Topic: Advice Columns for Japanese-American and other American-born young women in the 1920s and 1930s.
Instructions/Format
- Use the primary sources that are to be found in the textbook (pages numbers are noted below).
- You should also to read the relevant section of our textbook in order to learn the topic’s historical context. This chapter will have been assigned for class.
- 1,500 words, typed, double-spaced, title page, paginated, works cited page (MLA format). Word count must be on the title page.
- Cite the sources in the text (Last name or title, date if available)
- Submit to turnitin.com and bring hard copy to class
Textbook Documents Essay: Young Women Speak Out (pages 559–565)
The advice columns collected in this section were published in newspapersduring the 1920s and 1930s. Carolyn Van Wyck answered questions from young girls about their roles as women at a time when traditional roles were being recast by the “New Woman.” These letters thus give valuable ways of gaining insight into women’s changing attitudes and values. The second set of letters, directed to “Dear Deidre” (Mary OyamaMittwer), came a decade later and offer insight into the experiences with Nisei, young second-generation Japanese American women and men. These young people who were seeking ways to assimilate into American culture had many of the same concerns expressed in the letters to Van Wyck.
There are two over-arching questions I would like you to consider when you frame your essay:
- What do these letters suggest about tension or conflict the letter writers faced? What does each person’s decision to write to a newspaper or magazine suggest to you about changes in family life for Japanese-American and other American-born women?
- What do you think of Van Wyck’sand Deidre’s advice? What values guided them? Would you say the answers were forward-looking, modern, proposing change? Or do they suggest a traditional point of view?
The Documents pp. 559-564:
Letters to Carolyn Van Wyck
“Should a Wife Work?”
- How does M. T. justify her question about work?
- What values seem to be guiding M. T.? What values seem to be guiding her husband?
“Whether or not to be a gold-digger!”
- What meaning does gift-giving seem to have in this question?
“Friends were too modern”
- Why did Myrtle care who paid for a date? Was there an implicit issue of power? How might the popularity of “treating” influence Myrtle’s response to it?
“Petting is my biggest problem”
- Does the writer’s dilemma—boys wanting to pet—come across as a real problem?
- What did the writer mean by saying she can’t seem to make herself dislike it?
If you want to see what the magazine looks like, it is available online: https://archive.org/stream/photoplay3637movi#page/n83/mode/2up
Photoplay was a film fan magazine published between 1911 and 1980. It is a great source for learning about the early film industry, women’s fashion, and lifestyles. It could make for a very cool paper about any of those topics. If you want to construct your own short essay topic just on the magazine, or do your term paper on it, let me know.
Issues from 1914-1938 are available at http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/serial?id=photoplay
