Summary Of 'On The Gender Of The Culturally Fraudulent Female'

Improved Essays
In the article, “On the Gender of the Middlebrow Consumer and the Threat of the Culturally Fraudulent Female”, Radway scrutinizes and manipulates magazine articles from primary sources in the nineteen thirties era. Although, she analyzes feminist readings that are predominately written by males; who also express a general concern for the rapid changes that were happening within the time period. Radway specifically uses primary text written within the time period to scrutinize the authors themselves. In addition, Radway establishes that the primary texts were written by experts, mainly those who positioned themselves as becoming known as an expert, as she would call them the; highbrow, high class experts. She introduces the idea that there is …show more content…
Men’s role was to pursue a career and provide for his family. Radway creates the imagery of the machine, and explains how the machine mindlessly accomplishes household tasks, like preparing dinner or washing clothes. Although, Gender wasn’t mentioned in the magazine article, the machine metaphorically represents the conventional role a woman was supposed to have in this day. Throughout history, change has always been unsettling for society, but in this article, the development of gender roles was incredibly petrifying. Radway characterizes that men had a genuine fear of feminism, and the horror of diminishing masculinity. Therefore, men were afraid they would be labeled or portrayed as feminine. The reader can depict how change intensified the level of anxiety and panic of the unknown. She exemplifies the idea of a “dystopian vision” and introduces the concept of standardization. The work explains the standardized man who works in” hive of a million standardized cubicles”(Radway 876), and sleeps in a standardized bed, and eats the same standardized food. Even though, the standardized man isn’t a real man, it illustrates the culture and norms that were present at this time. The severe reliance of the standardized man on the metaphorical machine mirrors the culture of how men relied so heavily on women for simple

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