- U.S. Social/Family History
- Practice, Practice, Practice
It might seem odd to use MST3K to educate, it’s useful tool for kick-starting conversations.This discussion centers around a ten minute film depicting the ideal 50′s family. It’s by Edward Simmel. My wife and son watched this. Then we talked about it.
Click this image to learn more about MST3K at Wikipedia
What it is: A Date with Your Family, an advertisement for American culture, as viewed through the lens of Mystery Science Theater 3000
Plan: Read the next section and then view the film below. Talk about it. Use the questions provided – in addition to your own – to explore what the video means to you. Wonder what it might have meant to viewers in that this earlier period.
The big picture up to now
America emerged from World War II emboldened. Western Europe was in shambles and Eastern Europe was catatonic from the extreme horrors of that front. American know-how was helping West Germany and Japan to rebuild. This generation of heroes, fresh from fixing things abroad – and embarking on the new cause of Korea – turned their attention to fixing things back home.
With the best of intentions, these people thought about promoting something resembling a continental-American ethic. These are the method people of my popular imagination. In my mind, there was nothing they couldn’t do. They would later become surprised that their grand-children would look on so much of their achievements with disdain and seek to overturn their order.
People from this time would have found Joel and the bots’ jokes distasteful and unduly cynical. Americans coming out of the wreckage of WWII – building what they did – would be shocked that we would find their social engineering efforts so offensive. They’ve seen the pictures in the papers and the video from the news reels. They know what Europe looks like: wracked with devastation.
They’d ask Why shouldn’t we be motivated to make something better for ourselves? Americans got lucky in this last conflict, but many would see it as a sign from God. Regardless, their children’s children would have no direct memory of the destruction.
It’s 1950. Europe is shell-shocked and rebuilding. The east has been managed with American know-how. Good, clean, can-do men are building our nation.
Questions
- What are the comparative roles of Daughter and Son?
- What’s the hierarchy of the family?
- What’s the role of mother?
- What references were there to the inner world of thoughts and feelings?
Some cynical thoughts
This was never true.
So son does his homework while daughter… fixes fresh flowers from the yard and helps mom in the kitchen? My son asked, “wait, what about her homework?” My wife (who had never seen something like this) cynically added, “she’s probably taking home economics. This is her homework.”
Think of this as an advertisement for a way of life. I don’t think for one second that this is an accurate portrayal of a mid 1950′s weekday evening. The viewer is supposed to think this is good and proper. The inner world of thoughts and emotions is purely a secondary affair when compared to the almost memorized propriety of the dinnertime ritual.
Remember my earlier note about good clean men? Then, as now, abounded with ugliness. Thanks to newfound American prosperity, women were expected to take on a subservient role. It was proper, but it was also very new. Minority rights were still largely ignored and the myth of an American monoculture was nourished. But the nation was slowly improving. The stage was being set for a spiritual renewal.
Changing times
Imagine how people in the distant future will look back on our time. It’d look quite similar to this earlier time. Cultural and social minorities are still persecuted. We still have baffling institutional problems.
We’re pulled every which way by the changing winds of sentiment. It’s hard to see clearly when you live in an interregnum between periods of social change. The pressure builds up and releases in waves against a backdrop of global and local events.
I won’t pretend to have any answers. But I have a few good questions. In future posts, I will pick other clips and wonder, along with my family, about what it was like. How did it feel? We’ll never have an answer to that, but there is value in the wondering.
