Poole 1

Jennie Poole
IDIS 205
Professor Bryant
March 27,2013

How Pop Culture Affected Gender Roles from the 30s to Now

Pop culture has changed a lot throughout the years especially from the 1930s. Many
people think pop culture has influenced the way people think and why we are the way the world
is today. In my study, I interviewed my family members and friends to see how pop culture has
changed and I have a wide range from 1930s to current time. The Purpose of my study was to
see how pop culture influenced the gender roles and how pop culture is looked at now. My
family is majority Christian and their pop culture was of the church and they were not into main
stream pop culture. From my interviews, I learned about how pop culture affected gender roles.
The first interview I had was with my grandma from my fathers side. She was a teenager
in the 1930s and the pop culture for her was different. My grandmother was a church person and
her life revolved around the church. Her culture and life was the church and she had very little
knowledge about pop culture. At that time the great depression was happening, so as a result she
felt as if there was little pop culture. When I asked her what she thought pop culture was she
said, It includes the way of life. Culture, business, social life, church, music, friends, and its the
way we live and what was important in our lives at that time. The next question I asked her was,
what was pop culture when she was growing up and how did it affect the gender roles? Her
answer was that pop culture when she grew up was church but she knew about big bands like,
Glenn Miller, Benny Goofwin, and the Adorondack Girls. The Charleston and jitterbug was
very popular at that time as well. The girls wore bloomers, skirts, bobby socks, and saddle
shoes. Women did not wear pants because they were more for work and men to wear while
women were to look please and take care of their men. My grandma and her friends would play
Poole 2

games like spin the bottle, card games, old maid and monopoly. Because there was no TV, my
grandmother listened to the radio and enjoyed the shows, Amos n Andy, The Shadow, F.B.I.,
Burns and Allen, Fibber McGee and Molly, and other programs. Because my grandmother was
a church kid, she would do church conferences and would go to Massanetta Springs in Virginia.
All of these things had influenced the gender roles. My grandmother did not have a lot of money
because of the great depression so she would have to wear a dress that her mother made. My
grandmother said that the depression changed her life. At sixteen I rode a street car to my job
and my fathers insurance company. I worked five and a half days for $8.00 weekly, and could
not finish my schooling. During the depression, it changed many peoples lives and many things
had changed and the gender roles were different in her life than others that are living today. The
other thing is my grandmother sees a lot of changes in pop culture especially with technology.
The technology changes my grandmother noticed since the 1930s was from the radio to
televisions, iPods, and Ipads and computers. Pop culture has changed drastically since the 1930s.
Next, I interviewed my grandmother from my mothers side. My grandmother was a
teenager in the 1950s and was much different. TVs came later and dancing changed to more
slow dances even though the Charleston was still popular. Pop culture in her time included long
skirts and a lot of dresses were worn and absolutely no shorts for girls. Girls skirts were loose
when girls spun around. This was different because it was more scandalous at the time. But
not a lot of people had a lot of money for clothes. The main entertainment for my grandmother
was going to the movies. Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland and the Mills Brothers were
popular. However, my grandmother did not know much about pop culture. My grandmother
thinks that the definition of pop culture is: things that are popular at the time, would end,
something else would take over, and become popular. Gender roles were influenced at this time.
Poole 3

Segregation was happening and ended when she was going to college (she lived in New York).
According to my grandmother, the gender roles at this time was, that more women stayed at
home and were housewives compared to now, and men were at work. Also, according to my
grandmother, women could have done anything because of being a female. I do not know what
my grandmother meant but it was interesting because I thought she meant that it was the start of
womens fighting for rights. Since the 1950s my grandmother said there has been a huge change
in technology. Technology has changed because of televisions are more common and easy to
buy. Also the clothing is different and the music has changed, because it is more rock then it
used to be. The pop culture has also changed drastically since the 1950s and continues to change.
The next generation I interviewed was my parents who were teenagers/growing up in the
1970s. My mother was not a big pop culture person at all. My mom would read a lot and would
not watch much TV. My mom noticed that now pop culture has repeated and songs are being
redone or different singers are singing the songs. My mom thinks that pop culture is what
people of the country (area) that you are studying, what they think, what they are watching,
music they are listening to, TV shows they are watching during the time they are studying the
time frame. When she was growing up, the time period encouraged education and women were
more business and achieving more in the world. The pop culture influenced the gender roles
because there was an emphasis on women breaking free of traditional roles and became more
independent and find fulfillment in careers but there are some traditional [people] still. My
mother also said that women were trying to be equal to men and that was the timing where the
women got equal rights. My mother was different because she was not big into pop culture, but
she did notice that women were breaking free and trying to get higher in careers. On the other
hand, my father was like his mother and his pop culture was in the church. My dad considers pop
Poole 4

