Is this for real?? (Circa 1955)

What the hell?

It's one of the few remaining good things about the internet.

5. Minimize the noise: At the time of his arrival, eliminate all noise of washer, dryer, dishwasher or vacuum.

If home diswashers existed in 1955, the would have been extremely rare.

the joke for years was...'yes we have a dishwasher, her name is......'

Mind you, men were able to rationalize electric lawn mowers, and all kinds of fancy tools.

But dishwashing....nah, by hand was best men said.

History of the Dishwasher

There's relief in sight for dish-pan hands in 1850, when Joel Houghton patents a wooden machine with a hand-turned wheel that splashes water on dishes.

At the 1893 World's Fair, Josephine Cochrane unveils a hand-operated mechanical dishwasher she built for her own use. The revolutionary appliance is such a hit, she founded a company to manufacture it. It became KitchenAid.

Dishwashing becomes more stable in 1920 when the first freestanding dishwasher with permanent plumbing is introduced. In 1935, portable dishwashers enter the marketplace.

Water spots are no longer a problem after 1940 when the first fully-automatic dishwasher with heated drying debuts.

In 1969, built-in dishwashers hit the market. They became permanent fixtures in households everywhere.

Silence is golden in 1985 when dishwashers with quiet operation become available.

With concerns for the environment growing, air-dry option becomes a standard energy-savings feature in 1988.

but all my textbooks for Home Ec (my dad made me take it I wanted to take science) and the PE stuff was like that. If you look in libraries or antique bookstores you can often find these handy guides. Made me wanna puke then, makes me wanna puke now.

That 'guide' is just horrendous! I mean, that was actually for-real at the time, but looking back it's so farcical it's the type of wacky parallel-universe humor you'd see in FOX cartoon shows (like "Family Guy"!)

I love this one: "Be a little gay and a little more interesting for him..." See, that's the line that made "gay" a homosexual thing. Since when do you know a bland homosexual? :D

Those were also the days when most men got paid reasonable money for their work so that women wouldn't have to take jobs and had a stable job for a good long period of their lives... my, how things change... a solid stable job is no more and a family where just one parent works that's middle class or lower?! Oh my goodness!

In short, that article is a sexist piece of dog shit. But worth keeping for posterity and not worth destroying or hiding. Just like the racist Bugs Bunny cartoons. We need to remember where we came from. (just like we don't remember Hitler and are allowing Bush to take over...)

HEY TRICIA! Come here! Take a look at this.

180

I was raised in the 50's and I can attest to the FACT that this was (and in some places still is) the "attitude of the Godly Woman". My mother practiced it, my grandmothers and most of my aunts and other female relatives. I only found out much later how many of them were/are alcoholics or drug abusers (technically--they were prescribed various medications for their unhappy enviroments) and was correspondingly shocked.

I had a cousin (female) who was an outstanding bowler--but she was instructed by her mother NEVER to defeat a male bowler. No matter what the circumstance.

I see nothing unlikely in this particular item. Perhaps the way it was displayed may not be quite accurate, but the mindset behind it sure was.

but it's exactly like thousands of others that I did see, all saying the same thing.

I used to shred them...into itty bitty pieces.

But it was the accepted norm then. Every word.

When Battle-Ax Bar gave Laura a wedding present?

when men were men, and their womenfolk got fed up with the crap and poisoned them. Maybe not so good days.

Check out this list of books for the Godly Wife:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/listmania/list-browse/-/3IZB6DO3IW90I/ref=cm_lm_dp_l_1/104-9087537-8994355

Highlights of the list include:

Finding the Hero in Your Husband: Surrendering the Way God Intended

Liberated Through Submission

Me? Obey Him?: The Obedient Wife and God's Way of Happiness and Blessing in the Home

The Surrendered Wife : A Practical Guide to Finding Intimacy, Passion, and Peace with Your Man

Don't these sound like joke titles? They are all in print and you can order them on Amazon. It scares me that there are people out there who take this seriously.

At the same time, it's hillarious!

Now all you ladies who think that we old broads, who burned our bras for women's rights, are just a bunch of old nags, look at this really hard. I wish I had saved my textbook from my high school marriage and family class. It was full of that type of thinking.

my grandmother adhered to this type of thinking all her life. It's so sad when I think back and remember her scurrying about the kitchen with a deer-in-the-headlights look on her face. Like her life depended upon the perfect pot of beef stew. I hope it gives her some comfort (where ever she is) that I can read that "article" and about pee in my pants laughing at it. We have indeed come a long way, babies!

edit=typo but there are probably many more

http://twist.lib.uiowa.edu/beat/reports/women/role.html



Home >> Women >> Women's Role in Society

Women’s role in society in the 1950’s

Hata Trbonja


The 1950’s are synonymous with the images of large hoop skirts and the height of family values. But, for women it also signifies a time when the peaceful existence of the country depended on the submission of women. The end of WWII started a demand for life to return to normal as quickly as possible and as much as possible. For the majority of women this meant leaving the liberation that they felt at their own jobs and having to manage their homes on their own.

