Journal Article Analysis: Assignment 1-3-2

Careless Girls and Repentant Wives: Gender in Postwar Classroom Films

The article I am analyzing is called Careless Girls and Repentant Wives: Gender in Postwar Classroom Films.by Megan Stemm-Wade.  The article starts out with a description of a 1950 education film called “What To Do On a Date” in which a teenager, Nick, struggles with where to take Kay on their second date.  Kay informs Nick she loves going to all the activities offered at the community center and that would be a great second date. The article is about the social hygiene films that were being produced and shown in the schools from 1946 to the 1970’s and how these films were trying to get the women and daughters to be an obedient wife and not want to have a life outside of the home. Because after World War II the women going back into the homes after working during the war were unhappy and didn’t enjoy being at home anymore The mothers were taking tranquilizers to help deal with their unhappiness and their feeling of being trapped.  

The article explores the different films and breaks them down into 3 categories dating, marriage and careers.  The author has a general feeling that all the movies treat women as a person who bares all the weight of keeping the urges of their boyfriends at bay and keep their relationship innocent and proper until marriage without the boy taking any responsibility.  Then in marriage she is supposed to be all about the family, agree with the husband, and be the one who bears the responsibility for the happiness in the marriage and the husband having the wife tend to his every need. When the career films were being shown they would tell the women to be agreeable, do not argue with the boss and to be a good happy employee. but only until she gets married and then she must remember her role as an obedient wife and treating her husbands happiness as hers and be content with it. The article also talked about the approach of the different film makers attitudes and aggressiveness in their portrayal of the women and their expected roles.

            The author has written this article to discuss the films of the time and how they did not really give a realistic view of what was happening in the real world.  The teenagers were not abstaining from sex as much as the educators wanted. A lot of women were unhappy about their domestic lives and wanted to work, earn their own money and fulfill their own dreams.  This was the start of the women’s lib movement.  This was written for the general audience, the author was debating the gender roles in the social hygiene films.  Because there was no real single type of person she was addressing, she never was referred to any particular type of audience.  Say as someone who was writing an article about a movie or a particular video game.

            As you read through the article it is well organized and fairly easy to follow.  Except for some of the words, I had never seen or heard of so I found myself consulting the dictionary several times to look up words I did not know the meaning of or how the word is supposed to be pronounced.  The use of more common words would have made it much easier to read and understand. She informs the reader how the history of the social hygiene films got their start.  She gives the reader both sides of what is happening in the real world and what the film was trying to express what a women’s role was. The women’s role in dating was that she should carry the weight of keeping the boys hormones in check on a date and the girls are responsible for the things that happen to them if they make bad choices. How they should be happy and well-adjusted in married life and not have any interest outside of the home. If any girl wanted to have a career she should only have it until she got married then her role is in the home tending to the needs of the family.     

            I do agree with the article that these movies were put together to change the thoughts of the women of the time period to be more obedient and remember their roles in the home. In order for a girl to get a man she needs to look a certain way, act a certain way, and think a certain way.  Although I feel that if more women could have been happier in the home and stayed home instead of entering the work force that maybe things would be different.

            This article is important because it shows how America had changed after the depression and World War II and how women started to see a way of life outside of the home. Also it shows how men were closed minded and did not think women had the right to work and think about herself and what she wanted.  Women of this time frame were trying to break free from the stereotype that women should stay home and have babies and not want or need to go outside the home to have a happy and fulfilled life. 

References

Stemm-Wade, M. (2012). Careless Girls and Repentant Wives: Gender in Postwar Classroom Films. Journal of Popular Culture Volume 45 Issue 3, p. 611-627.