I mean come on! It’s (IMO) in your face obvious that the coy little comments in this purportedly “real” document from a 1950’s home economics textbook are quite precisely tuned to outrage women. It’s evident that attitudes in the 50’s could be remarkably sexist, but it’s also evident when something is a “Dance puppets! Dance!” fake document quite purposefully crafted to pull peoples strings.
It doesn’t seem that over-the-top. There were “Total Woman” type books out even during the 70s that weren’t much better.
However, I do wonder how many households had dishwashers in the 50s.
Doesn’t sound at all over the top to me. My ex-husband’s grandmother had a rather old copy of a household hints book laying around, and it had quite similar advice.
You think that’s bad, according to Snopes, these do’s and don’ts really *do *exist in Fascinating Womanhood:
Do: Work for inner happiness and seek to understand its rules.
Don’t: Have a lot of preconceived ideas of what you want out of life.
Do: Revere your husband and honor his right to rule you and your children.
Don’t: Stand in the way of his decisions, or his law.
:eek:
Doesn’t sound all that over the top to me, considering the times. Hell, it sounds like it could have been lifted directly out of a Promise Keepers pamphlet.
I’ve read extremely similar things from several sources. The ideal of the time was Laura Petrie - meet the hubby at the door wearing makeup and pearls with his martini in one hand and the paper/pipe/slippers in the other.
As a matter of fact, I read a child rearing book written in the 1980’s which gave new mothers the advice that they should wake up 15 minutes earlier than they would otherwise so that they could get their hair ready and put on make-up before tackling living with a toddler all day. The authors’ (2 women) reason for the advice was so that the new mother would feel less frumpy. I have to admit I put the book down after reading that passage and never returned.
Remember, for many women in the fifties, being a housewife was their job and they took it very seriously.
I even remember a little saying of the time (if anyone has it worded correctly feel free to chime in.) Something like:
“If you don’t keep the fires burning at home, he’ll make sparks somewhere else.”
I was going to say… I have a DVD with the “documentary” The House in the Middle on it (thank you, McSweeney’s!). I had to go online and figure out if this thing was for real. It’s incredible the kind of things you’d see from the 50s. And it should be no surprise if you’ve been to the Gallery of Regrettable Food.
Hmm… two Lileks references in one week. Conspiracy?
The link was enough-there was no need to also quote the whole thing.
Also, this is better suited for MPSIMS.
I’m quite specifically asking for opinions on the authenticity of this piece which is why I placed it in IMHO, and I’m getting them. I don’t think the MPSIMS re-assignment is all that appropriate or logical … but… whatever.
Also, if the piece were under copyright, wouldn’t its authenticity have been determined by now?
About 5 years ago, I bought a Home Ec book from the '50s. It did, indeed, have a passage similar the the one in the op, it may even have been identical. I had to throw the book away, it smelled too bad to bring in the house.
Laura Petrie was the 60’s ideal. Donna Reed and June Clever were the 50s, Laura wore PANTS! ! Donna and June wore dresses and high heels, as any good housewife would. :rolleyes:
In my collection of retro maledom/femsub literature, I have an interesting little gem, a self-help manual by Marie Robinson entitled “The Power of Sexual Surrender” copyright 1962. I don’t have it to hand, but here’s the Amazon link"
Oh, yeah, baby, they wrote stuff like that back in those days. (For a great laugh, check out the review. Read all of it.)
You Amazon link does work, but googling “The Power of Sexual Surrender” yields this woman who really, really agrees with it’s thesis.
You Amazon link does not work…
Try this link for Evil Captor’s little gem… here
And, yes, read the review right to the end. You could bottle and sell the humour therein.
if you wanna keep going on this…try www.savethemales.ca
For what tiny little nugget of worth it might have, this was reprinted in the old and smelly textbooks we used in Home Ec in 1991–was it already fashionable, then, to sneer at the fifties? I don’t remember. I was 11.
Actually, Deb brought home a DVD of Dick Van Dyke Show episodes and Laura is definitely not presented as in any way subservient. (In fact, one of the episodes on Deb’s disk is specifically a fight the couple had because each thought the other was not sufficiently supportive of the other’s efforts.)
Similarly, I recall several episodes of The Donna Reed Show in which she takes Dr. Stone to task for failing to recognize her efforts and contributions. Among the cheap DVD’s are a couple from the first season (1954?) of the Danny Thomas Show show, and, again, his wife (the one who preceded Marjorie Lord), takes no guff from him and does not display the least servility.
On the other hand, we do have such songs as Wishin’ and Hopin’ and Wives And Lovers from the very late 50s or early 60s that certainly did promote the notion being discussed, here.
I personally own a copy of The Total Woman, published in 1973. My husband bought it for me as a joke. :rolleyes: Everything in it accords with that list, and more. My favourite bit is when she advises all wives to have a bubble bath a 5 p.m., and to, “Remove all prickly hairs and be squeaky clean from head to toe”. So I don’t know about the Fifties themselves, but all that frap was definitely part of the antifeminist backlash.