Note: This was first published in lawrence.com on January 20, 2006
Last Sunday my mom phoned me, and with a flustered and excited tone to
her voice said, "You're not going to believe it, there's a picture of
your grandmother in the
New York Times today!" My grandmother
past away in 1980. She was not a public person, and as far as we know,
photographs of her appeared only once in a newspaper or magazine during
her lifetime. So, unless she had led a secret life unknown to the
family, we had a pretty good idea what the source of the photo in the
Times must have been
- Occupation: Housewife
"Occupation: Housewife" was an eight-page photo essay that followed
the daily routine - from breakfast in the morning, cleaning the house,
doing laundry, entertaining guests, to putting the kids to bed at night -
of an American housewife (my grandmother) and her family. The article,
which appeared between a spread for Tyrone Power and Betty Grable's new
movie "A Yank in the R.A.F." and photos (that terrified my mom, then age
four) of a child victim of Nazi bombing, was published in LIFE magazine
on September 22, 1941.
When I asked my mom about how LIFE chose her
family, she recalled; "LIFE wanted a 'typical' American
family for the article. Kankakee, Illinois, where we lived was in the
Midwest, and at the time was growing fast. The reporter and photographer
went to the owner of the Ford auto agency in town, Romy Hammes, to see
if he knew of such a family. Romy felt his family was too wealthy for
what they were looking for, so he suggested us since we lived only a
couple of blocks away from him on Cobb Boulevard." Sure enough, the
photo was taken directly from the LIFE article, with one very obvious
photo-shopped alteration. In the original photo, my grandmother is shown
"picking-up" in the living room. Around her are carefully staged props:
a carpet sweeper, dust mop, trash bin, and some papers strewn across
the floor. She is bending over the couch. Above her, in an oval frame,
is a painting of a stern looking man with an Abe Lincoln beard. This was
my great, great, great, great grandfather John Ward Amberg. The
Times
photo is identical except that, in place of the portrait of Grandpa
John, there is a photo of Betty Friedan, author of "The Feminine
Mystique."
The article by Patricia Cohen that accompanied
this 'photo illustration' was titled
"Today, Some Feminists Hate the Word 'Choice'." My grandmother would probably agree, because in both
cases, in LIFE and in the
Times, her image was used to
illustrate stories that were not of her choosing. After some
consideration, my mom decided to write a letter to the editor, that
would explain her relationship to the photo and how it had originated in
LIFE.
Below is her letter, which appeared in the New York Times on Wednesday, January 18th
To
the Editor:
I agree that issuing marching orders to women today is
"not helpful." To try to label women is an act of futility, making
them one-dimensional when in fact most women's lives are complicated and
change with time and circumstance. But I was most taken with the
photograph accompanying your article, because the woman portrayed
cleaning her house was my mother, Jane LeValley Amberg. As noted,
the photo was taken by William C. Shrout for LIFE magazine and was
originally published September 22, 1941, in a feature article titled
"Occupation: Housewife." My mother was unhappy with the published
article, because she was portrayed as a "typical" American housewife who
cared only for home and family. Not mentioned was the fact that, with
no college degree, she was also a voracious reader and a committed
liberal Democrat who cared deeply about national and international
issues. Our first TV was bought so that she could watch the
Army-McCarthy hearings. Sixty-five years after the Life article,
women still struggle with the rigid, one-dimensional labels of
"stay-at-home moms" and "women who work."
Pamela Loewenstein
Lawrence, Kansas
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