mainly
service jobs, such as clerical, teaching, nursing and cleaning positions
which were, by and large, inferior positions to men, but nonetheless
significant in revealing womens individual choices and sources of nondomestic self-satisfaction, key elements to female emancipation.
27
In the
16
other popular press material, proved women too, were actively offering
their personal value to the greater society.
baby-boom in the immediate post war climate, the figure of six million
single working ladies is telling of the alternative female attitude.
(Walker, p.89) With no children or husband to care for, the single girls
fulfilment was personally driven and more likely to be sexually
motivated. A voice that united womens professional ambitions and
sexuality was Helen Gurley Brown with her bestselling book, Sex and
the Single Girl in 1963. Disturbing but exciting was her celebration of
the sexy, sex-obsessed office worker and her vision of powerful women
making their way in the white-collar world.
29
polar opposite to Betty Friedans, but both believed that women should
be in control of their own fulfilment. For Brown, this fulfilment arose
from sexual freedom as well as a career. Sex and the Single Girl with its
encouragement of promiscuity in the workplace seems outlandish to
both a contemporary and modern reader but regardless, she held that
women should defy gender obstacles, and gain a voice with which they
could challenge the subordinate position of women in the office. If a
28 Ibid, p.8.
29 Julie Berebitsky, the Joy of Work: Helen Gurley Brown, Gender, and Sexuality in the
White-Collar Office, Journal of the History of Sexuality 15.1 (2006), pp. 89-127.
17
woman had male responsibilities of professional duties and financial
independence, she should reap the same rewards that came with it.
30
31
and
30 Ibid, p.93.
31 Laurie Ouellette, Inventing the Cosmo Girl: Class Identity and Girl-Style American
Dreams, Media, Culture & Society, 21 (1999), 359383. (p. 361).
http://sac.sagepub.com/content/10/3/349.full.pdf+html [accessed 3 April 2014].
18
is.33 It is evident that feminist discourse was being voiced steadily in
the Fifties through popular culture, but had not yet gained a politicised
mouthpiece.
19
In the latter half of the decade, several organisations,
including the National Manpower Council (NMC), Commission on
the Education of Women (CEW) and the Womens Bureau
exemplified growing official support for working womens rights.
In 1955, the White House Conference on Effective Uses of Women
recognised the importance of education and training in order to
facilitate professional talents of women, childcare facilities for
working mothers, and the need for equal pay.
20
their supporters. The federal government, adamantly opposed to
equal rights policies, even demanded the sex specification of civil
service appointees until 1962. (Kessler-Harris, p.309) Concerning
the endorsement of national equal pay, Congress rejected
political parties demands and ignored its presence on
Eisenhowers economic agenda from 1956-60.
35
In 1960, the
21
working women through education, training and legal measures,
and facilities such as day-care services, training and counselling.
Five years later, all fifty states had established commissions
dedicated to womens status.36 Steadily, concrete change began
to shape a more democratic nation; the Equal Pay Act was
enacted in 1963, (albeit flawed in that employers could still refuse
to employ women,) the Civil Rights Act in 1964 outlawed gender
discrimination amongst many other discriminations based on
race, religion and ethnicity, and the National Organization for
Women (NOW) founded in 1966 installed womens working rights
and the feminist cause as a widespread national concern. They
lead the 200, 000 women strong Womens Strike for Equality in
August 1970, attracting a national awakening of the womens
cause for further equal work opportunities, political rights and
social equality in relationships. Second wave feminism, from early
Sixties to Eighties would bring vast social and political gains for
women, as well as defeated struggles, most notably the Equal
Rights Amendment.
37
36 Latifa Lyles, 50 Years Later: Work, Women and the Work Ahead, United States
Department of Labour, December 20, 2013 http://social.dol.gov/blog/50-years-laterwomen-work-and-the-work-ahead/ [accessed 14 March 2014]
37 Ibid.
22
It is significant
38
Evolutions of gender
23
ethnic minority traditions of a multi-culturally diverse nation. We
cannot confidently argue that women are freed from sexual
discrimination either, nor predict when sexes will truly be equal.
