MovieChat Forums > Petticoat Junction (1963) Discussion > Is anyone else bothered by this?

Is anyone else bothered by this?

posted 12 years ago by greenargyle42
49 replies | jump to latest

I haven't seen all of this show, just a few episodes on MeTV, which I thought were cute. So when I found a dvd of highlights from the first seasons at my library, I checked it out. Is anyone bothered by the semi-mysonginistic tone of some of the early episodes? Repeatedly saying "A woman's place is in the kitchen" (said by Kate, and two of the daughters), Kate convincing Betty to purposly lose a horse shoe throwing contest to save a man's pride, and worst of all, forcing Bobby to go on a date, then forcing her to change everything about herself so that the boy would like her! I know, it was a different time, but I'm surprised that so many people say the first seasons were the best, and they don't seem to take notice of this.
I do really like this show, and generally I think Kate is a pretty strong female role model, but these episodes irritated me, especially as it was Kate who was forcing her daughter to go on a date, and then forcing her to change the way she dressed, walked, and spoke. It felt almost like she was pimping her out. It feels (to me, anyway) like this kind of "comedy" is beneath the show's caliber. Anybody else find these offensive?

[–] itdadof3 11 years ago

The Susan B Anthony episode showed exactly how ridiculous people can get (from both sides). There should be a meeting in the middle, not extremes. Women can do things men cannot (and not just having babies for those who are thin skinned) while there are things men can do that women cant (I should say is challenging, not impossible).

Anyway, women and men are different and this isnt a bad thing. I have always believed people should receive equal pay for the same work (full time). But what is wrong with a woman to be treated like a lady and for a man to act like a gentleman? We have thrown the baby out with the bath water.

The challenge with people is they go to extremes when trying to correct a perceived or actual wrong.

[–] madetwolastforever 11 years ago

It just showed how things probably were back then. Getting - and keeping - a (good) man was a girl's #1 reason for living.

[–] jddonigan-668-303295 11 years ago

I guess it was how it was back then. The women's movement changed all that. I saw an Andy Griffith show when he got a call from someone who gave his wife the "what for". And it was comical to them. They would never get away with that today.

[–] chris109 11 years ago

If this bothers you, you should get a hold of the Batman episode Nora Clavicle and the Ladies' Crime Club. This episode will give you a sleepless night.

[–] taylorje 11 years ago

The later seasons were no better. I didn't realize how sexist some of the episodes were until I watched them recently on YouTube. (1) Steve come home for lunch but a pregnant Betty Jo is visiting with her sisters. He stands around waiting for her to fix a meal, dropping several hints, and finally storms off. Did he have a broken leg? Why couldn't he fix his own lunch?

(2) Betty Jo makes several home repairs instead of waiting for Steve to do it. He feels it is "unmanly" not to take care of these matters himself and pouts like a child.

(3) Before the wedding, Steve's parents come to visit expecting a delicious home-cooked meal prepared by Betty Jo, who can't boil water without directions. Instead of admitting that she can't cook, Betty Jo makes a disastrous attempt to get an edible meal on the table. Why not just admit that she can't cook?

[–] chris109 11 years ago

Betty Jo could be my sister. Oh, she can boil water...just doesn't know how to turn the stove on.

[–] joe_538 11 years ago

#1 To put the shoe on the other foot, what if a guy was hanging around with his pals all day while his wife was out working? And what if she came home expecting some appreciation and lunch after her efforts, just to be ignored?

#2 What's wrong with being ashamed of not doing it himself? It means he wanted to save her the trouble, not a bad thing.

As for #3, it was the sixties, and she was raised with traditional values. Her pride wouldn't let her disappoint the in-laws. Also, it's a sitcom; you need situations like this.

[–] IveGotASecret 11 years ago

What about the episode after Steve and Betty Jo got married and she fixed the sink and he had a cow when he came home and she was dressed in overalls. He told her when he comes home he wants his wife to be all pretty and perfect and not dressed like a tomboy. Did he forget who he married?

Another one was when Betty Jo had to secretly start a daycare center behind Steve's back, because Steve wouldn't allow his wife to work even though they needed money.

