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The 1950's are often portrayed as a period of social cohesion, why is this misleading?

The 1950’s are misleadingly portrayed as a time of cultural cohesion because of the time of peace the U.S. was going through. Men and Women had their place giving children unsupervised time for play. Men were home from the war so marriages and babies were on the rise, therefore the endorphins associated with those two things probably gave the whole decade a rose tint. The 50’s are painted as the perfect balance between male and female spheres in a suburban utopia, but in reality these spheres where stifling for those put into them and for the children whose futures they would become.

In reality the 1950’s were not really the American golden age. Bomb shelters were encouraged and drills in school prepared children for some sort of nuclear attack. While nothing actually happened, society clung to the normalcy of the nuclear family and comfort of the family way. Sticking to the norm soothed the nerves of American. All of the pop-culture that came from the 50’s reeks of wholesome, unless of course it was controversial at the time (like rock and roll music). The clean cut society portrayed is just a mask for the insecurities of a dawning nuclear age and an imminent face off with communism as an idea.

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