This fine film attempts to cloak fifties “happy homemaker” stereotyping in the mantle of science. It opens as Janice and Carol, two sisters, try to decide which classes they want to attend next semester. Janice remarks that she wants to take some courses in Home Ec, to which Carol is aghast. “Home Economics?” she scoffs. “Why in the world do you want to take Home Economics?” Janice is not easily dissuaded, and replies “Why? Because that’s something I’m gonna need to KNOW. If I’m gonna be a homemaker the rest of my life, I want to know what I’m doing!”
To confirm her point of view, Janice visits “Miss Jenkins,” her Home Ec teacher, who explains that Home Economics isn’t just baking and sewing; it teaches “the fundamental principals of food buying” and “the psychology of clothing.” “Present-day textiles cannot be judged with confidence just by casual examination,” Miss Jenkins cautions, as we see shots of girls peering through microscopes and stretching cloth swatches on a mechanical rack. If Janice decides not to get married (“at least, not right away” Miss Jenkins chuckles) she can apply her Home Ec training to college courses such as chemistry and bacteriology, or so this film insists.
“Home economics training teaches ways of developing democratic practices within the home,” Miss Jenkins adds, patriotically, but she doesn’t have to say any more to convince Janice. “Anyone who’s going to be married and a homemaker would be foolish NOT to take Home Economics!”
Why Study Home Economics (clip)
Includes sociological research in comments.
Published on Dec 19, 2011
Vice founder Shane Smith managed to get into North Korea after a year and half of trying and is witness to the craziness of this hermit nation.
Published on Dec 19, 2011
Shane visits the North Korean side of the De-militarized Zone (DMZ) and surprisingly finds that it’s more relaxed than the South however the propaganda and is out of control. North Korea is serious.
Published on Dec 19, 2011
The next stop on VICE’s tour of North Korean propaganda was The People’s Library, this place is weird and creepy – just like everywhere else in North Korea. The creep keeps on coming.
The Story of Menstruation is a 1946 10-minute animated film produced by Walt Disney Productions in 1946.
It was commissioned by the International Cello-Cotton Company (now Kimberly-Clark) and was shown to approximately 105 million American students in health education classes.
It was one of the first commercially sponsored films to be distributed to high schools. It was distributed with a booklet for teachers and students called Very Personally Yours that featured advertising of the Kotex brand of products, and discouraged the use of tampons, where the market was dominated by the Tampax brand of rivals Procter & Gamble.
The Story of Menstruation is believed to be the first film to use the word vagina in its screenplay. Neither sexuality nor reproduction is mentioned in the film, and an emphasis on sanitation makes it, as Disney historian Jim Korkis has suggested: “a hygienic crisis rather than a maturation event.”
A 1952 documentary showing small town 50′s America from morning to evening. Many kinds of people doing many kinds of work, and then bowling. 1952, B/W.
Department of the Navy. This is Korea (Parts 1 and 2) from 1951. Covers the United States involvement with Korea and testing of Korean weapons. John Ford directed this film which is the only color documentary made during the Korean War. Producer: Department of the Navy. Creative Commons license: Public Domain
Island of Hope – Island of Tears; Charles Guggenheim; National Park Service; AVA15996VNB1 1992 (1989);
From 1892-1954, Ellis Island was the port of entry for millions of European immigrants. Fascinating archival footage tells the moving story of families with dreams of opportunity, leaving their homes with what they could carry.
CINE – Golden Eagle Award 1990; Columbus International Film and Video Festival – Chris Award 1990; Earthwatch; Institute Film Award – 1991; National; Educational Film & Video Festival – Bronze Apple 1991.
Director: Charles Guggenheim; Producer: National Park Service; Creative Commons license: Public Domain; Credits; Uploaded by Public.Resource.Org under a joint venture with NTIS.
Rebroadcast of “Island of Hope – Island of Tears” is made possible on the Internet by a grant from Joseph McFadden of Philadelphia. Between 1892 and the early 1950s, nearly 15 million people streamed through Ellis Island in search of a new life. Here are the stories of those extraordinary immigrants, largely in their own poignant words. Coming primarily from Southern and Eastern Europe, and from widely diverse backgrounds, the émigrés represented in this remarkable volume recount their adventures with dignity, wit, and unflagging honesty.
From 1892 to 1954, over twelve million immigrants entered the United States through the portal of Ellis Island, a small island in New York Harbor. Ellis Island is located in the upper bay just off the New Jersey coast, within the shadow of the Statue of Liberty. Through the years, this gateway to the new world was enlarged from its original 3.3 acres to 27.5 acres by landfill supposedly obtained from the ballast of ships, excess earth from the construction of the New York City subway system and elsewhere.
Before being designated as the site of one of the first Federal immigration station by President Benjamin Harrison in 1890, Ellis Island had a varied history. The local Indian tribes had called it “Kioshk” or Gull Island. Due to its rich and abundant oyster beds and plentiful and profitable shad runs, it was known as Oyster Island for many generations during the Dutch and English colonial periods. By the time Samuel Ellis became the island’s private owner in the 1770′s, the island had been called Kioshk, Oyster, Dyre, Bucking and Anderson’s Island. In this way, Ellis Island developed from a sandy island that barely rose above the high tide mark, into a hanging site for pirates, a harbor fort, ammunition and ordinance depot named Fort Gibson, and finally into an immigration station.
Despite the island’s reputation as an “Island of Tears”, the vast majority of immigrants were treated courteously and respectfully, and were free to begin their new lives in America after only a few short hours on Ellis Island. Only two percent of the arriving immigrants were excluded from entry. The two main reasons why an immigrant would be excluded were if a doctor diagnosed that the immigrant had a contagious disease that would endanger the public health or if a legal inspector thought the immigrant was likely to become a public charge or an illegal contract laborer.
In 1965, President Lyndon Johnson declared Ellis Island part of the Statue of Liberty National Monument. Ellis Island was opened to the public on a limited basis between 1976 and 1984. Starting in 1984, Ellis Island underwent a major restoration, the largest historic restoration in U.S. history. The $160 million dollar project was funded by donations made to the Statue of Liberty – Ellis Island Foundation, Inc. in partnership with the National Park Service. The Main Building was reopened to the public on September 10, 1990 as the Ellis Island Immigration Museum. Today, the museum receives almost 2 million visitors annually.
In this web extra from “Two Americas,” correspondent Adam Yamaguchi speaks with Dr. Stephen L. Klineberg about the history of financial stability in America and the staggering changes in how wealth is distributed within the United States today.
National History Day documentary on Bull Connor, Birmingham’s Commissioner of Public Safety, whose use of police dogs and fire hoses on civil rights demonstrators dramatically backfired and called national attention to the Civil Rights Movement.
