Many of the stereotypes that were made in World War I and World War II were created to convince Americans to
Many of the stereotypes that were made in World War I and World War II were created to convince Americans to
Figure 1 demonstrates a common stereotype in the 1950’s, Del Monte Ketchup categorising women as dependent, weak and fragile. The advertisement shows a very surprised woman holding a bottle of ketchup with the words “You mean a woman can open it?” implying women are incapable of completing a simple task. The advert demonstrates that women in the 1950’s were inferior…
Through my eyes, Edie, a powerful woman from the film On the Waterfront, contradicts the standards of women in the 1940s and 1950s. Most women were seen as “simple consumption machines” whose only job was worrying about “buying new appliances for the kitchen and searching madly for the perfect laundry detergent” written in Gail Collins’ novel “The Feminine Mystique” (Collins 1). In contrast, in the film Rebel Without a Cause, Judy, a high school student represents an ideal figure for women during this era. Now why do I feel this way? When slapped by her father, Judy was tolerant of his actions due to the fact that “submission was perhaps the most feminine virtue expected of women,” (Welter 36). Personally, I am outspoken and would speak up…
Because the book told of the changes throughout the entire 20th century, only a small portion of its content pertained to women in World War II. The section that did discuss female contributions was quite limited and did not describe in-depth the changes of behaviour. Therefore, Weatherford’s American Women and World War II was the better source for the historical investigation simply because it provided more information that reached the depth needed for the…
In “Becky,” Jean Toomer uses female imagery to highlight stereotypes and societal expectations of women during the 1920s. “Becky” is a perfect example of how limited women were and ultimately, what happens when women don’t conform to societal expectations. Despite being written nearly a century ago, women still face these stereotypes and societal expectations every day; however, there have been long strides in combating these expectations. We’ve come a long way since “Becky” but we’ve got even further to go to break free from these…
Women are negatively portrayed in the media today but that wasn’t always the case. The…
Since the beginning of time the topic of human gender its differences has been a controversial subject that always attracts attention. After the Spanish-American War, many men were seen as heroes, some even put into important positions in our nations’ government. Men like McKinley and Roosevelt, for example, used such praise and recognition to reinforce their positions of President and, later on, Vice President, respectively. “One of the men who benefited from this line of thought was President McKinley, who no doubt was delighted to find that being a commander in chief during a war restored his image as a capable leader” (110). Roosevelt was a man with power, being the assistant secretary of the navy, but he gave it up to join 1st United Stated Volunteer Cavalry, more commonly known as the Rough Riders. He received nationwide praise and everyone knew him as a hero. “Two years later, Roosevelt’s military record helped him win the vice presidential slot on the Republican ticket” (112). Women held many important roles during this war, such as nurses. While women were vital to the war effort, many people did little to spread the news. “In magazines and newspapers of the time, stories glorifying soldiers and sailors are hard to miss. In contrast, stories covering women’s wartime contributions are difficult to find” (128). How does considering gender change our views of the Spanish-American and Philippine-American wars? This is the argument that Kristin Hoganson makes in Fighting for American Manhood.…
The coming of World War II heralded a new era for women. As men left to fight abroad, women were left to fill their void in the workplace. Familiar images such as “Rosie the Riveter” radiated strength and competence, traits previously emphasized primarily in men. As woman’s role in society broadened, new visions of attractiveness developed to accommodate this unprecedented aspect of femininity. Henry Hawk’s portrayal of women in The Big Sleep (Warner Brothers, 1946) highlights these changes in social construction of female sexuality and appeal in the context of a male dominated society.…
What makes a woman? Femininity and masculinity have long been defined and divided along gender lines that were never meant to be crossed; a man or woman who does not fit the archetypical picture of their strict gender-biased boundaries is shunned and stereotyped. A woman who does not embody the perception of the perfect wife and mother, especially in the 1950s-60s, would have been considered unladylike. In Jamaica Kincaid’s “Girl”, the matters of womanhood and femininity are expressed as a mother teaches her daughter the rules and restrictions that come along with being a lady, especially those that will help her to be accepted in society.…
