Many fundies/freepers seem to think of the 1950's as a golden age.

[raccoon]

And those were good economic times for many Americans, especially if you were male and white.

But I don't think that's why the f/f's think it was a golden age.

Your thoughts?

[navarth]

1. a whole lot of things were better then.

but a shit load of things were worse. does it balance out? I dunno.

today is what we have. need to work with that I guess

[Idealism]

2. All I recall from the 50s was:

-That Socialist Ike having top marginal tax rate at 91%
-War-induced Prosperity
-Whites were treated like kings

A mixed bag, but social injustice by the boatload doesn't make up for good economic times

[Lorien]

10. White MEN were treated like kings

women "knew their place" then, which is how the men liked it.

[Idealism]

18. Yeah there was that :|

[guruoo]

50. Indeed, that was the case... and unfortunately,

still is in some people's minds.

[Mari333]

56. LORDY lordy I remember reading this drivel

back in the day. This is something Dr Laura Schlessinger STILL advocates on her radio show.
"Be a little gay!" heh.

[Lorien]

57. No wonder suicide rates were so high among housewives back then

and so many women were "committed". It was as if the f*cking Taliban were in control! All that was missing were the stonings and the burquas.

Hell, I've worked my entire adult life, and any day at the office was never as miserable as a day at home alone doing housework. Jobs are often stimulating-even fun. The same can't be said of domestic chores! His day was "hard"? Bullshit. Her day was empty, boring, exhausting and thankless.

[Aristus]

64. "Women's magazines" were written by men back in those days, in case you couldn't tell.

That was the reason Gloria Steinem founded "Ms." To have a women's magazine that was actually written by women.

[lukasahero]

70. This is a hoax

http://www.snopes.com/language/document/goodwife.asp

"We know the graphic reproduced above (supposedly from the 13 May 1955 edition of a magazine call Housekeeping Monthly) is a fabrication: It didn't first appear until well after the "How to Be a Good Wife" list had begun circulating via e-mail..."

That's not to say issues don't exist but it behooves no one to exaggerate.

Personally, I believe this is what a number of 'people' would like the world to return to and it is my belief that the "how to be a good wife" email started based on that desire - some insecure little man's wet dream, so to speak.

[shanti]

93. not a hoax

it's "undetermined".

[lukasahero]

98. "We know the graphic reproduced above...is a fabrication"

The picture in the post I was referring to is "a fabrication". That's not undetermined. They leave the "determination" open in order to discuss the conditions of women during the time period in question. It was bad enough so let's lay off the hyperbole - it diminishes reality and it's really not necessary to prove the point.

[Marrah_G]

78. wow- that is just frightening.

Hoax or not !

[pipi_k]

87. AUGHHH!!!!!!!!! My eyyyyyeeeeeessss!!!!

And to think I was born just three years before that crap came out.

Yep...I remember the 50s. In some ways it was innocent. Maybe because I myself was? Whatever. In other ways, it wasn't so innocent at all.


Reading through that list of do's and don'ts, I'm thinking, holy shit...the only thing missing is the command to kneel and genuflect before the Lord and Master as he walks in the door.

puke puke puke :puke:

[sweetpotato]

3. Women and minorities knew *their place*

And that is the bottom line.

[Mari333]

5. gmta n/t

[raccoon]

7. How's that again? gmta? nt

[sweetpotato]

13. I hope it means great minds think alike - nt

[petronius]

35. It does... (nt)

[sufrommich]

6. It sure is. nt

[Mari333]

4. having lived in the 50s

seems to me a lot of what they miss is that 'everyone knew their place' back then.
and white males were at the top.
'colored folks' knew their place.
'females' knew their place.
'the love which dare not speak its name people' knew their place.
everything was set up in very specific terms and no one stepped out of line.
thats why the 60s happened.
nonetheless, I do miss Captain Kangaroo.

[rurallib]

41. I always thought black and white TV pretty well exemplified the '50s

I am old enough to remember the 50s also. And the big memory I had is that everything was pretty well decided. There were few grey areas. Everything was pretty much black and white.
And then the color came with the 60s. Things that had fomented under the surface during the 50s exploded in the 60s.
But I think Repugs really miss the 1870s to 1900 era. Rich & white were king. Corporations and banks owned all. And a little terrorism to keep the blacks in their place was ok.

