Response to Reading I
Spring 2014
SOCSC-120
Response Paper #1
Documents: Letters to Carolyn Van Wyck & Letters to Deidre In a column of Photoplay magazine, one of the first film fan magazines created in 1911 in Chicago by Mcfadden Publications, Carolyn Van Wyck encouraged women to have fun flirting while remaining classy. In the 1930s, San Francisco’s New World Sun newspaper also ran a column answered by Historian Valerie Matsumoto which inspired women to balance both their Japanese and American values. Both of these columns were compelled by women urging to gain more freedom in a modernizing society still driven by sexism. These columns offer readers of both that and current generations an understanding of underscoring issues underlying the rising independent woman in the early 1900s. Unfortunately, one may argue that several biases are prevalent in these letters and responses. One is that they may be historically slanted or inaccurate. Neither of these respondents provides their readers with any factual statistics; they list their opinions, which may be slightly altered to appease their questioners. Being that Matsumoto is a second-generation Japanese American and that Van Wyck could be in a similar situation of immigration, perhaps their cultural upbringings could cause confusion and hinder readers of varying upbringings. There is also the issue of classism. How do readers know if the listed issues (becoming a working lady, becoming a gold-digger, paying your own way, having premarital sex, being independent of your parents, marrying outside your race,) impact women of all financial aspects or if some of these concerns don’t even grace that particular class? Though life for women in America in the 2010s greatly differs from that of the early 1900s, sexist ideals continue to plague this nation. This realization raises numerous questions for me: if you’re a female of mixed ethnicities, how do the cultural differences affect one’s views on women and what is societally
SOCSC-120
Response Paper #1
Documents: Letters to Carolyn Van Wyck & Letters to Deidre In a column of Photoplay magazine, one of the first film fan magazines created in 1911 in Chicago by Mcfadden Publications, Carolyn Van Wyck encouraged women to have fun flirting while remaining classy. In the 1930s, San Francisco’s New World Sun newspaper also ran a column answered by Historian Valerie Matsumoto which inspired women to balance both their Japanese and American values. Both of these columns were compelled by women urging to gain more freedom in a modernizing society still driven by sexism. These columns offer readers of both that and current generations an understanding of underscoring issues underlying the rising independent woman in the early 1900s. Unfortunately, one may argue that several biases are prevalent in these letters and responses. One is that they may be historically slanted or inaccurate. Neither of these respondents provides their readers with any factual statistics; they list their opinions, which may be slightly altered to appease their questioners. Being that Matsumoto is a second-generation Japanese American and that Van Wyck could be in a similar situation of immigration, perhaps their cultural upbringings could cause confusion and hinder readers of varying upbringings. There is also the issue of classism. How do readers know if the listed issues (becoming a working lady, becoming a gold-digger, paying your own way, having premarital sex, being independent of your parents, marrying outside your race,) impact women of all financial aspects or if some of these concerns don’t even grace that particular class? Though life for women in America in the 2010s greatly differs from that of the early 1900s, sexist ideals continue to plague this nation. This realization raises numerous questions for me: if you’re a female of mixed ethnicities, how do the cultural differences affect one’s views on women and what is societally