An Actual 1955 Good Housekeeping article... (how to be a good wife)

[Ghost in the Machine]

My younger sister laughed her ass off when she saw this...

[FiveGoodMen]

1. "You have no right to question him"

Surprised that went over in '55!

[gkhouston]

3. It wouldn't have gone over with my mom. Or her mom, who divorced in the '20s. n/t

[MrPerson]

10. That didn't go over in 55 BC

[Captain Hilts]

67. Shows why women were not allowed to serve on juries in NYS until the 1960s. nt

[peace13]

2. Be a little gay and a little more interesting for him!

Now that should kick it up a notch! I guess we haven't come as far as we thought . Good read. Thanks.

[lamp_shade]

4. Thank you. I saw this a couple of years ago and regretted not hanging on to it.

[foo_bar]

5. the "actual" part is disputed, but it's not far off from reality

The question here is whether the piece quoted above really came from a home economics textbook. Is it real, or is it yet another of those "look how far we've come" fabrications? We know the graphic reproduced above (supposedly from the 13 May 1955 edition of a magazine called Housekeeping Monthly) is a fabrication: It didn't first appear until well after the "How to Be a Good Wife" list had begun circulating via e-mail, and it's clearly a mock-up produced by adding the text of the e-mail around an image taken from a 1957 cover of John Bull magazine. (The image itself even bears an "Advertising Archives" legend along its side, indicating its source.) As for the text itself, nobody has turned up the infamous textbook that supposedly included these ten steps. The list is often attributed to Helen B. Andelin's book Fascinating Womanhood, first published in 1963 to provide instruction in "The Art of Winning a Man's Complete Love," but no such list appears in that work.

http://www.snopes.com/language/document/goodwife.asp

[MrPerson]

6. "Surprise him, get naked"

[dipsydoodle]

11. I thought of that too

Wear an apron and nothing else

[Rage for Order]

7. Why would your younger sister laugh her ass off at this?

This is sage advice for any woman who wants to be a successful stay-at-home wife and mother.

[MrPerson]

8. "Have a friend ready for a threesome"

[carlyhippy]

61. hahahah...

Carly

[dipsydoodle]

9. Reminds me of "Women: Know Your Limits"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LS37SNYjg8w

[MrPerson]

"Wonder what's bothering Bob?"

[NNN0LHI]

12. There used to be cigarette ads that recommended pregnant women to smoke

To keep them calm or something?

Don

[MrPerson]

13. "Honey, Let's Eat Out Tonight!!!"

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

14. You see- the previous generations DID know how to live!

[LakeSamish706]

15. Now that line is extremely funny... haha... "A good wife always knows her place". n/t

[sufrommich]

16. I think this has been debunked in the past. nt

[Canuckistanian]

18. Are you saying it's an elaborate parody?

I've been hearing about this article since the 1980's. I don't think it's fake.

[sufrommich]

22. Here is the snopes link:

http://www.snopes.com/language/document/goodwife.asp

It looks iffy.

[Canuckistanian]

25. It's certainly been a legend for a long time

Like I say, I heard it mentioned back in the late 80s on radio shows.

Snopes says that the OP's graphic was actually from a magazine called John Bull with the text added in later.

So I guess it is fake in that respect.

[NoSheep]

126. This is not personal, okay? But FRANKLY, I don't give a flying fuck what Snopes says,

this type thing was and is very real in one form or another and still exists in the minds of men in my own generation.

[JuniperLea]

21. Nope, it's the real deal...

I have an original pamphlet, thanks to my grandmother who as a joke gave it to me when I was first married

[foo_bar]

44. there is no "original pamphlet", it's purported to be "Housekeeping Monthly" (or Good Housekeeping)

The mutation that snopes reviewed was credited to a textbook, "The following is from a 1950's home economics textbook...", in spite of the attached "Housekeeping Monthly" clipping, so like most viral hoaxes it assumes whatever form and origin the last recipient wants it to take (according to the OP it's an "actual Good Housekeeping article", which is close enough to Housekeeping Monthly or a pamphlet or a home ech textbook).

