^^^david, me, && daniel at christmas '07! [those sweatshirts were a my gifts to them haha...classy]
well...two finals down. one to go...but that will take a week to come. anyway. i got my end-of-the-term paper back and i got a 24/25...which was much better than i had anticipated. upon rereading this paper, i see alot that could be improved and elaborated on...
i know i got one wrong on the final...i knew that the equal rights amendment was from 1923 but i didn't go with my first instinct...i'm angry now. ugh. but oh well. here's the paper if you're at all interested in female sexuality in the 1950's and how it can be carried over to today...
GWS 260: Research Paper
April 24, 2008
Female Sexuality in the 1950's
Female sexuality in the 1950's centered around the suppression of the woman as a sexual being. In addition, her [female] role in society was merely to be the object of male sexual desire, pleasure, and satisfaction. Her voice was largely ignored by the media and the society as whole. Marilyn Monroe embodied the image of desire in 1950's. She was vulnerable, seemingly available, innocent, naturally sexy, and Caucasian. She seemed as though she would be uncomplicated and through this along with the attitudes of Playboy magazine, provided a basis for the norms and ideals that represented sexuality in the 1950's. These ideals remain evident within our society today. Female sexuality is still repressed today similar to the manner it was in the 1950's; the voice of the female is drowned out with socially constructed definitions of beauty, sexuality, and pleasure evident within our media system. We ignore the problems that arise when one may not fit the socially constructed boundaries for beauty or what is considered sexually “normal” or “acceptable” within our culture.
The ideas and norms of sexuality in the 1950's were important--perhaps the most important thing in life in the 50's according to Richard Dyer (Dyer 22). However, the idea of sexuality was repressed—most noticeably in the lives of females. Female sexuality was based substantially upon the fulfillment of male sexuality and pleasure. The female was merely used as an object to look at or to fantasize about. According to Dyer, the female traits found to be desirable in the 1950's were: being no trouble, vulnerability, appearance of availability, and a women that provides good sex, without worry to her own sexual satisfaction (Dyer 42). These characteristics, he argues, are extremely representative of Marilyn Monroe. Both her public persona and her film roles embodied the popular ideas about sexuality at the time.
Marilyn Monroe was placed in films in which she was seen as the object of desire for men. She was portrayed most often through the male point-of-view (Dyer 20). Monroe was put in films as the secretary as in As Young as You Feel, or simply as “the woman upstairs” (The Seven Year Itch) without identifying her as a person, only as her gender (Dyer 19). Her role in the film was reduced to the socially constructed idea that women were solely around for their ability to be sexual objects produced strictly for male pleasure and satisfaction.
According to Dyer, “Monroe conforms to and is part of the construction of what constitutes desirability in women.” She displays several characteristics that were idealistic of the 1950's view of attractive. Intersectionally, Monroe is the embodiment of the idea of beauty because of her social positioning, she was a middle-class woman. She was a white woman which was supposedly the most desired to men of the time. In addition, she works to keep white at a distance from black (Dyer 40). She separates the dark skinned from attractiveness and enhances the portrayal of white as idealistic in society. This is problematic in that the particular ideals of beauty or sexuality in the 1950's singled out and devalued races that were other than Caucasian. Therefore, Monroe as the ideal of beauty during this time spread across her roles as the white, wealthier, female portrayal. In addition, Anne Koedt, argues in The Myth of the Vaginal Orgasm, “one of the elements of male chauvinism is the refusal or inability to see women as total, separate human beings.” The use of Monroe as the pin-up and the symbol of sexual objectification is proof that the female was valued greatly for her ability to invoke desire or pleasure in a male. Her own sexuality was dismissed or suppressed tremendously during the time.
Marilyn's pose for Playboy further contributed to her socially confined role of the object of male desire. At the same time there was the intention of normalizing sexuality. Monroe enacted particular definitions of sex that Playboy was advocating during the period (Dyer 23). The poses she sat for in the magazine were considered quite scandalous at the time. However, Monroe's reaction to the public challenged the terms of societal control over female sexuality. Her view on sexuality was that it was natural and therefore innocent and should be acceptable by society as human nature. Her attitude resembled the outlook Playboy was seeking to promote. Playboy wished to integrate its sexual freedom into the suburban and white collar life, thus “presenting the pin-up as something other than a 'porno postcard', but as the girl-next-door (Dyer 37).” Thus, Marilyn Monroe came into play as the white, middle-class, and overwhelmingly female solution to their ambitious objective. The female role in society was meant to be the object of desire for male sexual pleasure and experiences, with complete disregard for her own satisfaction. I think a lot of the notions about female sexuality in the 50's are just as evident in our society today.
