Explain the relationship Haralovich makes between suburban expansion, new housing and zoning regulations, and shifting representations of race, ethnicity, class, and gender on television. What, for example, was the practice of red-lining? How did practices like these represent and reinforce forms of segregation or inequity that we can also see playing out in television of the time?
In postwar America, we saw the rise of suburbia. The cities have gotten too crowded and the explosion of the middle-class creates the need for something in between rural and urban life.
ReplyDeleteThe perfect image of suburbia is the tidy little identical houses on the street with perfectly manicured lawns and the picket fences and a white family with 2.5 kids and a golden retriever in the yard.
Redlining is picking and choosing which areas get what financial services based on race or socio-economic class. This is the government’s way of keeping the black and immigrant communities poor and further separating them from white richer families. Mortgaging and purchasing was discouraged in those redlined areas and there was no outside investment towards bettering the neighborhoods. With this segregation, television focused on the upper-middle class audience and sitcoms moved from city-based slapstick comedy featuring occasional racial or ethnic diversity to the family-focused consumerist humor. These focused a lot on the homemaker and the women’s domestic sphere. There was an attempt to balance the showing of the power women held in the home with still keeping them in their place and subordinate.
Though television programs displaying minorities, different ethnicities, and the working class found popularity in the 50s and 60s, directly after World War II the white and middle class family was the standard. This was a time of rebuilding for the United States, and the entertainment industry decided that displaying affluent white families would help reconstitute and resocialize the American family. This is reflected in the type of humor used in programs like Father Knows Best where the comedy arises from the parents raising children to adulthood - bringing humor into the home as opposed to gag and slapstick comedy popular before the war. As mentioned in the reading, a lot of humor came from the dad being the smart parent in Father Knows Best, stereotyping the woman as not knowledgeable enough to have a career. In terms of these stereotypical family roles, these shows displayed the women as the homemakers working in the kitchen all day and men as the breadwinners in the office and coming home from work (displayed in the title sequence of Father Knows Best). Meanwhile, these homes represented in shows like Father Knows Best and Leave It to Beaver were affluent, all looked the same, were separated by gender, and had similar domestic architecture. This affluent and excessive architecture is one of the factors that unequalized white, affluent families from minorities and lower income families but boosted consumerism for viewers. And it was easy to assume that these affluent white family owned homes were living in were in close proximity to other white families with similar affluence because of the zoning and “red-lining” that was occurring at the same time as these shows were airing. Zoning (prevented multi family dwellings because officials wanted people to buy single family homes) and red-lining (red lines were drawn on maps around less affluent and minority neighborhoods) were meant to keep white affluent families and new homes separated from the less affluent and minority neighborhoods. This allowed the neighborhoods officials saw as attractive to continue becoming bigger, more affluent, and even more homogenous - in effect, segregating those who couldn’t afford these homes and who weren’t white, seemingly what the television programs of the time were displaying.
ReplyDeleteIn Haralovich's piece on "Sit-coms and Suburbs" he speaks in depth about the societal and gender roles that were reestablished and roles that were diminished through the emergence of sit-coms such as "Leave It to Beaver" and "Father Knows Best." As Haralovich describes, prior to the emergence of sit-coms, there were strong, almost strict, gender roles that were reaffirmed by television at the time as the suburban lifestyle became more and more popular. However, in the wake of the emergence of such shows as "Leave it to Beaver" and "Father Knows Best," Haralovich establishes that we can begin to see realistic familiar gender roles, while still establishing these same strong patriarchal roles. She describes the sets of these family shows as gender specific as well; having certain rooms like the den and kitchen, as areas of the home that are controlled by the woman. As Haralovich describes, we can see the emergence of female agency within the home, while still bolstering the overall patriarchal dominance. In terms of red-linging, which refers to the physical markings on a map to denote lower socio-economic areas, predominately populated by minorities. This form of denotation was actually a way for the government to pinpoint areas of lower economic status in order to further the socio-economic divide between whites and blacks in the post-war era. While television, at this time, was a service consumed by all people, however, the messages pertaining to certain demographics were not so, most of these reestablish the "goodness" of white living and the overall suburban lifestyle.
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ReplyDeleteTelevision sitcoms starting in the 1950s, both mirrored and reinforced how housing excluded minorities and homes confined women as housewives, which would only hurt those not included in the category. Shows such as Leave it to Beaver and Father Knows Best portrayed the classic suburban lifestyle with white families in comfortable homes, where the husband was the breadwinner. On the other hand, women were the homemakers, thought to be the perfect consumer for appliances.
DeleteRegarding neighborhoods, zoning and red-lining were the systems used to keep minorities out of the areas deemed more desirable. A plan that the FHA (Federal Housing Administration) allowed, in which areas on map were highlighted with a red-line, were discriminated against and not given loans. This problem was reinforced in sitcoms. For example, in an episode of Leave it to Beaver, Wally and Beaver went to see their friend Eddie who just moved to a new neighborhood. Beaver thought that Eddie lived in a “crummy neighborhood” (130). The imagery of this neighborhood compared to the Cleavers’ neighborhood, emphasized that the Cleavers were living the middle-class dream, something much better than where Eddie was living.