Investigations propose that the guide may be a hoax. According to snopes.com, the wording "The Advertising Archives" located on the right side of the image suggests a fraud, since the Archives itself was not started until 1990.<2><1> Additionally, the image used is claimed<1> to be from a 1957 cover of John Bull magazine.<3> The "Good Wife" version of this image appears to be cropped just below where the textbox containing the words "WOMAN AT THE WHEEL" appeared on the John Bull cover image. One source claims that the text of this article has been circulating since at least the 1980s via fax.<4>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Wife%27s_Guide

No. It's real. I wrote it.

I travelled back in time purely to write this article so I would have something to talk about while bored in the afternoon on April 28th 2004.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

[Canuckistanian]

17. I hope he doesn't have B.O.

"Are Wives to blame?"

[GentryDixon]

19. My Mother-in- Law still lives by this credo.

She is 80+ and still cooks three meals a day for her "man" (with biscuits). I must say she finally went to canned biscuits a few years ago. But it was once homemade only.

Years ago I came home from work every night at 7:00 P.M. and made biscuits from scratch, using her recipe, to keep my man happy. I soon decided it wasn't worth the effort, nor was he. I'm still with him, but if he gets biscuits, they are frozen Pillsbury type biscuits. I don't eat them, so I don't care how much fat he consumes. He doesn't either, so I guess we agree on something!

[rcrush]

27. Thats the only thing I look for in a woman.

To not care how fat I get!

[GentryDixon]

29. A man after my own heart.

[XemaSab]

49. A few weeks ago an ex-quiverful woman joined DU

You want to be depressed, read this blog:

http://2spb.blogspot.com/2009/03/amazing-bosch-universa...

[sufrommich]

57. Very interesting blog, thanks for sharing it. nt

[alphafemale]

85. Sounds like she's woken up at least. nt

[Liberal_in_LA]

112. Cooking the bread type stuff (Biscuits, bread, cake, muffins) from scratch is a lot of work

Not worth the effort unless you have 14 kids

[JuniperLea]

20. As a collector of strange literature...

I actually have this in pamphlet form. I love it! Might be my favorite... might be a tie with the 1928 "birthing babies" pamphlet Or the Amy Semple McPherson Gospel Songbook... oh, I can't decide

[Pool Hall Ace]

23. Just what are the kids doing in that drawing?

Weird.

[alphafemale]

53. I'll show you mine if you'll show me yours? nt

[Pool Hall Ace]

73. That is exactly what I was thinking!

I guess that Dad is so stressed and Mom is so busy concentrating on pleasing Dad that nobody is noticing what the kids are doing right under their noses!

[pink-o]

24. This, written for mothers of Boomers--the same Rosie Riveters

who kept the country running smoothly while their men were fighting WWII. Poor, weak women who needed men to justify their existence!

As a boomer woman myself--a boomer woman who's been 6'1" tall since age 14 in 1969--I never bought the "weaker sex" bullshit, and neither did my mom. However, those Rosies were willing to play the game ala "Madmen", and subvert all their opinions and most of their needs to get a husband and a good, middle-class life. It didn't matter how miserable they were, they consoled themselves with the idea that they couldn't do any better.

And...regardless of the fact that they knew it was all bullshit, they still tried to pass it on to their daughters (us) that we needed to laugh at all the guy's jokes, never state our opinions too stridently, never show you're smarter than your man or stronger or funnier. Luckily, it didn't take: we had Gloria Steinem as our savior, just in time!

[sufrommich]

28. That is exactly what I don't like about urban legends like

this article. You're a baby boomer and so am I , my mother did not teach these toxic stereotypes to me and your mother didn't either. These women in the 50s weren't evil stepford wives,they were three dimensional people who lived during the era they knew and were questioning their place in it in 1955 right though modern times.My mother is in her 70s, was a 50s housewife and has been active in politics and a writer all her life.Our mothers were the original 2nd wave feminists who summoned up great bravery to change the world for their daughters and out grandmothers did too.I have nothing but sympathy for the Rosie the Riveters who were told to go home as soon as the war effort was over and those women never forgot what they were forced to give away. There was no era in modern history where women were willfully stupid and didn't struggle with their lot in life,what was advertised as "real life" on Madison Avenue was no more the truth than it is today,they lived lives we couldn't imagine in our times and they fought right along side us to make it better.

