After reading about the Civil Rights and Women’s Liberation movements, you should have a solid understanding of women’s and African Americans’ critiques of the “American Dream” in the 1950s and 1960s, as well as the context of the Cold War that helped launch both movements.
For this thread, I’d like you to choose either women’s liberation OR African American’s/Civil Rights groups and answer the following questions. (And yes, I realize that this isn’t a very intersectional approach, especially since women of color were often involved in both movements. Gay, lesbian and queer folks were also usually rendered invisible in these critiques. Feel free to address this in your posts if you’d like!)
But for now, choose one group and answer the following questions:
- Both women’s libs groups AND civil rights groups protested the lack of economic, social and political equality that other (predominantly white, male) Americans had during the 1950s. What specific critiques did you find the most interesting, disturbing, important, etc.? Why?
- Like any social movement, people utilized a variety of approaches and strategies in combatting social inequality and exploitation. What SPECIFIC techniques, criticisms, or tactics did you find interesting or successful (i.e., radical or liberal?) Why?
- What did you learn about the relationship between consumer culture/advertising/capitalism and your social movement?
- Conclude with a discussion question (or maybe ask your peers to help you rethink some of your ideas?) so that folks can reply thoughtfully to your post!
You should engage with a minimum of two texts in your response. Your initial response should be thoughtful and engaged – this is a pivotal part of the class so please write a focused, clear and thoughtful response that engages directly with ideas/examples/arguments from the texts.
