Week 6 Reading Response: Sexuality in The Fifties

“As The Women’s Room Makes clear, sex was seen as perhaps the most important thing in life in Fifties America (Dyer 22).”

As little surprise, this week’s topic is “femininity and the Fifties” and the focus of our two readings were image and sexuality. What was most fascinating to me in these articles was not so much the images that the “publicity, advertising, and exploitation (Harris 41)” were producing, but the effects those productions had on viewers. Harris begins his article noting the correlation between how Americans spent their leisure time and the influence media had on their choice of public heroines. Marilyn Monroe was the choice of 1953 and for reasons Dyer makes very clear in Heavenly Bodies with his discussion of sexuality and her prominence with it (for example, being the centerfold for Playboy). With the “scandal” involved with addressing sexuality in Fifties era period films like Kinsey and Far From Heaven, it was somewhat shocking to read that it was the most important thing in life at that time. More important that it seems to be today? The different views on sex were complex and fascinating; for example Dyer brings up the Fifties thought that “…sexuality is designated as the aspect of human existence where we may learn the truth about ourselves (23)” but it is also noted from The Women’s Room that “sex was for most of the men and all of the women a disappointment they never mentioned (22).”

Surely women and men view sexuality differently and therefore in many ways femininity itself. In Dyer’s article, the reactions of men and women to Marilyn Monroe varied considerably. The women shared what was largely my opinion of Monroe in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes – “rather silly and at worst on the verge of disgusting (22).” The men wanted to sleep with her. I asked some males last week about what they thought about Monroe and they simply replied, “eh, well she’s a classic…like Elvis.” They did not sound interested in sleeping with her…but of course, she is deceased and so I’m sure that comes into play. Harris brought up further allure to Monre because of her seeming accessibility due to her troubled past…death is the ultimate inaccessibility.

-->Sidenote, I posted the picture above because it is one instance that I think that Marilyn actually looks "larger." Everyone kept referring to her as "large," but in comparison to her companion in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, she looked small! So then how big was THAT girl?