Gender Roles In The 1950's

Society has always tried to standardize people. Events in the 1950s demonstrated this in their idea of gender roles. Women were obligated to stay home. The percentage of women going to college dropped considerably in the 50s. The gender roles were emphasized through television. For example, “The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet”. Magazines, books, and music also reiterated the submissive wife. At the same time, men were expected to be bold, to hold jobs in factories or management. Men there were few involved fathers because society told them not to be. When their pregnant wife went to the hospital, men were not allowed even into the ward. Parenting with fear was demanded from fathers, thus crippling relationships. Between husband and wife,
Unfortunately, people were discriminated by the color of their skin. Groups filled with hatred and fear such as the Klu Klux Klan took the lives of many people. There were many other martyrs during this time. Rev. George Lee, Lamar Smith. Emmett Louis Till. John Earl Reese. Willie Edwards Jr. Mack Charles Parker. Herbert Lee. Cpl. Roman Ducksworth Jr. Paul Guihard, and William Lewis Moore are only a few of the many victims who paid with their lives. Before the Civil Rights Movement, WWII was in full swing. Adolf Hitler believed in the Cookie Cutter Concept. He believed blond hair, blue eyes, heterosexual, among other things made someone Aryan. He believed those traits made them perfect. He murdered people who didn’t fit into his Aryan race. Adolf Hitler killed a minimum of 11 Million people. 11,000,000 people lost their lives for no reason in brutal, cruel deaths. The atrocities committed were humanities biggest demonstration of the Cookie Cutter
An experiment was held through the internet and an experiment was conducted in an American Preparatory Academy classroom. We first took the idea of “Normal” to the internet. We searched the words “normal teenager” and click images. Many similar images showed up. Pictures of tan, acneless, outgoing, perfect teeth “teenagers” appeared. Normal teenagers play sports, listen to pop music, are extroverted, have average grade, and are physically fit. But not all of the “Normal things” are as harmless. The public view (internet) said normal teenagers don’t have mental health problems, their issues are just “being a teenager.” They should think their parents are terrible, thus clouding the teens judgment when actual abuse occurs. By telling teenagers their issues are “not normal”, teenagers are being pressured to hide problems. This suppression can lead to violence or even suicide. Taking the most popular stereotypes to the classrooms, we took percentages and applied it to the people in the class. According to Mental Health America, one in five teens suffers from a severe mental illness. Six students sat down in the class. One in eight children will be abused, and four out of five of those victims will be abused by their parents. Four students sat down. Then 30% of teens play sports. Only 11 students are “Normal”. Only half the class will be extroverted, now there are only five students standing. One student, will be