Material Culture: Television and Cultural Forms

 TV Habits 

When I was little, we used to watch family movies together, my father, my mother, my sisters and I. We watched classics: Disney cartoons, Harry Potter, Lord of the Ring, Pirates of the Caribbean and etc.  This was our evening tradition, after dinner we would turn off all of the lights in the house and just enjoy the evenings together. However, this changed quite a bit since I moved to Novi Sad for my studies. Peculiarly enough, I do not own a TV in my apartment, so if I decide to watch move or a series, it has to be through my laptop. I usually find movies online on some movie-watching sites, and watch it there. So, I guess watching television doesn’t take up a lot of time since it would require having a TV. But a little part of the tradition lived on, since when I come home, we still have movie nights for family. 

Gender Roles

If I had to sum up the depiction of female characters in Mad Men in one sentence, I would just say that it illustrates a “perfect” picture of the 60’s patriarchy. Even though women have rights, it turns out there is quite a few narrow minded people who live in the past. The phrase “gender roles” is always applied to women who have to know “their place”. A woman’s role is to take care o the kids, to keep the house clean, to make her husband a meal, and to be quiet. The Man is the smart one, his word is final, his opinion is the only one that matters. This is what patriarchy says about gender roles. Looking back at history, the kings are to ones to be remembered, right? And guess what, they were men. However, the most powerful and wise leaders were actually women: Joan of Arc, Elizabeth I, Catherine II The Great, Marie Antoinette, Mother Theresa and so on and on. I can write about powerful women all day and night, but it still wouldn’t be good enough for some people. So I’ll just finish with a quote from a book about women that changed the world: 

“For women, men went to war and died, the most beautiful art works in the history were made for them. For women, men changed the world. And women made history.”