Although they would be in a position to manage the household, it would be from the inside as the silent and submissive housewife. The national nesting period, which lasted over a decade, would not have happened if the women of this society were to have continued working and taken a more dominant role in society. But, the male dominance, shipped overseas for the war, returned and looked for a new front to carry out their mission of dominance and leadership.

One of the best examples of the unwritten rules women had to follow is an article published by Good Housekeeping. The article found at http:// jade.ccccd.edu/ grooms/ goodwife.htm was written as a guide for women on how to be the perfect wife and housewife. This article is truly one of the best examples of social expectations that bound women.

The reasons why the 1950’s developed as it did into the image of squeaky-clean wholesomeness are many and sometimes too complex to handle in only part of an assignment. One of the major reasons mentioned on http:// www.wm.edu/CAS/ASP/ faculty/Lowry/ Amst2000/projects1999/ Homes/Pages/ suburb1.html, is the return of the American G.I’s from the war in Europe and the South Pacific.

The “bland” quality of the 1950’s was caused by the need for order and control that made the power in society redistributed to the men upon their return. the decade continued the deconstruction of individuality and female sexuality continued as well. With the prevalence of television in every home, women were given visual models of what they should look like and their husbands expect to see when they get home from work.

In 1954, the first ever televised broadcast of Miss America aired and the overwhelming ratings on that night caused women all over the country to view this show as the staple of what women should be. Even the title, Miss America, caused women to think that if they weren’t like the girl on television then they might not be as American as they first thought.

The web-site http:// www.missamerica.org/ meet/history/1950/ review.asp, gives a brief history of the first television airing of this program which further fed women’s’ insecurities.Along with seeing a perfect woman on television, women also saw the female role being portrayed only as a maternal figure in adulthood and a virginal teenager.

Women’s sexuality was reduced to a maternal obligation. Women were not allowed or were thought of as not being sexual only at times of procreation. Since the 1950’s could also be viewed as the time of the twin beds in the master bedroom, the idea of sexuality was foreign and perverse. More information on women’s sexual suppression during the 1950’s can be found at http:// home.earthlink.net/ ~neuhausj/1950s/ schange.html#sexuality.


HOW TO BE A GOOD WIFE

Home Economics High School Text Book, 1954

    Have dinner ready. Plan ahead, even the night before, to have a delicious meal, on time. This is a way of letting him know that you have been thinking about him and are concerned about his needs. Most men are hungry when they come home and the prospect of a good meal are part of the warm welcome needed.  

Prepare yourself. Take 15 minutes to rest so that you'll be refreshed when he arrives. Touch up your makeup, put a ribbon in your hair and be fresh-looking. He has just been with a lot of work-weary people. Be a little gay and a little more interesting. His boring day may need a lift.  

Clear away the clutter. Make one last trip through the main part of the home just before your husband arrives, gather up schoolbooks, toys, paper, etc. Then run a dust cloth over the tables. Your husband will feel he has reached a haven of rest and order, and it will give you a lift, too.  

Prepare the children. Take a few minutes to wash the children's hands and faces (if they are small), comb their hair, and if necessary change their clothes. They are little treasures and he would like to see them playing the part.  

Minimize all noise. At the time of his arrival, eliminate all noise of the washer, dryer, dishwasher, or vacuum. Try to encourage the children to be quiet. Be happy to see him. Greet him with a warm smile and be glad he is home.  

Some don'ts: Don't greet him with problems or complaints. Don't complain if he is late for dinner. Count this as minor compared with what he might have gone through that day. Make him comfortable. Have him lean back in a comfortable chair or suggest he lie down in the bedroom. Have a cool or warm drink ready for him. Arrange his pillow and offer to take off his shoes. Speak in a low, soft, soothing and pleasant voice. Allow him to relax and unwind.  

Listen to him. You may have a dozen things to tell him, but the moment of his arrival is not the time. Let him talk first.   Make the evening his. Never complain if he does not take you out to dinner or to other places of entertainment. Instead, try to understand his world of strain and pressure, his need to be home and relax.   The Goal: Try to make your home a place of peace and order where your husband can renew himself in body and spirit.

