Doris Day Icon

Excerpts from various essays and articles dealing with Doris Day and the fifties. 

 

There were several female cultural bodies competing for dominance in the 1950s. For example, the “mammary madness” of the decade as embodied by stars like Marilyn Monroe and her imitators, such as Jayne Mansfield and Mamie Van Doren, is as much a part of the iconography of the fifties as are Dee and her adult version, Doris Day. Reconciling these seemingly contradictory representations is not as difficult as it would seem, however, for in many ways these types are simply flip sides of the same coin.(Georgeanne Scheiner)

Claudia LoBue (GWU),writes in “Wife or Sex Goddess: Which Would You Choose?”

I am using Doris Day’s character of Jan Morrow in Pillow Talk and Marilyn Monroe’s character of Sugar Kane in Some Like it Hot to show that there were traditionally two distinct roles for women in fifties cinema.  Doris Day was the typical “girl next door” wife and mother, and Marilyn Monroe was the sexual icon of the time

The above quote by academic Claudia LoBue proves once again the false assertions due to sloppy research and going for the obvious cliches when referring to Doris Day. For the record, Jan Morrow, Doris Day’s character in Pillow Talk was neither a mother nor a wife. She was a single, independent and career woman. Other than Doris Day, few actressess portrayed career women in the fifties and early sixties.. .

In her thought provoking essay, Female Film Stars and the Dominant Ideologies of 1950s America, Jessica Freame (University of Melbourne) sets out to:

explore the extent to which female film stars embodied specific types of acceptable womanhood in the 1950s by focussing on the very different yet equally successful star images of Marilyn Monroe and Doris Day. reveal the intrinsic relationship between Hollywood film stars, their social and political context, and the dominant ideologies of their time. .

Freame introduces the political and social context of the fifties. The fifties represented  the post war years filled with optimism and prosperity on the one hand, and fear and paranoia on the other hand. The fear and paranoia were fuelled by the Cold War, threat of the atomic bomb and the communist witch hunt spear-headed by politicians such as Sen. Joe McCarthy.

According to the author the American society during the 1950’s

has often been glorified as a decade of ‘political simplicity, moral innocence (and) sexual naiveté’[6] between the social upheaval of World War Two and the social upheaval of the1960s. 

Here are some of the excerpts from the article: An analysis will follow. I have highlighted assertions that I find could be debatable and underlined interesting commentary. Comments and/or rebuttals to this article are welcome

With the fear and paranoia of the Cold War permeating American society, the family evidently functioned as a defence against the insecurities of the future and was complimented by the ideological emphasis on traditional gender roles, suburbanisation and consumerism.

The Hollywood film industry played a complex role in the idealisation and naturalisation of these dominant ideologies. There was an immense diversity amongst female star images in 1950s Hollywood. Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell were highly sexualised, while Debbie Reynolds and Doris Day were wholesome girls-next-door.. Despite these differences, each star image was entwined with the idealised values of the period.

 In order to illustrate this, I have chosen two stars that represented opposing versions of womanhood. Marilyn Monroe was the most popular star of the decade (???) whose vulnerable sexuality and child-like innocence made her both dangerous and in need of protection. In contrast, Doris Day evoked traditional notions of wholesome femininity as she was consistently transformed from the ideal daughter into the ideal wife.

Yet, Monroe and Day were each shaped by the social and political context of the decade and were intrinsically related to the dominant ideologies of 1950s America.

Despite this strong relationship with the dominant ideologies of the nation, the nuclear family and the related move to the suburbs were alluded to but did not fit into Monroe’s highly sexualised image. They were however, central to other star images of the 1950s such as Doris Day. The wholesome, sexless( ???) image of Day was as divergent from Monroe’s as was possible. Yet, it was also shaped by the social and political context of the time and incorporated the ideologies of the nation.

Aligned with this promotion of traditional gender roles and marriage, Day’s star image incorporated conservative notions of the nuclear family. In contrast to Monroe’s often family-less characters, Day regularly portrayed the ideal daughter before she became the ideal wife. …..

 It is evident that Day’s early star image explicitly incorporated the values of traditional gender roles, marriage, the nuclear family, suburbia and consumerism. These values functioned within the ideological context of the 1950s to allay the anxieties associated with the Cold War.

When Day reached her thirties and could no longer portray the daughter, her image was adjusted slightly but she maintained her strong relationship with the dominant ideologies of the decade. Starring with Rock Hudson in a series of sex comedies that included Pillow Talk and Lover Come Back, Day portrayed the puritanical virgin( ???) battling with Hudson’s more promiscuous characters.[41]

Although she was now in an adult world without familial protection, Day remained sweet and wholesome as she continued to embody an idealised version of femininity, marriage and family. These values were celebrated through Day’s image, so that although Jerry (Hudson) described her in Lover Come Back as ‘undersexed’, her commitment to traditional ideologies was validated by their eventual marriage.

