Well, actually, while the piece reproduced here might have been a made up compilation, the attitudes it represents and the advice given is not far from what the magazines, newspaper ladies' pages, and advertising were promoting as the wife's role. How many women remember the "ring around the collar" ad for Whisk. The message: if the husband's white shirt collar showed that tell-tale ring, the wife was a failure. How many movies portrayed the middle-class wife ready and waiting for the husband to come home, kids fed and ready for bed, house spotless, she dressed to the nines, and the chilled martini pitcher in the fridge? Many women tried to live that image and went bonkers. My mother and friends' mothers all went through that. Look at Donna Reed and Leave It To Beaver reruns. They were the context for that list (only more laughs). Ladies Home Journal had a column back then "Can This Marriage Be Saved?" I'd love to reread some of those columns now and compare the responses to the list. Variations of the same, I bet. I took Home-Ec in the 60s and our focuses were more on sewing, cooking, and budgeting - practical skills. However, if we read our mother's magazines, there was the same advice. Thank goodness Helen Gurley Brown and her mold-breaking Cosmopolian came along.
I guess we will find out whether or not I should be blogging. But here goes; I really can get going on some of these things, so we'll put it out there and see if we get yawns, catcalls, or maybe some responses.
3 comments:
Well, actually, while the piece reproduced here might have been a made up compilation, the attitudes it represents and the advice given is not far from what the magazines, newspaper ladies' pages, and advertising were promoting as the wife's role. How many women remember the "ring around the collar" ad for Whisk. The message: if the husband's white shirt collar showed that tell-tale ring, the wife was a failure. How many movies portrayed the middle-class wife ready and waiting for the husband to come home, kids fed and ready for bed, house spotless, she dressed to the nines, and the chilled martini pitcher in the fridge? Many women tried to live that image and went bonkers. My mother and friends' mothers all went through that. Look at Donna Reed and Leave It To Beaver reruns. They were the context for that list (only more laughs). Ladies Home Journal had a column back then "Can This Marriage Be Saved?" I'd love to reread some of those columns now and compare the responses to the list. Variations of the same, I bet. I took Home-Ec in the 60s and our focuses were more on sewing, cooking, and budgeting - practical skills. However, if we read our mother's magazines, there was the same advice. Thank goodness Helen Gurley Brown and her mold-breaking Cosmopolian came along.
I think a man wrote this.
I think it is exaggerated on purpose, but by who? this was 1955, not 1895.
It is going around the internet.
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