Presently, the female is invariably thinking of herself through the eyes of a male. She looks to define herself based upon this notion. This conclusion is based upon numerous media representations of females and the manner in which they are positioned within magazine, television, and film images. It appears from the images we are exposed to, that she [the female] keeps in mind and considers what hairstyle, hair color, clothing style, or body shape will be desirable to the male gazing upon her. It seems that sexual images have become more prevalent in the media, particularly film and magazines. Magazines like Cosmopolitan have headlines like, “His #1 Sex Fantasy (September 2007 issue).” The female is still supposed to think of the male sexual satisfaction as more important than her own. It appeals to the female desire to please the male without regard to her own sexual satisfaction or inclination just as in the 50's ideology of sexuality.
Sexuality is on display so often today, but the images we are given within the media are not adequately discussed within our society. As girls, we are given images of white, thin, lavishly dressed women that teach us how we are to define beauty and sexuality. We are told that in order to define ourselves in sexual terms these characteristics are what we must strive to achieve. We are given these images, but more importantly, we are not able to discuss what this implies. The standards of beauty are not given to us in a manner that allows for redefinition of the structure as defined. We are living in a sexually confining and male oriented society, just as the women of the 1950's were. We are told that presenting ourselves in such a way that attracts men is the only way and that we must conform to these expectations or else be shunned, ridiculed, or devalued. These perceptions of beauty relate directly to our feelings of sexuality.
Although sex was extremely important in the 1950's, it was rarely thought of in terms of female sexuality and was often defined exclusively through those of the male. This is not to say that females did not have desires or wishes to express themselves as sexual beings too. As Betty Friedman said in her 1963 article, The Feminine Mystique, “time and again in interviewing women, she would find that they would ''give me an explicitly sexual answer to a question that was not sexual at all (Dyer 23).” Similarly, in society today, we are given a certain set of unmentionable standards (that are clearly evident) about our sexuality. We are taught to ignore our sexuality when we are young adults and never to embrace it. Sexuality, especially female sexuality, is still defined in terms of the male. As girls, we are taught that marriage is the time to explore sexually with our partner, and that it is not a representation of our expression, but something that is primarily for procreation—once we have met the man that we are going to spend our lives with and sanctify that in legal ceremony (which can, in turn, be problematic in other aspects of our sexual identity).
There are still social constructions around female sexuality, they seem to be defined more as the double standard of a “promiscuous girl” as opposed to a “sexually experienced male.” In these terms, I think it is accurate to say that female sexuality is characterized by male sexuality. The female is supposed to be submissive to male sexual desires, however, this act should be discreet, unless she is willing to accept the reputation that may come with it. Sex in the 21st century has become much more direct as far as images go, however, some of the same standards for women apply in our society as they did in the 1950's. The character traits as mentioned in the beginning paragraphs, those like vulnerability can still be considered important in our society. If we look at the images in the magazines and on film, the females featured are thin (thus supposedly more vulnerable to the strength of a man), predominately white (gender discrimination), they are looking seductive (in order to be desired by the male), and they seem to be anticipating that the male will be gazing upon them.
Sexuality, as the mainstream focused upon it in the 1950's and still evident today, was and is largely based on male sexuality. The media ignored women as human beings, but regarded them solely as sexual objects meanwhile ignoring their sexual satisfaction. This is evident in the pin-ups that were available of Marilyn Monroe in Playboy and in other calendars of the 1950's. Playboy worked to present sexuality as more of a normalized aspect of society and used Monroe as the poster girl for this transition. Female sexuality continues to be suppressed in our society today, encouraging the female to succumb to the dominance of male sexuality. Similar to today, the norms of beauty and sexuality in the 1950's were derived through ideas that were racially as well as gender discriminatory.
^^^^^representative of her innocent yet highly sexual vibe
^^^^this photo has obviously been censored but was the 'golden dream' layout done for playboy^^^^
Works Cited
Dyers, Richard. “Heavenly Bodies: Film Stars and Society.” Routledge Taylor & Francis Group: London and New York. 2004.
Friedman, Betty. “The Feminine Mystique.” Reprint Edition by W.W. Norton & Company: New York City. 2001.
Koedt, Anne, et al. “The Myth of the Vaginal Orgasm.” Radical Feminism. NY: Quadrangle Books, 1973. 198-207.
2 comments:
Great post!
thank you! :)
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