Leave It to Beaver: Ideals of the 1950's

As Stephanie Coontz asserts in "The Way We Never Were", "A contradiction in terms of earlier periods, the child-centered family took its place at the center of the postwar American dream". The Leave It to Beaver episodes portray the ideals of the 1950's family, the gender roles, and the relationship between parents and their children. But at the center of the shows "The Shave" and "Double Date" the children struggle with (and often rush) the transition to manhood.

The family dynamic of the ideal 1950's family is clear: the father at the head, followed by the mother and children. While the father is quite involved with his children's personal lives and issues at home, the idea of separate spheres is still prevalent. The mother stays home all day housekeeping while the father goes off to work to prove his worth as breadwinner. The mother in Leave It to Beaver also frequently talks about dinner parties that they will be attending, who will be there, and what her husband should wear. Clearly this relates back to the idea that the ideal 1950's wife should not have her own career, but merely help further her husband's through social events and connections. Also the ideal mother is characterized as very protective and constantly worrying, as shown when Wally makes the freshman football team in "The Shave". But the father is incredibly interested and proud of his son's athletic achievements.

In the last two minutes of both episodes, the story comes to a nice moral finish. Everything resolves itself and the boys learn a good lesson about life. But I found it strange that the lesson learned by Wally in "The Shave" and by Beaver in "Double Date" were almost exactly the same: don't grow up to quickly. The boys revere masculinity. Its a huge accomplishment when a boy starts to shave, symbolizing his transition into adulthood. Wally's feelings of insecurity over his lack of facial hair causes him to rush the process, trying to shave when he doesn't need to. But in the end he learns that its more important to be a man on the inside. Beaver feels this need to prove he isn't a child anymore in "Double Date", by taking a girl out to the movies. But in the end his bravado fails him as he admits that he is too afraid to take her out.

Both episodes tell their audiences that they shouldn't grow up to quickly. Preserve this innocent family ideal for as long as you can, because trying to rush it will only cause problems. But beneath that these episodes say even more about the 1950's through what they don't say. The biggest problems in this family is that the boys want to grow up and aren't ready. Those aren't really important problems. The family is portrayed as perfectly happy and doesn't acknowledge the fact that family or marriages could be plagued with stress and problems. Maybe these shows were necessary in a time of incredible fear from a nuclear war and American people needed an escape into a more simple world. But the fact that these shows created unreal, perfect families without addressing real problems only served to hurt their audiences and create incredibly high expectations.

Works Cited:

Stephanie Coontz "The Way We Never Were"

Leave It to Beaver