Why Study Home Economics?

Why Study Home Economics? (1955)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

A young woman is going over what classes to take at school and she thinks about home economics but her young sister says there's no point because whatever that class teaches you is something you can learn at home. The next day the woman goes to her teacher and asks what exactly she'd be learning in the class. At this point this education short from Herk Harvey goes into countless dialogue scenes where the narrator tells us why it's so important to take a home ec class. I must say that this here was a pretty bland movie from start to finish and the narrator is just so dry that you'll be fighting yourself not to fall asleep. Harvey is best known for CARNIVAL OF SOULS and I've always enjoyed checking out his educational pictures but this one here is probably his worst. I guess one could argue that it was well-made and that the lead woman offers up a decent performance but these things aren't good enough to make you sit through the picture.

Iowa State College presented this turkey on film. It's basically an obscenely cheerful telling of the story of 4 women who are at ISC and study the various courses in Home economics. These women were definitely chosen for their physical attractiveness rather than their acting ability. Skewered on MST3K for its bad acting, and rightly so.

Two sisters argue the value of taking home economics in high school. The one considering it speaks to a teacher and gets a long and dull lesson.

It's a world that no longer exists: one in which girls took home economics and boys took shop. This was in preparation for a one-income family in which the man went out and earned the money and the wife stayed home, took care of the home and children. Mine was a kinder-und-kuchen family, and in many way it was more important what was done with the money, raising children, living well but economically, than the way the money was brought in. That way of thinking has vanished and families, if they survive, are, except among the very rich, two-income families. So this film made sense when it was produced, if not now.

Why Study Home Economics is a story of two sisters. One wants to take a home economics class in high school and her sister asks her "what can I learn from a home economics class that I can't learn from Mom?". The other reviews on this movie are actually referring to a different movie, 'The Home Economics Story' put out by Iowa State College at Ames. The Home Economics Story is a pretty good movie, I could see girls of the time getting excited about taking Home Economics because of it. Why Study Home Economics, on the other hand, is absolutely terrible. While both movies are scary for their portrayal of gender stereotypes, this movie would never inspire anyone to take home economics.

This short film is quite dated. It talks about how 4 women at Iowa state college have a great time learning the ins and outs of home economics. The narrator is obscenely cheerful and nothing really stands up to the test of time. Especially bad is the football game where they show much of the marching band and very little of the game.