Disneyland Popular Culture

The idealization of Victorian values began in the eighteenth century with the wealthy upper-class. Victorians were classified as the elite that partook in aristocratic fun. They participated in military sports, organized theater, fine arts, and classical music. As the years progressed, the middle-class emerged, modernizing Victorian principles. Their careers comprised of successful business men, skilled craftsman, and politicians. The elite men were White, Anglo- Saxon, Protestants, that produced and regulated the industrialization of popular culture. The Victorian middle-class was considered the most powerful group from the 1830’s- 1916. Victorians cultivated the consumer revolution, by purchasing luxuries, including, books, mirrors, furnishings,

clothing, and tea. In addition, they loathed the folk culture of excessive drunkenness, gorging, and unbeneficial leisure’s. Popular culture modernized traditional values of men and woman’s roles in society.
The ideal characteristics of a Victorian man was self-denial of sex, thrift, delayed gratification, cultivation of manners and mind, and role as a breadwinner. In Thrift as a Duty, Andrew Carnegie described a Victorian man declaring, “the habit of thrift constitutes one of the greatest differences between the savage and the civilized man…Man must exercise thrift and save before he can produce anything material of great value.” Thomas Edison is the essence of a Victorian gentlemen. He was a self-made man whose innovative inventions aided the growth of capitalism. In contrast, the Victorian woman was defined as submissive, domesticated, pure, and responsible for the care of her children and husband. The Victorian class created advice manuals and guide books to conform the deprived, to their Victorian mentality of self- control and self-denial. The aimed to ensure people choose the correct behaviors and leisures. However, popular culture promoted similar and different versions of manhood and womanhood.
Edgar Rice Burroughs was born on September 1, 1875 in the growing American Victorianism era. He was a Civil War Veteran and considered a Victorian man. His Tarzan of the Apes novel depicts the life of an English gentlemen born in uncivilized Africa. Despite the mental development of an anthropoid, he self-taught himself to read and write, without any knowledge of the English language. As Tarzan grows older, he views himself as more of a Victorian man by adopting Victorian behaviors. “He killed for food most often, but being a man, he sometimes killed for pleasure, a thing which no other animal does” (Burroughs, pg. 100) A sport gentlemen participate in is hunting, a human characteristic Tarzan inherited. Burroughs maintains the Victorian ideology of a subservient woman submissive to men. Alice Clayton states, “Ah, John, I wish that I might be a man with a man’s philosophy, but I am a woman, seeing with my heart rather than my head… I will do my best to be a brave primeval woman, a fit mate for the primeval man” (Burroughs, pg. 25). Furthermore, Jane’s dad patronizes her by declaring “do not trouble your pretty head with such weighty and abstruse problems” (Burroughs, pg., 115). These examples depict the way women were treated as uneducated, obedient women. The characteristics the apes practiced were not those of Victorian gentlemen. Gunto, an ape in Tarzan’s tribe abuses his wife and expresses “Tana is lazy and will not bring him nuts and beetles, or scratch his back (Burroughs, pg. 97). Burroughs reforms the belief of woman catering to men. Dissimilarly, the human woman preformed the domesticated work of Victorian woman. “There were women grinding dries plantain in crude mortars, while others fashioned cakes from the powdered flour. Out in the fields other women were hoeing, weeding, or gathering…nowhere was there a man tilling the fields or performing any homely duties” (Burroughs, pg.100). Burroughs contradicts the roles of woman and men between the behaviors of the humans and apes.
The Jazz Singer, depicts the struggle between a father and son accepting the influence of popular culture. Jackie Rabinowitz has a passion for Jazz music, but his father desires him to follow the families’ Jewish heritage. Jackie leaves home to pursue his dream, and his father shuns him for the negative connotation Jazz music upholds. Jackie’s Blackface contradicts his Jewish heritage by undermining the African American community. Jazz music has been labeled as “sex” music. Harry Anslinger from the Head of Federal Bureau of Narcotics affirmed, “their Satanic music, jazz, and swing, result from marijuana use. This marijuana causes white women to seek sexual relations with Negroes, entertainers, and any others... Reefer makes darkies think they're as good as white men.” Numerous articles were published to ban Jazz music. It was believed Jazz music sexualized woman’s appearance with vulgar dance moves and bright lipsticks making them to be “girls on the street”. Jazz, provided women the ability to resist traditional gendered roles. Woman wanted to be seen as individuals outside the family setting. Jazz music liberated woman by allowing them to rebel against strict society. Louis Armstrong was a leading figure in the Jazz world. He became the first black pop culture figure to appeal to White people. His career helped break racial barriers between Blacks and Whites.
Popular culture presented American culture with a new, but also familiar understanding of manhood and womanhood, during the twentieth century.

Popular Culture “attempted to depict America as a wholesome, religious, democratic, family-oriented society. (Professor Abnet)” America inspired Walt Disney’s envision of Disneyland, Walt stated on Disneyland’s Opening Day, “Disneyland is dedicated to the ideals, the dreams, and hard facts that have created America…with the hope that it will be a source of joy and inspiration to all the world.” Disneyland’s Main Street U.S.A physically represents the embodiment of the 1950’s middle-class American dream, known as suburban America. Suburban development normalized “traditional” gender roles and longed for security in the consumer economy and family aspect. The new culture questioned sexuality, gender non-conformity, and the youth culture. The children’s board game Life and television show, The Honeymooners define men and women’s gendered roles in the glamorized American Dream. The Honeymooners portrays women as housewives that clean, cook, and care for the children. In contrast, the men are the breadwinners supporting the family. Women normally did not buy new popular culture products; it was the men. However, advertisements and television programs revolutionized the traditional belief, showcasing what American life should

be.
The new industrializing and urbanizing America, provided women and men the ability to participate in traditional and new Victorian values. American Victorianism set the foundation of men and women’s gender roles. Victorian middle- class ideology of men being breadwinners is still apparent today. However, more women obtain college degrees allowing them to enter the professional workplace, resulting in them being their own breadwinners. Women are still obligated to preform domesticated work and care for children. Television, movies, music, board games, and other entertainment platforms are responsible for individuals accepting their roles in society. People still continue to follow characteristics of the ideal Victorian man and woman. However, popular culture has modernized the traditional Victorian standard.