What We Really Miss About the 1950s

Tai Lam California State University, USA 2008

What We Really Miss About the 1950's" written by Stephanie Coontz is an article analyzing both the positive and negative effects of social environment and status in the 1950s. The article starts off with a Knight Ridder poll taken in 1996, in which more Americans appreciated the period of the 1950s as the best time to start a family rather than any other decades. However, Coontz suggests that an uninformed nostalgia for the 1950s on the rise in the contemporary media could promote harmful political agendas today. Coontz is correct. Such nostalgia not only causes threatens socio-political instability and development, it also easily leads to ethnocentrism. In American culture, of any decade, the one that perhaps is the most nostalgically looked on is that of the 1950s. It was thought to be a time of simplicity, balance and innocence, when the Americans was economically comfortable, and the American Dream was a reality for a public. However, unconditional nostalgia that increasingly appeared in the contemporary media could bring about the negative aspects to the communities. The rising phenomenon of such nostalgia can be found in Coontzs essay several examples that the traditional family images are derived from the contemporary media. One of these
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that Coontz cites is Marty, the highly praised television shows of the 1950s, when the call for young couples to break from their families was the consistent theme in 1950s popular culture (Coontz 38). The rising promotion of the nostalgia only indeed reflects the positive effects of the contemporary life but much ignores or disregards its unhelpful aspects. As Coontz states in her essay, television of the 1950s really played a significant role in people's misunderstanding of family life in the decade. The shows gave people the impression that life was always simple and happy back then. People seem to be thinking that the family-styles on television is real life style. But these TV families purely showed individuals idea of how families should live. Shows like "Leave It to Beaver" and "Father Knows Best" (Coontz 38) presented the fantasy of problem solution for the parents. On the other hand, shows like "I Love Lucy" (38) were mostly pointed at showing troubles to women. Instead of taking them as a suggestion after watching, most people viewing these shows today feel inappropriate, and thought they would hardly have a family as good as such. The social evils of that decade that should be eliminated were not widely and publicly covered in mass media. On the contrary, Duck-andCover, a suggest method for personal protection against the effects of a nuclear weapon which school children were national-widely taught by the US government in the 1950s, was promoted in nationwide scale. This personal cold war protection related much with McCarthyism, the politically motivated practice
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(theorized by American Senator Joe McCarthy and his allies) of making accusations of disloyalty, subversion, or treason without proper regard for evidence by overstating Cold War tensions and anti-communist pursuits as in the

