Couch and bon-bons

[dreamer_easy]

I first encountered the image of the pampered, lazy housewife, chatting mindlessly on the phone while she lies on the sofa eating candy, in soc.men. Big surprise there. Really, that must be the first time I noticed the image. I just came across it again, in Will Worthington's 1959 post-apocalyptic short story Plenitude:

"Sue waves from the door. She has worked like a squaw [sic] since dawn, and she smiles and waves. I can remember when women would exhaust themselves talking over the phone and eating bon-bons all day and then fear to smile when their beat husbands came home from their respective nothing-foundries lest they crack the layers of phony 'youthful glow' on their faces. Not like Sue. Here is Sue with smudges of charcoal on her face and fish-scales on her leather pants. Her scent is of woodsmoke and of sweat... There was a time when the odor of perspiration would have been more of a social disaster for a woman than the gummata of tertiary pox."

This contains valuable historical information. In 1959, all women were surburban middle class. There were no women gutting chickens, cleaning toilets, tending bar, or otherwise making themselves odorous with honest labour.

All right, let's be fair: the story is a satire of suburbia, so when he says "women" he means "middle class homemakers". So the actual , in 1959, housewives did no work. They did not clean, shop, sew, nor cook; they did not tend the young, elderly, or sick. They certainly didn't discuss any of these tasks with other housewives. (Sue carries on a "lively conversation" with a non-English speaking neighbour: "Someday I will listen to them, but I doubt that I will ever learn how they communicate... or what. Women.".) If one reads between the lines, these women were too lazy even to put out for their husbands. All told, this would have drained the US economy of billions of dollars' worth of effort. In fact, without sex or food, it's remarkable that society managed to survive until today.

Now there have always been layabout wives and husbands, but it seems that in those days at least some men really believed that stay-at-home wives did no work at all, and they despised and envied them - and at least some men still do. I wonder where the precise couch-phone-and-bon-bons image originated? (My guess is it was cartoonists' shorthand.)

Comments

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

[pedanther]

And on that note, advertising for said labor-saving devices may be another source of the myth. The advertisers would benefit from having people believe that Owning Device X = Time To Lounge About Eating Bon-Bons.

[alawston.livejournal.com]

I'd always hoped it was a cliche with some basis in fact - just so I could twist emancipation to my advantage and become a kept man.

[hiraethin.livejournal.com]

In fairness the author is making a comparison of the level of labour between the character Sue and non-specific "women" of the pre-apocalypse. The absence of labour he ascribes to these "women" thereby magnifies the value of Sue's contribution.

By "women" the author - or the narrator - presumably means "women in my experience", which - if he was a middle-class suburbanite - was likely middle-class suburbanite women. The subject of the satire, as you say. Rather than the women in employment, the carers, and those for whom managing a household was not a hobby.

The attitude of middle-class surbanite men is, I think, in large part due to (1) a lack of real communication between men and women and a lack of interest in same and (2) envy for what is perceived as a better deal. Probably on both sides - women envying men the respect and choice they attain by working, and men envying women their role as homemaker - or, as some evidently saw it and some perhaps still do - home-occupier, slothing about until hubby gets home. There were no doubt some women who actually fit that caricature, as there are no doubt some men today who still believe the caricature to be reality.

[tysolna]

This is one reason why I don't very much like the portrayal of Jackie Tyler so far.

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

Not quite following you there!

[tysolna]

I see aspects of what you say about women who sit at home doing nothing much except chat on the phone and eat in the portrayal of Jackie Tyler.
In "Rose", Rose goes to work, and the instant she's out the door, Jackie grabs the phone. You practically don't see her without the phone. Yes, we see her doing homework (in "End of the World", with the neat camera angle through the washing machine). We also see her shop ("Rose", again). What I have been askig myself since the first episode is, what does Jackie do to make a living? Or is the only money she gets a pension off her husband's early death (though I don't know if that exists in the UK, since I'm from Germany), and whatever money Rose makes? I don't know if Jackie has a job, but it doesn't look like it (when Rose can't go to work since the Doctor blew up the department store, Jackie sits at home in her bathrobe, blow-drying (already dry) hair, which doesn't appear to be getting ready to work).
I am not saying that I don't like Jackie, she's a good character and undergoes a nice change and acceptance in the latter part of the first series, but her constant hanging on the phone chatting stay-at-home lifestyle annoys me.

Or I could have completely misread what you are trying to say with your post, in which case I will now shut up. :)

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

Jon tells me that Jackie has a job - she's a hairdresser who works from home. It's referred to in the DVD extras and the Annual. Which is great, but we have yet to actually see this on screen!

[gdwessel.livejournal.com]

What gives you the idea Jackie is lazy and eating bon-bons?

[tysolna]

The fact that the character is introduced as sitting on the couch, watching TV, eating chocolate (if I am not mistaken; I don't have the episode here but I will check) and chatting on the phone while Rose goes to work; Jackie is rarely seen out of the house, and when she is, she's shopping; she does housework, but I wouldn't know what she does for a living (she could be a phone sex operator, which would explain her being on the phone all the time, but I somehow doubt that in Doctor Who).
I do realize that this show's main character isn't Jackie, but I wish she had a job. Any job.

[gomalley.livejournal.com]

Someting very similar about society's views on the roles of men and women, and the hangover stereotype that exists still today, even among our younger, liberated lads, prompted me to write this:

http://gomalley.livejournal.com/31589.html

Please excuse the uniquely Canadian references, but I really do feel it's true for women EVERYWHERE. (plus, I was having an especially bad "mom" week)