[Le Taz Hot]

81. And how to explain to the generations

behind the Boomers that these are the things we fought to change -- and we did.

[margotb822]

8. The harkening back to an idealized past

is a precursor to fascist ideology.

Of course, it was such a good time for so many vets because the government provided them with an opportunity for higher education.

Maybe we should suggest we return to the economic and tax policies of the 1950's? I bet they'd flip their shit then: http://www.truthandpolitics.org/top-rates.php

BTW, there was a great show on the History Channel last night about the 1970s and one of the discussions was about the birth of the modern evangelical movement. It was very interesting.

[DBoon]

36. Yup

Hitler had his dark-ages teutonic rituals

Mussolini had the glory of ancient Rome

Francisco Franco (a favorite of the US right wing, BTW) had the glory days of the sapnish empirte (complete with the inquisition)

And the freepers have an age of military dominance, political fear, institutionalized racism and sexism, and social conformity.

[sui generis]

9. yep you could hang anyone you liked from a street light or tree

and have a picnic doing it.

Gosh everyone knew their place back then, except the commies, and we took care of them by god.

It wasn't good economic times. The Ford riots were just a few years prior to that, and IF you were male and white you still couldn't marry a black woman, or god forbid a black man.

Economic times? Great if you worked in an office pushing paper, maybe, but not so great for all the other lilly white factory workers, miners, and generic white people.

Mostly the people that remember the "good old days" are remembering a simpler life. Shorter commute, all roles laid out from birth: if you're a man you're going to have a wife who pops out a few kids, stays at home and cooks and cleans house. College - not so important, expect to serve in the military in at least one glorious war, go to church once a week and not live much past 55 - 60 years of age.

Anything unusual is shunned or even reacted to with violence, and things Are The Way They're Supposed To Be.

Som'n wrong with those people.

[Mari333]

14. agreed.

my dad was a railroad engineer and in the union. i remember him being on strike, and words like 'featherbedding'. i remember him working 3 jobs to get by when they were on strike. i remember him yelling about 'those assholes in management'.

[Romulox]

11. I think that the flip side of this argument is dangerous and manipulative, however:

To whit: "It's OK that wages are stagnant and inequality is at record levels; after all, the US was racist in the past (when wages were more evenly distributed.)"

[amdezurik]

12. The main issue is those who tend to be "con"

do not really understand the concept of "fiction". They somehow think Beaver Cleaver was real and that them "darkies" were happier when they "knew their place". It was all "outside aggitators" who stirred everything up (mostly "New york Jews" BTW) and making them and the wimmins "uppity". They pine for the days of the "white man's burden" and how wisely it was administered...

[raccoon]

77. I think you've got something there. I have a cousin who thought THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE (1972)

Really happened! I kid you not.




"The main issue is those who tend to be "con"

do not really understand the concept of "fiction".

[CoffeeCat]

15. I think they long for the social structures...

...of the 1950's.

Women were at home, men were at work. Roles were more clearly defined. Many
men were authoritarians--while women and children were expected to accept their
lesser-than roles.

After all, many Freepers are religious--and the Bible teaches us that the man
is all powerful over women and children. The woman is only an extension of man--and
she is flawed, of course.

Everything seemed to have a glossy, nice sheen on it--in the 1950's, because no one
complained back then.

The truth is--there was a lot of ugliness and unhappiness. People just didn't
talk about it. Why, a man could be a raging abusive alcoholic--and destroy his family,
but no one would have to know. Women were more than happy to suffer in silence, and
there were hardly any agencies or therapists to help people in these circumstances.

Ahhh...those were the days. :eyes:

Today, we have AA groups, where people can get beyond repression and unearth the root
causes of pain. Women can leave abusive men. Children tell about abuse. Women
are empowered--and that upsets the 1950's "mobile" that had the man at the center of
everything.

Modern-day Freepers are uncomfortable with an egalitarian society--or a society that
doesn't reward their sexism, their bigotry or even psychopathic or narcissistic behavior.

