Contradictions and Tensions: Lynn Spigel Examines the Impact of TV on the American Family

           In chapter two (“Television in the Family Circle”) of her book Make Room for TV: Television and The Family Ideal in Postwar America, author Lynn Spigel examines the impact of the rapid rise of the television on family dynamics and gender roles. Spigel argues that that the new technology both brought the family together and divided them along gender and social lines.

            Throughout the reading I was most intrigued by Spigel’s ideas about the contradictions and tensions between family unity and division. Television sets were advertised as “the new family hearth” and featured families gathered in a semicircle suggesting a Victorian-esque “domestic haven.” In direct contrast to this notion of televisions bringing families together for group entertainment were later advertisements for multiple TV sets. A 1955 General Electric ad, for example, utilizes a split-screen layout with the message “When Dad wants to watch the game … Mom and Sis, the cooking show … there’s too much traffic for one TV to handle,” thus promoting a harmonious family through the “sociosexual division of space.”

            I agree with Spigel’s argument that the introduction of televisions into American homes caused both an upheaval of and reaffirmed gender roles. As television sets invaded the sphere of domesticity, they brought a variety of programming, which could either confirm or challenge gender roles. There was an underlying fear that TVs could undermine male control of his household – “it is a rare show that treats Father as anything more than the mouse of the house – a bumbling, well-meaning idiot who is putty in the hands of his wife and family.” The show Father Knows Best that we screened last week could be seen as an exception to this “mouse of the house” rule since Jim Anderson portrayed as the head of the household (even the show’s title emphasizes his ultimate authority). However, he does allow his daughter to make gender transgressions by dressing in her brother’s clothes and pursuing a typically male profession. Spigel’s piece also affirms the idea of gendered technology that we encountered in the “When Computers Were Women” reading by pointing out the feminized language (“passivity […], penetration, consumption, and escape”) surrounding mass culture and television.

            Spigel concentrates most of her piece on the effects of television on the nuclear family and parents’ roles. This can be applied to how we look at feminist geek culture by looking at how technology could both challenge and uphold gender ideals. We can also utilize Spigel’s ideas about contradictions and compromises within gender roles. How new technologies or geek culture force men and women to either challenge gender roles or go out of their way to make the roles fit, even if this ends up contradicting the ideals of the role. 

On containment: Elaine Tyler May's thoughts on "Bombs and Bombshells"

In Chapter Four of Elaine Tyler May’s Homeward Bound: American Families in the Cold War Era, titled “Explosive Issues: Sex, Women, and the Bomb,” the author explores government and social policy in regards to both the changing attitudes of women and the threat of nuclear war. The emancipation of women, specifically in the workplace and in terms of sexuality, was seen as a danger to the concept of “the home,” the author argues. Tyler May states in the chapter that women had to weigh the choice between forging their way in the labor force and embracing marriage and domestic life. With the slim pickings for women in the job market, she argues, marriage often seemed the more appealing choice.

I was particularly interested in looking at Tyler May’s work through the lens of the word “containment.” Containment was formally speaking the Cold War policy of the U.S. toward the Communists. In Tyler May’s chapter, though, I read her text as a commentary on the general concept of containment: the need to contain “perversion,” feminist ideals, communism, promiscuity, etc.  It was the general mindset, it seems, of the times. Deviance from social norms creates vulnerability, vulnerabilities leave space for Communists to take control. “For policymakers concerned with domestic as well as diplomatic issues, containment was the order of the day,” she writes. It’s interesting to me that the further education of women was seen as a threat to societal stability. I do understand, on the one hand, the concern (however unwarranted) that having more women in careers or higher education meant having less women in the home. On the flipside of that, though, I would say it wouldn’t have been a stretch for people to easily defend women moving into the workplace, as increasing education levels across the board would seem to increase the general defense of the country against the threat of communism.

            As we saw in the film “Desk Set,” women were able to increasingly move into new sectors in the workplace during and after WWII.  Women who chose to stay in the workplace, in areas other than perceived “women’s fields,” might have been classified as a threat by Tyler May. Women who were seeking to enter traditionally male careers could have been classified as women who were seen as needing to be contained. “Containment at home offered the possibility that the modern family would tame fears of atomic holocaust and tame women as well,” Tyler May says.

Tyler May’s point is a fair one, and one that should be considered as we study gender and feminist geek culture. To me, it seems that Tyler May’s point about feminism being seen as a “dangerous and destructive force” would shape her definition of geek culture. Geek culture is generally seen as a marginalized interest area. This could be, in part, due to the fear, paranoia and general disapproval of women moving into traditionally masculine roles in the Cold War era. Women becoming interested in math, science, technology and other related fields was seen as concerning, to say the least. Those women likely faced ostracism in both their personal and professional lives. This snubbing by more “traditional” members of society perpetuates the idea of “geeks” being people who don’t stick to social norms, like the women Tyler May discusses.