Retro Backlash

[judecorp]

I feel like we're in the middle of some big philosophical backlash in the United States. But to be honest, I don't know what caused it. I mean, it's not like we were living the liberal high life in the 1990s or anything - Clinton was moderate at best and pushed through a lot of sketchy legislation, including the Defense of Marriage Act (1996) and the Personal Work Opportunity and Responsibility Reconciliation Act (1996). While it's true that the country /aside/ from the legislation seems to be becoming a bit more liberal (in terms of acceptance of things like stem-cell research, medical marijuana, etc.), and while it's true that the country has come a long way since the rigid gender and social roles of the 1950s, I feel like we have so much further to go.

I really worry that for some reason that is unclear to me, a small majority in this country want to in some way revert to the regulations and norms of the 1950s. Why is this? Socially, everything was so prescribed back then, interpersonal freedoms were seemingly non-existant, and medicines like Valium were finding a huge audience of women in search of "Mother's Little Helper." Women who were devastated by their apparent inescapable life sought solace in prolonged tranquilization.

I wonder if people today are romanticizing the 1950s because the financial picture seems easier in hindsight. In the 1950s, a family could purchase a home and raise a family on one income. Well, if by 'family' one means 'middle class White family.' I wonder if people today are romanticizing the 1950s because a world where social problems and injustices were buried, hidden, and concealed appears more well-run than one in which they are exposed. I wonder a lot of things.

I just cannot for the life of me understand people my age (or younger) who are also romanticizing these times, these activities. Wouldn't our mothers, who worked so hard and were /so/ passionate for Women's Liberation, just drop dead at this phenomenon? Wouldn't they see it as a slap in the face at the hands of their children, to disregard and even chastise what our mothers fought so hard for?

I just wish I understood it all. Traditions that have occurred without incident for tens of years are suddenly protested as part of some larger "homosexual agenda." Harmless activities are out, but glorifying violence is in. What is happening to this country? Where does the idea that this sort of thinking is okay originate? And how do we stop it?

Gah. Sometimes I live in a bubble, a little pocket of goodness in the midst of all this madness. I'm afraid to read the news. I'm afraid to meet new people. I'm afraid to move to other parts of the country. You never know where the paranoia is going to spread to next. You never know how far we can turn back the clock. You never know how long it will be before we're back to "Hi honey, I'm home, I had a rough day with the guys at the plant." You just never know.

Comments

[cathboblet.livejournal.com]

There's a lot of great historical work about the fifties, and about the roots of the social movements that changed things over the ensuing 20 years. One of the most compelling arguments is that strict family codes, gender conventions, and social rules were one way for individuals to hold global chaos at bay. Feeling that the whole world was nuts, that at any moment the bomb could drop, people turned to the home as a space they could control -- a sphere in which they could pretend that everything was unchanging.

The same thing happened in the 70s, with a nostalgia for the 50s. Now you get a nostalgia for *both*. While there are a thousand sublties, the argument about the fifties compliments a lot of what we know about the way society works right now. Again, the global picture is choatic, again people are searching for some arena they think they can control.

It's not the whole picture, but it's one part of it . . .

[thatpatti.livejournal.com]

strangely, just the other day i had a conversation with my mom where she said, "you would have loved the 50's."

but what started the discussion was me bringing up the fact that i sometimes get frustrated with how complicated our lives have become (in an attempt to make them easier, right?) and how sometimes i feel sad that fisher can't grow up with a childhood a little more simple and carefree (like i had).

mom talked about how she and her friends used to play in the park off indianola, gathering clay that they would take home and play with for HOURS. her family lived in a double - her immediate family on one side and her aunt and uncle and cousins on the other. someone was ALWAYS home. she used to take the bus downtown by herself when she was under 10 years old.

so i guess romanticizing that era in my mind has very little to do with the women's movement (although, admittedly, i'm happily living the life most women did at that time) and a lot more to do with the desire to protect my kids, take care of my family, and SLOW DOWN.

[hope-persists.livejournal.com]

I'm afraid to read the news. I'm afraid to meet new people. I'm afraid to move to other parts of the country. You never know where the paranoia is going to spread to next.


in the piece of writing i did just a couple days after the election (that i'm actually about to post) talks about how this election and the "values voters" and such have indoctrinated the radical left into the fear culture. That now we all are feeling the fear that analagous to how the rest of the country has been feeling since 9/11. I don't know - I'm not explaining it well here. I'm gonna post it soon, once I get it typed up though. but that basically we are afraid for our values in the face of religious extremists. sound familiar?

[ullrsawah.livejournal.com]

it's also interesting to note that relative "emancipation" of women in the 1920s and 1930s was one of the triggers of the 1950s incarnation of the cult of domesticity.

I don't know how interested you are, but I wrote a paper my first semester of grad school about women in the 1950s (history texts vs. media proscriptions). If you want to read the paper, let me know. or, just check out these books sometime:

Coontz, Stephanie. *The Way We Never Were: American Families and the Nostalgia Trap*(1992) and *The Way We Really Are: Coming to Terms with America’s Changing Families*(1997) (historical studies that challenge the image of "the good old days" of family values, etc.)

