It's so sad to me when "modern" women decide they're going to make judgement calls on women from the 30s, 40s, 50s, etc.
Like, on a picture where the husband is sitting in an armchair reading and she's vacuuming. I heard today a comment that he's sexist. WELL, looking at the illustration (which I don't have a copy of unfortunately), it's clearly from the 1940s. Which means he's worked all day and she's a stay-at-home wife and mother. So he's tired and he's resting after being the breadwinner all day and she probably even brought him his newspaper.
The person in the conversation I was privy to paid absolutely no attention to historic context.
Historic context DOES MATTER.
And I seriously disagree with folks thinking that we have the right to judge our ancestors based on our own modern ideals. If I were a stay-at-home wife and my husband had been working hard all day, yeah, I'd want to sit him down in the chair to rest for a bit after his workday. But normal families today usually have to have two incomes unlike the time of our grandparents where his salary was more than enough to provide for the family unit.
Lessons learned here would be to take the era into consideration and not immediately jump to the "oh, he must be sexist" mantra because you do not know the whole story just by looking at a vintage picture of a man reading while his wife vacuums.
YES! It is SO important to take in the historical and cultural background before you judge and better yet don't judge at all! Great points Carissa!
ReplyDeleteThanks! I was very surprised by the conversation that happened because it really shoved the ignorance of the individuals to the forefront. And that's never a pretty thing. But it definitely got me thinking in some important ways.
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