[TahitiNut]

35. Agreed. Further, I have difficulty even imagining one of the males in my family, of that generation,

... not greeting such an article with derision and ridicule, regarding it as some "other planet" insanity. While the cartoonish notion of "success" was certainly a single-earner family, white picket fence, two children, and a dog, the REALITY was far different and most of us KNEW it.

[sufrommich]

54. Well said,Tahiti Nut, I couldn't imagine my father or

grandfather behaving like that to their wives (or daughters) either.

[pink-o]

98. A lot of those Rosies had to go along to get along

You and I are old enough to remember when job applications in the "want ads" were divided by gender. Seriously, kids--I could have had a PhD and tried to work in my field, only to be denied for a far less-qualified man who needed to "support his family" !!! Women couldn't buy property on their own in some states, and the worst thing that could happen was for a woman to become a "spinster" and not get married by the time she was 25!!

So a lot of my mom's generation tried to tell us young girls how to subvert ourselves to the male gender because they wanted us to succeed socially, and that was the only way back then. No woman ever really believed it, though. And once women gained more power over their bodies--in the early 60s, when birth-control pills became accessible--it was only a matter of time before the 3rd wave of Feminism came to fruition.

Naomi Wolfe's very first book, The Beauty Myth, suspects a far more insidious agenda for the success of Feminism. Back in Mom's day, the men as "breadwinners" controlled the purse strings. Women had to actually ask their husbands for money to buy anything, and men weren't exactly generous when it came to beauty products or even clothes for their wives. "You look fine, Honey," I imagine straight men back then being even more clueless than they are now about women's fashion. But once women were able to work and have their own money, the beauty industry flourished, and the infusion to the economy was like finding the Motherlode. So women have been allowed their jobs outside the home, their conditional acceptance as equals because it behooves The System to have us as a money source.

That's a little too cynical for me, but even if it is true, it's mutually beneficial to both the economy and to women. We just have to be certain we keep on pushing until we are truly equal and there are no more limitations on either men or women.

Because, Guys, our equality only benefits you. You want to be around happy, fulfilled women, right?

[sufrommich]

103. I'm not disagreeing with you that those were dark days,

and I certainly do remember the gender based classified ads. I guess the point I'm trying to make is that the women's movement of the early 70s didn't happen in a vacuum,The Feminine Mystique was written in 1963.I just don't like to gloss over the fact that many of those 50s housewives did not fit the stereotype of willing submissive women,hence the explosion of popularity with tranquilizers at the time.Some bravely worked with what they had, I think you're making the same point in a different way.I'm a huge fan of Mad Men,by the way, and love the simmering (and growing) contempt among the women on the show in regard to their "lot in life". All I ask is that we don't mock these women as being wholly comfortable with that era,I think most signs point to the fact that they weren't happy at all.

[csziggy]

40. My Mom sure didn't stay home while the men went off to war.

She was a Navy Nurse and spent the last part of the war at a hospital in Hawaii taking care of the worst wounded making them well enough to survive the trip back to the mainland. She had a career long before she met my Dad after the war was over. While she stayed home before the youngest of us started school, she went back to nursing for a number of years and kept her license current until she was 70 in case she chose to go back to work. Even when she left the local hospital and while she was staying home with the kids, she did the bookkeeping and payroll for Dad's company and was an essential part of his business. Dad always valued her career and her contribution to his career and business. They have had a 50-50 marriage for 63 years!

And Mom taught all four of her daughters that we did not need a man to support us or make us happy. We all completed college and had our own lives before we married. Yes, we married - because we found men who accepted us for what we were and could do, not men that we had to cater to or defer to.

If I had seen that guide to being a good life when I was a kid I would have laughed my ass off! Now it just seems a little stupid.

[alphafemale]

97. Yeah that's part of what gets to me about the rigid gender roles of the 50's

These were woman that knew they were capable of doing just about everything...because they'd already done it.

I mean...wtf?

[pink-o]

99. Because after the war, if they'd struck out on their own they would have been marginalized.

See my earlier post: women could be denied jobs in favour of men. Women couldn't buy homes in many states.

Not to mention the social ostracism of being a single woman back then. Mad Men takes a few liberties, but that part they got dead-on!