24
Like women, men too, sought advice, inspiration and
guidance through magazines in an uncertain national climate. Having
widely discussed the significance of self-actualisation through
commercial culture and the changing status of women, I shall now give
more focus to shifting gender ideals concerning men. Through the lens
of Playboy magazine, I wish to explore masculinity issues as an
illustration of the national condition of the Fifties period, which were
both ambiguous, but advancing towards liberal morals.
41
The
25
worker in corporate America. The iconic Rebel Without a Causes Jim
Starks cri du coeur also captures the teenage generations search for
masculinity that fathers failed to guide them through: What can you do
when you have to be a man? Confused, crippled manliness even raised
fears of homosexual sex perversion, as suggested in Tennessee
Williams Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955). The interior distresses over male
identity, exterior manifestations of it in popular culture, alongside
influences of corporate, mass society under a cloud of wartime fears
triggered the decline of traditional, virile patriarchies.
42 Hugh Hefner, Meet the Playboy reader, Playboy, April 1958, p.63. (All Playboy
Magazine references from Playboy Cover to Cover, the 50's, Bondi Digital Publishing,
2008) [on CD]
26
copies)
43
44
44 Carrie Pitzulo, Bachelors and Bunnies: The Sexual Politics of Playboy (London: The
University of Chicago Press, 2011), p.72.
27
contradictory attitudes towards the opposite sex reflect different ways
of adjusting to feminized America. The first two years reflect a brash
attempt to regain masculinity, confirming historian James Gilberts idea
that the post-war popular discourse of gendered utopia reflected a
desire for a traditional social system whereby the certainty and efficacy
of such distinctions guaranteed that everyone had a purpose to self and
society.45 I observed the following patterns: Marios attempt to make
cooking masculine, the hyperbolic relationship between sex, food and
female pursuit, and tones of pomposity and sexism.
45 James Gilbert, Men in the Middle: Searching for Masculinity in the 1950s (Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 2005), p.65.
28
purposes of a clearer analysis, my observations from these two phases
are representative of smoother remodelling of new male ideals.
46
with popular
50
one as
47 Lisa M Cuklanz., Dinner Roles: American Women And Culinary Culture, and:
Welcome To The Dreamhouse: Popular Media And Postwar Suburbs (review), NWSA
Journal, 15.2 (2003), pp.204-207( p. 204). http://muse.jhu.edu/login?
auth=0&type=summary&url=/journals/nwsa_journal/v015/15.2cuklanz.html [accessed
15 April 2014]
48 Thomas Mario, How to Play with Fire, Playboy, (July 1954), p.23.
49 Mario, Food on a Sword, Playboy, (August 1956), p.18.
50 Mario, Magnificent Munching, Playboy (January 1957), p.32.
29
opposed to the cucumber sandwich on thin bread
51
of his female
52
, making Playboys
54
30
average reader. Marie Fergusons explanation of the female function of
magazines can be brought up here. She identifies the need for female
directiona female sex which is at best unconfident, and at worst
incompetentwants to be instructed or brought up to date on the skills
of femininity.
55
assured its readers that modern man was confidently domesticated and
consumerist, and that there was nothing wrong in conforming to its
pleasures. As Riesmans inner directed man sought guidance from his
family and close knit community, the new climate of mid-century
America lead the other directed man to seek self-assurance from the
persuasive voices of popular mass culture.
31
58
59
59 Helen Mayer Hacker, The New Burdens of Masculinity, Marriage and Family Living,
19:3, (August 1957), pp. 227233 (p. 228).
32
occupational structure of a corporatising nation also influenced mens
new personal traits traditionally associated with women. Men are now
expected to demonstrate the manipulative skills and interpersonal
relations formerly reserved for women: intuition, charm, tact and
coquetry.
