“Early Rebels: The Gray Flannel Dissidents” and and “The Beat Rebellion: Beyond Work and Marriage.”

I find it interesting that many people may feel that women are the only gender that has personal issues, during the 1950s. I also find it intriguing on how each gender can blame the other for their lack of happiness. The “Early Rebels: The Gray Flannel Dissidents” actually reminds me of a previous reading called “The feminine Mystique” which was basically about women and how they felt they lacked a sense of who they were. In The Early Rebels, it was more on men and how they felt the same as the women in the previous reading just mentioned. It seemed that both genders are basically trying to live a life that society wants them to live.

In the reading, the men were pressured into getting married and having kids, denying what they truly wanted to do. These men not only had to get married, and have kids but they also had to have the nice house, white collar jobs and etc. It actually seems like a lot to handle, but this is what society wanted. This was the norm around this period. Honestly, in my opinion it is not that much of a difference as to what society portray in this time period. I mean being successful and living the American dream is what is portrayed in our society. At the end of the day, honestly it is how you live your life and how comfortable you are. These men had emptiness, realizing that they put all their dreams aside to go by the concept of conformity. With this concept of conformity, men had all these responsibilities of fatherhood and marriage that it permitted them not to fulfill their dreams. In my opinion I believe that even though society wanted them to live a certain way, they also had the power to do what makes them happy. Everyone has a dream, a dream that they may have dreamt about for years, and should be able to fulfill them. There is no harm in doing what completes you, just as in the reading of the “Feminine Mystique”.

This is a nice Segway into the reading “The Beat Rebellion: Beyond Work and Marriage.” Since society wanted them to live a certain life such as marriage and kids. There were people that went against all the concepts of conformity. There were the Beats, beatniks, and playboys.  The Beats “were against virtually every aspect of current American society: Mom, Dad, Politics, Marriage, The savings bank, organized religions…”  They all were different in their own ways, but what they all had in common was “their rejection of the pact that the family wage system rested on.” I said that this was a nice segway because these groups actually took a stand to what society wanted them to do, and did what they dreamed of. In my opinion it is not the best way to go about it, because I believe you can have both. You can have your family and job and also be happy. They did not take on any responsibilities which honestly made them look bad. They went against norms, they believed that getting married and etc , was an enslavement, and that women would take over. Overall it was brave of them to go against these norms. Many people may have looked down upon them, because of their lack of responsibility, but at the same time honestly I feel like at some point in time they would have to take on responsibility not giving up their dreams it is best of both worlds. Many people may not see that, and it may be difficult but it is not impossible.