All you've got there is an article that cites the same text and credits it to another random website of no particular authority: some guy who specializes in Celtic literature:
http:// jade.ccccd.edu/ grooms/goodwife.htm

I don't think that settles the question of the actual provenance of this piece. I'm not disputing that it could be real, or that it's not far off from actual things said at the time, but there's no shortage of hoax material around and this is just another reference to the same thing.

I know a little bit about deportment literature and deportment books--a pretty hot field these days--which is the genre of this kind of thing (a VERY long tradition, going back to the Middle Ages at least). It's a plausible piece, but it's important to have real evidence. This one seems a little too perfect to my ear.

edit: typo

women hadn't gotten so uppity.

Just kidding!!!!!!!!!!!!

what fucks me up is, 1955 is the year I was born.

I sure had a lot of growing up to do :D

It's about the bits we're primarily attracted to, not the personality.

That's what I understand this stuff was all about. Women had been working and handling things while the men were at war and this was a push to, well, 'put women in their place'.

Although I don't personally know ANY women who acted like this. Not my grandmothers, 7 aunties, my mother or her friends, NOBODY. I really don't know where this crazy stereotype came from.

My grandfather game home drunk once.... once... and my Southern Baptist grandmother made him sleep outside. My Catholic grandmother was a sweetie pie and somehow managed to have a husband and raise 7 boys who catered to her, not the other way around.

I can't believe I just happen to be the only one raised in some sort of alternative 50s/60s environment.

Most families defied the stereotype, but it was pushed by the perfect wife and mother crowd. Most women put on the pretense that they were perfect wives and mothers. Don't you love the high heels while cooking? I know my mother would put on the dog so to speak when she thought she was being watched by neighbors and other gossips.

I know one of our neighbors didn't wash dishes because she had skin allergies and her husband had to wash all the dishes when he came home from work. My mother thought the neighbor was malingering to get out of doing her duty.

So as you can see the attitude of acceptance of this norm was there.

I owned several pair of gloves...

also had to have matching purses & heels..

We are not "properly" dressed up unless we wore these..:(

People wor suits & ties and the women, dresses or suits to go on a plane...

Life was more formal then..

and slacks/pants for women was a HUGE no-no..

It was 1975 before wmoen were "allowed" to wear pant suits to work at the bank I worked for.....and they were "subject to scrutiny" for propriety:eyes:


Times were waaaaaay different...and not so long ago :)

I really grew up in an alternate universe. High heels at church, when we went, and that was it. My mom wore zoris and shorts when she cooked dinner, did you have zoris in your neighborhood?

Maybe it's because I grew up in a blue collar neighborhood, maybe it's because I grew up in California, I don't know. My aunties mostly lived in St. Louis and none of them put on the dog for anybody, except during the holidays. And speaking of dishes, my mom's friends thought she was nuts because she was fanatical about an immaculate house. And my one uncle in particular helped with the dishes and did the vacuuming to make things easier on my aunt. And another aunt still puts her dirty pots and pans in the oven when company comes over.

I had wonderful role models!!! :-)

I can barely remember 1955. My parents were pretty much 'partners', in the older sense of the word. Equals? Yeah, I think so.

As for my Dad's words being unquestionable, I can remember sitting in the car, while they went in to vote, in 1956. Before they got out of the car, they went at each other hammer and tongs over Ike and Adlai, and then proceded to cancel out each other's vote. That would have violated the instructions in the article, I think.

and in the kitchen!

"Honey, since you're doing the dishes, bring me a beer willya?
and keep it down, I'm trying to watch the game!"

Conservative politicians say it regulary here as well (and it was that way until the 70s/80s) : reinstate the three 'K's and unemployment won't be an issue any more. (KKK in German(y) means : "Kinder, Kirche, Küche", what translates to "children, church, kitchen").
No wonder that women's votes brought Schroeder to victory.

...that part about being "a little gay" for him. I know after a hard day at work a little live girl-on-girl action would be most refresshing

I'd like to have a male version of that greet me when I get home. :)

women douched with LYSOL in 1955. Real, true, sick.

I shudder to think there are women who douched with Lysol. Like her husband is gonna come near her with a Lysol-smelling crotch?! "Gee, Carol, I like the Pine-sol so much better. It's lemony-fresh!"

If so, I agree, very gross and sick. I wouldn't even use this around the house for fear of making my dogs and cat sick!:-(

I've had the text of this up for a while at http://cronus.com/housewife and I've never seen the original. So it really did exist after all. Cool.


Click Here For Hard Hitting Buttons — Visit The Cronus Connection

but pretty funny

if it wasnt for certain things im sure it could have been real