Topic 1 - C2 - Cultural Conformity and Challenge Flashcards
What led to conformity?
- Believed threat of USSR invasion necessitated national unity
- Economic instability and national insecurity = people wanted economic success and stability (WW2 and GD)
- Advertisements promoted the same goods to everyone
- Big businesses wanted workers not individuals
What did critics think that the suburbs represented?
- Levittowns best illustrated blandness and conformity
- Prefabricated homes with prefrabricated food - rise of ready meal and all homes built the same (Little Boxes)
What did William Whyte’s Organisation Man (1962) sum up?
Criticisms of suburban life, thought workers bought the ethos of big organisations that promised security and prosperity. Thought it threatened individualism
How did salaries for MC workers increase between 1947-1957 and why?
By 61% - fuelled by explosive growth of large corporations that needed specialised workers to market and manage corporate products
Why was it thought that conformity was instilled into young children?
Many schools in PW period had courses on socially acceptable behaviour
How many US homes had TVs in 1960 and how popular were they?
- 90% had TVs
- Polls in 1960s revealed TV as the favourite leisure activity for more than 50% of Americans
What are examples of how TV promoted conformity?
- 1950s family sitcoms ‘Father Knows Best’ (1954-1960)
- ‘The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet’ (1952-1966) portrayed the domestic bliss of white, MC suburban families where mothers stayed at home
What are examples of how TV promoted consumerism?
‘I Remember Mama’ (1949-1956), young family members taught their immigrant parents that consumerism was good
Why was TV criticised?
- Caused decline in educational test scores and reading newspapers and magazines lost sales, Life magazine ceased publication
- Made viewers physically inactive and mentally passive
- Promoted consumerism and conformity
Why did TV promote conformity?
To appeal to the masses
Why was TV praised?
- Cheap entertainment for entire family
- Claimed TV created a national unified culture
- Some programmes challenged conformity e.g The Open Mind (1956-present),
- Helped CRM - MLK 1957 spoke of new negro, Little Rock 1957
What did popular TV portray?
Submissive women, heroic men and evil Indians
When was the first interracial marriage shown on TV?
1957 first interracial movie was shown in ‘Island in the Sun’
How did Hollywood’s treatment of sex change?
Baby Doll (1956) Ignored Motion Picture Code because public attitudes were liberalising and 1952 SC ruling had granted freedom of expression in films
What showed that Broadway was more conservative on sex than Hollywood?
Blue Denim (1959) 15 year old girl had an abortion in the play version but kept the baby in the movie
How did changes in attitudes towards race get shown in film and TV?
- ‘The Defiant Ones’ (1959) - black and white convicts worked together to survive
- ‘South Pacific’ (1958) is about two interracial romances - not well received in the South and nearly caused a race riot in Long Island in New York State
How did changes in attitudes towards role of women change in film and TV?
- ‘All That Heaven Allows’ (1955) showed UC widow reject MC materialism and chooses to marry twice
‘Crime of Passion’ (1957) successful journalist suffocated by suburban life, wants her husband to be somebody, has an affair with his superior but turned into the police
How did film and TV depict teenage culture?
- ‘Rebel Without a Cause’ (1955) shows James Dean struggling with the adult world
- ‘The Blackboard Jungle’ (1955) shows disruptive behaviour in the classroom. People wanted it banned. Classroom teacher did establish control
What evidence is there that the rise in TV advertisements caused increased spending?
$5.7 billion was spent in 1950, 1960 $11.9 billion due to the rise of TV - More money spent on advertising in 1950s than on education
What is an example of the effect of advertising on sales?
Marlboro cigarettes considered effeminate until ads associated the brand with the Wild West cowboy masculinity = sales rocketed
Who were the Beat Generation?
- MC young intellectuals who rejected materialism
- Characterised by spontaneity, drugs, free love, defiance of authority and convention
- First members of the BG were Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac
How did Ginsberg become famous from the BG?
1956 after publically reading the poem ‘Howl’ which was written under the influence of drugs: addressed issues like drugs, homosexuality and non conformity
How did Kerouac become famous from the BG?
‘On the Road’ (1957) observed empty life in US, Ginsberg thought it was nonpunishable but published with the removal of the description of drugs and homosexual practices - received critical acclaim
What influence did the beats have?
- 150 became writers
- Media sensation
- After 1960 media lost interest
- Bob Dylan and Tom Hayden took a beat stance later in time
What influence did the beats have on Dr Timothy Leary?
Harvard psychologist experimented on his students with drugs
What did genuine beats think of the beatniks?
1958 Beatniks emerged who saw it as fashionable to be anti establishment, genuine beats had little time for them
What music did teenagers like prior to 1950?
No teenage music prior to rock n roll in 1950s
Liked Frank Sinatra because their parents liked him
What music did teenagers listen to after 1950?
Rock n Roll was young music, combined black race music with country and western
Lyrics frequently focused on sexual activity
e.g Chuck Berry, Little Richard and Elvis Presley
How did Rock n Roll become popular?
1953 Alan Freed played black artists on his radio station, white teenage audience loved it
Why was rock n roll popular among young people?
Added to their sense of group identity, part time jobs in new fast food places allowed for money to be spent on records
How much was spent on records between 1954 and 1960?
$182 million spent on records in 1954 → $521million in 1960
What did the older generation think of Rock N Roll?
- Less enthusiastic - described it as a disease because it criticised MC behaviour and full of sexual longing
- Some white parents feared that black culture was infesting their children