But you really have to consider the locale this was taking place in. This was the country where the Shady Rest didn't even have a phone that worked and it was so isolated you could only get to the hotel by train.

Some people who live in the hills thought a girl should marry at 12 or 13 and if she didn't she was an old maid. We still have some areas of this country like where the Amish live where things aren't any better for women than they were in the old days.

So the show reflected the area it was supposed to be set in. However, since Steve Elliott was a city boy, he shouldn't have been pulling some of that MCP stuff on Betty Jo since he should have been more evolved.

[–] umassjsp 11 years ago

Dont forget that the studio executives and some writers in the early 60's were born in the late 1800's to 1920. These were the guys making the decisions for these TV shows. I have been watching the black and white re-runs on MeTV lately. God bless Uncle Joe but for every dollar his estate gets in residual checks then Kate's (Bea Banderet) should get $10. She carried the show thru these first few years by a wide margin. And introducing the dog was a huge mistake. Some exec at the studio must have had a friend that was an animal trainer and got the guy the gig on Petticoat Junction. Every second that pooch gets air time is valuable time we could be looking at the gorgeous daughters! I just saw the episode called Lost Patrol where we see the girls in navel covering bikinis. This show was probably the highest rated back in the 60's. #Hooterville #BillieJoeFan

[–] goldenpet 8 years ago

That Steve coming home for lunch bit always made me kind of mad too, that Steve couldn't even make a baloney sammich for himself... or open up a can of soup. he was an Air Force officer before becoming a crop duster, for Pete's sakes. And his wife was nine months pregnant and her sisters were visiting. She was getting ready to have a baby and he was acting like a big baby. He really needed to grow up there.

[–] darryl-tahirali 11 years ago

I know, it was a different time, but I'm surprised that so many people say the first seasons were the best, and they don't seem to take notice of this. - greenargyle42

You've answered your own question: It was a different time, but you are applying today's standards to a set of values, expectations, mores, etc., that existed 50 years ago. Historians call that tendency "presentism," or the viewing of past events through contemporary lenses. To put it into perspective, 50 years before Petticoat Junction first aired, women in the United States could not even vote.

In 1963, Betty Friedan had just published her book The Feminine Mystique, which became one of the fundamental tracts of modern feminism, but that movement would take several years, into the 1970s, to begin to establish an impact. Even in the "progressive" social movements of the 1960s, primarily the civil rights movement and the anti-war movement, women were often subordinate to men, which was another impetus for the feminist movement--even in the "enlightened" movements for social change, women were still considered to be second-class citizens.

So, would you really expect 1960s television sitcoms--which were overwhelmingly about nothing more than escapist entertainment--to pioneer an outside-the-mainstream point of view? That would come later, in the 1970s, with, for example, Norman Lear's socially-conscious sitcoms (All in the Family, Good Times, et al), which arose largely in response to the traditional stereotyping of earlier shows.

To me, the more fascinating question is, what was the reaction by both audience and cast and crew at that time to those perspectives and stereotypes being portrayed? Were they aware of the shifting attitudes beginning to stir?

But in general I don't get exercised about anything I see in an old movie or television show, because I then wonder what people 50 years from now will think about our current "enlightened" time. It's all a matter of perspective.

Thus, it might not be that people "don't notice" what you call sexist or misogynist attitudes in a half-century-old TV show, but that they put it into the context of that time and not into our time.

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"All persons, living and dead, are purely coincidental." - Kurt Vonnegut

[–] krspas2 11 years ago

It was the 1960's. Quit looking at old tv shows with 2014 eyes.
Things were different then and what is now Mysoginist, wasn't back
then. Now we have things different. We have female leaders who
think we should let women fight the wars because they are much bigger,
stronger and have an ability far above that of a man. That is because
congress said so.

[–] Ttebow15 11 years ago

I wish I could go back to those times. Sadly if you dont want to be a CEO and would be perfectly happy taking care of a home and family you are seen as some sort of traitor and ridiculed. I think women can and should be able to do whatever they want even if that something is losing a game of horseshoes to prop up her mans ego

[–] Splarne 9 years ago

i second this!

in fact, it goes equal for men in terms of taking a backseat in order to prop up an ego or two of their wives.

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