[NoSheep]

127. Absolutely. That's when many magazines started...in order to "explain" and

proscribe to women what their NEW role would be once they gave up their incomes so the men could take the jobs over again. Household appliances, ramped up consumption, child rearing advice, all that crap started then; turning women into NO income consumers of the latest devices to make their family happy. I remain childless and unmarried at 46 as the game was not for me.

[rcrush]

26. Thats what I'm sayin...

[seabeyond]

30. sheeeeit, print is too small, cant read. and i really really wanted to be a good wife too

bummer

[NorthCarolina]

62. If you are using the Firefox browser, install the "Image Zoom" plug-in

that will enable you to use the scroll wheel on your mouse to enlarge any web image.

[seabeyond]

71. thank you. i was teasing. i cant see it, but i wouldnt bother to see it anyway.

i am a perfectly fine wife to my perfectly fine husband and we dont need an article to suggest what is "good".

appreciate you time though

[kestrel91316]

31. I think my mom must have used this as her MO. And my dear father

wasn't one to tell her not to. But as long as I can remember, he got his own drinks, and was ALWAYS home on time for dinner, and was a natural homebody and world's most easygoing person.

Sheesh. I am glad I was born when I was.

[Colonel Bat Guano]

32. I don't know if this is fake or not....

...but I'm pretty sure I read similar stuff in "Dear Abby" in the 1970s, including things like "greet your returning husband in nothing but saran wrap and high heels!"

Ewww.

Anyway, with that kind of thing going even in the midst of the Women's Lib movement, sure, I'd believe this article is real for a 1955 magazine. If it's not, I'll bet it's not exaggerated by much.

I also wouldn't be surprised to find corresponding articles in Esquire or other men's magazines of the day, explaining point by point what you should expect from your housewife on returning home.

[kestrel91316]

33. I have read other stuff from the 50s (I was born in 1957), and can pretty

much guarantee you this is real.

After WW II women got thrown off the job and back into the home. It was a conservative time. Remember McCarthyism?

[BreweryYardRat]

121. I wouldn't mind "saran wrap and high heels" on occasion.

It'd make for a very pleasant surprise.

But I certainly wouldn't expect it on a regular basis.

[Toucano]

34. I remember this issue!

It came shrink wrapped with a pair of knee pads and a self-lobotomy kit.

[woo me with science]

36. All in the past.

[Quantess]

50. Holy **** what is that about?

Those are disturbing photos. At least you could prepare the viewer with a visual warning and offer some reading context to go with it.
We want the story.

[Quantess]

37. "Don't complain...even if he stays out all night"?

"You have no right to question him"?


Oh, this had to have been written by a cheating husband.

[frogmarch]

38. Hey, little girl, comb your hair,

fix your makeup, ladahdah etc.

I am so glad this isn't the fifties. What an awful era for women.

[pink-o]

100. I f***ing HATED that song when I was a child!! n/t

[Mari333]

39. I grew up in the 50s this isnt too far off, and women did douche with LYSOL

THIS is for real


http://www.mum.org/Lysol48.htm

[woo me with science]

45. Yes, this one was stunning.

As I recall, it was one of a series of ads from Lysol that all showed a woman in despair as her husband recoils from her presence, disgusted that she has not douched with Lysol.

Thanks for posting this.

[woo me with science]

47. Here's a blog with some of the others. nt

[Tabasco_Dave]

48. That guy's a wuss

I love a woman's smell.

[Number23]

51. "Gives a fresh, clean, WHOLESOME feeling."

Yes, as women we all know how important it is for... *down there*... to feel wholesome.

This is all just a bit terrifying!

[jmowreader]

59. It wasn't JUST used to solve...well, aroma problems

It was also used to solve a different "female malady"--pregnancy. And if our friends on the other side of the abortion debate ever get their way, it will start solving that "malady" again.

Unfortunately, sometimes a Lysol abortion works by killing the mother.

[8 track mind]

74. ok that's just freaking whack.....

i really have no idea just how sensitive things are down there for a woman, but that HAD to burn like hell.......

[JVS]

77. The ad does say that just a small quantity in a proper solution is needed.

[Mari333]

79. even a drop would be like the flaming fires of hell nt

[lumpy]

87. I had my 1st child in the 50's. It was common hospital practice

back then to wash the 'goods' with a Lysol solution. No problem, didn't hurt like hell.

