How to Undress in Front of Your Husband
By Becky Stowe
It’s easy to become disheartened by the ridiculous standards of beauty that women are held up to. It is helpful however to look back on the way things used to be to feel a sense of how far we’ve come in the last few decades.
One day during my wanderings through the interwebs, I came across an educational film from the 1950s. It’s called-y’all ready for this?- How To Undress In Front Of Your Husband. It’s exactly what you think it is: an educational video for women on how they should undress in front of their husbands to please them. According to the introduction of the video, “Men have submitted, suffered and supported [marital boredom] long enough.” SO UNDRESS YOURSELF LIKE A SEXY MOVIE STAR DAMMIT. THAT WILL SOLVE ALL YOUR MARRIAGE PROBLEMS.
Thanks to a Peeping Tom, we are given a glimpse into the boudoirs of two women (What better way to show wives that they are objects to be admired by their husbands than a little perverted voyeurism?) One is the glamorous movie star Elaine Barre Barrymore who epitomizes the ideal feminine woman with a slender figure. The other is Trixie Friganza, a large woman who has the nerve to yawn, scratch itches and conduct herself (IN THE SO-CALLED PRIVACY OF HER OWN DAMN BEDROOM) in a way that is not proper or seductive.
The narrator (who I’m going to call “Big Brother”) praises Ms. Barrymore for removing her stocking in a way that showcases her legs and makes comments about how nice her “teeth” are. As for Ms. Friganza, Big Brother only criticizes her and makes fat jokes at her expense in reaction to her doing perfectly human things. Trixie’s tired and she want to get some sleep, not do a striptease.
The problems I have with this video are too numerous to be addressed at once. Objectification, oppression, misogyny…the list could go on for awhile. I had to pick my jaw up from my desk more than once while watching this. But I guess I’m just crazy because I don’t get ready for bed as if I am being watched by someone that needs to be pleased. Granted most people don’t slam doors or stomp for comic effect like Trixie, but I think most of us would agree that after a long day (bad or good) we are all Trixie. Fuck you Big Brother. #TeamTrixie
You make me laugh. Imagine in twenty years from now, some PC woman critiquing "Deep Throat", and calling it a Government film put out by the Department of Education in Washington DC.
ReplyDelete"I find it offensive that the 1960's chauvinist men of America thought that women were so stupid as to believe the line from that doctor when he convinced Linda Lovelace that her clitoris is deep within her throat"
You make me laugh. Imagine in twenty years from now, some PC woman critiquing "Deep Throat", and calling it a Government film put out by the Department of Education in Washington DC.
ReplyDelete"I find it offensive that the 1960's chauvinist men of America thought that women were so stupid as to believe the line from that doctor when he convinced Linda Lovelace that her clitoris is deep within her throat"