There are two very different streams of responses to this thread “What would you do if you had to live in 1950s America?”.
I’d like to explore who is in which camp.
Poll to follow, based on gender, sexual orientation, religion, and racial classification.
If this works. I’ve never done this before. Be gentle.
I’d be pissed that my cell phone doesn’t work anymore.
White female, 60. I could easily get by as a Christian, depending on the denomination I might be require to pretend to belong to. I’d bloody hate it, though. I loved the 50s as a child but what did I know?
Early results:
People most likely to respond: Straight females, (apparently) white & christian
Reaction:
Shoot me now.
Most common male reaction:
I could make it work
Least responsive group:
Gay/Bi/Trans
(Sorry if I phrased the options inappropriately)
Black straight male atheist. I was born in Charleston in the fifties. Visit? Hell, yes. Live there for the rest of my life? Hell, no!
I would never want to do it (or to go to any other time period, if only because of my loved ones and my fear of change) but I could live. I don’t want to be a '50s housewife or whatever but in the situation presented in the other thread, I wouldn’t have to, so it would suck in a lot of ways, but whatever, I could live and it would certainly be interesting in some ways. Without financial concerns, family pressure, or peer pressure, I could pretty much do what I wanted.
Now, if I had to marry some suburban '50s white guy right out of high school and have several kids and be a housewife and make disgusting meat gelatin molds every day…then yeah, just shoot me now. I can live in the '50s as a weirdo but trying to fit in well with the '50s is beyond my scope.
Straight white Christian male. I could make it work, I’m sure, but no way I’d choose to go back.
That stone-knives-and-bearskins hellhole? Forget it.
Depends. What kind of Internet speed would I be looking at? ‘Cause if the 50s doesn’t at least have DSL-ish speeds, forget it. I’m not downloading Marilyn Monroe pictures on fuggin’ dial-up.
Bi-male, white, but I grew up in Northern Idaho, so I’ve had ample training.
Straight Black male raised in a far more liberal Western US: I’d do poorly.
Then again, I would probably relocate to Western Europe or Canada and live out the remainder of my life there if I found that I was unable to make a difference where I was.
I’m a straight white male and I was raised Catholic so I could fake the Christian part. So I could get by in the fifties if I had to but there’s no way I’d do it by choice if I could stay in the present.
I’m an agnostic white woman and I could pass as a straight Christian, but I’d rather not. I’d probably find a way to use my knowledge of the future to get rich quick, so I could at least avoid the regular working world. Maybe working in the 1950s wouldn’t be so bad as a white man, but as a woman… yeesh. No thanks. I can get behind the idea of being seen as just some rich eccentric; you can get away with a hell of a lot more when you’ve got money.
Where in the US are we being sent? Because I’d probably be okay in NYC or San Francisco but they’d kill my darkie ass the second I talked to a white girl elsewhere.
I have been throughout much of Northern Idaho, I think you misread the thread title, it says 1950s, you seem to be off by about a century.
Results after one day:
More men have responded than women.
Only men have been completely positive.
GLBT are still the least responsive group.
The most consistent response is from those who can/will not pass as “straight White Christians”.
Straight white male, 6’, blonde, blue-eyed, university educated. Sign me up!
No problem . . . except for the “Christian” part. And being shoved back into the closet. I know what it was like to be gay in the 50s, and that would be a huge problem.
White female. If I could move out to a big, remote farm, I’d be OK. The suburban thing where I’d be expected to play housewife would be irritating, but better than death. So, sure. If I must.
Surely, it would depend a great deal on your financial status - If you are rich, it wouldn’t matter that much what your religious views or sexuality are.