"The Organization Man " - William Whyte

This reading was a bit confusing at times, but I was able to draw that there was uniformity in the suburban community. Couples started moving to the suburbs when they started working and had a steady paycheck. People in the workplace were competing with one another to see who could reach the top first. Whoever was the one to reach the top or move up into a higher level, moved to the suburbs into a nice house where they could buy fancy, expensive furniture to put in it. Wives even started to work out and lose weight and flaunt their bodies. People started to buy certain things their neighbors had. I think that is a little crazy, but even in today's society that happens. If a new pair of Jordan's came out and one child has it, another child that sees that, wants it too. This is where the idea of Inconspicuous Consumption came in. Couples were buying things because they saw their neighbor with it. They felt if they bought these things they were looked upon as happy and rich. But they were really going into debt. The younger couples were the ones who suffered more from that because they wanted to feel like they were on top and had it all.

"The Feminine Mystique" - Betty Friedan

     "The Feminine Mystique" talks about the dilemmas and problems women had as traditional housewives. One of the biggest issues mentioned in the reading is that women were deemed as finding a husband and having numerous babies. That was their lifelong goal set by society. That was how it was supposed to be in the 50's. Women were feeling that something else needed to be done in their lives. They were happy and all with their husbands and children, but felt like something was missing. Women tried to find their personality. They felt like all the time was going into cleaning the house, doing laundry, cooking breakfast, lunch and dinner, doing homework with the children, taking them to sports events and serving their husbands when they come home from work. They were so exhausted by the time the day was done, there was no time for themselves just to relax. Women who did not want to become housewives and wanted a career and to be independent were going against the norms and the preferences of society. Women kept there thoughts to themselves. They felt ashamed to have anyone to know they feel a certain way about their home life. This probably what Friedan pertains to when she states women have a "Problem That Has No Name."

Roses, Dreams, and Diaphragms - Dan Wakefield

       This was a very interesting reading. It was informative to see the sexual puzzles from a man's point of view of how things were and how sex was viewed back then. It is very similar to the way women talked about sex in "Sexual Puzzles." In the 50's, in order to have sexual intercourse and for it to deemed as being okay was the fact that you had to be married first. Now, in today's society that is something that does not happen. Back then men had the same issue women had. They were curious to see what sex was all about. The funny thing, was the fact that they made it a priority to lose their virginity. Most of the time they just did it with another person who had the same understanding as him and also wanted to lose it. It wasn't for love, it was more of just doing it to gain confidence in yourself and some knowledge of what sex was like. And if they did lose it to someone and wasn't a virgin anymore, they had to try to keep it hush hush so no one would be able to tell that they lost their virginity and be looked at in another way by society.
      Another interesting part in the reading was on page 226 when Sandy went to get her diaphragm. In the 50's birth control was not available and women believed the diaphragm was the most effective thing to prevent pregnancy. Most of the women at this time had one and were recommending other girls to go get one. When Sandy went to get one, she explained to the doctor she wanted to have sex with her boyfriend and not get pregnant. When he was finished fitting her for the diaphragm, he told her she was off to the races. The doctor believed that she would become promiscuous and maybe even other women who had the diaphragm.
     Overall, this reading had many themes, principles and beliefs that Wakefield covered. I believe Wakefield did a good job covering all this material of the social and sexual norms, the struggles these males in college had as well as pointing out a few the women had also, back in the 50's.

Sexual Puzzles

       Thinking about the 50's, I think of the man of the family being very successful and wealthy. He is the breadwinner in the family while the woman stays home and takes care of the children and household duties. I think of that man walking down the street with his business suit on, hair slicked back, briefcase in his hand and a trench coat on.
        When I finished reading "Sexual Puzzles", that was the total opposite of what I thought about. I did not think that in the 50's women would be more open to having sex or thinking about dressing in a way that they would show more skin. The article showed me that people in the 50's were just as curious as people are today about sex. In the article it stated that teens were a bit confused as to what was the right thing for them to do being that society contradicted what their parents taught them. "Should I keep my purity or should I see what sexual opportunities arise"? The media practically promoted sexual behavior with new advertisements. They had new clothing and make up available that would make girls look more sexually appealing.
       Although these girls had thought about maintaining a bad girl image, they also had to think about still acting like a young lady because at this point in time marriage was the most important thing. These girls had to decide whether to still maintain a good girl image to get married and start a family or fail and have a bad girl image. This reading was a real eye opener to me and it was very interesting to know that the 50's was the start of things changing to what society is now.