60
not an attack on his power, but rather an evolved, fluid model that fit
into new professional and social processes.
62 Douglas T. Miller and Marion Nowak, The Fifties (New York: Doubleday & Company,
Inc., 1977), p. 119.
33
advertising companies the importance of communicating notions of
Freudian inspired, pleasure seeking-fulfilment to consumers to ensure
economic progress, Hefner translated these values to its readers
through his magazine.
34
There are some things a woman can toss around
fairly well, but a salad isnt one of themA good salad
maker must have many of the traits that we think of as
feminineMeticulousness, patience, cleanlinessBut
these are not exclusively feminine virtues. It takes a man to
master the really fine art of the salad bowl.
35
for a more mutual relationship between the bachelor and his female
partner. In a progressive nation with women occupying the public
sphere and shaping the economy on an unprecedented scale, it seemed
naturally fitting for popular culture to readdress gender imbalances.
There were many clear markers to Marios new softer approach. This is
notable for example, with the introduction of page sized photographic
images of couples in romantic backdrops appearing on the front page of
articles (See Images 6-10) Another minor, but significant detail
nevertheless is the first reference to a couple is made in The Picnic
Papers, July 1958. To further illustrate the loss of hyperbolic virility,
when the chef makes a salad again in The Time of Salads, August 1959
there is no mention of women, but rather a much finer attention
towards making immaculate dishes to stir delighted reactions from
delectable guests.
64
Whilst all articles from the first in May 1954 until January
1957 describe women rather contradictorily as both rivals and objects
of desire, my table (Table 1) demonstrates the peculiar, unexplained
disappearance of women being a feature of Marios articles from 1957
to 1959. I shall explore genuine trends in male-female relations as
potential explanations for this.
36
One explanation of these patterns could be the increased
democratisation of the husband wife relationship during the outwardly
conservative Eisenhower age, a strong assessment made by Alan
Petigny. He argues that the patriarchal family was being undermined in
the climate of modern change; the breadwinner role may have
persisted, but the distribution of power within the home was likely to be
more democratic. Amongst extensive examples, he identifies extensive
sociological data by Elizabeth Wolgast as a telling example of mutuality
in marriage. From studies based on interviews of married couples
across America, it showed that husbands and wives played different
roles, but neither was subservient to the other. For example, men were
more likely to choose what car to buy, and women handled savings and
acquired appliances,65 In fact, when it came to fulfilling plans, i.e. plans
to buy appliances, televisions, cars and repairing, wives ideas were
more likely to be actualised.
66
67
37
To further support the observation of democratising male
and female relationships and explain the softer characteristics of the
Playboy chef, sufficient sociological and psychological research give
evidence of personal traits that men and women look for in an intimate
relationship, both in and out of marriage. Such theories have been
widely explored by scholars post World War II, such as Clark and Reis
(1988), Buss (1985), Hill (1945), Hatfield (1995) . Notable womens
preferences for men in Western individualistic cultures include typically
feminine characteristics of expressiveness and openness, kindness and
understanding. These were valued higher than traditional male assets
of money, status and position.
68
69
69 Deyer, William G., and Urban, Dick, The Institutionalisation of Equalitarian Family
Norms, Marriage and Family Living (February 1958), pp.53-58 cited in Petigny, p.138.
38
norms but not enough to be classed as a delinquent. In fact, the early
years of Playboy, with its liquor and sports car advertisements, literary
articles and semi-nude bunnies etcetera, confirmed the hegemonic
concept of the heterosexual, middle class white male of its time,
making its appeal of sexual and economic hedonism safe and
attractive; Barbara Ehrenreich called him the grey flannel rebel who
lived by the rules. (Ehrenreich, p.29)
39
Having discussed sexually liberalising gender attitudes
through Maidenform, Sex and the Single Girl, Playboy and other popular
print media, it appears both genders found common ground in desires
to break the unspoken taboo of sex. Albeit a mens magazine, Playboy
spoke to men and women in his advocacy of non-marital sexual fun.
