1950s vocab

Question 1

the feminine mystique

Answer 1

• book published in 1936 by Betty Friedan that launched the modern women’s movement
• wrote ’50s womens’ lives as the stifling boredom of suburban housewifery
• cult of domesticity wrote the working women as unfeminine

Question 2

rock ‘n’ roll

Answer 2

• Elvis Presley “the King” (born in Mississippi in 1935) combined black rhythm & blues and white country to create musical genre rock n’ roll
• appealed to black and white culture
• spread internationally (Japan, England) even influenced Lennon + McCarthy to form the Beatles
• repelled by traditionalists

Question 3

homogeneity

Answer 3

• white suburbanites marked by similarities in social norms and consensus on policy issues as a result of communist threat
• results of consumer-driven mas-economy, te4levision, advertising and middle class movement to suburbs contributed to growing homogeneity

Question 4

fast food

Answer 4

• McDonalds was the pioneer of the fast food industry - founded by Ray Kroc, a jazz musician + son of Czech immigrants _ bought 79 franchizes of McDonald’s by 1958, then purchased the chain from the McDonald’s brothers - largest chain of restaurants in the world
• fast food was inexpensive food that families could eat anywhere - home, car, restaurant
• revolutionized the way Americans ate

Question 5

social critics

Answer 5

• tradionalists repelled Elvis Presley / rock ‘n’ roll culture, along w/ new famous faces like Marilyn Monroe + the Playboy magazine

Question 6

The Catcher in the Rye

Answer 6

• widely controversial novel written in 1951 by J.D Salinger
• about a 16-year-old boy who goes to New York City where he reflects on the phoniness of adults + heads toward a nervous breakdown
• critics denounced the book’s use of vulgar language,