Suburbia: A False Front

Levittowns became super popular in the Post-World War 2 era with the signing of the G.I. Bill. The bill allowed veterans returning from the war to get low-cost mortgages on homes and the William Levitt and his company provided a place for those mortgages. The media pushed the influence even further by promoting these suburban areas as a place for you to start a family and live the American dream.

This propaganda of raising a family in the suburbs can still be seen today. Major insurance company State Farm has an ad out where a guy gets married, has a child, and moves to the suburbs (and does a bunch of other things he says he’d never do but that’s another story). We even see in the clip of his suburban life his wife and child playing in the yard in front of their cookie cutter house while he trims the hedges.

Like a good neighbor, State Farm will keep their home looking the same as yours.

Suburbia; A beautiful home that you can call yours, some grass in the front yard for your child to play in, a car for you to drive to work every day. It’s the perfect place, right? At least you would think that until you strip away all of the false identity of the image. Take away the generic 4 person family and you get your cookie cutter home. Take away the fancy (staged, might I add) foliage and you get your cookie cutter home (complete with power lines in front too!). Zoom out and you see there are thousands of other homes just like yours.

Pre-Photoshop

"I can see my house from here!"

Not everyone has joined the bandwagon to the suburbs. Many architecture students detest the suburbs for their lack of diversity and ability for their residents to show their own style. Hollywood has also joined into the anti-suburbanistic viewpoint. Movies like Revolutionary Road and American Beauty show what happens on the inside of the suburban home. Boredom for the spouse who tends the house causes tension within the family; the perfect image of the outside stained by the imperfect family on the inside.

Or you could run a meth lab out of your home; nobody would know.