a Brief History of television
Whether you call it the television, telepictures, TV, boob tube, idiot box, or some other name, one undeniable fact is that it changed our world forever.
By the late 1960s and early 1970s, televisions were in almost every middle class home and the world was forever changed. Television has had an amazing and wide-ranging impact on American society and culture. It has influenced the way that people think about important issues such as race, gender, war, politics, class, and much more.
The clips below give a glimpse into our collective past. Some of the clips are funny, some entertaining, and others are cringe-worthy. More than anything, it is a reminder of how quickly things change, and usually for the better.
***CONTENT WARNING*** From our standards today, many televisions programs and commercials of the past seem so "-ist." Racist, sexist, misogynist, etc. As you watch with some degree of amusement and horror, remember, future generations will watch media that captures the morals and standards of today with equal astonishment and disdain.
It is also important to remember that cultural standards and gender roles were developed and refined over thousands of years. While antiquated for our world today, the standards of the past played a significant purpose in meeting the most basic human of needs - survival. For most of human existence, muscle power was more important to survival than intelligence, and men, generally speaking, had an advantage. As technology has advanced, it is brain power that has become preeminent and this, along with other reasons, has made dramatic changes in gender roles possible.
