The origin or rather the first collection of The Babysitter and the Man Upstairs was in the early 1960s and this legend continues to be told today. The legend’s emergence and specific origins are unknown; however, attempting to understand why such a legend was told to begin with is not an impossible task. The Babysitter and the Man Upstairs reflects societal anxiety about young girls increasing rejection of feminine expectations and reinforces ideas about traditional gender roles, through the characters, their actions, and the consequences of such actions. During the sixties and seventies there was an influx of social change movements, from civil rights, gay rights, student’s rights and feminism. In the early sixties the US was experiencing …show more content…
However, the focus of the reinforcement of conventional gender roles is young women; this is an attempt to resist women’s fight for equality and opportunities to leave domesticity during the second wave of feminism in the sixties. In the legend the babysitter is a young woman whose task is to take care of children, the whole scenario is set to be a type of role play with the babysitter as the mother (Snopes, “The Babysitter and the Man Upstairs”). Support for this perspective of traditional gender role reinforcement are the expectations held about babysitters as care givers for the period of time in which children’s’ parents are not present. In support of the reinforcement of women staying in the private sphere to take care of children and do more homely and conventional tasks – namely not working in the public space alongside men – is in the way the legend acts as a cautionary tale. While the babysitter is expected to do tasks expected of women such as caring for children the fact that the babysitter is working and outside of the home is a reference to feminists’ resistance to traditional femininity. The conflict in the role of the babysitter, coupled with her failure to protect herself and the children in her charge, becomes a statement about how women should not move away from their roles in the home for they are vulnerable without men to protect them. Therefore, the telling of this legend accomplishes the task of reinforcing traditional gender
The documentary “Sixties: Years that Shaped a Generation” illustrates a period in United States history defined by cultural movement. Several citizen led campaigns were developed to challenge long established American institutions and traditions. This age of defiance, cultivated a counter culture which stood against social injustice, racial inequalities, and the war in Vietnam.
The 1960’s was a happening decade. It was a time when many people came together for a common good and stood against injustice. The 60’s is often recalled as the era of the peace sign, one ridden with hippies, marijuana and pacifism. While true of much of the era, some of the movements calling for immense social change began as non-violent harbingers of change and later became radicals. The reason for this turn to radicalism, as seen in the case of the Students for a Democratic Society, and as suggested by the change between this organizations earlier Port Huron statement and the later Weatherman Manifesto, is due to the gradual escalation of the Vietnam war.
When studying gender roles in history, one will find that females are often depicted in similar ways no matter the era or region of study. Even when comparing the industrialized, early, twentieth century to today’s progressive era, there are striking similarities between female roles. We can see that over the course of the twentieth century, the qualities of loyalty and honesty have decreased in marriages due to the treatment of the two main female roles as depicted literature. The first was the role of the wife. The wife was often portrayed as a housekeeper and a nanny. Dull in appearance, there was no aesthetic beauty to this typical female. The other main role was the “other woman.” The more mysterious and promiscuous character, this woman portrayed the other part of the female population. Both of these types of characters are composites that portrayed the average, disposable female while how they were treated conveyed the general handling of females in the early, twentieth century.
Chalmers, David. And the Crooked Places Made Straight: The Struggle for Social Change in the 1960s. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991.
As man developed more complex social systems, society placed more emphasis of childbearing. Over time, motherhood was raised to the status of “saintly”. This was certainly true in western cultures during the late 19th/early 20th century. Charlotte Perkins Gilman did not agree with the image of motherhood that society proposed to its members at the time. “Arguably ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ reveals women’s frustration in a culture that seemingly glorifies motherhood while it actually relegates women to nursery-prisons” (Bauer 65). Among the many other social commentaries contained within this story, is the symbolic use of the nursery as a prison for the main character.
When intensive mothers are busy with thier responsibilities in the public sphere, due to their belief that a mother is the central caregiver, their temporary replacement must exclusively be female (Hays 414). Even with a female nanny who “leaves the place in a mess, makes a petty point of not putting the dishwasher on […], never gives the correct change from the supermarket and “loses” all the receipts” (Pearson 84), Kate still makes every effort to keep the nanny in her family. From the perspective of intensive mothers, men are not capable of providing the same quality of care that a woman is able to provide (Hays 414). From a gender essentialist perspective, Kate argues that “Emily and Ben need me, and it’s me that they want. […] Daddy is the ocean; Mummy is the port, the safe haven they nestle in to gain the courage to venture farther and farther out each time” (Pearson 169). Therefore, intensive mothers find “alternate mothers,” that is, credentialed female child-care providers (Hays 412) such as Paula, Kate’s nanny, as well as Jo, Alice’s nanny who are able to promote the intellectual enrichment of their
The Sixties, by Terry H. Anderson, takes the reader on a journey through one of the most turbulent decades in American life. Beginning with the crew-cut conformity of 1950s Cold War culture and ending with the transition into the uneasy '70s, Anderson notes the rise of an idealistic generation of baby boomers, widespread social activism, and revolutionary counterculture. Anderson explores the rapidly shifting mood of the country with the optimism during the Kennedy years, the liberal advances of Johnson's "Great Society," and the growing conflict over Vietnam that nearly tore America apart. The book also navigates through different themes regarding the decade's different currents of social change; including the anti-war movement, the civil rights struggle, and the liberation movements. From the lunch counter sit-in of Greensboro, N.C. in 1960 and the rise of Martin Luther King, Jr. to the Black Power movement at the decade's end, Anderson illustrates the brutality involved in the reaction against civil rights, the radicalization of some of the movement's youth, and the eventual triumphs that would change America forever. He also discusses women's liberation and the feminist movement, as well as the students' rights, gay rights, and environmental movements.