Many Freeper types are stunted, broken control freaks--who only know how to operate if they
are in control and controlling everyone around them. The 1950's was their "hey day."

Just look at Bush and the neocons--total criminals. Freepers worship those types.

It's a sickness. The 1950's represent a time when their pathology was not only accepted, it
was expected.

[Mari333]

24. and dont forget the LYSOL douche! pathological, indeed

[sufrommich]

30. Holy shit! I thought you were joking! nt

[CoffeeCat]

31. OH. MY. LAND.

That is so awful, it's hilarious!!

That poor, lonely woman is alone and her husband has turned his
back on her (literally, look at the picture) because her private
parts haven't been properly disinfected with harsh chemicals!

Why....the poor woman "keeps her home immaculate" and "looks
are pretty as she can"...but she doesn't hose down her vagina
with the burning sensation of industrial SD Alcohol 40--the main
ingredient in Lysol.

So, not only should women torture themselves to please a man, they
should expect that they will be lonely and dejected if they don't!

I'm laughing, but this is so sad.

[Berry Cool]

75. You DO know what "proved efficiency in contact with organic matter" means, don't you?

"Lysol makes an excellent spermicide. So if you really don't want to get pregnant, kill off the little buggers with this."

Yeah...I'm sure it worked...but at what price?? :scared:

Yep, it's pretty frightening what women of the past used to get peddled to fully clean and fumigate their private parts before they found out that it's a self-cleaning operation...

We're lucky we don't live in those times.

ed. typo

[jmowreader]

52. If the fundies get their way, I expect the Lysol Douche to return

One did NOT douche with Lysol because she had an unwanted odor in her delicate parts. It's because she had an unwanted PREGNANCY in her delicate parts.

Yup. Lysol was considered an abortifacient by women of those days, and it probably was--the product is capable of dissolving your uterus.

[raccoon]

26. Great post.

"Women were at home, men were at work. Roles were more clearly defined."

Right. While I believe there is some security in having clearly defined roles, I would NOT want to return to those rigid roles.


"The truth is--there was a lot of ugliness and unhappiness. People just didn't
talk about it."

Amen to that. You don't know there are spiders under a rock until you turn the rock over. I believe many moran F/f's think all these social ills that now we are talking about--alcoholism, domestic violence, child abuse, etc., are more widespread now---which I don't think they are, it's simply that those things aren't just swept under the rug the way they used to be.

" Why, a man could be a raging abusive alcoholic--and destroy his family,
but no one would have to know."

Don't I know it? That was my life at the time.


"Many modern-day Freepers are uncomfortable with an egalitarian society--or a society that
doesn't reward their sexism, their bigotry or even psychopathic or narcissistic behavior.

Many Freeper types are stunted, broken control freaks--who only know how to operate if they
are in control and controlling everyone around them."

I think you're right about that.

[Warpy]

16. They wax nostalgic for all the wrong things

Society was regimented and compartmentalized. Urban and suburban neighborhoods were arranged by ethnicity, religion, income, and status. Nobody had to find his place in the world, it was handed to him and woe be unto anyone who questioned it.

Church attendance, especially in the religion segregated suburbs, was higher. You went to church or temple because all your neighbors did.

Women were ghettoized in burbs during the week with no transportation, but they didn't have that juggling act between children and work.

They don't want the economic justice that made the minimum wage one that would support a small family if they were extremely thrifty. They want the regimentation.

[supernova]

27. wrong place

meant to reply to the lysol ad.

[Bluebear]

17. male and white....and heterosexual, please.

[Mari333]

21. I tried to explain to a 30 yr old

what being 'gay' meant in the 50s. he sat with an open mouth of disbelief when I described to him that 'there was no such thing as gay people per se according to the mentality that existed back then'
a few references to Liberace were all we heard and we didnt understand what that meant anyway.
gay folks were so in the closet back then the door was locked and bolted shut .
I dont think he believed me. which is good, it shows how much has changed.

[Bluebear]

23. You are so right.

I have experienced a big difference even in the past 20 years. I cannot imagine what it would have been like to be gay in the 50's.

