Did husbands really spank their wives in the 50's like Ricky did to Lucy in I Love Lucy?

[Herman Munster]

And I'm not talking about the kinky spanking people do for fun to spice up their sex lives.

I'm talking about when the wife misbehaves and does something they don't like. Spanking like a child basically.

I just remember watching the show and seeing it and it was disturbing if this was a common practice 50 years ago.

[Bluebear]

1. Feminine acquiescence to male authority was the 'norm' of the 50's

But I believe the spanking episodes were an unfortunate comedy vehicle. I highly doubt that that was a "norm", even in that decade.

[all.of.me]

18. I think it also had to do with Lucy being child-like.

Spanking children was common back then. I think we all got whacked on the ass a few times.

[cynatnite]

2. I don't know...

There some movies that showed a man turning a woman over his knee and spanking her. One that comes to mind is McLintock. John Wayne did it to Maureen O'Hara. It was disturbing to watch. I do hate that movie, but I don't like most of John Wayne's movies.

[Frustratedlady]

3. Nobody I ever heard of being spanked.

In fact, I don't remember many divorces in the `50s. My classmates of `56 are still married to their original spouses and quite happy. I'm sure there were probably exceptions, but I never heard of them.

[cynatnite]

5. Well, I know my grandmother would have grabbed her cast iron skillet...

if grandpa got like that.

[Nay]

11. Plenty of women got slapped or punched, though. The spanking

in the movies and on TV, to me, was the sugar-coated version of the knock-down punch -- just a little reminder of what COULD happen if you got out of line. I was a baby at the time and my mother was not beaten, but no woman growing up then ever was stupid enough to think she was going to be a free and autonomous adult unless something changed drastically. As it turned out, things DID change, albeit slowly. Mainly because of those rotten feminazis!!!

[nonconformist]

4. My grandfathers certainly never spanked my grandmothers. nt

[NorthernSpy]

6. that's just wicked creepy...

Glad I missed that whole decade.

:freak:

If someone tried that on me, I'd deck him with a chair. Most women would, probably. So it's a bit hard to imagine disciplinary wife-spanking being prevalent in modern America.

[Demit]

7. Yes, if they caught them not wearing high heels & pearls while doing housework.

[donheld]

8. Any man with a wife like Lucy

Has to do what needs done :rofl:

[Manifestor_of_Light]

9. never heard of spanking but spousal abuse was not talked about

I say spousal instead of "wife beating" because some women are violent too.

In the redneck refinery trash town I grew up in, the next door neighbor decided to hit his wife, and she was as big or bigger than he was, so she beat hell out of him. He never did that again. This was hearsay from Mom.

In Texas, wife beating was commonly referred to as "slappin' her around" when I was a kid in the sixties. I never saw any slapping, but I saw plenty of friends' parents staying in unhappy marriages "for the sake of the children". And they weren't even Catholic.

That's why us baby boomers had to make a sport out of divorce. Some of us are slow learners about healthy relationships, because we saw too many parents when we were growing up who seemed to think that marriage consisted of nagging each other to death and playing head games.

[Raine]

10. No my father certainly never spanked

my mother, if he had she would've hauled off and smacked him a good one in return. Actually I was born in the 50's but came of age in the 60's. I do remember that wife/spousal abuse was something though that was actually considered OK material for comedy routines. x(

[Bobbieo]

12. My husband and I were married in 1947 and 'no' he never spanked me

God help him if he would have tried and it certainly was not a trend. That was strictly an "I love Lucy" comedy thing.

[timtom]

13. I am answering this OP without

having read any other responses (I'll do that right after I post this)...

"Lucy" was broad, slapstick comedy. It does not, to the best of my recollection, reflect the 50's at all. At least, MY parents did not behave in any such fashion.

[Crabby Appleton]

14. yes, everyting you see on TV is true

[AnnInLa]

15. No, just in movies and on sit-coms

They also smoked alot, and couldn't be seen in the same bed and valued virginity.

The violence in The Three Stooges is appalling by today's standards, but then, it was just funny.

In the 50's tho, there was still the perception that the man was "head of the household" and "king in his own castle." So, disciplining the little-wife was accepted. It took the Feminist Movement to change those perceptions.

[tammywammy]

20. And they couldn't say a woman was pregnant

Lucy was always "expecting."

[12string]

16. Past practice

Have you ever asked a question and get this response?"The
rule of thumb is....".That saying,"The rule of
thumb" came from an earlier period of American history
when a woman stated in her wedding vows to,"love,honor
and OBEY."A reminder of those vows was the fact that it
was legal to beat your wife with a stick,providing that it was
no bigger around than your thumb.The rule of thumb.

[Gormy Cuss]

19. IIRC, the bulk of research contradicts that as folklore.

It's been a while since I read the discussions of this, but as I recall the "rule of thumb", used in the common sense that is still current, that of a rough measure, exists in literature dating back to at least the 17th century. The "rule of thumb" etymology suggested more recently ties it to a British judge's ruling in the late 18th century yet there is no primary evidence supporting the judge's use of this phrase in his decisions in support of men hitting their wives. There are references to it later feminist works too, suggesting that the false etymology had been used to justify wife beating.

That the British judge ruled men were permitted to hit their wives I think is not in dispute. It is also true that "rule of thumb" did enter in the popular mythology as referring to permissible width of a stick used to beat your wife and therefore some view it as an offense term without regard to
its longer history as a benign phrase.

[seabeyond]

17. or like john wayne did in his movies? uh hu. ya right. well my dad never did

with my mom. even though she was only 5'2" and he 6'2" she would have kicked his arse. i know there was the mentality of the wife as a child to be punished though. again, not in my house, why my parents raised a daughter that in no way has that think set.

[Jed Dilligan]

21. On "Big Love"

Chloe Sevigny character's mom tells Jeanne Trippelhorn character to spank her if she gets out of line. If there's any realism to that show, spanking of adult females continues in certain sexist sectors of society...