Throughout history, many feminists have explored and analyzed magazines as artifacts of culture in order to gain a better understanding of the lives and experiences of women living in different time periods and societal structures. Individuals, such as Noliwe Rooks, Betty Friedan, and Joanne Meyerowitz, utilized different approaches to dive into this research and unveil the societal norms and expectations of the female gender as well as critique the various roles that magazine articles and advertisements have played in either opposing or encouraging and upholding these ideals of women.
(And although all three of these women, among several others, have made significant contributions to such research, I will focus here on Betty Friedan.)
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Betty Friedan’s research primarily focused on the transformation of the female “image” from the 1930’s through 1950’s in aims to understand how the ideal of the “housewife-mother” came to be and the role magazines played in portraying and upholding these societal beliefs.
In the early 1960’s the editorial contents of McCall’s, one of the fastest growing of the women’s magazines, featured a typical short story about a nineteen-year-old female who was sent off to charm school to learn how to bat her eyelashes and lose at a tennis match (clearly necessary skills for finding a husband) Another editorial dealt with the various possible patterns for home-sewing (Friedan, 3).
“The image of women that emerges from this big pretty magazine, is young and frivolous, almost child-like; fluffy and feminine; passive; gaily content in a world of bedroom and kitchen, sex, babies, and the home” (Friedan, 4). During times when so much was happening throughout the world, out in the public sphere, the content of women’s magazine articles contained little more than step-by-step instructions on how to find the perfect man or 10 new ways to bake a better cake. “Where is the world of thought and ideas, the life of the mind of spirit?” (Friedan, 4) These were among some of the questions that Friedan asked as she yearned to discover how and when the every-day experiences, lives, and core purposes of women became so completely and tragically linked to the traditional view of femininity. The term femininity refers to the “qualities and characteristics conventionally understood to be associated with the female human, such as passivity, emotiveness, and nurturance” (Thomas-Williams). These were the traits which embodied the female “image” represented in magazines and the societal expectations of how women should act, live their lives, and experience their human existence.
Friedan spent countless hours at the New York Public Library searching and analyzing the content of women’s magazines and discovered some fictional stories and narratives which revealed the significant changes of the female image from the 1930’s through the 1950’s and what she found was astonishing. The female “image” depicted in magazines during the year 1939 was nothing like the passive female whose actions and decisions were dominated by the constraints of the private sphere. In contrast, these heroines of the earlier times represented the New Woman, one who was free to experience life on her own with the capability to reach out into the world, and outside of the home. She exemplified a sense of freedom and personal identity. However, something happened to this image, a transformation which was clearly evident in the magazines as time went by.
After World War II women were again constrained to the home and their duties included taking care of the children, cooking the meals, and fulfilling the occupation of housewife. In addition, one of the primary goals of females was to personify the “norms” of femininity. A norm is “an ideal standard or model” (Thomas-Williams) which is often socially constructed within society and can create strict expectations of behaviors, characteristics, and actions of groups of individuals. The norms of society during these times for females can be defined as the “feminine mystique” as Friedan explains. The “happy housewife” was the image depicted in magazine advertisements and articles which confined the female and significantly limited her ability to achieve her own dreams and partake in more meaningful, intellectual activities than doing the dishes and changing diapers. “Her limitless world shrunk to the cozy walls of home” (Friedan, 10). Magazines pages titled, “Femininity Begins at Home,” “It’s a Man’s World Maybe,” and “Have Babies While You’re Young” are only a few of the several examples of how the expectations and roles of women were strongly encouraged in society. The idea of this “new” role for women attempted to transform females’ thinking and feelings about their positions and purposes in society, encouraging them to believe that their job was important and that they should be happy and proud to embrace their femininity. However, this new theory was deceptive and in reality, females were nothing more than “house-wife mothers.” Women existed to serve and satisfy their husbands and take care of their children because “great men have great mothers” (Friedan, 9).
Although many women did not explicitly talk about their feelings in regards to their expected roles and societal “image” Friedan explains the boredom, unhappiness, and severe lack of fulfillment that women hid beneath the surface. They craved to experience more in their lives and could not help but feel completely trapped and confined in their roles in the private sphere. Furthermore, some females experienced internalization of their positions and expected behaviors by unconsciously incorporating the values, attitudes, and beliefs into their identity and actions” (Thomas-Williams). “The feminine mystique is so powerful that women grow up no longer knowing that they have the desires and capacities the mystique forbids” (Friedan, 17). A desire is “a want or wish for something” (Thomas-Williams) and women during these times were expected to desire to fulfill their femininity, make their families happy, and be satisfied with basically nothing more.
Although some advertising and magazines may have the ability to generate emancipatory politics, Friedan does not believe that those that represented the “Feminine Mystique” created a sense of freedom, liberation, or avenue for females to express themselves as individuals and an equal part of society. “Does the mystique keep American women from growing with the world?” (Friedan, 17). Friedan feels that women were severely constrained by their gender roles and expectations and that magazines played a huge part in upholding these images. The images of females that were depicted in articles and advertisements did not encourage women to become educated, aware of the happenings in the public sphere, and reach for their own aspirations and individual freedom in life. In contrast, the images were sending the message to women that their lives should revolve around “looking pretty” and satisfying their children and husbands. The constraints holding women back from fully experiencing life and feeling truly happy surrounded them in basically every aspect of society, including the magazine industry.
Citations:
Friedan, Betty. “Chapter 2, The Happy Housewife Heroine” 33-68. The Feminine Mystique. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1963.
Thomas-Williams, Critical Terms in Gender Studies, accessed January 27, 2011: http://g205atiu.wordpress.com/critical-terms/
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