[lumpy]

88. I had my 1st child during the 50's. It was hospital practice back

then to have women, post delivery, wash the 'goods' with a Lysol solution. It didn't hurt like hell at all.

[Mari333]

92. until the monstrous yeast infection begins

The active ingredients in Lysol are Ethanol/SD Alcohol, which is a highly flammable fluid that acts as a sanitizer, Isopropyl alcohol, which is partly responsible for Lysol's strong odor which acts as a sanitizing agent that removes odor, carbon dioxide, benzalkonium chloride, and 2-phenylphenol, a disinfectant.

ugh no thanks.

[madamesilverspurs]

41. Ah, memories...

"Oh give a cheer, a cheer, a cheer for Lydia Pinkham,
The benefactress of the human race!
A vegetable compound, a baby a bottle,
And the label bears her face."



Have no clue who wrote that, but we used to get swazzled and sing it at the top of our lungs in bars.

[bridgit]

42. Be a little gay and a little more interesting for him. His boring day may need...

a lift and one of your duties is to provide it.

[woo me with science]

55. Thank you!

I have not read James Lileks in ages. What a wonderful surprise!

[Stevenmarc]

63. As opposed to being a whole lot gay and leaving him for another woman

[cloudbase]

43. Big deal.

Can she field dress a moose?

[tabbycat31]

46. makes me very glad I was not alive then

[Taitertots]

52. That article is crap

Still, a stay at home mate (regardless of gender) should keep the house clean, care for the children, make meals, and comfort their working partner.

[alphafemale]

56. "...remember, his topics of conversation are more important thatn yours."

[Political Heretic]

58. Ah the good ol days.

[carlyhippy]

60. How June Cleaver-ish...Ward, you mustn't be so hard on the Beaver

June wouldn't put up with Ward Cleaver stayin out all night. She would have "arranged his pillow" over his face and slapped him about the head with his shoes.....

[empyreanisles]

64. I'll tell you what, though. A woman who treats her man like a king

...won't have to worry about him straying.

You guys laugh at this, but there is nothing wrong with a woman who wishes to defer to a man's power.

If he provides and protects the household, it is her job to provide a clean environment, cooked meals, and endless sex (i.e. every kink he wants and with a smile).

[Mari333]

80. I see. But why be a Cheap Hooker/ Prostitute for your husband when

you can make more money as a Professional Hooker on the streets? Makes no sense. shit, a good call girl can amass 500 bucks an hour.
Just good business sense.
oh, and if a husband decides to stray because you arent fulfilling these obligations? he should have been gone longgg ago. Guys like that arent worth a plug nickel. dump em.

[Skittles]

122. LOL

those are the kind of gals who end up in shelters

[carlyhippy]

65. OMG...here's a 50's movie about why women should take home ec

Well, at least Miss Jenkins was fairly liberated, she did tell the girl she had the choice to go on to college and don't have to marry right away.....but if she did go to college, STUDY HOME EC hahaha.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQm1C_iTIJM&feature=Play...

[Captain Hilts]

66. And people thought that there was something 'wrong' with single women. nt

[Lorien]

110. I'm surprised that ANY woman would want to marry in that social climate

there's no way in hell that I would. I guess that's why they made it so difficult for women to earn an income on their own-and why they STILL deny us the ERA and equal pay for equal work.

[Pachamama]

68. American Taliban....

I nearly dropped my jaw reading that....

[formercia]

69. American Taliban

All you need is a Burqua.

[Bandit]

70. remember, he is the master

No wonder Republicans look to the fifties as the Good days.....

[8 track mind]

72. if i even remotely thought about

suggesting this to the wife, i would wake up with a certain part of my anatomy super glued to another part of my anatomy.

[MrsBrady]

78. ouch n/t

[MrsBrady]

75. actual Betty Crocker page from my old cookbook

I love this cook book, but it has lots of comments like this all through this thing.
This is the first place I look when I want to scan a recipe, but it is also like looking
back in time. This was published in late 50's as I recall, but I'm missing the title page.

