Ladies drop the kitchen mop

For me it is very hard to imagine a time in American history where women were so discriminated against. This past week in class we spend time looking at female musicians in the 50s and 60s and just how women were really treated during this time. We saw several video clips portraying these issues and we were even able to watch an entire video called "Education on women".  The name sounds just as ridiculous as the video. It was a 6 minute long film discussing how to treat women in the work space and the key to having patience with the gender as a whole. Lucille Ball was an extremely well known actress during this time for her role in the TV sitcom I love Lucy. In this sitcom Lucille Ball took the role of a house wife, who was always tending to her husband and sons needs. We watched a specific episode where Lucy exclaims she is sick and tired of doing the dishes cleaning the house and cooking the meals over and over again. She tells the story of how she has cooked her family over a thousand meals and is getting tired of her dull role. She like many other women of the time were starting to feel tired of the typical gender role for a woman and was wishing for a chance to expand her skills and set out for something more in life.

We took a look at the famous movie Grease and discussed the two "types" of girls that were thought to be in the 50s and 60s. It was basically thought that you could either be a "good" girl, or a "bad" girl, with no in-between. Sandra Dee was seen to be the stereotypical good girl of the time. She had bright blonde hair, blue eyes, was gentle, and always followed the rules. The bad girl example was Rizzo, who liked to smoke, drink, and sleep around with different men. Rizzo and the pink ladies sing, mocking Sandra Dee: "I don't drink or swear I don't rat my hair I get ill from one cigarette
Keep your filthy paws off my silky drawers Would you pull that crap with Annette". It is now way more commonly known and accepted that women can be more than one type of girl, and having qualities from both sides doesn't make you good or bad. 

Janis Joplin, Dolly Parton, Helen ready and Jone Mitchell are just a few names to mention who took their musical talents as a platform to sing about being a woman and the challenges they faced during the time period. The songs they sung gave hope, and confidence to many women nationwide, inspiring them to become who and what they want. My favorite song we discussed by one of these famous female artists was "Little Green" by Jone Mitchell. It is a very emotional song discussing her decision to give up her daughter for adoption. This showed the strength she had and encouraged other women of the time to be like her.