It's interesting how the double standard for men and women in the 50s continues to thrive today. We've all heard of the "man has sex, he's a god, woman has sex, she's a slut/whore/insert derogatory word relating to the loss of virginity here" argument, and that's not a bad thing, despite my somewhat unfortunate disparaging tone.
In case you haven't heard of the argument before, it's fairly simple. In our society, men aren't judged like women are when it comes to sexuality. If they're judged, it's often in a positive manner. Men who have a lot of sexual partners are studs, players, the people that guys want to be and girls want to be with. Which, if "Sixty Minute Man" by Bill Ward & His Dominoes and "Runaround Sue" by Dion are any indication of, was true in the '50s.
"Sixty Minute Man" is a song about how girls who can't be satisfied by their current male partner should come on up and "see ol' Dan" because he'll essentially give you the best night of your life. While you can certainly interpret this song and its lyrics in an innocent light, maybe he'll just kiss your forehead and tease you through 15 minutes of tickling, the implication is clearly something more of a sexual nature. Ol' Dan is glorified; his sexual prowess make girls leave their husbands because they simply can't compare. Of course, on the flip side, we have the girls who are unfaithful enough to leave their husbands. This is where "Runaround Sue" comes in.
Sue, a girl who married a good husband yet still left him for cheap thrills around the neighborhood, is scorned upon. "Keep away from-a Runaround Sue" is the warning that this song delivers; the man evokes pity due to an disloyal wife. But when you hold these two songs side by side, you realize that these songs bring sexist undertones. Why is it that Ol' Dan is something to cheer about and Runaround Sue is something to protest against?
Thanks to our 50's domestic sitcoms, we have a good idea of the "traditional gender roles" that were alive and well. The men are the head of the house while the women are inherently subordinate; their only duty is to look pretty and serve their husbands. These songs exert control over women; their bodies and their sexuality are supervised through shame and humiliation. No one wants to be a "Runaround Sue" because of the stigma that that nickname carries, but the praise that follows Lovin' Dan is startling. Perhaps we haven't come as far as we'd like to think; as Doyle said in Betty, Girl Engineer, women can vote, but they do so in long skirts.
First of all, great title. It hits the nail on the head. This begs a few questions to me:
ReplyDelete1) The common thread of these two songs is that both are sung by men (as were most 1950s/early 1960s RR/RB hits); thus, it makes you wonder how much women bought into this at the time. You could point to songs like "Can't Get Enough of that Stuff" by Julia Lee, in which we have the woman saying "Bring it on Daddy, I can't get enough of that stuff." Or we have Big Mama Thornton chastising the "Hound Dog" who she "ain't gonna feed" no more. On the other hand, perhaps songs like that are exceptions to the rule. Additionally, both of the ones I cited were sung by large black women who did not meet the era's mainstream aesthetic standards of feminine beauty (and thus docility...)
2) The other thing you have to wonder is how much this has changed. As your blog alludes to, the "sex god" vs "slut" trope has hardly disappeared. Do people think it's the same now as it was 60 years ago?
I agree that these songs seem to fall along the sexist lines of slut vs stud and in response to Mr. Leff's question, I don't think we've really come that far. While many people now recognize slut shaming for what it is, the idea within the media and daily discourse still remains. A women's sexuality is characterized as she is either a prude for not having sex soon enough or she is a slut for having sex too often. But a man can have as much sex as he want and he is praised by society. The idea of slut shaming and the imposing of negative ideas (and so much more) onto a woman's sexuality seems to be just as prevalent as it was in the 50s with "Runaround Sue's" and "Sixty Minute Men".
ReplyDeleteNice post, Donna! This actually ties in somewhat well with my post—as Mr Leff (or "Unknown" as I suppose we can't be sure of his identity—after all, it could be a ruse) said, there are some examples of songs sung by female musicians that go against what you're talking about. "Hound Dog" as well as "Roll with Me Henry" (the latter is a bit less overtly sexual) have a more assertive tone, but they're also sung by black women which I think gives them something of a pass with regards to conforming to the (primarily white, middle-class) "traditional gender roles." I think race also comes into play with "Sixty Minute Man" because Billy Ward & His Dominoes are black—giving them more of a pass to be less "respectable" and more overtly sexual. One of the pairs of songs we looked at in class (black original with white cover) had any hints of infidelity erased in the white cover, so I imagine Sixty Minute Man was a somewhat extreme example—perhaps not all of America completely approved and glorified him, although Mr Leff did mention that the song was a surprisingly big hit.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I absolutely see the sexual double standard, despite any complications I raised in the previous paragraph. I think sex in general can be taboo for both genders but it's always been harsher on women, and in response to Mr Leff's question, I think the double standard & "slut-shaming" definitely still around, despite any progress made through feminism (see the asinine "lock vs key" analogy—"a key which opens many locks is awesome whereas a lock that can be opened by many keys is terrible," an analogy which completely ignores the fact that men and women have very little in common with keys&locks). Women who have a lot of sex, especially casual sex, are all-too-often seen as "dirty" and unfit to be a faithful, long-term partner, and you can see reverberations of this with regards to rape (scantily-clad women, women who sleep around, and women involved in kink communities, just to give a couple examples, are often seen as untrustworthy and must have wanted for it/been asking for it/what did they expect anyway).
eww i've never heard the lock vs key analogy
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