We Have Certainly Saved Ourselves
Popular Views of Masculinity during the Korean War, 1950-53
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4867588 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Zachary J Lechner (North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2014 |
| Volume | 12 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 316-337 |
| Publication date | 2014-12-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Comparative American Studies An International Journal (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1477-5700 • E-ISSN: 1741-2676 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1179/1477570014z.00000000091 |
| OpenAlex | W1971387087 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 24 |
This article addresses the ways in which the American popular media, particularly middle-brow magazines, novels, and films, created a gendered interpretation of the Korean War. On the US home front, cultural commentators linked the purported 1950s crisis of masculinity to concerns that “coddled” and “overmothered” American military personnel would lack the manly vigor necessary to prevent South Korea from falling to communist forces. Ultimately, though, most of these observers insisted that in the crucible of war lay an antidote for America’s flagging masculine spirit. The so-called “police action” served as a critical terrain — both real and imagined — for debating masculinity during the Cold War. Although such optimism proved short-lived, this martial vision for boosting manliness resonated in post-war US policy and culture well beyond the three short years of the conflict
Aesthetics · Art · Masculinity · Media studies · Political science · Popular culture · Sociology · Spanish Civil War · Vietnam War · Communism, Protests, Social Movements · French Historical and Cultural Studies · Gender Studies · History · Japanese History and Culture · Law
American manhood
Manhood in America
Manhood and American Political Culture in the Cold War
The Romance of American Psychology
War Without Mercy
The Lavender Scare
The Vital Center
Sex in the Heartland
The Straight State
In the Shadow of War
A Man's Place
Politics in an Age of Anxiety
The Vital Center
The American Soldier in Fiction, 1880-1963
Selling the Korean War propaganda, politics, and public opinion in the United States, 1950 - 1953
The 21 “Turncoat GIs
The Korean War Film as Family Melodrama
The Lonely Crowd
I Was a Captive in Korea
Fighting for American Manhood
Manliness and Civilization
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |