I Love Lucy Supporting the Ideals and Societal Norms of the Fifties
If one looks deeply into each episode of I Love Lucy, the sexual scripts, roles and behaviors expected of family members in the 1950’s is constantly shown. The way the show, and family, is physically set up, shows a lot about the time it took place. Lucy played a housewife and her husband worked, bringing home all of the money. He allotted her money each month to keep up the house. This includes the bills, the food, and any other aspect that is needed to keep up the physical matnenience of the house. It has been depicted that if Lucy spends too much money and does not have enough for the home, it is her fault, and she must make sacrifices of her everyday life to pay the bills. So, literately, Lucy’s domain is the home, and Ricky’s is bringing in the money. It is Lucy’s job every morning, even though she does not have to wake up for work, to cook Ricky’s breakfast, and have it waiting in the oven or on the table for when he walks into the kitchen.
One episode that is very famous is that of the “Job Switching” episode, when Lucy and Ethel go to work, and Ricky and Fred stay at home and take care of the house. This specific show is famous based on how it was funny that Lucy and Ethel had to shove chocolates in their mouths. Although, the whole premise of the show was that it is completely ridiculous for a women to go out and have to work. The show also shows Rickey and Fred at home attempting to cook and clean, and failing miserably. The whole episode reinforces this idea that women going to work, and men staying at home and doing domestic work, are completely unheard of during this time, just as a fellow classmate stated.
Although Ricky was following the sexual script in his time, another concept that may contribute to his behavior towards Lucy is the fact that Ricky is Cuban-American. In Cuban culture, men are seen as the head of the family, the provider, and the one who makes the decisions. It is also interesting that the fact of Ricky being of Cuban descent does not seem to bother anyone. This could be because he is married to a Caucasian woman, he is an entertainer incorporating his culture (being a Spanish style band leader), and makes a living for himself. It is also interesting to see that Lucy is often mocking his Spanish in a teasing sort of tone, making him sound kind of stupid for not being able to speak English. Since Ricky is successful and a man, however, he is still portrayed as being superior to Lucy. Lastly, Ricky’s success as an entertainer in the 50’s also shows that people without degrees were able to get well paying jobs. This is extremely different as opposed to today in society where you may even need a degree to attain at least minimum wage.
An extreme example of Ricky’s dominating relationship with Lucy is when Ricky is seen literately spanking Lucy when she is “acting up”. This occurred in about three I Love Lucy episodes including episode 61 entitled “The Ricardo’s Change Apartments”. Lucy wants a new apartment so she fills the entire house with toys and because she is being smart, Ricky comes home and spanks her when he sees the mess. A book describing every episode of I Love Lucy even states that “Ricky’s spanking of Lucy is disturbing, even in the context of the humor” (Fidelman, G.M., 1999, p. 62).
(To see this exact example yourself, go to 5 min 10 sec in the following clip)
It is pretty interesting to think that an act of violence such as this was completely appropriate to show, although when Lucy was pregnant, she could not say the word pregnant, but rather that she was “expecting”. This shows that society was okay with men having power over women, yet sex or even a hint towards sex is taboo.
As mentioned in the first posting, children did not play a large role in the family, and did not receive a lot of attention. Children were meant “to be seen and not heard” which is literally true in I Love Lucy by the audience rarely seeing Lucy’s son, Little Ricky. In a research article based on family relationships in domestic comedy, I Love Lucy received very low scores for parent child relationships. This suggests that “The parent child relationship was of minimal importance” (Douglas &Olson, 1995, p. 236). Just by watching the show proves this to be true because even though Little Ricky is shown in a couple episodes, especially near the end of the show’s production, he is never a main focus of the show in general. With these study results combined with the common beliefs of children in the fifties, it is clearly seen that I Love Lucy depicts the child and parent relationships of the family very well.
References:
Douglas, W., & Olsen, B. (1995). Beyond Family Structure: The Family in doestic comedy.
Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 39(2), 236. http://search.ebscohost.com/
Fidelman, G.M. (1999). The Lucy Book: A Complete Guide to Her Five Decades on Television.
Los Angeles: Renaissance Books.
Some questions to think about:
How do think this lack of relationship, if you believe there to be one, between parents and children affected the everyday family structure during this time?
Do we see this same parent-child relationship in TV programs today? Depending on your thoughts, what would that imply?
Do you think that media influenced everyday life of families in the fifties? More specifically, do you think because women and children viewers saw Ricky acting as a strong enforcer of rules and using violence to keep his wife in her place, that viewers then felt it was more normal for males to treat women this way?
Any other general thoughts?
"Equal Rights" Clip # 2
Here is the second clip from the “Equal Rights” episode. This is when Fred and Ricky try to prove their point about equal rights by “teaching Lucy and Ethel a lesson”. Pay attention to the language used, the characters’ reactions to different situations, and their attitudes. Enjoy!
Some Questions to Think About:
Do you think that Ricky and Fred’s actions were really portraying what it means to have equal rights, or were their actions just rude to do no matter what gender or sex you are?
When Ethel begins to blame Lucy “for opening her big mouth” and speaking up about equal rights, what does that tell us about the ideas and attitudes in the 50’s?
Do you think some of these attitudes are still held today?
Any other observations, feelings, or comments?
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I think it is interesting how she couldn't say the word pregnant. That reminds me of I dream of Genie how she couldn't show her bellybutton. Now it feels like there is so much going on TV that people have to censor it for their children
ReplyDeleteI also think the role of children goes along somewhat with what we learned in the book, how they went from mini-adults and then how childhood became important. I think another reason that they didnt show the importance because it would have taken away from the theme of the show
-Kimberly Wabik
I think Ethel telling Lucy to shut her mouth deals with the idea of inequality of genders. Some women out there might feel like the good old days were better and not care if women are getting paid less then men!!! I think the feminist theory would be interesting to look at this.
ReplyDeleteI think it tells us a lot about the attitudes in the 50's. A lot of people didn't want change, didn't want equality compared to now where the majority of people do.
-Lisa Rodriguez
I think some of Ricky and Fred's actions portrayed equal rights, like when they split the check. However, they seemed to be going over the top with their other actions. For example, shaving at the table and being deliberately ignorant is not how one acts in a civilized "equal" setting. Of course, I am sure this over exaggeration was done because for comedic effect. However, it does seem to have an underlying tone that women may think they want equal rights, but at the end of the day they change their minds in favor of having their husbands take care of them.
ReplyDelete-Samantha Walters
You all made some great points!
ReplyDeleteThe shaving part that is definitely overexaggerated, I agree may have just been for comedic effects, but I think that it is interesting that they portrayed this as being what men think the women mean by equal rights. They looked at the small things and not the big picture that Lucy and Ethel were trying to make.
This in turn, lead to Ethel yelling at Lucy for all they have had to go through for "equal rights" but I do not personally think it was because women did not want equal rights. I think that it just seemed too out of reach, for some of them, and that they just did not even feel that it was worth trying because in their minds, it just was not going to happen. They tried to make a point, the men took it to the extreme and did not understand their point, and then Lucy and Ethel had to pay for it. It would be very hard to believe a change could happen, when the people with the "power" seem to not understand.
Meghan Slaalien
The clip on the apartment shows Lucy and Ricky's relationship in an interesting light. She does complain a lot, and use manipulation, intelligence and tact to get the apartment she wanted. These traits were not known to be common in a woman and some men believed woman to be less intelligent then men. But the fact that Lucy could keep up with the men on the show proved her intelligence even if they used comedy to mask it. This is a different way to show women that was not common other shows in its time.
ReplyDelete-Lisa Rodriguez
I think that this t.v show does an excellent job of portraying with the 50's really looked liked. The fact that Ethel is trying to stop Lucy from talking about equal rights just sums up the idea that women didn't think receiving equal rights was possible. I agree with Meghan that is is not because women didn't want equal rights, but it is because equal rights for women was just a fancy to women in the 50's.At the end of the clip it shows the women just crawling back to their husbands, this is just an example of women losing their power to men once again. I also agree with Lisa and think the feminist theory would be cool to look at when analyzing this show further!
ReplyDelete~ Haley Puckhabe