The Girl with All the Gifts came very recommend by a coworker with similar tastes in films. He thought this would a film I would like since he feels it's an interesting take on the tradition zombie film. Which is something I do agree with, though I don't hold in the same kind of regard as he does. The Girl with All the Gifts feels like its trying to get me to like by being as much like other zombie stories that are popular. The Fungus, and the Carol character being the most egregious.…
In the years between 1945 and 1960, modern history's typical view of American women is that of a subordinated, suppressed and acquiescent group struggling to obtain the ideas of domesticity and conservatism portrayed by popular culture. Many assumptions are made about changing gender roles and their affects upon women as a whole during this period. To us, women in the postwar era are most easily and commonly represented by the image of the ideal wife and mother, who spends her days maintaining the perfect household in which she lives and caring for the family she loves. Much is made of the changes that occurred during World War II, when women occupied a large portion of the workforce, and in the 1960's, when the feminist movement came to fruition. The changes that took place between these periods are often neglected or simply not noticed, but more often they are overshadowed by the dominating stereotype of the homemaker. Many women of the time did not fit the mold of housewife, and were actually continuing the feminist movement that was given new life with symbolic figures, such as Rosy the Riveter, during World War II. Contrary to popular belief, the feminist movement saw great changes in the 1950's.…
In my dissertation I intend to write about how women since the 1950’s have been put into stereotypical boxes created by other people, objectified and made into a mean for entertainment for certain parts of the public, all within the format of the magazine. I will look at early magazines where the housewife of the 50’s are represented, magazines where women are nude and made into sex symbols, where women are not being considered at all but there to sell an item to the public. How have all of these representations and different portrayals of the female sex within the magazine affected how women are viewed by the rest of the world, and what the effects have been.…
Gender roles are constantly changing, but there is not enough progress in the gender identity chosen by society for women. A woman being depicted in the media as weak or lesser than a man is not tolerable. Just because these femininity performances have been repeated for so long in history does not make it natural that women should act and be represented in that way. (Alberts, 2007) It is the twenty-first century and women should be considered strong, independent and equal to men. This is still not the case as women are often also over sexualized in the media, which causes real world…
America was an isolationist country during most of World War 1. It wasn’t until the war started affecting Americans that Wilson Woodrow decided to join the war. With the help of propaganda, many Americans changed their attitudes toward U.S participation. During 1914 to 1918, film industry propaganda was infinitely good because it got people to enlist, promoted liberty bonds, and exposed the atrocities Germans were committing.…
Throughout today’s society, media contributes to almost everyone’s daily life. From informative news channels to comical television shows, media proves to be effective in advertisement, releasing messages and informing the audience. Although media proves to be wildly effective in advertising, releasing messages and informing the audience, periodically destructive and misleading messages are provided to the audience and directly influencing women. Cultural critics widely agree that media tends to negatively influence women and all the critics point to research which supports the belief that women are portrayed as subordinate to men, having no self control and having little self confidence in themselves. In addition, the media often identifies women as an object.…
The phenomenon we are addressing in our humanistic paper proposal is representations of sexuality in media, specifically representations of women in print magazines. There is a great deal of previous research in this area because women’s magazines have been “crafting images of women that transformed American culture” for almost 200 years (Endres 434). In The Journal of Advertising, Steven M. Kates discusses why the way women are represented in print advertisements is problematic, namely because it “does not incorporate the notion that texts invite multiple readings” (Kates 34). Kates draws from cultural studies and feminist film criticism to “synthesize relevant research” in order to illustrate “the way that ad interpretations are constituted by social and commercial discourses” (Kates 40). Kathleen L. Endres explains the repercussions of advertisements featuring oversexualized women in Encyclopedia of Gender in Media, stating they “scarred generations of women, endangering their health, damaging their bodies, and ruining their self-esteem” (Endres 434).…