How_Was_the_1950's_a_Period_of_Conformity_

The decade of the 1950's brought forth another era of good feelings as America thought of themselves proudly as undefeated and a supreme country. Americans gathered together as one against Communism, a fear that they considered the enemy. This collaboration distinguished the 'true' Americans from the rest, which eventually formed into a society of noticeable similarity. The 1950's was definitely a period of conformity, which can be proven by the conflict that arose as a result of those who rebelled against this cloned society. Conformity grew from the rich soil of national fear, and lived on the phobia of change. The concept of Communism was one that had a huge effect on everyone. It was the American enemy and America wanted nothing but to destroy it, to keep it our of the minds of anyone who lived amongst them. In February of 1950, a man named Joseph R. McCarthy charged that there were unknown scores of communists in the State Department. He was unable to prove these accusations, but many American still feared it's possibility. McCarthy then charged that Secretary of State Dean Acheson was knowingly employing 205 Communist Party Members , another accusation with no evidence. Although President Dwight D. Eisenhower privately loathed McCarthy, the majority of Americans seemed to support him, thus allowing McCarthy to thrive. His next actions included the denouncing of General George Marshall and attacking the army, in which he was finally exposed as a liar and a drunk. Unfortunately by then, American culture was convinced and became one that would conform. Communism created a mass of paranoid civilians, who decided that conforming was the only way of distinguishing an honest American from a fake. Conformity was physical, mental, and emotional. The image of the 1950's was that of the 'traditional' family, with a working father, mother at home, and children living in suburbia with their televisions and similar style. The fact that every family was basically doing the same, saying the same, buying the same, and living the same shows that they were conforming and living to their expectations of the average American. Physically, women wore the same kind of clothing as other women, cut their hair in the same short, curled style, and worked at home as the perfect wife and mother. Men were expected to work to provide for their family. They came home to their house that was built the same as their neighbors to use the appliances that everyone else had. Mentally, 1950's civilians shared the same morals, the same beliefs, the same state of mind. They commonly and quietly agreed in the secret of sexuality. To them, it was only right to not educate their children on sex. This belief was widespread, as television was extremely censored, nothing sexual allowed on it. This included the word 'pregnancy' and the image of women wearing immodest bathing suits. It was a crime to have sex outside of marriage. Having sex without being married was not tolerated. Doctors could also be jailed for providing their patients with information on birth control, even to married women. Emotionally, those who did not conform were devalued, people became emotionally upset and unstable when there were anomalies who did not act how everyone else did. Inevitably, calamitous events were the result of the non-conformists. Parents protested everything that they felt went against what they so strongly believed in. They protested change. Because non-conformity was such an issue, it only validated the fact that the majority of the 1950's society were conformists. When the Beat Generation began, "beatniks" began a new trend: non-conformity. Thus came many such as Tennessee Williams, who created A Streetcar Named Desire that openly expressed homosexuality in a time where it was illegal. Alfred Kinsey wanted sex to be talked about and did studies on sexual behavior and reproduction. His "Kinsey Reports" caused controversy, hundreds of parents announcing that he needed to stop implementing this idea into the minds of the young, but even worse, people began to agree with him. Next came a man with a big dream, Hugh Hefner. He found the beautiful Marilyn Monroe who had posed nude for Tom Kelly in order to pay her bills. She became the first sex symbol, embarrassed at first to show her true identity, but eventually embracing the attention and individuality. The new magazine created by Hefner; Playboy, devalued the tradition of modesty. Hugh Hefner then went after the radical idea of freedom from marriage, a concept that shocked society into anger or realization. Monroe and Hefner were eventually embraced for their individuality, and those with traditional values feared these people would influence the younger generations negatively. Then arose Rock and Roll, a music revolution that brought forth Elvis Presley, who performed suggestible songs that were related to sex. His image was very different from that of the average man in the 1950's, and his words impressed a huge crowd of fans, black and white alike. This situation caused more controversy then ever before, mainly because parents feared that the suggestible music would cause their white daughters to be involved with African-American boys. This segregation was not uncommon in the 1950's, and blacks desired for the inequality to end. Martin Luther King Jr. rose as an amazingly inspirational non-violent civil rights activist. Rosa Parks non-conformed by not allowing a white civilian sit in her seat on the bus. This change was condemned. Traditions were slowly deteriorating and opinions became the new fear of America. Conformists feared non-conformists because they wanted nothing to change. Conformity can be defined as action in accord with prevailing social standards, attitudes, or practices. The 1950's era can be defined similarly. As a fear of change in value, conformity rose as the unconscious law. The 1950's was an era of this, with a determination to 'keep things the way things work', when nobody realized; if everything stays the same, improvement is impossible.