A 1998 movie, Pleasantville, written and directed by Gary Ross, tells a story of two teenage siblings from the 1990s who magically are transported and trapped in a 1950s television sitcom, Pleasantville.
Society there, as in 1950s America, was controlled and predictable. Men worked, and women remained at home complacently childbearing, cleaning, and cooking. Children amiably and dutifully walked to school.
Books, magazines, art, and music were under strict supervision. Life seemed black and white, even colorless. Pleasantville was decidedly white and middle class (“Pleasantville,” http:// www.imdb.com ).
When Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders spoke at the Republican National Convention a few weeks ago, she spoke of a goal to “pass on.” Gov. Sanders promised a nostalgic life such as “we enjoyed as children” (“Sarah Huckabee Sanders Speaks at RNC 2024 Night Two,” REV Transcription Services, http://www.rev.com ).
Life in her childhood, as in my childhood, was similar to a ‘fifties TV sitcom. Life then, however, for everyone was not idyllic. Life was only good for straight white men.
The United States is a bastion of freedom. We do want to maintain the freedoms won in the past few decades. Yet the life promised by the GOP is not the perceived perfection of the past. This society never existed. Their emphasis on “family values” and plans for prosperity favor the white and wealthy. (Apparently Trump did not get the memo about family values.)
Pleasantville never existed for everyone.
The façade of the ‘fifties began in the U.S. after World War II. The postwar years did indeed “boom.” The American economy was growing. Suburbs of new, identical, characterless homes were financed by G.I. Bills for white soldiers.
Birth rates soared. Four million babies were born each year of the 1950s. Middle-class white people flourished because of economic growth, low inflation, high wages, and a plethora of goods to purchase (Amanda Onion, Missy Sullivan, Matt Mullen, and Christian Zapata, “The 1950s,” http:// www.history.com ).
As white Americans prospered, the post-war years drove an evergrowing disparity in wealth, education, and civil rights between Whites and people of color, between men and women (Onion, et al.).
When my mother married my father in 1951, women were expected to find a husband after high school, or obtain a “MRS.” degree in the early semesters of college.
Domesticity was idealized. Women were assigned the role of “happy homemaker,” whether they were truly happy or not. Women faced years and years of child-bearing before reliable contraception was available (“Mrs. America: Women’s Roles in the 1950s,” American Experience, http:///www.pbs.org ).
American women of this era and earlier eras could not open a bank account or qualify for a loan without a male relative’s permission. Restrictions were finally lifted in 1974 under the Equal Credit Opportunities Act.
Women were not allowed to serve on a jury in a court of law until 1968 or to practice law until 1971.
Birth control pills were not easily obtained until 1960. Unmarried women could not purchase any means of birth control until 1972.
Taking maternity leave was not possible until the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978. Breast feeding in public was a crime until 2018 in some states (Jess Catcher, “11 Things Women Weren’t Allowed To Do in the 1950s and 1960s,” September 22, 2023, http://www.littlethings. com ).
Women were forbidden to attend an Ivy League school or a military academy in the 1950s. Female runners could not run in the Boston Marathon until 1972. There were no women serving in combat until 2013, nor were there female astronauts until 1978 (Catcher).
Is this the society Gov. Sanders and the GOP would have us return to, to Make America Great Again?
Republicans have been working, nationally, in states, and even in cities, seeking to control what we read, what we hear, what we do, and who we love. What would another Trump presidency mean for preserving democracy? How would the Republican/Heritage- Foundation-proposed Project 2025 affect our hardwon rights?
Project 2025 is a dangerous plan of policies to overhaul the federal government in an ultra-conservative administration. There would be a consolidation of power to a chosen few, loyal to Trump. The Executive Branch, the President, would have dangerously unprecedented powers.
Policies would include cuts to food stamps, to Medicare, and to federal student loans. Tax bracket changes would favor those in high-income tax brackets and high-income investors (Annie Nova and Kate Dore, “Lower Capital Gains Tax, Cuts to Food Benefits: What Project 2025 Could Mean for Your Wallet in a Trump Presidency,” July 16, 2024, http://www.cnbc.com ). In addition to detrimentally affecting all citizens, Project 2025 and a “return to yester year” would mean people of color would be at greater risk of old, nefarious racism. A centralization of federal law enforcement could override local police authorities. The Insurrection Act could be invoked to suppress peaceful protests and marches.
The Department of Justice, if not destroyed, would become a tool to “eliminate white racism.” Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion (DEI) programs have already been dismantled in “red states.” Affirmative Action programs have been eliminated in some places (BET [Black Entertainment Television] Staff, July 1,2024, http://www.bet.com ).
Protection for LGBTQ+ citizens, under a Trump presidency, would be erased. People would lose their jobs based solely on their sexual orientation. Their very lives would be in danger. They would lose their civil rights (BET Staff).
“David” and “Jennifer” eventually escape Pleasantville and return to their own decade of the 1990s, but only after they show the community how to step out of repressed lives, to embrace lives free of the controls of societal norms. Pleasantville does become pleasant, because the citizens now may pursue freedom of choice and freedom of personal expression.
After my mother’s death, I found among her papers her first voter registration card. It bore only my father’s name preceded by a “Mrs.” She was denied so many freedoms and opportunities that women of this century enjoy.
My granddaughter deserves freedom to make her own choices and to pursue her dreams. “Make America Great Again” is an effort to return to a society of white male supremacy. A Trump presidency might give Gov. Sanders and wealthy Whites the privileged life they remember so fondly.
But the ’fifties were only good for straight white men. We must not go back.