Free Essay On Sexuality And Gender In The 1950s

Beauty, sexuality, gender, and race have always been inextricably tied to one another. This was especially true in the 1950s in America, when all these elements merged into a single whole, a fantasy version of the ideal woman. These concepts are strongly illustrated in Barbie dolls, beauty pageants, and the icons of the time including Marilyn Monroe. If one examines the three in conjunction, one is granted a disturbing insight into the norms of gender and race as they applied to physical perfection. Further, one can see elements of classism and class bias intermingling with gender and racial prejudice.
The appearance of all women in the era was subject to harsh criticism and evaluation, but this was especially true of individuals in the public eye. Barbie dolls illustrate the ideal of perfection of a woman at the time. Given that they are manufactured, and thus can take on any form desired, they are provide key insight into the true beauty ideal. Barbies of the era were extremely tall and thin, even more so than today’s Barbies. They possessed large breasts, very narrow waists and necks, and smooth, sleek hair. However, it is interested to note that there were few to no Barbies of color, and few Barbies with dark hair. This implies that the beauty aesthetic of the time was for white women with blonde hair. This is further supported by the rules of the Miss America pageant, requiring only white women apply, and Marilyn Monroe, a curvaceous blonde woman. All three elements illustrate the white and blonde ideal of feminine beauty.
These ideals uphold the dominant culture of the time in that women were considered valuable largely for their physical appeal. Marilyn Monroe, it has been argued, was more a sex symbol than an actress, due to her typecasting in very similar roles. Barbies play off the idea that women, and by extension, girls, are only interested in fashion, and beauty. The Miss America pageant bills itself as a scholarship service, but the rules largely relate to appearance, and comportment. In brief, this implies that, in the era, women were relegated to a decorative role, not an active one. They were given cast as sexually appealing, but chaste figures that did not have active sexualities, but were instead passively observed by outsiders. In regards to class, Barbie dolls illustrate a very much upper class design, and the Miss America pageant is only truly accessible to women who do not need to work full time to survive. The standards observed here all imply that women without means of their own, or provided for them by someone else, are of less worth, because they cannot devote the time necessary to maintain their appearance.
Overall, it is obvious that the aesthetics of the time created a world in which a woman was a decorative object, but not a functional one. The rules of the Miss America pageant placed the working woman at a severe disadvantage, while Barbies demonstrated the woman of fashion and leisure. Women of color were not represented at all, and were, in actuality, banned from competing in Miss America. This further drives home the idea that white, and blonde was the standard of the time. All these elements come together to demonstrate, clearly, that which made a woman valuable, and desirable, in the era.