In America in the 1960’s, the emerging counterculture and increasing civil rights movements paved the way for the forms of equality and freedom we have in our nation today. Many of the things that we consider ‘normal’ today were strange, if not taboo back in the sixties. People began defending themselves and standing up for their beliefs concerning just about anything they deemed not equal, or unjust. While many freedoms are not completely won today, our society is abundantly more progressive in its thinking and accepting of aspects of our culture.
Although the sixties were a decade in which the United States became a more open, more tolerant, and a freer country, in some ways it became less of these things. During the sixties, America intervened in other nations and efforts were made to stop the progress of the civil rights movement. Because of America’s foreign policy and Americans fight against the civil rights movement, it is clear that the sixties in America were not purely a decade of openness, tolerance, and freedom in the United States.
The author is also a political historian, and has written many articles for magazines across the country. He was a history major from the University of Chicago, and later on, Pearlstein went and received his PhD at the University of Michigan for American culture. The book is broken up into four books into one, describing the events that happened in America during the 1960’s and 70’s. Going into detail describing disparity with the war, discrimination and how peoples’ opinions were taken into consideration. First we are introduced to the 1965 riot, which happened nine months after Lyndon Johnsons’ triumph over Barry Goldwater.
One cannot undertake any study of the 1960s in America without hearing about the struggles for social change. From civil rights to freedom of speech, civil disobedience and nonviolent protest became a central part of the sixties culture, albeit representative of only a small portion of the population. As Mario Savio, a Free Speech Movement (FSM) leader, wrote in an essay in 1964: "The most exciting things going on in America today are movements to change America" ("Takin' it to the Streets," 115). His essay is critical of those that maintain the status quo and oppose change in America. It seems quite obvious that change has occurred as a result of the efforts of this highly vocal minority and few would argue that these changes were not good and just, yet historical perspective allows us to also consider the "flaws" and contradictions of this sixties subculture.
The 1960s was a period well remembered for all the civil rights movements that occurred during that time frame and the impact these movements had on the social and political dynamics of the United States. The three largest movements that were striving in the 1960s were the African American civil rights movement, the New Left movement and the feminist movement. These three movements were in a lot of ways influenced by each other and were very similar in terms of their goals and strategies. However, within each of these movements there were divisions in the way they tried to approach the issues they were fighting against. Looking at each of these movements individually will reveal the relationship they all share as well as the changes that were brought forth as a result of each groups actions.
The 1960’s and early 1970’s were a time that eternally changed the culture and humanity of America. It was a time widely known for peace and love when in reality; many minorities were struggling to gain a modicum of equality and freedom. It was a time, in which a younger generation rebelled against the conventional norms, questioning power and government, and insisting on more freedoms for minorities. In addition, an enormous movement began rising in opposition to the Vietnam War. It was a time of brutal altercations, with the civil rights movement and the youth culture demanding equality and the war in Vietnam put public loyalty to the test. Countless African-Americans, Native-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, women, and college students became frustrated, angry, and disillusioned by the turmoil around them.
But when the “Women’s Movement,” is referred to, one would most likely think about the strides taken during the 1960’s for equal treatment of women. The sixties started off with a bang for women, as the Food and Drug Administration approved birth control pills, President John F. Kennedy established the President's Commission on the Status of Women and appointed Eleanor Roosevelt as chairwoman, and Betty Friedan published her famous and groundbreaking book, “The Feminine Mystique” (Imbornoni). The Women’s Movement of the 1960’s was a ground-breaking part of American history because along with African-Americans another minority group stood up for equality, women were finished with being complacent, and it changed women’s lives today.
Gender roles seem to be as old as time and have undergone constant, but sometime subtle, revisions throughout generations. Gender roles can be defined as the expectations for the behaviors, duties and attitudes of male and female members of a society, by that society. The story, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” is a great example of this. There are clear divisions between genders. The story takes place in the late nineteenth century where a rigid distinction between the domestic role of women and the active working role of men exists (“Sparknotes”). The protagonist and female antagonists of the story exemplify the women of their time; trapped in a submissive, controlled, and isolated domestic sphere, where they are treated as fragile and unstable children while the men dominate the public working sphere.