Thursday, February 28, 2008

Media's Portrayal of Women and War: 1940's-1950's

The 1943 Royal Crown Cola advertisement published in Life emphasizes the large number of women entering the workforce during the war.  Actress Mary Martin represents women across America who are actively engaged in an effort to maximize economic and industrial production and to help win the war.  Seated at what appears to be a local joint, Mary, still dressed in her work attire, takes a brief respite from her patriotic work as an actress to spend some time talking with men while sipping on Royal Crown Cola.  The ad reads, "War work and screen acting don't allow lovely Mary Martin much time for relaxation.  But when she does take time out, it's Royal Crown Cola that gives her a fresh start."  Written below in capital letters, the reader is instructed to "BUY MORE U.S. WAR BONDS AND STAMPS TODAY."  Though actress Mary Martin most likely leads a life that is far less ordinary than this ad might suggest, Mary is, nevertheless, portrayed as a good American woman who tends to her duties as a citizen of a country at war.  The fact that the advertisement features a woman as the consumer of a general product is significant, as it emphasizes the replacement of men at war by women.  Royal Crown Cola is not a distinctly feminine consumer item like perfume or lingerie, and so it is noteworthy that a man does not take center stage in an ad for an unisex product.


Fast-forwarding twelve years to the mid-fifties, this ad, sponsored by the United States Brewers foundation, presents the reader with a very different depiction of what life is like for women in America.  This image highlights a number of important changes that have taken place during the post-war period and into the McCarthy era, including the complete re-structuring of time and a shift in gender roles.  The image illuminates the new ideas about foreign relations and national security, domesticity, work and leisure, and, more generally, what it means to be an American.  The advertisement is entitled "Home Life in America," which suggests an image of both America as a nation and Americans as people that are unified, singular, and homogeneous.  The women pictured in this ad lead distinctly different lives than Mary Martin; however, both the women in the beer ad and Mary Martin are offered as good models for how the average American woman should serve her country.  Mary Martin and her piers were principally concerned with helping their nation win World War II by participating in the production of goods.  In contrast, women of the fifties are instructed to strengthen their country and fight communism by raising and supporting a "good American family with good American values."  Marchand (1982) writes, "with the home symbolizing the security and stability recently thwarted by war and depression, the paramount role [for women] [i]s homemaker."  Through ads like this, "the popular media romanticize[s] domesticity and elevate[s] it to the status of a national purpose" (Marchand, 172).  Indeed, at the bottom of the full-page ad, one reads "in this friendly, freedom-loving land of ours...Beer Belongs - Enjoy."  "Beer belongs" in America, the land of democracy, prosperity, and "good Christian values."  Communism, on the other hand, does not.  In order to ensure that this is a reality, women must fulfill their duties as devoted wives, gracious hostesses, good mothers, and, most of all, patriotic Americans.  Unlike women of World War II, modern women of the fifties are warned against spending their time outside the home.  As Ladies' Home Journal puts it, "You Can't Have a Career and Be a Good Wife."  The United Brewers ad communicates to the reader a number of shifts that have taken place.  Leisure, rather than work, is central to this advertisement, reflecting a broader change in the way Americans spend their time.  In an era of opulence, American families enjoy their new homes with spacious lawns.  With the man grilling and the woman serving cold beers to her guests, this ad exemplifies women and men stepping into new roles and allocating their time in a very different manner than before.  This is how "home life in America" is and ought to be if America is to remain strong in light of communist threats at home and abroad.

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