Abstract Masculinity on Every Channel

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ABSTRACT

MASCULINITY ON EVERY CHANNEL: THE DEVELOPMENT AND DEMONSTRATION

OF AMERICAN MASCULINITY OF THE POSTWAR PERIOD VIA 1960S TELEVISION

by Remy Malcolm Willocks

Throughout the first twenty years of television’s history, the programs that aired simultaneously reflected and shaped American society based upon sets of values and ideals, specifically regarding gender roles. While the representation of women deviated from the traditional femininity of the idyllic housewife to career-oriented individuals, the portrayal of men increasingly reinforced traditional or “hegemonic” masculine traits and core values via the depiction of strong, manly protagonists. Even as masculinity shifted against the backdrop of the Cold War from rugged individualism to gentle yet stern breadwinners for families, television series continued to reaffirm the desire of men to acquire their manhood by fitting into the ever- changing mold. The three television programs of The Twilight Zone (1959-1964), The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961-1966), and Star Trek (1966-1969) each demonstrate different facets of masculinity in different contexts. The Twilight Zone uses the genre of horror to visually present men’s fears of never obtaining manhood via the punishment of unmanly men. The Dick Van Dyke Show employs situational comedy as a means of reestablishing men within the home as the heads of the household. Star Trek, through the genre of science-fiction, displays traditional masculinity and its values holding firm in a futuristic society.

MASCULINITY ON EVERY CHANNEL: THE DEVELOPMENT AND DEMONSTRATION OF AMERICAN MASCULINITY OF THE POSTWAR PERIOD VIA 1960S TELEVISION

Thesis

Submitted to the

Faculty of Miami University

in partial fulfillment of

the requirements for the degree of

Master of Art

Remy Malcolm Willocks

Miami University

Oxford, Ohio

2019

Advisor: Dr. Nishani Frazier

Reader: Dr. Erik Jensen

Reader: Dr. Kerry Hegarty

This Thesis titled

MASCULINITY ON EVERY CHANNEL: THE DEVELOPMENT AND DEMONSTRATION OF AMERICAN MASCULINITY OF THE POSTWAR PERIOD VIA 1960S TELEVISION

Remy Malcolm Willocks

has been approved for publication by

The College of Arts and Science

and

Department of History

Dr. Nishani Frazier

Dr. Erik Jensen

Dr. Kerry Hegarty

Table of Contents

Dedication… ...... v

Acknowledgements...... vi

Introduction ...... 1

Chapter One: Domesticizing Masculinity in The Dick Van Dyke Show ...... 14

Chapter Two: Masculinity on the Final Frontier ...... 30

Chapter Three: The Twilight Zone ...... 49

Conclusion ...... 67

Bibliography… ...... 72

iii

Dedication

To my mother who helped to inspire this entire project.

Acknowledgements

Before the start of this thesis, I want to give a special thanks to everyone who assisted me in the completion of this project. First and foremost, a big thank you to Nishani Frazier, my thesis advisor, is well deserved. If it were not for her guidance, tough criticism, and supportive encouragement, this thesis would not be near the quality it is today. Secondly, I would like to thank my family and close friends for cheering me on this whole time despite difficulties and unexpected challenges. When I was first considering a topic for my thesis, my first thought was to look at comedy shows of the 1960s like The Carroll Burnett Show and Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. Such programs were some of my mother’s favorites growing up, and I have fond memories connected to watching them with her. Though the topic and perspective changed dramatically since that first thought, it originated from members of my family gathering together around the small screen and enjoying some entertainment just like many American families during television’s youth in the postwar period.

Introduction

The statistics on televisions per household in America increased at an exponential rate in the immediate Post-War era, starting at 9% in 1950 and skyrocketing to 90% by 1960.1 As television developed into a major cultural phenomenon, it simultaneously evolved to mirror American society. Author Tim Dant argues in Television and the Moral Imaginary that television reflects the society that watches it.2 To take Dant’s argument one step further, this potential to imitate the audience’s society also includes the ability to demonstrate an idealized civilization that outlines preferred standards that fit the image of a “perfect society.” In the post 1950s, television reinforced several aspects of this idealized society and mythic American Dream, including capitalism, suburbanization, and gender roles. Other scholars similarly point out that television programs, especially during the 1950s and 1960s, also perpetuated and developed 3 social and cultural trends.