[alfredo]

99. the gay kids got beat up nearly every day at school. That's what I remember

from my school. One I remember was treated so bad I started feeling sorry for him and my dad made fun of me for that and started calling me by his name.
I've been for gay rights since then.

[Lorien]

59. Tell him to watch "Far from Heaven"

http://www.farfromheavenmovie.com/

[Mari333]

68. thanks , now i want to see that also n/t

[dysfunctional press]

19. it's when they were kids and/or coming of age...

having makeout sessions in the backseat of the buick...carefree with no responsibilities...and the u.s. was flying high around the world for it's performance in ww2. while on the home-front in the cold war, the propaganda about how wonderful and free life is in the u.s.of a. kept being pounded into their heads, to keep them from thinking about communism.

[ProfessorGAC]

79. Dunno About That

A lot of them are WAY too young to have come of age in the 50's. Geez, i'm in my 50's and most of my clear memories start when i was 4 or so years old. And i know the hard-right types that are considerably younger than me.

I think it's more mythology than memory. For the folks in their 60's, you're probably correct. But, there are too many folks too young and still listing way right that aren't. Has to be more than one reason.
GAC

[dysfunctional press]

96. and a lot of the ones that are/were too young to have lived then-

are going by the faulty reminisces of those that were there.

[EstimatedProphet]

20. Father Knows Best and Leave It To Beaver

That's why.

[MorningGlow]

22. Something about...

women doing housework in high heels and pearls... :shrug:

[Mari333]

25. LOl and drinking martinis all day

lot of caffeinated people and boozers back then as i recall.

[MorningGlow]

28. Yep, that was the counterculture argument

Those danged '60s hippie potheads and acid freaks kept saying "but the parental units are all drunks." Sonofagun, they had a point!
:rofl:

This is why I love to watch Mad Men--it's such a freaky parallel universe! I can't believe that was the reality only 40+ years ago (the mundane stuff, not the big Don Draper identity mystery).

[raccoon]

29. And don't forget tranqulizers. nt

[annabanana]

63. "mother's little helper". . . mphft

little boxes made of tickytacky

[TrogL]

32. I grew up in the 50's and 60's

The 50's was marked for its authoritarianism. If husbands didn't beat their wives, somebody had a word with them to get them to straigten up. Children would show at school with parent-caused black eyes and nobody said a word. A classmate was being sexually abused at home and there wasn't even anybody to tell about it, nevermind do anything. Going to the "guidance councellor" was useless - her only "guidance" was to call the parents, presumably to offer congratulations.

The 60's changed everything. This was the first chink in authoritarian armour and they completely utterly freaked out which was a joy to watch.

This was the time of "Godless communism" which became the bogeyman for everything including non-child-abuse education, women's rights, civil rights and being able to admit there was such a thing as a toilet (and pregnancy). It was just so much fun watching the Freepers hit a brick wall.

[TahitiNut]

40. Don't forget polio, TB, homes for unwed mothers, asbestos everywhere, and 91% top tax bracket.

:shrug:

[WinkyDink]

83. I don't know where you're from, but in my small-town 50's PA., wife-beating was NOT common, nor were

beaten kids. NO. WHERE.

[LibertyLover]

33. They should read the book "The Way We Never Were"

to find out what the 50s were really like.

[kskiska]

53. David Halberstam's "The Fifties"

is another good one. Very thorough.

[calico1]

34. I think a lot of people see the old movies and

TV reruns of that time and think this is exactly how life was.

For example, Ozzie and Harriet. People think that they really were this happy family. In real life Ozzie was a workaholic who was very strict with the boys and not very affectionate.

Lucy and Desi were miserable with each other by the time the series ended.

A lot of things appeared to be perfect and this is what people long for. They forget how a lot of things really were.

[TahitiNut]

37. Then they shouldn't mind a 91% top income tax bracket.

:shrug:

[DBoon]

39. and a heavily unionized private sector workforce

nt

[MineralMan]

43. Glad I read the whole thread,

because I was about to post that. The Freepers and the rest have no idea what they're wishing for. As you say, the income tax was much more progressive then. They're whining about ending a tax cut for the wealthy now. What would they think if someone proposed returning to the tax rates of the 1950s?

