While reading chapter 3, "Sex
and the Single Girl," it made me wonder if the Sexual Revolution and the
messages that went with it were contradicting.
The chapter begins with the reversal of the notion that “sex is sin” and
the rejection of staying abstinent until marriage. Helen Gurley Brown’s message was that girls could
be successful, have jobs, and have a sex life without having a husband in their
lives. I agree with this, but later in
the chapter, where pregnancy melodramas are discussed, I find a different
message being sent. The premise of
pregnancy melodramas was that girls get pregnant without being married but
everything ends up happy and okay. I
can’t see this being the reality for girls at the time, and it isn’t really the
reality for girls today either. While
there are many exceptions to this, but often times, girls who get pregnant
before marriage end up without support from their parents or the father of the
baby. If this is the case, why did
pregnancy melodramas glorify this kind of pregnancy? Especially, since the book states that when
we watch movies we try to identify with the characters. Girls were sent the message to be single and
pursue careers while also being sent the message that if you get pregnant, your
mom will cover for you and the guy you’re with will be there for you, even if
you lied to him about it. I find it
contradictory that women were sent these competing messages, while also dealing
with the overarching message that having sex in general was bad and sinful.
I equate these movies to what we see on Lifetime and
Hallmark during Christmas. Even if the
movie is cheesy and the characters are annoying, we like to see a happy
ending. However, I don’t see these
dreams coming true in real life for the girls of this time; pregnancy out of
wedlock was not a desirable outcome for many girls and most likely didn’t give
them a happy ending.
Your post reminded me of the movie Pregnancy Pact. A group of high school girls make a pact to all get pregnant and stick together and it later reveals the reality of being a teen parent and the views of the community and such. But what I really was thinking about was how you were talking about women receiving contradicting messages. I think even today we receive competing messages from the media about things like beauty. There is the obvious message that the girl who weighs 100 lbs is beautiful and then there are messages about be yourself. The hardest for me to understand is Aerie's campaign that their pictures are not touched up and that the models really look the way they are portrayed in their pictures. But all of the models are also thin.. So it is ok to be yourself as long as yourself is still beautiful?
ReplyDeleteI agree with your sentiment that they were sending young women a lot of mixed messages, but I don't think that has changed much. I think we're confronted with the same type of mixed messages today. As I was reading this chapter, all I could think about was Sex and the City. While simultaneously glamorizing the slightly promiscuous, single career woman, it also equated personal happiness to having a man (and in some cases babies) and had its own pregnancy melodrama with the character of Miranda. Like other movies and shows, I don't think Sex and the City sends a very realistic message.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Katie's comment. Teenage girl are definitely sent mixed messages today as well, but Susan Douglas also acknowledges that these were happening them. She over and over again seems to stress that yes, these films were still in the male gaze and pushed for certain morals. However, they also opened up a conversation as did films and televisions for young women to learn and consider having premarital sex.
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