Through these sex comedies, despite changes in setting, plot and age, Day upheld the dominant 1950s understandings of femininity, marriage and the family that she had always symbolised.

The star image of Doris Day was clearly related to the ideological context of 1950s America. She represented an ideal version of womanhood, often associated with the safety and security attributed to the past, and functioning to offset the fear, paranoia and uncertainty that accompanied the Cold War. However, Day’s relationship to these ideologies was not always simple and straightforward.

The essay starts getting interesting when Freame describes the subversive elements of Doris Day’s and Marilyn Monroes portrayal of the idealized woman.  

Stars did not simply represent dominant ideologies. They were sites upon which ideological debates took place, thereby giving audiences space to ascribe their own meanings to the images projected by their favourite stars.

This subtle subversion is illustrated by what Quart and Auster describe as Day’s ‘drive, ambition and spunkiness’.[44] In the early romantic comedies, this involved her portrayal of tomboys who were strong, capable young women.

Although they were always domesticated, the fact that such women appeared onscreen was significant in the context of 1950s America. In turn, Day gave these characters an independence that enhanced their appeal. A clear example of this was Marjorie’s proud display of mechanical abilities in By the Light of the Silvery Moon.[45] When their car broke down at the end of a date, William could not fix it so Marjorie crawled under the car. As she emerged dirty but triumphant, William was visibly agitated at this affront to his masculinity. Marjorie had proven that women were indeed capable of more than domestic duties. Although this scene functioned within the plot to justify Marjorie’s subsequent domestication(???), such images of female independence offered audiences an alternative version of womanhood that provided scope for the critique rather than reinforcement of dominant 1950s ideologies. .

Further elements of subversion appeared within Day’s wholesome star image through her portrayal of women with professional jobs in the later sex comedies. Day was among the few female stars of the 1950s given roles where they worked for a living and enjoyed it, thereby undermining her representation of idealised femininity.

As Quart and Auster explain ‘despite Day’s girl-next-door looks and behavior, her characters often had jobs and projected a tougher, more independent persona than other major female stars’.[47]

This independence was evident in roles where her expertise in her profession was constantly reinforced, including an advertising executive in Lover Come Back and an interior designer in Pillow Talk.[48] Such films which demonstrated female capabilities in the professional arena complicated Day’s otherwise idealised representation of femininity and a woman’s place.

Towards the end of the decade her star image incorporated an alternative to the dominant ideologies she embodied and hinted at the complex reality of 1950s American society.

Day’s image also shared elements of subversion with other female stars, including Marilyn Monroe. An important aspect of female stardom throughout the history of the film industry was the fact that such women were so popular in the first place.

Within the context of 1950s America, it was clearly significant that women like Day and Monroe occupied public space that was generally reserved for men: they appeared on the big screen, providing a source of public interest and gracing the cover of Time magazine. This undermined the onscreen domestication of female characters and the constant reinforcement of dominant ideologies.

Many female stars were so popular that they were either billed before male stars on the promotional material for their films, or did not need a male star at all to attract an audience.

The subversive element of the popularity of female film stars was further enhanced by their ability as actresses, singers and comedians. The immense talents of Day and Monroe, who could both carry a film alone, clearly extended well beyond the domestic realm.

Their presence as capable women holding their own in the public sphere of the 1950s provided their audience with scope for the subtle subversion of the ideologies they were apparently promoting.

The images of both Monroe and Day evidently contained elements of ambiguity that subtly subverted the dominant ideologies of 1950s America. These moments of subversion further illustrate the intrinsic relationship between Hollywood stars and the dominant ideologies of the American nation.

The meticulously constructed star images of Monroe and Day reflected the social and political context of the 1950s. During a time of suspicion and paranoia they were among the most popular images of the American woman, different versions of ‘the answer to any red-blooded American boy’s dream’. Whether representing vulnerable sexuality in need of protection or wholesome femininity destined for domesticity, both star images were entwined in the idealisation of the nuclear family and its related ideologies. However, like American society as a whole during the 1950s, this relationship was not as simple and straightforward as it seemed.

Elements of subversion were incorporated into their images, offering subtle alternatives to the ideologies they ostensibly promoted, providing an indication of the upheaval that was to follow in the next decade. Thus, Monroe and Day, in their capacity as popular Hollywood film stars, embodied both the dominant ideologies of the 1950s and the complex, ambiguous reality of American society during the Cold War.

Author’s note: This essay should have been called “How popular female stars such as Doris Day and Marylin Monroe subtly subverted the dominant ideologies they were supposed to have represented in the 1950’s” The essay becomes much more interesting and complex once these elements of subversity and ambiguity get introduced