Housewives and Playboys: The Critique of Domestic Space in Post-World War II United States

Abstract

The text examines two critiques of the single-family home model in post-World War II North American suburbs. On the one hand, it investigates the struggles for wages for housework in order to highlight the critique of the processes of female subjectification that take place within the house walls. On the other, it analyses the critique of masculinity that emerges from the pages of Playboy and the Playboy Townhouse project. Finally, it uses these critiques to highlight the different ways in which the home can be seen as a place of work and a space open to the outside world.

Keywords

• domestic work
• house
• sexuality
• femininity
• masculinity