Of Treason, God and Testicles: Political Masculinities in British and American Films of the Early Cold War
Gender in general, and masculinity in particular, might not be the first associations the mind produces when presented with the subject matter of the Cold War. More likely contenders would be the arms race or the ideological dichotomy of Communism versus Capitalism. However, recent research has established beyond a doubt that the politics and diplomacy of the superpower conflict were not only strongly influenced by beliefs about gender, but simultaneously also generated them. In fact, in a social climate where gender conformity was considered as crucial as ideological conformity, the conflict gave rise to what might be called distinctive “Cold War masculinities.”
At the same time, the socio-historical context of the Cold War markedly shaped the cinemas of one of the main Cold War players, the United States, and of its close ally, Great Britain. Both film industries produced films overtly or covertly depicting the Cold War, characterised by propaganda, coercion and resistance to varying degrees.
Integrating these findings from the fields of masculinity studies and (cultural) Cold War studies, this book analyses in what shape the interplay between widespread political and ideological Cold War convictions and Cold War notions of masculinity found its way onto British and American cinema screens of the early Cold War.
Kathleen Starck is Professor of Cultural Studies at the University of Koblenz-Landau, Germany. Her research interests include Cold War cultures, gender studies, postcolonial studies, popular culture, contemporary drama as well as post-socialism. She recently co-edited A Man’s World? Political Masculinities in Literature and Culture (with Birgit Sauer, 2014), is founder of the research network “Political Masculinities,” and has been organising international conferences on political masculinities since 2012.
"Kathleen Starck, a cultural studies scholar, has written a monograph that ably showcases how masculinities were coded in popular culture during the early Cold War. Because the lived experiences and sociological studies of Anglo-American masculinities have already received treatment, Starck pursues a different path, investigating how early Cold War popular culture mediated the general anxieties of a Communist takeover into cinematic representations. [...] Scholars interested in the cultural politics of the early Cold War era will find Starck's monograph illuminating. Her case studies are instructive, and her analysis is thought-provoking."
Dr Marko Dumančić Western Kentucky University Journal of Cold War Studies, 19:4 (2017)
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