Series creators and network producers experimented with a variety of genres, from westerns to science fiction, throughout the so-called “golden age” between 1950s and 1970s.4 During the rapid 1960s cultural changes, the development of non-traditional perspectives regarding masculinity did not penetrate television as the portrayal of women changed. The small screen reinforced traditional masculinity in varied ways across genres and time; the series The Twilight Zone, The Dick Van Dyke Show, and Star Trek: The Original Series each uniquely demonstrate masculine ideals of gender.

Shows that began during the beginning of the golden age of television portrayed a romanticized society that focused almost exclusively on white, heterosexual, middle-class America living out the “American dream.” Examples of this can be seen in shows like I Love

1 “Television: Moving Image Section—Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division,” Library of Congress, accessed April 25, 2018, https://memory.loc.gov/ammem/awhhtml/awmi10/television.html 2 Tim Dant, Television and the Moral Imaginary: Society Through the Small Screen (Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012), 7. 3 Lynn Spiegel and Michael Curtin, “Introduction,” in The Revolution Wasn’t Televised: Sixties Television and Social Conflict, ed. Lynn Spiegel and Michael Curtin (New York: Routledge, 1997), 11; M. Keith Booker, The Post- Utopian Imagination: American Culture in the Long 1950s (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2002), 7. 4 By “golden age of television”, I am specifically referring to the period in television history marked by the beginning of TV in the early 1950s up until the advent of the multi-channel era in the early 1980s. The transition from the three major broadcasting companies of NBC, ABC, and CBS to the diversification of channels and production companies in the 1980s designates the official end of the golden age era in television history. From here on out in this prospectus, I will use the terms “golden age” and “classical age” interchangeably.

Lucy, Leave it to Beaver, and Father Knows Best. Even when the shows were not focused on the atomic, suburban family or even white Americans, early television series reinforced the quintessential way mainstream American society viewed itself and those around it. On nearly every television during the medium’s early youth, citizens of all walks of life that could afford a set saw images of families enjoying an idyllic life during the postwar economic boom, comedians gently poking fun at noncontroversial topics like the difficulties of one’s career, or noble action heroes saving the day. The purpose of television in its first decade was to entertain without offense, and thus tended to avoid tough topics such as race and sex.5 However, as society began liberalizing around the late 1950s, demonstrated by various student and civil rights movements, television slowly reflected these changes.

Looking specifically at the portrayal of gender in shows during this classical age of television, representation of women changed rather drastically. Originally, shows like I Love Lucy’s Lucile Ball and Leave it to Beaver’s June Cleaver, portrayed characters that represented women as subservient to their husbands. Despite Ball’s humorous attempts to become a star on her show, a significant portion of its humor within this sitcom came from her character trying to avoid corporal punishment from Desi Arnaz’s character.6 As television grew older, the way women appeared within fictional series changed. New expressions of female representation existed within shows such as Julia, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and The Brady Bunch, all of which starred women who broke respective stereotypical molds, developing concurrently with the evolution of the Women’s Rights Movement during the late 1960s. By 1970, the series Julia showed a single mother of color working on her career and providing for her son, and the even more progressive The Mary Tyler Moore Show featured Moore herself as a single woman also furthering her career with no ambitions regarding marriage.

5 The demonstration of this style of “clean” television is clear not from what was included, but rather what was omitted. In any family-centric show, the parents were never seen in a bedroom together, nor was it ever implied. Not until The Dick Van Dyke Show do viewers see the bedroom of a married couple. Even then, Robert Petrie and his wife Laura had two separate beds within their room to avoid any offensive, sexual implications. 6 The existence of domestic violence as the source of I Love Lucy’s humor blatantly demonstrated that violence towards women during the 20th century persisted to such a ubiquitous degree that a mainstream comedy series consistently made fun of the subject without any noticeable backlash. Scholars Michelle Fine and Lois Weis discuss the extent of violence towards women in the United States in their article “Disappearing Acts: The State and Violence Against Women in the 20th Century” in Signs: Journal of Women and Culture in Society.

