Life Magazine- December 31, 1965

In this special holiday edition of Life the editors combined two issues in one to talk about the American woman and her achievements as well as her troubles. All of the articles were pertaining to woman and their effects on the work force as well as modern day households.

            One article entitled, “Women Are Wonderful” was written side-by-side another article “Women Are Misguided”. Phyllis McGinley wrote the first article and Cornelia Skinner wrote the second, creating two opposing views on women. The first article discussed how woman, contrary to popular belief, like each other and dress up for each others approval, talk over there problems, offer their sympathy, and exchange bread recipes. The writer even goes on to say that women are less fragile than men that they have sound, sturdy virtues that make them irreplaceable. The other article discussed how women are still waging a ridiculous war over feminism; an issue that the writer feels is dead. Women, she says, will never stop trying to prove themselves equal to men. The writer feels that women try to fault their accomplishment, which in turn makes women lose some of the delights and fulfillments of being a woman. 

            In the beginning of the magazine they showed pictures of American women; one in a plaid button-up, blue jeans, and holding a gun, another in the dessert of Arizona, a woman on her wedding day, and one in a cocktail dress out on the town. These were meant to preview not only the beauty of the women but the divers personalities and qualities of them.   Later on the issue, they show pictures of women from around the world in various cultures. The heading of the section was “Portraits give U.S. women basis for comparison” which I thought was interesting considering that the editors want American women want to compare themselves to other women from around the world. There are pictures of women from Hong Kong, Eurasia, Singapore, India, West Africa, Israel, Sweden, Italy, Paris, and Ireland. The introduction discussed how when men come back from tours of duty that they describe the lure of foreign women.  I think that its funny how this issue seems to be honoring and respecting women but this section is basically tell American women to step it up so the foreign women wont steal their men.

            The article that intrigued me the most was about women in the business world and how they have moved in masses to replace men in nursing, entertainment, assemblers, teaching, garment trades, and more. It stated that since 1950, when 16.5 million women held jobs, the number has shot up at a rate of a million a year. It goes on to state that now (1956) there are 22 million women at work, holding one third of all the jobs in the nation. Half of the women in the work force are married and most of them are still traditional fields for women. Women in the garment trade at a plant in Atlanta earn up to two dollars an hour. At that time the U.S. had over 400,000 active graduate nurses, and 100,00 student nurses, 835,000 women teachers in the school system, and Macy’s in New York during the Christmas season employed 2,270 permanent sales ladies.

            The article entitled “My Wife Works and I Like It” is an argument by Jim Magill that his wife’s full-time job is good for her, good for him, and food for their children. With her part-time job their family receives a second income, which is great for their budget. Jenny gets to feel independent and has made friends with people at work that she wouldn’t have met otherwise. Jim picks up Jenny after work and on their ride home they get a chance to talk without domestic distractions. 

The New Yorker- April 16th 1932

The New Yorker- April 16. 1932

When looking at the Magazine The New Yorker it is clear that the magazine is organized similarly from issue to issue consisting of a "Goings On About Town" section, a "Talk of the Town" section, a number of short articles, and one "Profiles" section. The magazine cover is of a multicolored cartoon of a circus with a caravan of elephants, performers on horses, and two bright pink female acrobats up in the air. Although there are many articles in the magazine most of the contents are advertisements and cartoon drawings.

In “Goings On About Town” I read about a variety of events in April that included plays, motion pictures, art, opera, sports, and other events. I was very excited when I found an event listing of a Mary Wigman dance recital that, as I learned in my Dance History course, was a leading lady of early modern dance during that time. I also noted that the Philharmonic Symphony was performing at Carnegie Hall the day this magazine was published.

            The editors of the magazine had a section for answering questions that the readers would send to them for advice or information. In this months issue, Flint Albercht asked what is the appropriate way to escort a lady on and off of the dance floor and when is it appropriate for a man to hold a woman’s arm and vice versa. This struck me as interesting because this shows that in the 1930’s manners and proper etiquette were stressed as important information in society. I find it almost comical for an article that is entitled “Answers-To-Hard-Questions Department” to have the main subject about men and women holding hands. I did however enjoy the New Yorker pride that the editor who replied to the question seemed to have when describing how taking “cross hands” with your partner is the way it has always has been done in New York.

The advertisements in the magazine seemed to all revolve around food, beauty products, cars and cigarettes. On the second page there was an advertisement for a "Eugene Dryer" which in 1930's must have been a fresh new way for women to do their hair. The advertisement explains how with this hairdryer woman can recreate the fashionable wave haircut of the 30's while only having to wait fifteen minutes for their hair to dry. The bulky standup hairdryer is nothing like a portable hairdryer today that is only a few pounds and takes only three to four minutes to dry hair.  Another advertisement was for Peck & Peck, a clothing store on fifth avenue. The bold heading on the advertisement was "Five Gay Little Sweaters" which was printed next to cartoon drawings of different patterned sweaters. In seeing this add it made me wonder if a clothing store in this day and age would dare to use such wording, what with the more common use of the word “gay” being homosexual. Overall the adds seemed to be slanted to upper class readers who could afford such things as fur coats, expensive perfume, or even a private plane, described in the Pitcairn advertisement as a secure and practical way of taking you to and from the country club. 

Of the many cartoons that are creatively drawn for the magazine, most seemed to follow “American” themes like Baseball, a family buying a car, or men at a bar after work. The cartoon I found to be the most politically poignant was of a middle-lower class family sitting down for dinner. The mother in the cartoon says to her son, who is arriving late for dinner, “ Well, Mayor Walker, would you condescend to have dinner with us?” This is in reference to the Mayor of New York in 1932, Mayor Jimmy Walker. This animation is a social comment on how the middle/ working class families viewed Mayor Walker as arrogant or pompous and gave me great insight into the attitudes of the different socioeconomic levels in New York during the 1930s.