Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique (1963) ushered in some pretty bizarre pop culture responses. My Living Doll (Julie Newmar), Bewitched (Elizabeth Montgomery), I Dream of Jeannie (Barbara Eden). A gynoid a la The Stepford Wives, a witch, and a genie. Male foils worked for the military-industrial-capitalist complex -- US Air Force, advertising, NASA. And on the air waves, Bob Dylan singing "You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows. . ." The creators of these shows may have been smoking opium, but they were tapping into the culture at large. Not about civil rights and Vietnam, but about the powers that be and the "threat" of gender equality. Common anxieties in a time of tumultuous change. Wacky comedy was the way to go, apparently. Easier than body counts and mature discussion, I suppose.
Bollywood superstar Aishwarya Rai. Today India, tomorrow the world!
Today's Rune: Flow.
Birthdays: Oliver Hazard Perry, Arnold Toynbee, Edgar Lee Masters, Vera Miles (Ralston), Barbara Eden (Huffman), Keith Moon, Shelley Long, Rick Springfield (Springthorpe), San Antonio Bill, River Phoenix, Eliza Carthy, Kobe Bean Bryant.
4 comments:
I was attracted to both Samantha and Jeannie
CG Me too. Erik it has been awhile since I commented. I enjoy your blog. I want to know if you have had the chance to view CNN's Chistiane Amanapour's interviews with God's Warriors? The Christian Warriors are on tonight. Just wanting to know your view point. MW:)
57,000 dead American troops and 3,000,000 dead Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army regulars. Tis count does not include the maimed and scarred for life troops on both sides.
I find it easier to remember body counts than I do sitcoms that were improbable situations. A witch that could make things happen by wiggling her nose and a genie who they wanted sexy but not so sexy they wouldn't let her costume show her belly button, that with a nod of the head could have ended the war,
What better way to ease into change then to be mildly entertained.
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