[Bluebear]

86. Great advice. Fuel his weariness with some alcohol & see what kind of drunk he is.

[MrsBrady]

95. hell

i'd need a drink just to put up with that crap

[Hepburn]

76. Let him find a mistress...

...because he has no respect for you with the word WELCOME and his foot prints all over your backside. Yes, indeed, a good wife knows her place.

JMHO...

[Hello_Kitty]

120. Hell, the whole point of being a mistress was you didn't have to put up with the wifey shit.

Of course, the trade-off was you didn't get the wife's social status.

[Hello_Kitty]

81. Reminds me of Mad Men

Betty wasn't supposed to be upset that Don stayed out night after night with his paramours. But she was so of course he had to send her to a shrink, who reported everything that went on in their sessions to Don.

[Lorien]

109. I have male friends who LOVE that show

and that fact gives me the creeps!

The fact is that most men would still like things to be that way-especially Freeper types. They're always saying "things were PERFECT in the 1950s, and then the hippies ruined everything". They loved it when women, gays, and non-whites "knew their place"-which was always under their thumb. More and more often I meet white guys who truly do want to go back to those times. Hopefully the new American Taliban will never get their wish.

[Hello_Kitty]

111. I love the show for exactly the opposite reason.

It should be required viewing for women (and there are sadly too many) who want to go back to those "simpler" times.

[sufrommich]

115. I love Mad Men. It really doesn't paint a pretty picture of

that era.

[sufrommich]

116. At the end of season 2 the relationship between Betty and

Don is on it's way toward reversing. You can see it coming,I predict a consciousness raising experience for Betty is on the way.

[Hello_Kitty]

119. Oh yeah, it's the perfect time for it. Especially if they flash forward to the mid 60s. eom

[lunatica]

82. This is why The Feminine Mystic was written by Betty Friedan

It changed everything

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Feminine_Mystique


The Feminine Mystique, published 19 February 1963 is a book written by Betty Friedan which brought to light the lack of fulfillment in many women's lives, which was generally kept hidden. According to The New York Times obituary of Friedan in 2006, it “ignited the contemporary women's movement in 1963 and as a result permanently transformed the social fabric of the United States and countries around the world” and “is widely regarded as one of the most influential nonfiction books of the 20th century.”<1>

The Feminine Mystique came about after Friedan sent a questionnaire to other women in her 1942 Smith College graduating class. Most women in her class indicated a general unease with their lives. Through her findings, Friedan hypothesized that women are victims of a false belief system that requires them to find identity and meaning in their lives through their husbands and children. Such a system causes women to completely lose their identity in that of their family.

Friedan specifically locates this system among post-World War II middle-class suburban communities. She suggests that men returning from war turned to their wives for mothering. At the same time, America's post-war economic boom had led to the development of new technologies that were supposed to make household work less difficult, but that often had the result of making women's work less meaningful and valuable.

more at the link...

[Mari333]

83. valium addiction was an epidemic back then

'mothers little helper'.
I guess if you had to be a prostitute you needed drugs

[Manifestor_of_Light]

105. Not just valium; lots of other pills.

My mother and her friends all took Miltown, the first trank. Then they took Valium, Librium and others. Mom moved on to heavy stuff like Placidyl, so that she was useless by the time I was in high school (late 1960s).

The doctors gave the women tranks in suburbia so they would be quiet and not march in the streets.

Mom told me I was going to college, I was bright and going to get lots of education, etc. but she also said "Face it, it's a man's world!!". I was also told to act dumb to catch a man. And I had an IQ test when I started school, at age five, where I scored 148 -- more than three standard deviations above normal!! That's 1 out of 1,000.

Needless to say, I never played dumb to get a date. I scared hell out of your average frat boy just by saying "Hello". So I dated math/physics/engineering majors. Solved the problem. They like bright women.

That was depressing as hell. It's still true. Many men do not take women seriously. And many men refuse to do any housework, and think that it's sissy if boys want to do art or music. Just watch "Wife Swap" and you'll see it every single week.

[absyntheminded]

84. yeah

saw that a couple months ago - too funny. Sarcastically sent to my girlfriend for a laugh.
Yeah, yeah, you see, you see.

[cherish44]

89. Here's what I think of this

Seriously though my ex husband would LOVE to have had this life.