culture as, all the current trends and hype and music and movies and current stuff people are
into. My dad said that pop culture influenced gender roles because, Back then there was
probably some culture things making women equal to men because men were superior, [there
was] a lot of [womens] activism. Women wanted [the] same access, pay and equalities. Since
my dads life was in the church, he did not know much of the pop culture of his time and he did
notice that, there was less respect for authority and if something felt good then kids did it even
if it was wrong. My dad was taught differently because he was a preachers son, and therefore
he did not go along with attitudes of pop culture. My parents were different and had a different
mindset, but overall they had the same thoughts and values. They also agreed when it came to
pop culture and how it affected the gender roles, and how women were trying to break free and
get equality. Like the 1970s the next generation of pop culture changed.
The next generation was the 1990s-2000s. My cousin, Daniel, his wife, Carolyn, and
my sister, Amanda, were growing up at the same time and had similar opinions but also different
ideas because of the types of music and people that these individuals were like. My cousin
Daniel remembered the grunge look and flannels. Some of the youth were rebellious, wore
ripped jeans and band t-shirts. He also said that pop culture was, music, clothing, and attitudes
of any given particular time. I realized that my cousin was into metal bands. He also had a
different view than my sister and his wife. But he said that for gender roles the influence of pop
culture was also moving towards equality of both men and women. Because he did not remember
a lot, he does see a lot of changes though with clothing and music, for example how skinny jeans
are popular now. Unlike my cousin, his wife, Carolyn, listened to more girly things and more
main stream such as Madonna, Beastie Boys, Dougie Fresh and more. She noticed rap was
getting bigger and Michael Jordan was a big athlete and so was Tiger Woods. He also said that
Poole 5

her definition of pop culture is, things that define an age or culture Carolyn said that gender
roles were influenced because females had more to say, like in clothing there were more female
designers. There were also more girl power groups like the Spice Girls had more attention than
guy bands. She also noticed that every 20 years or so, popular things repeat and now things are
becoming popular that were popular in the 90s. She also noticed that clothing for girls used to be
sexy and more about things that are not good. Now, they are more pure and more appropriate
for the age of girls and guys growing up. Last but not least, my sister had a little bit of a different
opinion. Pop culture to her is, things that are popular at this time. For gender roles being
affected, she thought that songs and TV shows that are popular are degrading to women. Also
she said that TV shows like the Real World have specific gender roles but there are also some
that break the stereotypes. The 2000s were a time of breaking stereotypes and changing from the
prior years. The opinions of all three were interesting and different because they all remember
different things during the time.
Last but not least, I interviewed my friend Hannah. Hannah is in college and growing up
now and still in her teen years. Her experiences are from 2000s to the 2010s. Hannahs
definition of pop culture is, The current style of culture that is common. The way that pop
culture influences gender roles, according to Hannah, is that culture tells us how we should
look, and how we should act and live our lives, and we are told what is cool and what isnt.
For girls, she said that according to media, girls should be in a certain relationship with men and
tells us how we are supposed to act and how we are viewed. A lot of songs are degrading
towards women and are telling us what we should do to be sexy and how we should be having
sex with guys. Media is a big part of culture and like Hannah said, it tells people what we should
be doing and how we should be acting. According to Hannah, guys should not accept
Poole 6

stereotypes and should not act the way songs do towards girls and should make wise decisions.
Pop culture now has changed drastically since the 1930s and other years that now we have a lot
of people being hipster and we have a lot of TV shows that are cop shows or lawyer shows.
We have a lot of things that changed and clothes are getting shorter and guys are showing more
muscle if possible. Hannahs view of pop culture today is a lot different than my family
interviews and she notices more of the real world because she was not born in the church like
my family.
What I learned throughout this interviewing of family and friends (besides that pop
culture and gender roles have changed throughout the years) is that the views of people change
as well. I feel as if media did not play a huge part of how people should be or act in the 30s
because they did not have TV, and the radio shows they listened to were family friendly. I
also thought it was interesting that my grandmother said that girls could get away with things
because they are girls. If women tried to do that now days, women may not get away with as
much as they used to. When television came to be, it still seems like that media did not play a big
role until the 2000s and 2010s. When I heard Carolyn say that kids and the pop culture are
more their age now, I disagree. It is because of the media saying that you are supposed to look
like a model and they are making that appealing to younger children. I noticed that young
children know the words to songs that are degrading to women and they also wear makeup and
try to dress inappropriate way. This has to do with what we were talking about in class because
we were talking about the differences of ages, what was popular and how the attitudes towards
things change throughout the years. When we talked about the traditionalist and the x,ys and
other generations, we talked about how the attitudes were different in working hard and family
traditions. Once I interviewed my family and Hannah, it made me realize that the pop cultures
Poole 7

were different because of media playing a big part in the society now compared to when my
grandmother was a teen in the 30s and only had the radio. Overall, this social science research
exploration helped me realize that people are very different and if you are big into pop culture,
then you could be influenced a lot. Last but not least, I learned that pop culture can change
gender roles especially now.