Perils of Prosperity: "Revolution in Morals" chapter - week 4::
Now that I've read the whole chapter I notice that the first sentence really sums up everything that's discussed in this chapter:"The disintegration of traditional American values--so sparply recorded by novelists and artists--was reflected in a change in manners and morals that shook American society to its depths." (158)
There was "the new woman" who "...wanted the same freedom of movement that men had and the same economic and political rights. By the end of the 1920's she had come a long way." (159)
There was the women's suffrage, women could vote! This was discussed on page 160. "The literature of the time reflects the growing male sense of alarm..." (161)
"By the turn of the century, women were demanding more of marriage than they ever had before and were increasingly unwilling to continue alliances in which they were miserable." (161)
Divorce rates went up since now marriage depended more on the two people in the relationship and not just what they were DOING. page 162
"As the family lost its other social functions, the chief test of a good family became how well it developed the personalities of the children, and parents, and distrustful both of their own instincts and of tribal lore, eagerly sought out expert advice to avoid the opprobrium of having raised unhappy children." (162)
behavorists were popular now!
"To inculcate the proper attitudes at an early age, Watson warned parents, 'Never hug and kiss them, never let them sit in your lap.' " (163)
BUT! Then there was Sigmund Freud!
"In the years after the war, psychology became a national mania. Books appeared... People talked knowingly of 'libido,' 'defense and mechanism,' and 'fixation,' confused the subconscious with the unconscious, repression with suppression, and felt with the tortuously difficult theories of Freud and of psychoanalysis as though they were simple ideas readily grasped after a few moments' explanation." (164)
People had so many misinterpretations of Freud's ideas. They wanted it to be EASY to understand.
POPULARITY!
Then America wanted SEX SEX SEX!
"The vast popularity of Freud in America... alarmed many psychoanalysts. They realized that the popularity had been achieved less through an understanding of Freud than through a belief that he shared the American conviction that every man had the right not merely to pursue happiness but to possess it." (166)
My comment next to this quote was: WOW! the public want it for their own happiness. My history prof told us this when he gave us this week's assignment, "Although you may not recognize modern America in everything you read, I think many things will surprise you with their familiarity." YES. I absolutely see many similarities. Morphing into my cynical self, I think that many Americans want and need happiness. They want to buy it and get all of it for themselves. But yes.. back to my "normal" self, I don't think that's with all people in America and not in the 20's either, but this author thought it was a big part of this time in America.
SEX SEX SEX!! ADVERTISING!
"In the attempt to work out a new standard of relations between men and women, Americans in the 1920's became obsessed with the subject of sex... The newspaperman Frank Kent returned from the tour of the country in 1925 with the conviction that 'between the magazines and the movies a lot of these little towns seem literally saturated with sex.' "(168)
Not only do Americans want happiness, they want sex too!
Page 168, tabloids started!!
"Not even the tabloids exploited sex with the zeal of Hollywood; it was the movies which created the American love goddess.... Movie producers found that films like The Sheik drew large audiences, while Sentimental Tommy or epics like America played to empty houses. When it was apparent that sex was infinitely more profitable than the prewar sentimental-patriotic Faustian, the country got a steady diet of movies like...[movies about sex]." (168)
"Taboos about sex discussion were lifted; women talked freely about inhibitions and 'sex starvation.' Speech became bolder, and men and women told one another off-color stories that a short while before would have been reserved for the Pullman smoker." (169)
"The woman who once was shocked by everything now prided herself, observed a writer in Harper's, on the fact that nothing at all shocked her; 'immunity to the sensation of 'recoil with painful astonishment' is the mark of our civilization.' " (170)
The author goes on to discuss that everything just got more open and easy going.. "Parental control of sex was greatly lessened..." (170)
Dancing! page 170
There was more sexual experimentation page 171
"Not only the American woman but the American girl was reputed to be freer with her sexual favors than she had ever been before..." (171)
"They [women] dressed more freely; they wore bathing suits which revealed more than had ever been revealed before.
posted by Cassie @ 5:20 PM
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