I’m seeing a rise lately in people romanticizing the 1950s as a better time for women, that we entering the workforce not only made us unhappier, but it also ruined the economy since then.
But what’s also shocked me is seeing *women* defending this mentality as well. Feminism is all about *choice*, and some people want to go back to a time when, if you needed to join the workforce for your independence or even safety, you weren’t “allowed” to because society already predefined that your job was to be a mother and housewife.
Also, see how all the negatives are always attributed to women having freedom of choice. We’re bad economically because women work. We’re unhappy because women don’t marry young. Internet is ruined because women are in control of their sex work. Even women are unhappy because of women and feminism. And if men ever dare sympathize with us they say “this generation ruined real men”.
It’s quite exhausting… but on the bright side, no matter how much they whine and cry, it is the 21st century, and unless time machines get invented, we’re all stuck here.
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I mean, yeah, I get where they’re coming from… But really, have any of them tried living in the 50s?
Isn’t it the case that women weren’t allowed to open bank accounts by themselves until the mid-70s?
This sort of selective nostalgia is bonkers.
I think it’s telling for sure. Our vision of the 50s is informed by propaganda aimed at getting women who experienced newfound freedom and agency during the war years back into the kitchen.
Sound familiar?
So, I get that a fair number of people feel they don’t have the option to stay-at-home these days, but that’s not due to some magic of the 50s and societal pressures on women to stay-at-home, that has to do with things like wealth inequality and staggering inflation. If we could correct those issues, then people of all genders and walks of life might have the choice to be the stay-at-home person, without all of the baggage that comes with “going back” to the 1950s.
The need to wear stockings to be considered fully dressed tells me it was hell for women.
We’re free to live the 50s lifestyle any time we want, and few people do