Pitzulo argues that since mens sexual freedom depended on the
liberation of women, Playboy upheld the increasingly modern emphasis
on heterosexual pleasure as a worthy goal of personal fulfilment
regardless of gender.
70
72
(Many
40
Favourable letters from women, of various marital and
professional statuses demonstrated that women too desired an outlet in
which they could express their sexuality openly without being shunned
as shameful. In this sense, Playboy helped liberalise women, despite
hostile attitudes of feminist arguments. Rather than being part of a
popular culture that reduced woman to sex creatures as Friedan
declared, (Friedan, p.250), liberal minded, respectable women desired
sexualised femininity as part of progressive American life. The
magazine was part of Hefners ambition to live in a society in which
people can voice unpopular opinions so society can grow.
74
In terms of
speaking openly about sex, what Hefner was trying to say quite frankly
was that sex was a natural part of life and that nice girls liked sex too,
75
76 Beth Bailey, "Sexual Revolution(s)," D. Farber, (ed) The Sixties: From Memory to
History (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1994), pp.248-49.
41
perhaps most crucially, male? Identity and personal freedom. With
wide-reaching printed popular media working to normalise and
humorise sex, and daring advertisement campaigns such as
Maidenforms, these aspirations reverberated powerfully amongst mass
society.
Conclusion
This essay ultimately concludes that Americas popular
print culture in mass consumer society contributed to the speeding
process of Americas social and sexual cultural modernity; it nourished
individual dreams, bridged gender gaps and tested social boundaries.
From my extensive research into Maidenforms I Dreamed.. campaign
and Playboys food articles, alongside other magazines and
advertisements, contemporary and modern accounts of gender issues, I
have demonstrated that the Fifties awakened of the internal needs for
self-actualisation and personal choice, crucial liberal ideology that
would soon stimulate change through external political forces in the
Sixties onwards. The bachelor in domestic bliss and the glamorous
working girl: what popular culture of the Fifties dreamed up, political
movements of the Sixties to Seventies sought to realise. It has not been
possible to assess how accurate or how many real single girls,
ambitious Maidenform models or playboys there were as behaviour
and sexual activities are impossible to assess. But, I have stressed the
fantasy appeal of these figures as directional and reassuring in a
climate of fast paced change and uncertainties.
42
The Fifties, or even 1945-1960 deserves recognition as the
period of profound socio-cultural change that paved the way towards a
more liberal society. An analysis of working women, beauty culture,
popular literature, changes in male and female relationships and mens
sociological issues have all given evidence of liberalising moral and
gender values. I have placed great emphasis on the promotion of
individuality in popular culture, weakening therefore, the discourse of
togetherness.
My study has helped reflect on the current gender concerns of America, or
rather many developed Western cultures; male and female relationships
have now changed for the better. Womens aspirations of academic and
professional greatness are now realistic dreams. Housewives,
breadwinners, blissful matrimony are not necessarily ideals for modern
adult relationships. But this is far from proposing that over 60 years on,
America, or elsewhere, has achieved gender equality, neither ideologically
nor in practice. I have learnt that feminine and masculine ideals are
transitional concepts that constantly correspond to ever-changing sociocultural climates. They are constant, positively evolving concepts. On a
final note, I have made clear that cultural liberalism heralded political
liberalism. The personal may well be political, but the personal certainly
comes before the political.
Appendix
Images
43
44
79
2014]
45
5. House of
and Lipstick,
6.
The
Breaking of the Fast82
7. The Elegant Omelet
83
46
8.
9. The Distillation of
47
Tables
JAN
FEB
MAR
APR
MAY
JUN
JUL
AUG
SEP
T
OCT
NOV
DEC
195
7
195
8
195
9
48
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