Family dynamics on the shows belittled the authority a housewife could attain. Although June from Leave it to Beaver and Margaret from Father Knows Best, have different relationships with their husbands, they are both subjected to the home, especially the kitchen. Meanwhile their husbands wear a suit and tie and get to go to work. Showing the women contained inside the home, the sitcoms normalized the idea of women being domestic housewives rather than being part of the working-class force. The early television sitcoms showed an idealistic world that kept the realistic problems ignored.
Consumers enjoy watching television that resembles a more interesting or ideal version of their lives. This was especially true in the early days of television, as families tended to gravitate toward TV families with similar backgrounds and socio-economic standings. Following WWII, the structure of life for the average American changed. As the population began booming, families spread away from the cities and into the suburbs that were being built at a rapid pace. The interests of television shifted similarly, portraying the perfect, middle-class, nuclear family on many popular programs like "Leave it to Beaver" and "Father Knows Best." Unfortunately, the nuclear family was white, patriarchal, and left little-to-know evidence of a growing feminist and civil rights movement.
ReplyDeleteAs Haralovich explains, aside from television's tendency to ignore/deny African-American characters, the suburban sitcom was fairly accurate in depicting an all-white family. The Federal Housing Authority established policies with the goal of segregating neighborhoods. They engaged in red-lining, or the practice of identifying non-white neighborhoods. The values of the houses dropped, and the FHA avoided building neighborhoods around them as to jack up the prices, leaving owning candidates as wealthy, white families. Coincidentally, this demographic was the same target for television. Families entered the market, so networks wanted to keep them around by showing them what they want: themselves.
Shows such as "The Honeymooners" and "I Love Lucy" were based on comedy and the slapstick elements of the show rather than pushing for the "nuclear family". Before the war, slapstick comedy shows presented an "everyday" sort of woman who often fought to overcome the gender stereotypes that were presumed. When America entered the war there was a shift in gender and race stereotypes. American called for everyone to join together to defeat the common enemy and help in any way they could. It was a promising time for women in the work force and minorities. The swift change occurred when the war was over and men and women had to return to their " rightful places" in the work force and household. Television shows were often reflections of ideological trends in society. It makes sense that the networks catered to these suburban families seeking their perfect American dream. Everyone was put back into their places and shows like "Father Knows Best" was there to remind them.
ReplyDeleteThe tactic of red lining also increased the racial and economic divide between the white middle class and minorities. It mapped out the areas where lower class and minorities lived to exaggerate the divide between classes and keep it going. It seemed as if social change could be possible after WWII, but networks attempted to appeal to the nuclear family and keep inequality present.
In the article, Haralovich argues that the social formation of the suburban shows that women are established homemakers. The middle-class homemakers are an indispensable part of the social economy, and the suburban housing was engaged with them and they also make it very important to establish the value of domestic architecture and consumer product. And the sit-com helps to build the situation that woman are homemakers for example the Leave it to Beaver and Father Knows.
ReplyDeleteRed-lining as lines drawn on maps around less affluent and minority neighborhoods for example the physical segregation of the upper and lower economic groups. This kind of design actually promote the distinction between material existence, and it creates a consciousness of status, and a panic of self-evaluation and also connect the relief with the consumption of specified commodities. In the television played out during that time, the sit-coms promoted an image of housewife and also make direct reference to the social and economic means through the description of the status. Through the effacing pf the separations of race, ethnicity, and gender. It at the same time also create a privilege for the middle-class people.
Redlining is when the government selects and decides which geographic areas will receive different types of services, which can range from grocery stores to insurance. More often than not, the basis for the decision depends on the area’s socioeconomic factors or the racial makeup of its residents. This practice allows for there to be a divide between minorities and white suburban America. Prices would follow, with rates dropping in areas designated as poor and increasing in areas deemed financially affluent. This distinction and separation of two different ways on life can be seen paralleled on TV in the 50’s.
ReplyDeleteAmerican television in the ‘50’s was predominantly white, with the center focus being on white, nuclear families living in suburbia. The families on TV very rarely strayed from their safe sanctuary of white picket fences. Their only interactions with people different form them were with workers, people they either paid or were servicing them. Similarly, if a non white family was shown on TV, they were not in perfect white suburbia. The Goldbergs lived in a cramped apartment in NYC, while Amos and Andy only every interacted with black characters. The divide that was occurring in real life was also perpetuated on TV, allowing for a status quo to set in.
The suburban structured lifestyle that Haralovich describes is in relation with the many different privileges, disparities, and social inequalities that different ethnic groups faced during the post WWII era. Women were the homemakers and housewives while the men of the house were the breadwinners and intellects. Television sitcoms reflected the ideal lifestyle for consumers to take in and reinforced these governmental structured ideologies. While is seemed ideal for everyone to dress, act, and live similar lifestyles, many other ethnic groups weren’t as established as their white counterparts and denied accurate representation in the media as well as chances to sustain and move into the middle class. Institutional segregation was adapted by the government based on race and class, best known as red lining. The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) adopted these zoning practices and promoted and endorsed housing loans for minority designated urban ghettos. Ultimately a larger divide of races and gender roles were created in the real world and increasingly reflected on TV. Shows such as “Leave It to Beaver” and “Father Knows Best” displayed the character traits of a middle-class home life; normalizing the standard of the white privilege middle class lifestyle.
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