![]() Credit: WandaVision (2021), Episode 3 ‘Now in Color’, distributed by Disney+. Geraldine (aka Monica Rambeau) portrayed by Teyonah Parris represents the “working woman” of the 1970s. Wanda’s desire to have children is encouraged by nosy neighbour character Agnes, with Wanda’s miraculous pregnancy at the end of the episode providing a further layer to her construction of the feminine domestic ideal. ![]() While Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique (1963) challenged traditional notions of womanhood, this cultural revolution did not necessarily extend to 1960s sit-coms which retained depictions of women confined to suburban domesticity such as Mary Tyler Moore’s “stay-at-home mom” character in The Dick Van Dyke Show. The proceeding episode, which takes us forward into the 1960s, does not dramatically shift in its tone or in its representation of women, who are primarily portrayed in this episode as housewives engaging in community work – namely organising a charity talent show “for the children” who are notably absent for the majority of the series. ![]() Credit: WandaVision (2021), Episode 2 ‘Don’t Touch That Dial’, distributed by Disney+. Geraldine (left) with Wanda (right) at Dottie’s luncheon, reflecting the middle-class suburban lifestyle of the 1960s. Indeed, sit-coms of this era such as The Donna Reed Show portrayed the mundane yet pleasant nature of white nuclear family life in suburban America, which fed into American Cold War propaganda boasting of its ability to fulfil women’s domestic and consumerist desires as superior to the USSR. In the opening episode, Wanda is depicted as the traditional 1950s American housewife, with Vision (the human-robot synthesoid) inhabiting the role of the male breadwinner working at a company ironically titled “Computational Services.” Wanda and Vision’s middle-class lifestyle, as depicted by their polished new home and respectable formal attire, mirrors the stylistic tone of 1950s “Golden Age” television and, by extension, the image America was seeking to project of “the good life” in the early years of the Cold War. Wanda is one of the victims of “the snap” – where half of humanity vanished for five years – and thus when she returns in Endgame, she is still processing the trauma of Vision’s death, setting the stage for the exploration of her grief in WandaVision. The series follows the events of Avengers Infinity War (2018) and Avengers Endgame (2019) in which Vision was killed by Thanos as part of his Malthusian conquest to wipe out half of all humanity with a single snap of his fingers using the infinity stones. Credit: WandaVision (2021), Episode 1 ‘Filmed Before a Live Studio Audience’, distributed by Disney+.Īs we are transported into the world of Westview, New Jersey, we find Wanda Maximoff and Vision settling into a life of domestic newlywed bliss in the confines of 1950s sit-com America, complete with its monochrome filter. Wanda inhabits the role of the “impossible woman” by single-handedly preparing dinner – using her magical powers.
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