Analysis Of I Love Lucy

With a timeless ability to charm and limitless reach over the population, I Love Lucy retains America’s infatuation in its entertainment value and cultural critique even extending half a century later. With the show’s 1950s setting and outward adherence to some of the patriarchal ideology, contemporary perspectives reveal the unalienable legitimacy to the accusations of it reinforcing patriarchal norms and being degrading to women, although it did encourage bicultural living. But as this is a sitcom and sitcoms aren’t made to recreate our current society, but to fabricate a reality the audience can fall in love with, it carries greater potential to instead view I Love Lucy as a conveyance for Lucille “Lucy” Ball to challenge the post war, prefeminism …show more content…
But three factors helped win over the love and support of their devoted audience. Firstly, Desi was presented to the American people as Bicultural, not Biracial, a distinction that made this marriage more accepted by the general public and their marriage a less taboo topic in regards to violation of miscegenation. Because of this division, it enabled him to be promoted as a white foreigner rather than what could be perceived as a radicalized American, which would discourage the acceptance of the relationship (as this was one of the biggest hurdles in airing interracial relationships on tv) due to the recent war. Secondly, as the idea of the nuclear family was so vital at this time, the Ricardos used this to present to their audience the image of the happy American family. The producers manipulated this opportunity to fashion Desi into appearing more identifiable to his audience, on numerous occasions blending his Cuban identity with that of an …show more content…
I Love Lucy was so adored because it played upon the stereotypical roles of the wife and the value of the home in a humorous way that was still clearly a product of the time period in what was considered a domestic revival. Whereas the typical picture-perfect TV families, much like Leave to Beaver, depicted the 1950s domesticity yet never revealed any underlying conflict felt by the woman, I Love Lucy, on the other hand, boldly illustrated a domesticity that was consistently challenged by Lucy in her refusal to settle for the life of a housewife as shown most obviously in the episode “Job Switching.” The producers were able to balance society 's perspectives and their own on domesticity to create a television couple that was capable of living by society’s accepted standards but, in reality, only lived this way by rejecting those very same standards. Lucy was received so well because she challenged the strict gender roles of the domestic ideal, creating a televisual reality that more closely represented people 's’ day to day