Male characters, however, rarely deviated from their gender roles except when used as negative examples. Instead, creators tended to double down on traditionally masculine images and present male characters as possessing the qualities of the ideal American man. Fictional series demonstrated this manliness of their characters in several ways: a military background, superiority to other characters (especially women), emotional detachment, or a combination of these traits, to name a few. Thus, The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961-1966), Star Trek (1966-1969), and The Twilight Zone (1959-1964) all employ these attributes and other character-defining events to demonstrate a continuity of portrayals of traditional masculinities across different genres.

These three shows exemplify different approaches to affirming traditional masculinity across genres and epitomize the male persona, particularly via their recurring popularity and unique story-telling methods. Investigating television programs of distinct styles and formats is the clearest way to expose the ubiquity of cultural standards for masculinity. If one looked at a singular episode, or even series, it would provide a detailed yet narrow view of the prevalence of traditional masculinity within television of the post 1950s. Instead, by looking at three completely different programs, masculine archetypes, tropes, and behaviors appear more as a continuity within the medium of television rather than an exception within one show. The analysis of these three programs from three distinct genres showcases the prevalence of masculine images on television during the 1950s and 1960s. It also showcases, per the format and design of the sitcom, sci-fi, and horror genres the several facets of masculinity, its shifting values as the United States adjusted culturally and politically following World War II, and the reception of alternative versions of masculinity.

The Dick Van Dyke Show utilizes comedy to reaffirm traditional masculinity through its plot resolutions and character backgrounds as well as gendered challenge to society through a masculine assertion both in the home and at work. Though women in the show may have a few witty one-liners to demonstrate the foolishness of their male co-stars, the man is right in the end and reestablishes himself as head of the household. The genre of comedy tends to heavily utilize the “role reversal” trope that is often seen in romantic comedies whereby the conflict (and, as a result, most of the comedy) comes from imbalance. To resolve the conflict, men take their place as the man of the house, thereby restoring order by reestablishing themselves as the masculine

ideal of the breadwinning father/husband of the post-war period. Traditional or hegemonic masculinity exists as the eventual status men must achieve after experiencing humorous humiliation related to their lack of manhood.

Star Trek features men unencumbered by feminine civilization as they travel across the final frontier of space as mythic cowboys of the American Old West. Paradoxically, there is a space for homosocial relations which muddle the individual rugged manhood. This genre of science fiction/fantasy places masculinity within the context of a highly advanced civilization whereby values of manliness exist hundreds of years into the future. This heavily implies that, despite what changes might take place in society and how far human civilization evolves, traditional masculinity and its defining features will continue to reign over alternative versions of manhood for centuries to come.

The Twilight Zone displays, through its anthology-style narrative, masculine-focused plots as well as on the consequences of not adhering social of male standards. This third program is especially unique in that, rather than representing a benchmark of achieved masculinity, it demonstrates an alternate reality of punishment for men who do not comply with their gendered expectations. The use of the horror/thriller genre further contributes to the exceptionality of this show as it shows audiences what they should fear: not acquiring manhood. This genre presents a near explicit example of contemporary fears, and in the case of The Twilight Zone, are chiefly fears of emasculation.

Typically, traditional masculinity exists on a few significant ideals according to gender studies scholarship: economic success (or, at the very least, competence), especially as a breadwinner, heterosexuality or the idea of men being sexually dominant as a demonstration of virility, and individuality, often in the form of capable leadership.7 Previous scholars have dedicated multiple volumes of research to determining the minutia of this side of gender in the fifty-six years since Betty Friedan’s landmark work, The Feminine Mystique.8 This thesis will

7 Michael Kimmel, Manhood in America: A Cultural History (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006); Robert O. Self, All in the Family: The Realignment of American Democracy Since the 1960s (New York: Hill and Wang, 2012). 8 Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique (New York: Dell Publishing Co., 1963); Gender studies scholars, starting with feminist psychoanalytic theorists like Juliet Mitchell, Judith Butler, and Jane Gallop developed an intricate scholarly discourse. The research and scholarship on this subject are so extensive that the topic of gender studies is more of an umbrella term including topics of women’s studies, sexuality studies, and masculinity studies. Thus,

detail the variations and historical significance of masculinity in the United States in television based on these three broadly defined components of masculinity.

