Blog #10

Looking at the gender roles of society in America during the 1950s, a very popular show comes to mind, “Leave it to Beaver”. Looking at this show a particular episode highlights gender roles nicely and that is “Wally’s Dream Girl” in season 4.  This episode gives an insight to how life was for the average middle-class American family in the 50s. There was very distinct gender roles during this time, the standard family was known as the “nuclear family”. The nuclear family consisted of a husband who works and provides for the family along with maybe a few kids and a stay at home wife that takes care of the kids, cooks, cleans, (etc...).  In this episode the ‘nuclear family’ is shown specifically through Beaver’s family and the way they all act towards and treat each other. Comparing this television series to something modern like “Modern Family” we can see how gender roles have changed in 50 years.

            It would be smart to recap on the “Leave it to beaver” episode in order for everyone to have a clearer comprehension of what this essay will be written about. First off, Leave it to Beaver was a show aired during the 50’s about a family of four with two boys a husband and a wife. In this particular episode the older boy, Wally, is suddenly “in love” with the new girl from Indianapolis at school. Wally begins  to try to impress her by dressing up and smelling nice before going to school. His parents notice something is up when he starts doing this and the mother, June, begins to become concerned.  June and her husband, Ward, have a talk and Ward realizes the only reason Wally would be acting like this is because of a girl. Wally is too shy to ask her out so June calls her mother and invites the girl to a picnic at Friend's Lake. June did this without Wally’s approval but after Wally realizes that June is a regular person and is allergic to things like chicken and the sun. Later June begins to apologize to Wally but instead Wally thanks his mom for helping him realize that June isn’t his actual dream girl.