e emergence of the term “family room” in the postwar period is aperfect example of the importance aaed to organizing household spacesaround ideals of family togetherness
The “family room” was made to bring everyone together. It is kind of like how we hang out in the living room today to relax or talk.
n 1946, social workers at VA hospitalscounseled some 144,000 men
That is a huge number and shows how badly support was needed after the war.
e more melodramatic socialproblem films su as Come Back Little Sheba (1952) and A Hatful of Rain(1957) were aracter studies of emotionally unstable, oen drug-dependent,family men. S
These movies showed men who were struggling emotionally or with addiction. It’s interesting that TV and film in the 1950s didn’t just show perfect families, they also showed serious problems inside the home.
e transition from wartime to postwar life thus resulted in a set ofideological and social contradictions concerning the construction of genderand the family unit
After the war, people were confused about what men and women were supposed to do at home. Families were expected to look perfect, but real life didn’t always match that.