Documentary history book by Albert Fried McCarthyism, The Great American Red Scare (1950). Such nostalgia would destroy the currently favored policies in global cooperation, and would arouse international conflicts that are supposed to avoid. Its obvious and easy to know that the call for that decade longing best serves some left-wing politician purposes. They want to change the world present order. Such growing nostalgia of more ignorance or less conversance would results in immeasurable negative effects to the country. Excessive uninformed nostalgia did really promote harms to political agendas, Furthermore, it causes threats to socio-political instability and development. Widespread opposition phenomenon to people who could be defined as "others" such as Jews, African Americans, Puerto Ricans, the poor, gays or lesbians, and the red menace (Coontz 39) would arouse sexism, racism and hostility to ethnic minorities. It was during the 1950s that racial conflict and discrimination was sharp and fierce in many places of the country (39). These unhealthy social moods results not only in moral issues, but also in political ones. The United States is a country of which the government should always be in progress to make every effort insuring that each individual is allowed his or her
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deprivable and undeniable rights as stated in the Constitution. Tracing back to the time when discrimination among ethnicities was rising would create the social dissention and multipolarization. Thenceforth, the societal stability, national security and order would be threatened and turned into immeasurable chaos. Additionally, sexism was a rather serious bias against women. These corrupt morals could be easily seen in contemporary media as Coontz cites in her essay: "Father knows Best", in which young women were advised; "the worst thing that you can do is to try to beat a man at his own game (45); and they often experienced commentaries such as: "he criticizes you hairdo - go to the beauty salon"(45). Another biased representation of the sexes that concerned the portrayal of man as the norm and women as the appendage not only occurred in internal structure of the family such as gender and age roles, the male-dominant trend was also centered on men in socio-financial aspects. Only males had the opportunity to apply for credit cards and get loans, women were excluded from this privilege and even from juries ( Coontz 45). Housekeeping and raising a family were considered ideal female roles during the 1950s, although that standard was less rigid than in previous decades. With marriage and birthrates booming, women were becoming wives and mothers at unprecedented levels. Woman today have gained the equality rights as their counterparts do. Females have nowadays played more and more important roles in social economic and political fields. They show the equality
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power and intelligence in national development. Just imagine what the current society would be like in retrospect to what women were in the 1950s and how these tendencies impede the public . The last but not least is that uninformed nostalgic feelings for the 1950s could easily lead to ethnocentrism. Coontz mentions in her article about the risings and fallings of this decade by stating social facts. The results that the people who preferred the 1950's were not of any minorities in the U.S, but only White Americans appreciated and chose that as the best time to start a family. The 1996 poll did not win an outright majority. Almost all African Americans differed over other decades rather than 1950s (33). The results shows that the 1950s was really the best time only to particular community of contemporary Americans. That is the reason why more Americans of such community appreciate and consider the life at that time as the stereotype of traditional American life and culture, which can lead to a group thinking that they are self-righteous and better than another group. It also gives lead way to judge another culture's way of life. America is known as a melting pot, consisting of an considerable number of ethnic communities. Each community varies significantly in the different elements of culture. Culture is one's designed way of living based on intellectual customs, knowledge, and behavior. One who is with an ethnocentric perspective may view other cultures as deviations from what is "normal". A historic example of this tendency was when Hitler and
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his Nazi followers thought they were better than the other peoples and even judged the others to be inferior class. The history of the English also serves as a prime example of ethnocentric beliefs. It is discrimination that plays a direct role in the ethnocentric belief. During the exploration period the discrimination against blacks by whites was a major controversial issue. Turning back to the 1950s, one can easily recognize that was the prime and ideal times for mainstream culture and population. That was the world of the Whites rather than any others. Owing to this extremist supposition that creates ethnocentrism that leads to make false assumptions about cultural differences among the ethnicities and also distorts communication between human beings. A countrys values are very important to her people. For many years the American culture and family and their values have been one of the top priorities of the nation. The nostalgia about the 1950s is primarily thought of the positive aspects that people were more ontent and looking forward to the future. That was also, as Coontz analyzes, America's golden age of family life, an essential part of the "American Dream" that Americans are so fond of. The basic idea of success in America is measured by how well one can provide for their family. Every individual has the right to be and can be nostalgic about any period life providing that it encourages and helps with upcoming achievement. Reviewing what have been learnt in the past helps better learn and understand the present. Social
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progress is always ongoing, it cannot be backwards. We are living in a everchanging world, what America needs is a visionary for the future. Cherishing fond dreams of the past but against the present is a hidden harmful deposit for the future. Moreover, how to harmoniously adapt for temporal and special differences of cultures is the publics major concern. The healthy basis for civilized thinking, as assumed, is better neither ethnocentrism nor xenocentrism.

Works cited: 1. Coontz, Stephanie. What We Really Miss about the 1950s. 2. Differences Between Ethnocentrism And Cultural Relativism. OPPAPERS.COM. 6 June, 2009. < http://www.oppapers.com/essays/Differences-Between-EthnocentrismCultural-Relativism/108512 >. 3. How 1950s America Begat 1960s America. 06-05-2009. <http://lavender.fortunecity.com/fullmonty/22/sixties.htm> 4. Sinatra, Ashley. Ethnocentrism in Today's Society. AC Associated Content News. 0919-2007. <http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/379445/ethnocentrism_in_todays_society_pg 2.html?cat=9> 5. Joe McCarthy, McCarthyism. Spartacus Educational. 06-06-2009. < http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAmccarthy.htm >

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