Never mind all the other repressive bullshit that was in place during that period. Never mind having to dive under your desks at school during nuclear attack drills. Never mind blacks being murdered for talking to a white woman and the murderers going free as a matter of course.

Dumb shits!

[DBoon]

38. joining a left wing political movement in your youth

would cost you your employment in your adulthood. Imagine joining the "world anti fascist league" when 19 years old in 1938, and being caled out publicly for it in 1954.

The first half of the decades was full of the great red scare, and it wasn't just Joseph McCarthy, either

[Winterblues]

42. Wasn't that during that infamous forty year period that Democrats Controlled Congress?

Amazing how Democrats kept America Safe and Secure for over Forty Years, a period that the Republicans long for, but when Republicans have total Control America falls apart completely..When Republican have Control Government is the problem but when Democrats have control Government functions as it is intended..

[Deja Q]

45. clicked twice, sorry

[Deja Q]

46. A Democrat had "officially" started the Vietnam war.

Lyndon Johnson, if I recall...

And, never mind labels, the context and circumstances of the time were relevant too. It's easy to look back and make up stories that fit so and so. At the time isn't always as neat. Lord knows I've tried to look at events and come up with stories explaining things and I'm not always correct either. Still only human. What we don't know we infer.

[Winterblues]

54. Actually Ike was the person that gave assurances to the south Vietnamese government

and placed the very first "advisors" into Vietnam. Granted the numbers were elevated under Democrats.

[DutchLiberal]

74. The groundwork for the Vietnam War goes back to Eisenhower...

Who first started meddling in Vietnam's business by sending 'special advisers' to the country. But it was under Kennedy when the number of 'advisers' went up to really big numbers and they also received the authority to fight along on the side of the South.

[Deja Q]

44. Well

never mind that when people want discussion they want something concise, and when they want something concise they say they never get all the facts. So I'll try to find an even midpoint, wish me luck.

Statistically speaking, and in worker wage take-home-pay terms only, the middle class had the most take-home money during the 1950s and 1960s. Since 1973, and unions and others love making and showing big graphs to prove the point, wages have not kept up in terms of real buying power. Which is all fine and dandy, but what to do after that point? None of us can do a thing, so why make us the target audience of some downhill-sloping charts?

YES, there was racial and gender inequality. Segregation and worse. THAT was wrong. You bet it was. Duh. Are we talking about economic issues or social ones? Most people haphazardly or indolently slop the two together like they automatically go hand in hand. That isn't fair nor right a thing to do.

Since many DUers tend to talk about wages, that's the sole criteria I mention when it comes to the 1950s and I've had to remind some of that in even the distant past, because they felt I was talking about social issues. (No, I wasn't, again I am not.) So, yes, there were other factors in the 1950s and 1960s. Who would be blind to those?! At least paying good workers for jobs well done wasn't one of them. Keeping people down WAS wrong. Still is, though the racial issue has, incontrovertibly, been improved over the last three decades. Still is a problem, but from working in the field, so to speak, it isn't as bad.

Now just because some people refer to the 1950s being the middle class's best time may only be referring to economic issues and not social ones. Such omission doesn't mean the problems didn't exist. Doesn't make anyone a freeper by default. Doesn't make anyone anything else by default either. Unless you know with incontrovertible facts the person is otherwise a deliberate racist, sexist, or anything else. Sorry to go into a tangent, but somebody who makes off-color jokes might otherwise be far more equal-minded than those who don't. "Get to know the people and stop slopping on stupid labels." That was the meme of the early 1970s. Seems that mantra has been ditched at some point too. And it's easy to do, I'll admit. I'm not immune either; where logic ends and human nature begins - at what point does "humans will be humans" no longer be tolerated or demanded a certain norm be implemented?

[Joe Fields]

47. There were both a lot of good and bad things about the 1950's.

It's okay to admire and long for certain aspects of that era. There were a lot of hidden and not so hidden hoorors from that era also. I just wanted to point out that the entire era need not be condemned.

[ipfilter]

48. My home was built in 1957.

One of the first things I did was get a copy of the covenants for my street. I was shocked when I found a paragraph restricting the conveyance of the property to anyone not of the white race. The covenants do permit non-whites to live in the residences as long as they are under the employ of the owner. This house was built by my grandparents generation.

