Teenagers+AZKB

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1) Girls and boys in 1950 had quite the fashion sense. Girls wore dog collars on top of their socks on their ankles. If they were single, they would wear it on their right ankle, but if they had a boyfriend, it would go on their left ankle. Teenage girls were beginning to take on the popular look on mini skirts. The hippy look was all throughout the United States. Therefore, it was all colorful/ bright colors. This showed the flowly and lovely look that they were going for. Girls began to wear pants, now. Eventually, both girls and boys started to wear jeans as caual wear. The jeans that they wore were on the tighter side. The boys were even wearing bright colors. The fashion that they began to inherit was the long hair. Many teenagers started these fashion styles when there was their peers influencing them into it.

2) Entertainment was quite pleasing in the 1950's. Americans enjoyed watching plays like, //The Crucible//, or //Guys and Dolls//, at the theater. These plays expressed the American culture that was taken place at the time. In the book, //The// //Catcher in the Rye//, it shows the middle-class life that Americans were living in and how the teenagers would act. Pretty much every household would have a television back then. //I Love Lucy//, became the most popular sitcom on the televsion. Teenagers also watched the family shows like the //Harriet Show//, //The Ozzie//, and //Father Knows Best//. Teenagers loved to watch Elvis Presley and //The Ed Sullivan Show//, allowed Americans to watch him and the Beatles, on the television show. //The Mickey Mouse Club//, was also on after school to be watched. Movies were also shown on TV and viewed. The movie //Rebel Without a Cause//, was a movie that showed how teenagers went against their parents rules and lived their teenage years the way that they wanted to; not the way that they were supposed to. Teenagers idolized the main actor in the movie, Jame Dean. They also loved music. Teenagers loved rock and roll and Elvis Presley was also an idol for them. Many teenagers wanted to be famous like him. The Beatles also became popular to listen to. Folk music rivial made the youth be able to know some social and political messages that were being understood by Americans. Teenagers were influenced into pop culture of well known people and their peers around them.

3) Parents expected mant things of the teenagers back then, just like they do today. Parents wanted their kids to finish of their four high school years and get into a college for good education. Teenagers could hardly do anything that they would today because of the limited freedom that they had. Many boys would want to grow up to go in the arm forces, but their parents began to not want them through with that idea. During their school years, they we allowed some free time after school and even got paid an allowence, so they started doing more things with their peers. Teenagers because secretive of what they were doing and sometimes their parents would take it as them being rude. This was because they were going against what their parents expected of them. There were quite strict rules back then. The boys weren't allowed to even have their hair down to their ears. Boys could even get in trouble at school for it. They couldn't wear blue jeans and girls were prohibited to wearing pants. The parents of the girls didn't want them liking, or being attracted to black musicians because of racial issues. Teens started talking less proper and more in slang and the parents and adults were not fond of it at all. Dancing to music in the rock and roll genre was not allowed and if it was happening at school functions, they would come to an end. Teen dating was not favored by elders and "heavy petting" was bad and when you talked about sex, you could get in trouble for it. All they had was basically too many rules. Juvenile delinqucey was often used because teens were going against the rules and their family wouldn't accept.

4) Teens went to school to get educated, just like teenagers are supposed to these days. It became more important to finish your younger years of school to get into a college. You were encouraged to go to college to find out something you could making a living from. They were pushed to do this because their parent's past depression experiences, made them want their children to have more than they could have. Since they would recieve money from their new jobs, they would just spend it because teenagers just wanted to get out and around with other teens. Their parents wanted them to save, so there would always be issues and arguements between the teens and their parents.

5) The mobile culture was emphasized back in the 50's. Teens would get their own cars. Crusing down the main roads and highways, going to drive-in movies, and many fast food visits were things that many teenagers would do while having a car of their own. According to their parents, they bought "too much" rock and roll music. The parents dispised it because it released more sexualness than the parents wanted their teens to be exposed to. As they were starting to grow up, they adapted to the norms of the bigger society and ways of life around them.

=__//**Primary Sources**//__= This picture is relevent to the 1950's fashion. It expresses how the type of ways tthe girls would look. Most wore skirts because thats the type of style that they were used to. Every so often girls would wear pants. The girls showed in the picture above have the dog collars on the top of their socks on their ankle. The two girls on the right were in a relationship because they are wearing it on their left ankle, as the one in the middle and the two on the left were single because it's on their right ankle. This was a major trend that many girls followed.



Elvis Presley was one of the greatest rock and roll singers. Teenagers idolized him. He started playing on the radio and playing infront of live audiences. Girls that would go to his concerts and scream and cry to him. Parents didn't want their kids to be exposed to so much cause they'd get "star-struck."

=__//**Work Cited**//__= "Fashion Trend for Teenage Girls in the 1950s." //American History Online//. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE52&iPin=AHI2568&SingleRecord=True (accessed November 14, 2011).

Gómez, Andrea. "fashion, post–World War II." In Winkler, Allan M., Charlene Mires, and Gary B. Nash, eds. //Encyclopedia of American History: Postwar United States, 1946 to 1968//, Revised Edition (Volume IX). New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2010. //American History Online//. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE52&iPin=EAHrIX091&SingleRecord=True (accessed November 14, 2011).

Brenner, Sarah. "popular culture, post–World War II." In Winkler, Allan M., Charlene Mires, and Gary B. Nash, eds. //Encyclopedia of American History: Postwar United States, 1946 to 1968//, Revised Edition (Volume IX). New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2010. //American History Online//. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE52&iPin=EAHIX198&SingleRecord=True (accessed November 14, 2011).

"Fashion Trend for Teenage Girls in the 1950s." //American History Online//. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE52&iPin=AHI2568&SingleRecord=True (accessed November 15, 2011).

"Fashion Trend for Teenage Girls in the 1950s." Library of Congress. Prints and Photographs Division. New York World-Telegram and the Sun Newspaper Photograph Collection. //American History Online//. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE52&iPin=AHI2568&SingleRecord=True (accessed November 15, 2011).

"Draft Resolution." //American History Online//. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE52&iPin=E14506&SingleRecord=True (accessed November 15, 2011).

American Communist Party. "Draft Resolution." //American History Online//. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE52&iPin=E14506&SingleRecord=True (accessed November 15, 2011).

"Presley, Elvis." //American History Online//. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE52&iPin=AHI2387&SingleRecord=True (accessed November 15, 2011).

"Presley, Elvis." Hulton Archive/Getty Images. //American History Online//. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE52&iPin=AHI2387&SingleRecord=True (accessed November 15, 2011).