Timeline of American Beauty Essay

In the 1950’s, women were working and being transformed into the American housewife, while their husbands went off to corporate careers. In Ingalls and Johnson, women were said to have careers however, could only succeed at “motherhood substitute jobs” such as teaching, nursing, administrative assistive, and social work (I&J, 51). This culture portrayed woman as only being capable of household jobs. When looking for the perfect suburban home, General Electric said women would head straight for the kitchen because this was where she would be spending most of her time. General Electric’s Wonder Kitchen made it even easier for women to save time, space, and work, allowing for wives to have more leisure time. The Chase & Sanborn advertisement reinforces the culture of women having to do everything to please their husbands. The picture on the ad depicts a man spanking his wife across his lap because she disappointed him with flat and stale coffee. Not only are women conforming to this domestically pleasing life style, but men also had

In our society today a business is not a business without an advertisement. These advertisements advertise what American’s want and desire in their lives. According to Jack Solomon in his essay, “Master’s of Desire: The Culture of American Advertising,” Jack Solomon claims: “Because ours is a highly diverse, pluralistic society, various advertisements may say different things depending on their intended audiences, but in every case they say something about America, about the status of our hopes, fears, desires, and beliefs”(Solomon). Advertisers continue to promote the American dream of what a women’s body should look like. They advertise their products in hopes for consumers to buy them, so they can look like the models pictures in the ads. Behind these ads, advertisers tend to picture flawless unrealistic woman with the help of Photoshop. In our society today to look like a model is an American dream and can be the reasons why we fantasizes and buy these products being advertised. “America’s consumer economy runs on desire, and advertising stokes the engines by transforming common objects;signs of all things that Americans covet most”(Solomon).

Jean Kilbourne’s film, Killing Us Softly 4, depicts the way the females are shown in advertisements. She discusses how advertisement sell concepts of normalcy and what it means to be a “male” and a “female.” One of her main arguments focuses on how women aspire to achieve the physical perfection that is portrayed in advertisements but this perfection is actually artificially created through Photoshop and other editing tools. Women in advertisements are often objectified as weak, skinny, and beautiful while men are often portrayed as bigger and stronger. Advertisements utilize the setting, the position of the people in the advertisements, and the products to appeal to the unconscious aspect

The roles and expectations for women in the 1950s differed in many ways from today’s society. “Society placed high importance and many expectations on behavior at home as well as in public” (Colorado.edu). In the 1950s women were considered “housewives”. Women’s sole purpose was to maintain the home, take care of the children, provide meals, and be obedient wives. “Good wives” listened to their

Advertisements in the 50s started to glamorize being a house wife sending out the message that a woman’s role was in the home smiling, arms loaded with cooked food or women cleaning the house and portraying that the women in the advertisements were happy and content with this role in the home (Google Books, 2017)). A smiling house wife who was cooking and cleaning was a “Normal American Women’(1950s.weebly.com, 2017)) women in the 1950s were perceived as nothing more than the homemaker. It was quite unheard for a woman to go to college and receive an education, they were expected to be a stay at home wife and nothing more, they were seen as dedicated housewives who’s only goal in life were that of pleasing their husband. Society in the 1950s believed that women should not work as this would involve leaving the house and not placing attention on her family((Google Books, 2017)). Men in the 1950s had complete control over their wives with the

These roles for females represent what the advertisement industry believe buyers deem as the real world. As Goffman asked," What messages about women have been given to society through magazine

Although the idea of the stereotypical ‘Housewife’ during the 50s isn’t referred to much anymore, modern day woman are still receiving that similar treatment, now being sexualised

During the same era of the 1950s, women became more accounted in the domestic role ads portrayed. It was a women’s duty as a caregiver of the home to purchase commodities for her

to be a housewife however society tried to refrain this from happening. The 1970s was still very sexist and that can be shown in media of that period. (Brown, ‘It’s a wifesaver’ Advertisement, 1974) Advertisements of this time period were still very female dominated. Fig.1 is a clear example that gender stereotypes of being a housewife or home maker still haven’t totally disappeared.

Every ad for a home appliance had a woman using her new washing machine or water heater to show that she really loved her new ‘present’ that her husband bought her. To the people of that time period, there was nothing wrong with it. It was how they went through their daily lives with the men working and the woman taking care of the house and her husband. Woman were always dressed neatly with perfect clothes, perfect hair, and perfect makeup. There was also another ad that was seen that depicted a man holding a pot with the words “SHOULD A MAN BE IN THE KITCHEN?” underneath him and his wife. Of course nowadays, this would cause a giant controversy, but like stated before, this is just how things were in the 1950s. Aside from being a housewife in the 1950s, the only other job advertised for a woman to work as is an office secretary or assistant, always shown with her brand new calculator that’s ready to

“Despite the glorification of the housewife’s role, women joined the labor force at significant rates in the 1950s. In particular, the number of married female workers rose substantially” (From domestic space to outer space, Lynn Spigel, pg.208), to embrace on this idea. Fantastic sitcoms introduced female characters to invert

Written by the former senior editor of Good Housekeeping Carolyn Kitch, this books offers an intimate look at various representations of womanhood in illustrated magazines and mass culture from 1895 to 1930. The subject of her study are magazine covers and advertising images. Kitch discusses the distinct feminine types depicted in each decade. These include various portrayals of the modern woman of the time – the Gibson Girl, the Fisher's Girl, The Christy's Girl, the Vamp, the Flapper. Taken together, and considered chronologically, they represent a system of icons. Kitch explains that these feminine ideals symbolize the zeitgeist of particular eras, and they are a way of making sense of societal change as well as serving to impose norms on

As time progressed so did the contents throughout media; for example, magazines, television, advertisements and movies. The "Perfect image" for a woman was being displayed through the media, creating women to make this impractical goal. In the '60s, the first supermodel, Twiggy, provoked the increase for plastic surgery and the desire for the "ideal modern body type". Throughout the 20th century, the demand for being skinny is becoming more important and desirable by both the media and men. By the early 21st century, the obsession of skinny women took over magazines, TV, and movies; causing movie stars to became these skinny, sexy, idols for the normal every-day

What do Betty from "Pleasantville," June from "Leave it to Beaver," and Donna Reed from "The Donna Reed Show" all have in common? They all represent the image of the perfect housewife in the 1950s. They represent women who gladly cooked, cleaned, dressed in pearls and wore high heals while waiting for their all-knowing husbands to come home. They represent women who can only find fulfillment in male domination and nurturing maternal love. Tillie Olsen, as a single mother with four children (204), provides readers with another view of women. Through the representation of the narrator in I Stand Here Ironing, Olsen contradicts the image of the 50s ideal woman, a happy housewife and a perfect mother.

“I have lost something...It’s never too late to get it back,” stated Lester Burnham, the main character of American Beauty. American Beauty is a 1999 film that provides a look into the lives of a modern married couple that is dealing with issues within their relationship. As the story progresses, it is easily identifiable that the roles of the husband and wife are not what the viewers would expect. On the other hand, the homosexual couple presented throughout the movie seems to be the normal pair. Furthermore, society’s definition of beauty and contentment is questioned. Throughout American Beauty, the homosexual couple has a healthier relationship than the heterosexual couple and beauty is falsely represented.