[Hidden Stillness]

49. Mixed Feelings About the '50s

I have very mixed feelings about the '50s, (as with any other age), so that I believe there were many good things about the era, and a lot to learn from, but I would rather die than live back there. I don't think it does any good to invent a fake "they were all horrific" bigotry, then pretend that everything is "good" now, which it is not; I think it is better to go back and get the good things there were to learn from then. There was a very strong economy and unions, high taxes for rich people and corporations, regulations, and this helped the deep recession of 1955-56 to end quickly, because there was a strong base for things. No one would have tolerated Bush and Cheney, Rove, Rumsfeld, all those assholes back then, and I can't inagine any of them lasting longer than McCarthy, Nixon and Agnew later, etc. It would not just deteriorate forever the way it does now--all the corrupting influence of corporate lobbyists was still illegal then.

I agree about the revulsion at the way women were treated then, etc., but I hate to break it to you--it is just as bad now, but different. Now, women are "vulgarized," treated as "sluts," are still considered male property, rape and battering still happens as much as it did then, women's issues are still trivialized and not dealt with, advertising is as offensive and disgusting as it was then, but different. You are a different kind of hated male property now.

There were many great people living then--from Eleanor Roosevelt to Studs Terkel, fighting, and I know from my own parents how great many of them, then, were; people were not just all "conservatives" then. I agree that I would never want to live then, etc., but I also (as a more introverted personality) kind of prefer the break from the hysterically-extroverted corporatism of today. The media was nowhere near as intrusve as today; people did not have the TV on all day, etc., but went outside and played. The big difference was that they tried to have a (fake) "melting pot" of "everybody" trying to fit society to a white male standard, as if you were all white males; it doesn't work. Now, there is more of an attempt to integrate society as all the different groups that we really are, and trying to accept all, as natural and real parts of the group. Only this can work. I do not, however, totally dismiss the 1950s--there were a lot of things I liked about them. I would never want them to come back, though.

[raccoon]

55. Tell me about it.

"I agree about the revulsion at the way women were treated then, etc., but I hate to break it to you--it is just as bad now, but different. Now, women are "vulgarized," treated as "sluts," are still considered male property,"

those things are true, also the double standard is still very much alive and well. WOmen who have uncommitted sex are still stigmatized by many.

[lukasahero]

71. "You are a different kind of hated male property now."

Perfectly said.

[raccoon]

76. Would you elaborate on that?

" You are a different kind of hated male property now."

[Hidden Stillness]

94. "A Different Kind..."

All I meant by that, was the common-sense change that women and girls have experienced: it used to be, (and in many parts of the world still is), that each woman was treated--socially, legally--as the owned personal, private property of each male, an unpaid "soulless" conveyor of heterosexual-male-"sex"-on-demand, unpaid cooking, unpaid housekeeping, and raising the male-named children as the male wants, etc. Almost none held jobs, not referred to in official documents, (everything is "he"), etc. If she is beaten, etc., there is no legal protection, there are a lot of "jokes" by the all-male legal system, etc.--a living Hell.

Now you get to the modern world that, yet again, males are telling us is "so different," but it is really not. Yet again, women determine nothing, no issues or concerns are addressed, nothing happens the way women would have it. (Just think about what, recently, gets "bailed out," and what social-service programs are not even funded. Do you really think any woman would do any of this, this way?) It used to be in the entertainment media, that women were "sexless," either "pure" or "the bad kind"; now, they are all treated with the hostility of strangers, and exploited for a kind of impersonal pornographic value to male advertisers. I have never witnessed so many crime pseudo-documentaries about dead, raped, naked "bitch corpses" in my life, and they increase every new TV season. No woman gets famous as a singer anymore unless she acts like a "whore" for males; there are no famous adult women movie stars anymore. Toy dolls are fashioned like male-heterosexual "sluts," for children; advertising features women only as male lures--I have even seen commercials where the whole premise is that the camera, (or, "you"), sneak up behind a half-naked, unsuspecting woman. Women used to be treated as "fragile," and denied things on that basis; now, on TV, male "news" commentators slam women with shocking, infuriating, not-even-concealed hate, and call women "bitches" on the air--a word you never used to hear, as it was considered so vulgar and hateful.