There is a substantial historical background of masculinity in the United States. For the sake of this thesis, any reference to manhood, masculinity, etc., unless otherwise stated, is about that of white men, typically middle-class. Race and class are certainly heavily involved in the formation of masculine images and ideals: an important example being the idea of exclusion as one of the foundations for traditional white manhood. Due to the confines of this thesis, the focus will be on white, usually middle-class masculinity.

Traditional American masculinity comprises multiple archetypes which evolved throughout American history. The first significant model of masculinity is that of the “Self-Made Man,” a man whose proof of manhood is predicated on economic success. According to sociologist Michael Kimmel, the Self-Made Man’s defining features were that of “success in the market, individual achievement, mobility, [and] wealth.”9 This establishment of male financial success as a core masculine ideal coincides neatly with the development of American economic strength towards and increasingly capitalist system during the early 19th century.

According to Kimmel, the basis of the Self-Made Man paradigm is on the unpredictable market as a means of judging one’s masculine character. This foundation proved to be a double- edged sword, as Kimmel states that “the flip side of this economic autonomy is anxiety, restlessness, loneliness. Manhood is no longer fixed in land…Success must be earned, manhood must be proved—and proved constantly.”10 Thus, the masculine tradition of frantically attempting to succeed in business and other economic endeavors as proof of one’s manliness entrenched itself in American society. This archetype not only established a set of social requirements for men but also set up the location of their proving grounds: the workplace. The demarcation of business as a male-only arena of society provided a space for men to establish authority, particularly in front of other men.11 The use of the workplace as a masculine sphere developed throughout the 19th century with increasing emphasis on exclusion as a means of

even if this thesis were to make the mistake of ignoring any gender theory outside of men’s studies, the amount of published work on the subject is still considerable. 9 Kimmel, Manhood in America, 17. 10 Ibid. 11 Ibid, 19.

reducing the already significant amount of competition men faced. Those excluded were non- native whites, non-whites, and women, which thereby restricted the Self-Made Man archetype to native-born, white, and often middle-class men. It is important to note that, while this essay does not focus on race, virtually all masculine models in American society included racial components as a means of determining who could claim the title of being a man and the respect of other men 12 that came with it.

This archetype and the height of its cultural influence during the mid- to late-19th century coincides with Max Weber’s famous Protestant Work Ethic. In this work of scholarship, virtues of faith and consumerism blended to develop a culture in which frugality and hard work equate to noble qualities. Though this economic style changed in the face of an urbanizing and suburbanizing culture of conspicuous consumption, the patriarchal and, by extension, masculine features of authority in both the religious and financial aspects of the Protestant Work Ethic remained.

The Self-Made Man paradigm evolved dramatically through urbanization and the Industrial Revolution in the late 19th century in America. During the Gilded Age of America, many men, especially those in the working class, lost substantial economic autonomy as the structure of the workplace changed. The new labor structure demanded that men answer to a superior, an expectation that directly conflicts with the archetype’s core attribute of individuality.13 Such th changes in the workplace demonstrate early echoes of what would later develop in the 20 century into a social force of conformity, a menace which famous post-war contemporaries decry 14 as one of the foremost threats to American society.

Shifting values and gendered expectations were not unique to the 1950s. Masculinity existed (and continues to do so) in a multitude, thereby creating what sociologist R.W. Connell calls

12 When talking about gender, it is impossible to ignore race. Masculinity, especially white masculinity, existed in direct contrast to that of ethnic minorities. Significant works such as James Snead’s White Screens, Black Images: Hollywood from the Dark Side discuss how the dynamics of race and masculinity took place within film and television, while others like Michael Kimmel’s Angry White Men: American Masculinity at the End of an Era details white masculinity, how it was defined against other masculinities as being superior, and the resulting backlash of men who felt threatened following the Civil Rights Movement. 13 Kimmel, Manhood in America, 58. 14 William H. Whyte, Jr. The Organization Man (Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, 1956), 3-7. William Whyte’s entire thesis for his work describes the terrifying ramifications of this process and sets and ominous tone for the progression of the United States during the mid-1950s.

