The Myth of "Leave it to Beaver"
I grew up watching "Leave it to Beaver." The show was actually tongue in cheek funny. Wally, the older son, had a dead pan delivery. The parents were not stupid about their son's devices. Eddie Haskell was hilarious. He would come in and say, obsequiously, "Hello, Mrs. Cleaver. Hello, Mr. Cleaver," and then go to Wally's room and say to Beaver (Theodore), "Hey, punk." The total kiss-up. His parents were low-key and oblivious to what a twerp he was.
So, somehow over the years, that show has come to symbolize what the 1950s were like. Nothing could be further from the truth.
I say this because I was at an Honors Students Conference this weekend doing some fact-finding, and I sat in on some papers/presentations by students. One was about the dystopian family of the future, but in the process she made some assertions about how the families of the '50s were like those of "Leave it To Beaver." I commented to a colleague that I would love to dispel that myth; she had come through that time, too, and knew better.
First, two children were not the norm. Families were bigger, even then. Yes, the vast majority of children lived in two-parent family. But the Cleavers' house was a mansion compared to most of us living in Levittown types of houses. What did the father do? Most middle and working class people worked in factories. And for heaven's sake, mothers did not wear high heels and pearls to clean house. Look at some pictures of how your parents and grandparents lived then, people.
It was a television show, and somewhere we have gotten the idea that television is an accurate prediction of reality. It isn't now, and it certainly wasn't then.
So, somehow over the years, that show has come to symbolize what the 1950s were like. Nothing could be further from the truth.
I say this because I was at an Honors Students Conference this weekend doing some fact-finding, and I sat in on some papers/presentations by students. One was about the dystopian family of the future, but in the process she made some assertions about how the families of the '50s were like those of "Leave it To Beaver." I commented to a colleague that I would love to dispel that myth; she had come through that time, too, and knew better.
First, two children were not the norm. Families were bigger, even then. Yes, the vast majority of children lived in two-parent family. But the Cleavers' house was a mansion compared to most of us living in Levittown types of houses. What did the father do? Most middle and working class people worked in factories. And for heaven's sake, mothers did not wear high heels and pearls to clean house. Look at some pictures of how your parents and grandparents lived then, people.
It was a television show, and somewhere we have gotten the idea that television is an accurate prediction of reality. It isn't now, and it certainly wasn't then.
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