May, Elaine Tyler. *Homeward Bound: American families in the Cold War Era*(1962) (historical analysis of the phenomenon mentioned in the above comment)

Meyerowitz, Joanne. Ed. *Not June Cleaver: Women and Gender in Postwar America, 1945-1960*(1994) (a collection of essays challenging the standard image of 1950s women. very, very, very interesting and somewhat comforting)

[cathboblet.livejournal.com]

All really great texts. My students also really loved Dan Horowitz's Betty Friedan and the Making of The Feminine Mystique: The American Left, The Cold War, and Modern Feminism. for its discussion of the way social activists often upheld the narrative of 50s domestic bliss for their own purposes.

[ullrsawah.livejournal.com]

I've heard that's a good book, I'm glad to know the people I go to school with aren't crazy...

[oxlahun.livejournal.com]

See, if you'd watched your Jon Stewart tonight, you'd've seen the author of What's the Matter with Kansas? addressing just these kinds of issues.

The short answer really boils down to a simple truth: people will go anywhere and do anything if you can convince them they're being attacked. It doesn't matter that the eastern liberal elite wouldn't know how to attack if they wanted to, what matters right now is that Kansas (&c.) is already convinced. And has been for some time.

[biophile6.livejournal.com]

I've noticed this...I rationalize it in terms of fear and Luddites. Or loathing. Whatever.

Things are getting more complicated
So hide your head in the sand
Shout louder
Poke fun
Subtle arguments always losing to us
We're stubborn and we wont have chicanery

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

I can see the idea of raising children fitting in there, as someone who wants to have children and raise them and all of that good stuff. I mean, I want to live in a world that's safe for children, too. I just don't see how demonizing homosexuality helps with that, or how promoting and funding social programs hurts it.

I think it's so easy to romanticize time periods gone by, especially those you haven't experienced. Sure, your mom could safely go to the park and get clay, or ride on the bus. But there were a lot of other things going on during those times (not necessarily with your mom) that IMHO are not good things, but were simply accepted: like spousal abuse and child abuse. Like illegal abortions that killed scads of women. And more.

I mean, I didn't grow up in the 1950s but my childhood sounds pretty similar to your mom's. I mean, we had the run of the whole neighborhood, everyone watched out for everyone, I rode my bike miles and miles away as long as I came back for mealtimes, we all beat each other up without worrying about being sued, we spent all of our time outside with minimal toys, and my father let my brother take the bus to Providence when he was 13 or so.

BUT, I was also raised by a grandmother who tried to instill 1950s beliefs in me, who treated me differently than my brother, who chastised me for being "too loud," who taught me how to clean and grocery shop and iron clothes in order for me to "get a good husband to take care of me," and who told me that I could be a teacher or a nurse (and nothing else).

The great thing about your life, Patti, is that you got to /choose/ to be a SAHM. If I could, I'd probably make the same choice. But it's great to have choices, isn't it?

[prettyvacantone.livejournal.com]

I think this is one of the best things you've written.

And that article about the Texas "cross-dressing" day is just fucked.

I don't have anything insightful to say like these other people. :) Simply that a lot of the nostalgia that I know I've felt for times I haven't lived in, like the 50s, comes from seeing movies and plays and reading books that take the period completely out of context, and show only the good...which is pretty much how people's memories work even if they lived then. I can watch movies like Grease or see the play "Our Town" and be totally overwhelmed with the romantic aspects, without remembering all of the social badness that was going on -- because it's entertainment and that's what it's supposed to do. But it gives us a warped view of history too.

I dunno.

[bingothemonkey.livejournal.com]

I can't believe that article about the school in TX. One woman complained. One. And she's clearly a paranoid freak. Did she actually say that cross-dressing is like DRUGS? Like people just "become" homosexual because their mom let them dress opposite one day? You must be fucking kidding me.

She's the kind of mom who is going to be disapproving no matter what her kids do. When those kids are old enough, they're going to get out of that town so fast that her head will spin.

[sudrin.livejournal.com]

I feel very much like the ideals and beliefs I hold are very different from those around me. While I don't have the concerns that you do, I share your worries. Which is to say that while these things don't effect me the same way, they scare me as much.

sorry

[etherial.livejournal.com]

even in Massachusetts, one crazed mom complaining to the Superintendent can get just about anything axed.

[carina-s.livejournal.com]

Here's theory on the retro which I learned from a Sociology class.

Generations come in waves, and there are four archetypes for them.

1) The fine upstanding and conservative generation. Institution building. Capable of great things, capable of bad things. Ex. The generation that fought World War II, the generation that started the Civil War.
2) In between generation that starts to feel a need for change and more liberal society. Ex. Generation after World War II, the generation after the Yers or Millenials.
3) Liberal, woohoo let's take our PANTS off generation. Tears down the institutions that aren't working. Ex. Boomers.
4) Anarchy inspired isolationist generation. Disillusioned with the whole process. Ex. Xers.

Start at one. Repeat.

We're at one right now, and damn it's painful. But research shows this pattern back to the beginning of the U.S., and a similar pattern in England. There's hope. We'll make strides every woohoo pants generation. Two steps forward. Then we'll go backwards one step.