IDEOLOGY

Ideology

Ideology

Introduction

People form a society, institution and the overall structure of governance. In order to survive, the people with power within a society need to produce goods, the institution is responsible to protect the rights of its members. Institutions have authority over members. Everyone plays impotent role, from labors to produce goods, markets, and of course the government. In society, the institutions have a structure of power, which may suggest a sense of inequality, but it is necessary to govern the society and use force to do so. Another way of leading people to live in harmony and one thought is through Ideology. It is the way people define and see their world. This ideological power has existed from centuries.

Focusing on the representation of domestic interiors in American men's magazines during the mid-twentieth century, this article explores the history and signifi cance of the 'bachelor pad' as an icon of high-living modernity. Beginning with a consideration of Esquire magazine in the 1930s, attention is given to representations of the sleek, stylish bachelor apartment and its role as a totem of forward-looking and 'liberated' masculine consumerism. Depicted as a place where men could luxuriate in a milieu of sybaritic indulgence, the 'bachelor pad' was confi gured as the spatial manifestation of a consuming masculine subject who later became pervasive amid the consumer boom of the 1950s and 1960s. During this period, the fantasy of the chic, gadget-laden 'bachelor's lair' was a recurring icon of hedonistic, masculine consumption in men's magazines such as Playboy, Escapade and Rogue. Cosmopolitan and brimming with á la mode luxuries, the 'bachelor pad' was a leitmotif in these magazines' wider celebration of masculine consumer pleasure and desire. Analysis of these representations, it is argued, suggests that in American culture during the mid-twentieth century the 'masculine' arena of production and the 'feminine' domain of consumption were not neatly and clearly divided. Instead, the iconography of the 'bachelor pad' in American men's magazines points to a significant masculine presence within mid-twentieth century commodity culture.

Discussion

Throughout the 1950s and 1960s Playboy spotlighted a series of luxurious 'Playboy Pads'— both actual buildings and fantasy blueprints—tailored to the outlook and tastes of the hip 'man about town'. Sleek and sophisticated, these 'bachelor apartments' were icons of high-living modernity. Their plush interiors and accent on opulent leisure distinguished them as idealized habitats for a new breed of male consumer. This was a man who was affl uent and independent, with a sense of individuality crafted around fashionable display and the pleasures of commodity consumption—yet this was also a man who took care that his aesthetic tastes marked him out as avowedly heterosexual and resolutely ' manful'. Playboy's attention to design and furnishing diverges from the code of 'separate spheres' often seen as dividing the social realm into two distinctly gendered domains. According to this schema, the transition to modern industrial work patterns during the late eighteenth century deprived the middle-class home of its productive economic role. As a consequence, the home was transformed into ...