“hegemonic masculinity.”15 Such a label implies a collaboration of different parties in forming the foundation of specific forms of manhood and how they interact with others in society. Beneath this pinnacle of hegemonic masculinity exists several “alternative” masculinities which still support core aspects of the former, more widely accepted version of manhood, exemplifying the continuities between deviations in manliness. One such example of this is the hegemonic masculinity of the 1950s as represented by fathers of families acting as the gentle yet firmly stern breadwinner. One such alternative masculinity to this portrayal is that of the rock ‘n roll young men, personified by icons such as James Dean, who existed as cultural rebels confronting the status quo while restricting their emotional expression to anger and angst.

By the post-war period of the 1950s and 1960s, coinciding with the birth of television and its considerable societal influences, men considered their masculinity to be in crisis again: “by masculinity crisis, historians refer to a moment when observers begin to notice that assumptions about masculinity and expected male behavior are being undercut by circumstance and social and psychological changes.”16 The changes that took place certainly made men anxious; following World War II men came home to find the workplace bureaucratizing at an alarming rate which further stripped men (and, by extension, society as a whole) of their individuality, a defining feature of manhood. Furthermore, child psychologists and other analysts suggested that juvenile delinquency, a rapidly increasing public issue in the 1950s, stemmed from a disrupted family structure during World War II, i.e. the lack of a father figure. Scholar James Gilbert explains that “when [the family structure] was disrupted, then [juvenile delinquency] was one inevitable result…as the war split families apart, first by conscription and then because women entered the labor force.”17 Without strong masculine authority in the household to teach sons respect, as well as a sudden change in gender roles where women entered the workforce, boys misbehaved via involvement in criminal activities according to contemporary concerns.

Economic success was vital to the foundation of traditional masculinity. From the successful businessman, this ideal evolved into the breadwinner ideology in which one’s

15 Raewyn Connell, “Masculinities,” Last Modified 2014. http://www.raewynconnell.net/p/masculinities_20.html 16 James Gilbert, Men in the Middle: Searching for Masculinity in the 1950s (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005), 16. 17 James Gilbert, A Cycle of Outrage: America’s Reaction to the Juvenile Delinquent in the 1950s (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988), 27-28.

manhood came from his ability to provide for himself and a family.18 The very idea of a man’s purpose as a breadwinner came from the pragmatic perspective that a man was to be useful to himself, his family, and his society, as explained by contemporary 19th century magazines.19 This development simultaneously signaled a gradual departure of traditional masculinity from the mythic rugged individualism symbolized by cowboys and lone rangers as it moved towards an emphasis on fatherhood as the masculine achievement for which American men should strive. The alarming issue at hand during the 1950s and 1960s was that of increasing feminization: boys were more feminine because their mothers were raising them, and they lacked a strong father figure as a role model.

Such a fear of feminization was nothing new by the postwar period. As women entered previously male-dominated areas such as education and the workforce, fear of their enervating effects on men of those fields and their manhood persisted and grew.20 What was new was the fear of feminization in concert with shifting gender roles for men, resulting in men becoming deeply confused as they face “devalued” masculine roles of fatherhood and rugged individualism/independence directly following World War II.21 The immediate result of failed fathers seemed glaring during the 1950s as the issue of juvenile delinquency increased in severity, for without fathers to teach their sons how to behave like men, the boys revolted as juvenile delinquents during the 1950s and hippies during the 1960s.22 Such rebellion was also connected with the early days of the counterculture movement as Beatniks and similarly-minded musicians during the late-1950s utilized young men’s anxieties related to masculinity and 23 provided them an escape from the pressure to prove their manhood via their alternate lifestyles.