Women walking down the street now routinely hear "Show us your tits," from complete strangers, and even more hostility if they try to reject it. The lyrics of corporate-popular songs are almost exclusively insulting or violent toward women. You actually cannot get away from male-ordered women's nudity in movies anymore; it is what they have reduced us to. TV "news" routinely has story after story on some video obtained, about half-naked women being harrassed at some place or other--AND THEY PLAY THE VIDEO OF THE HALF-NAKED ATTACKED WOMEN; play it both ways--pretend to be "reporting" on it, then show the "bitches" for their fun. Yet, still, males pretend there was some great vast gulf between the "bad" old '50s, and the later "free" '60s, etc.--there is no such change for women. Women are not deciding any of these things, and all the vulgar abuse of women (replacing earlier abuse of women) is no change at all. Women are still judged by whether or not males find them "annoying" (as when they speak for themselves) or want to "fuck them." Other than that, you don't exist--and NOTHING the woman thinks, or knows, ever gets expressed. It went from being a private slave to a public raped "whore"--and the woman never lived her own life, free of threat, free to live, with her rights, the whole time.

[pipi_k]

88. That's the problem...

for me, anyway...the mixed feelings.

The times seemed so innocent...probably because I was a kid and didn't know a lot about the painful social issues going on...all I knew was hula hoops and Howdy Doody and Betty Boop, etc.

But I did know about the "threat" of Communism.

Anyone living in that era knows the "duck and cover" routine.

I was scared shitless all the time, waiting for the nuclear blast that would probably come while I was in school (protected, as if by magic, by ducking and covering in the school basement) while my entire family, not being protected that way, would be vaporized and I would be an orphan.

The weekly testing of the air raid sirens (Fridays at noon) made me physically ill. And it was a very long time before I stopped having nightmares and day terrors involving nuclear apocalypse. It seemed like a very real threat back then, and people building those ridiculous polyhedron (or whatever) shaped "shelters" in their backyards only made it all the more real for me.

Sometimes I wonder if other people my age ever suffered the same way I did over that stuff...

[Mari333]

51. I sometimes think the regimentation of the 50s

was a direct result of the insanity of the wars. WW1 and WW2, a hugely unstable time for many. I spoke with a man who was a kid during WW2 and he told me there was a sense of complete insanity that prevailed..a terror underlying much of america's psyche..sending your kid off to war, the fears and horrors of the whole world fighting each other, a feeling of impending doom.
when people returned they latched on to regimentation, perhaps to feel 'safe'. everyone and everything in its place.
an idealistic idea of what everyones roles were. a projection of 'safety'.

[Joanne98]

58. That's because they'll all over sixty!

[Lorien]

60. No, I know Repugs in their 30's and 40's who idealize the 1950's

they're all white, male and straight, of course.

[Cleita]

61. Even though the unions were strong and everyone with a union job could

afford a house, a car and a stay at home wife, it was also a very repressive era, particularly to minorities and women. I think that's what they miss the stay at home wife/homemaker, and the segregated neighborhoods and therefore segregated schools and churches.

[JVS]

62. Considering how shitty 1929-1945 were, when you had a depression and then a war that killed half,,,

a million Americans, the 1950's were a relatively good time.

[SoCalDem]

65. If you are a white male boss, it WAS.

:(

[NoPasaran]

67. I don't know how to break this to you

But times are always pretty good for white male bosses.

[Mari333]

69. and he is still at it today .....

http://www.tvparty.com/bgifs15/PLAYBOY!.jpg

altho , i must admit, hes somewhat of a parody now, in an antiquated parody sort of way.

[SoCalDem]

72. But back then they could harass women employees, at will

drink martinis at work, smoke all they wanted in their offices & push their wives around as much as they wanted:(

[Atman]

66. Nanny colleges, white men ruled, blacks had no rights...

"Code of Decency" for tv shows (Rob and Laura Petri, though happily and legally married, had to sleep in separate beds on tv), yet teen pregnancy was the highest ever. The fifties were golden. Like a golden shower. The strong and rich ruled, everyone else got pissed on.

