This weekend, Boomerang had a 24 hour marathon of The Flintstones because this week was the 50th anniversary of the first episode. Since I watched the Flintstones as a kid I was supremely excited for this marathon, but something was a little weird for me. Since our discussion this week about race and sexism in America, I watched these episodes with a different eye. In one episode, Barney and Fred are attempting to watch football but Bam-Bam and Pebbles are making too much noise so they can't enjoy the game (which ended up not being on because the teenage american bandstand type shows were had taken over the TV channels) and they call over their wives Wilma and Betty to take the children. What really surprised me was the fact that these women don't snap back at their husbands like they do in shows now, Wilma just said "Betty, we'd better take care of them before they [meaning Barney and Fred] get unbearable". They just did what they were asked as if they were servants to their husbands. I find it intriguing that that was the social norm back then. That a cartoon could make such a statement about the woman's place in the home and no one would really think twice about it.
I also find it interesting how much the social landscape has changed in the past 50 years since the Flintstones first began. In TV shows now, woman have a stronger voice in the household. Gilmore Girls, a show based on the relationship between a mother and her daughter, was all about female empowerment and how they didn't need men to tell them what to do. It is very interesting to see how much everything has changed and how so many things went over my head as a child that I now understand.
That said, The Flintstones are still rockin' awesome (no pun intended).
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