What Is I Love Lucy's Portrayal Of Women In The 1950s

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Chapter 1 - I Love Lucy: Trailblazer for Female Led Television

In 1950’s America, there was no more important communication tool more dominant than television. During this time in society, after the post-industrial period, there was a generational shift after the introduction of new technology such as television as it shifted a new way of living. After the war, pressure of stability and domesticity were reinforced, leaving women still subordinate to their male counterparts. Television at this time depicted and reflected this image of women. Thus, establishing expectations of women during the 1950’s to the audience through sitcoms. The biggest sitcom during this period was I Love Lucy, …show more content…

I Love Lucy is a conservative sitcom that does not tend to stray away from the gender norm, episodes in which Lucy tried to get onto her husbands show was seen in the best light and were met with critical scrutiny. As Lucy attempted to transcend her subordinate status, fails and is then swiftly brought back to the world of domesticity. Patricia Mellencamp stated in her analysis of unruly women of sitcoms that “ Lucy’s plots for ambition and fame narratively failed, with the result that she was held, often gratefully, to domesticity, performatively they succeeded”. Although the show appears to stick to the status quo, the repetition of her attempts to assert autonomy and escape the world of domesticity gave a voice to the frustration of the middle class housewife. The repetition of Lucy’s desire to escape from her role as a housewife, gives emphasis to the desire. Elaine May coined the term domestic containment which is evident in I Love Lucy, the concept ties American postwar foreign policy which aimed at limiting or containing geopolitical threats to the era’s cultural preoccupation with the home, conventional gender roles and family values. Elaine May explains the strategy of containment as a reaction to the various anxieties aroused by rapid social change. She states that “within the home, potentially dangerous social forces of the new age might be tamed, where they could contribute to the secure and fulfilling life to which postwar men and women aspired.” Mellencamp, drawing on May, argues that “Containment was practiced on the domestic front as well, and it was aimed at excluding women from the work force and keeping them in the

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