That's why they loved it then, and why they're trying to re-create it now.

.

[uberllama42]

73. Back in the day when even Republicans new the New Deal was a good thing?

I'm reading Paul Krugman's Conscience of a Liberal, and he makes a good case that the New Deal had a lot to do with the prosperity of the 1950s. That and the confiscatory tax rates imposed on the rich under Eisenhower.

Socially, when I think about the 1950s I think of the advent of television and the conscious effort made by Madison Avenue to get women back inside the kitchen. That women were expected to know their place is true, but it's not the whole story. America faced massive unemployment when all the men came back from World War II and found that factories were running at full capacity but many of the jobs were held by women. Rather than discuss the social problem like adults, advertising firms decided that the answer was to build a fictional world where the only possible fulfillment a women could hope for was as a domestic, subservient wife. They suggested that a woman was in dereliction of her duty if she was not barefoot and pregnant.

[greenbird]

80. Don't forget

All the children who were subject to "discipline" that is now considered abuse. I grew up in the fifties/sixties and have a lot of good memories, but I also remember the repression, the drinking, the depression, the "discipline", and the neighbors who turned the other ear and wouldn't move to protect . . . the fundies need to get their history and their facts straight and look at the whole picture.

[raccoon]

95. And it was considered acceptable by the society.

"All the children who were subject to "discipline" that is now considered abuse. "

[WinkyDink]

82. Yeah, 'cause without the 50's, we wouldn't have needed a CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT. Good grief.

[Leftist Agitator]

84. "I wish that there was somewhere like the America of yesteryear..."

"The America of yesteryear that only exists in the minds of Republicans."

[stuntcat]

85. the world was still ENORMOUS then..

It was easy to imagine a comfy suburb being the only thing that mattered. That was the time when our industrialization resulted in tons of comfy plump 1st-worlders getting all they want!
But since then our population has tripled. I'm pretty sure I'll see the humans fighting for resources more every year for the rest of my life.. I'm glad I'm almost 40!

[Upfront]

86. As I recall

They were not much better. When I got out of high school in 1959 you could not find a good job, nor could you join the Army as it was full. No good jobs being the cause of that. Kennedy was elected in 1960 and the first thing he did was lower interest on home loans and the economy started to pick up. No one here needs to be told that who is running the country and their policy can bring change both good and bad. This is why I am hopeful for our country under Obama, I have seen it happen. Ike was a great General but a do little President.

[RebelOne]

89. I remember the '50s well.

I lived in Miami then. I remember the segregation where blacks and whites had separate bathrooms and water fountains. When blacks had to sit at the back of the bus. They were not allowed in restaurants or movie theaters, only in ones in their own areas. I married in 1956 at the age of 16. My husband and I went to New Jersey. I was shocked to see interracial couples. I was flabbergasted to see blacks in white restaurants and movie theaters. I wasn't used to that having grown up in the South.

[pipi_k]

90. This makes me think of something that happened during the 70s

I was born and grew up in Mass, and we didn't have the segregation thing going on up here. Not where I lived, anyway...

but during the early 70s my first husband and I moved for a while to a southern state. I was out driving around with a girl pal one day and we passed through a black neighborhood. I could NOT believe the sorry state of the houses there...and there was something very different about the demeanor of the people. Up here, black people had no problem looking whites in the eye. Down there in that small city we drove through, it was like a time travel trip into some other age. The blacks shuffled, and they refused to (or had been taught they should not) look directly at whites.

It was disturbing, to say the least...

[spanone]

91. the tight-assed fifties were the reason for the summer of love sixties

[OnionPatch]

92. The 50's were great for working Americans

(at least the white, male ones) because of unions and the advancement of worker's rights. People could make a good living at a middle class job in those days. One person could support a family and the other (of course it was the woman in those days) could stay home and actually take care of the children and household. It made for a very nice lifestyle. The cons would like to find any other reason why the 50's were good than worker's rights, but it is really the main one.

[RainDog]

97. Top tax rate was 90%

Eisenhower started the interstate hwy govt. spending program...

compared to today's conservatives, those in the 1950s would be called moderate democrats now.