[21st century fox]

90. I don't believe some of the lines...I think this is doctored.

I am sure that some of them are real, but they added crazy ones like "his opinion is more important than yours." Bee ess! Even in the '50s, I'm sure it wasn't that bad. Remember that Alice Kramden wore the pants in that household...

[Orangepeel]

91. yeah. no fifties article would say "don't complain if he stays out all night"

A "legitimate" publication in 1955 (was there even a magazine called "Housekeeping monthly" wouldn't recognize that a husband would stay out all night if a wife was acting like she "ought to".

[azmouse]

93. I live by those rules...

Honestly, being a doormat is no way to live.

My husband and I treat each other with respect and try to make life pleasant for each other but it's definitely a two way street. That's why we're celebrating our 22nd wedding anniversary today. We must be doing something right.

[LisaL]

94. I am not sure I believe this is for real.

[BlooInBloo]

96. Too funny. I can't remotely imagine a girl like this.

[maryf]

101. Nor a woman either...nt

[CrispyQ]

102. My mother nor either of my grandmother's

had relationships like this with their husbands. In fact, both my grandfather's pretty much lived by the rule, "If mama's not happy, no one's happy!"

[sufrommich]

104. lol! nt

[Raine]

114. That was the rule in our home

too my mother certainly wasn't like anything in this article and neither was my grandmother.

[uppityperson]

106. good lord I would like a "wife". eom

[Renew Deal]

107. This should be taught in elementary schools

[Dorian Gray]

108. My favorite is

"Don't complain if he is late for dinner, or even if he is out all night."

Yeah, right. Bwah ha ha ha ha.

[Raine]

113. My mother was a young wife at that time

but she sure wasn't like this in anyway. This kind of thing is just the ideal but I bet very few at the time took this truly seriously.

[Mari333]

117. if they did a lot of them drank heavily nt

[DFW]

118. "Be a little gay and a little more interesting for him." Really?

If a guy's wife is a little gay, it'll be interesting for him alright!

[greenbriar]

123. bwhahahahaha is this for real?

what MAN wrote this?

[knitter4democracy]

124. This is exactly the kind of wife STBX wanted me to be.

Planned dinners ahead of time? Check. Dinner ready or almost ready when he walked in the door? Check.

Makeup and such? Often forgot that one, but he always liked it when I did.

Be interesting and fun to brighten his day? Check. His mood was apparently dependent on mine.

Clutter? Check. It would be a good night if I'd cleared away all the clutter and he could smell the cleaning products when he walked in the door.

Light a fire? Check. In fact, he sometimes asked me to make sure I had it going when he got home.

Prepare the children and make the house quiet? He definitely was pissed off if I didn't do that, but I refused to do that, so it was a constant bone of contention.

Be happy to please him? Check. He was always angry if I didn't act like my entire life revolved around making him god or something.

Listen to him like he's god? Check. He didn't tell me often to shut up when I'd tell him about my day, but he did enough times that I learned what he wanted.

Never complain about his hours or what he was doing without me? Check. He made it clear that I was never to complain about his work hours, so it's funny that he used that excuse to hide his affairs that started when our son was just two months old.

Know my place and never question him? Check. If it was a political debate, that was fine, but I was never to question him on the bills, whether he'd made the right decision on something, or anything really important, let alone have my own opinion and go my own way of handling things.

Honestly, it was like that boiling frog story. Everything started out wonderfully, but now that he's out and we're in the middle of the divorce, I wonder why and how I put up with his crap for so long.

[NoSheep]

125. "Proscriptive literature" = propaganda.

[defendandprotect]

128. Wonderful find . . . hard to believe now . . . this is the stuff Betty Friendan

researched for her book -- The Feminine Mystique

Obviously, there was a considerable impact of this propaganda on females of EVERY age --

But, you have to also realize the impact on males of every age -- feeding notions of
superiority and expections of service for how long before they woke up?

And have they actually woken up from the patriarchal promise of male superiority and
female submissiveness?

Notice, cooking in high heels!

And, don't forget the "ribbon in your hair" ---

What's for certain is that women at that time were making 50% of what males were making
for the same work. And that went on a very long time -- right up to now!
Though, I think we're up to 74 cents now?