When I hear the words “the American Dream”, I imagine the stereotype; white picket fence, two kids, a golden retriever and an alcoholic husband who beats me when I have the audacity to ask for a break from watching the kids. You know, the 50s style picture perfect life, right?
The American Dream as we have been taught to imagine it, is dead and I think it has been for a while now.
The old American Dream scares me. The pressure of creating a perfect nuclear family unit scares me. The thought of reducing my freedoms for the benefit of what a creepy, conservative politician deems as “the ideal American Dream” scares me.
Seeing some of the horrific realities that many women from this time period endured, and how romanticized it has become, is concerning. I’m not talking about wanting a loving partner, a beautiful home or a family. I’m talking about when those ideals become forced, expected or pushed on to everyone, including those who don’t find those ideals appealing.
If that 50’s lifestyle is the one for you, go for it – but your American Dream is not necessarily for me. My American Dream is living on a quiet plot of land with my wife and a small garden, being able to take the time to travel and view some of the beauty that the world has to offer. To build a life of my own alongside someone I love, and to be myself without persecution.
There are so many different ways to live an American Dream now that the traditional version looks bland in comparison and hard to obtain for many. Not only are the economies completely different but society as a whole has changed so drastically since the 1950s. Nowadays it’s hard to live on your own within reasonable means, let alone with an entire family in tow. Good luck living comfortably as a single income household anymore.
Romanticizing and promoting these ideals as the American Dream only keeps us from adapting to our ever changing world, what’s seen as the American Dream today probably won’t be seen as the American Dream come the next 75 years. It’s time that we see it in a different light, as something that changes for each person. Not as THE American Dream, but AN American Dream.
The old version is completely outdated, held on by a thread by those who fantasize of a more certain and simpler time, but things have changed. Women have more rights, people aren’t as pressured to have kids or live that shell of a perfect life and is that really such a bad thing? There are so many different ways to live an American Dream, authentic to the individual, so why try to condense it back down into something that was never actually perfect in the first place?