18 Robert Self’s All in the Family: The Realignment of American Democracy since the 1960s does a thorough job of explaining this ideology and the issues it had with the growing Women’s Rights movement and their desire to have careers (thereby threatening men’s ability to provide and, by extension, claim their masculine authority). 19 Theodore P. Greene, America’s Heroes: The Changing Models of Success in American Magazines (New York: Oxford University Press, 1970), 43. 20 This fear of feminization was a double-edged sword in that men (and some women) feared that women were attempting to become masculine, especially as more and more young women sought to further their education; Victoria Bissell Brown, “The Fear of Feminization: Los Angeles High Schools in the Progressive Era,” Feminist Studies 13, no. 3 (1990): 493. 21 Scholar Christa Baiada expertly uses the works of postwar novelist Russell Banks as a means of demonstrating the national sense of confusion pertaining to shifted gender roles in her article; Christa Baiada, “Where Have All the Good Men Gone?: Afflicted Fathers and Endangered Daughters in Russell Banks’s The Sweet Hereafter,” Journal of Men’s Studies 19, no. 3 (2011): 191-208. 22 Kimmel, Manhood in America, 263. 23 Warren Bareiss, “Middlebrow Knowingness in 1950s San Francisco: The Kingston Trio, Beat Counterculture, and the Production of ‘Authenticity’,” Popular Music and Society 33, no. 1 (2010): 9-33.

This led to increased belief of feminization as presented in the “long hair” persona of the dirty hippie later in the 1960s.

The solution to these crises of masculinity was clear and took place in multiple arenas: on a national level, Kennedy’s presidential campaign and later administration spread an image of youthful, masculine energy reinvigorating the country on a domestic and foreign level. “Kennedy promised redemption, appearing at the forefront of a movement to revive the modern American man as youthful and individualist, cool and vigorous, masculine and urbane, tough-minded and athletic, and a sexual conquistador.”24 Alternately, the second sphere in which men reasserted their masculinity was the home. Instead of allowing women the opportunity to dominate the house or feminize the boys, men reestablished their masculine presence in the domestic sphere. Kimmel explains how psychologists and behavior specialists for children strongly pushed for men to be “dedicated fathers to offset over-dominant motherhood and to help their sons resist the 25 temptations of gender nonconformity.”

A third aspect of how men handled the crisis of masculinity in the post-war period was escapism, helpfully provided by television. While many men attempted to reassert themselves in the domestic and occupational spheres to reclaim manhood, many others looked for an escape and sought an environment of untainted masculinity which often took them to the edges of civilization.26 As is often the case when men feel that their manhood is threatened, nostalgia reflecting on “bygone days” in which men were bolder and stronger was a very common phenomenon. Images of rugged individuals like the mythic American cowboy and folk heroes like Davy Crockett filled advertisements and other media as an example of the masculine vigor which men no longer possessed. Though there were not calls to return to the Wild West, men found their escapism through manly outlets that permitted them to avoid their responsibilities as breadwinners and fathers, the most popular of which were Playboy magazines and television series.

The 1950s represented a time for men where it was important to be masculine, however it was just as important to look masculine. “Passing,” meant to describe a public demonstration of

24 Steven Watts, JFK and the Masculine Mystique: Sex and Power on the New Frontier (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2016), 5. 25 Kimmel, Manhood in America, 243-244. 26 Ibid, 6.

one’s manhood despite any anxieties behind the façade, became a major unspoken part of American male culture within the postwar period. According to scholar N. Megan Kelley, films during what she calls the “long 1950s” readily exemplified this need of men to appear masculine to other men and society.27 Thus, it is clear that the existence of masculine characters on the small screen was more than just about reinforcing American manhood (though that was certainly a large part of it), it fulfilled men’s perceived need to visibly prove their manliness to combat their many economic and cultural anxieties during the immediate postwar era.

Television provided the escape and “passing” they desired or needed. Family-oriented sitcoms of the 1950s and 1960s gave men a role model for the breadwinning father who also demonstrated his masculine authority in the home. Science fiction and Western shows allowed men to escape into the future or the past, respectively, where men were rugged and determined individuals. Finally, some experimental, ground-breaking shows presented men with the consequences of inadequate masculinity. From these categories, The Dick Van Dyke Show, Star Trek, and The Twilight Zone showcase masculinity according to their respective genres. This thesis will detail, in the order listed, how each show presented their male leads in masculine ways and how it related to the crisis of masculinity taking place in the United States while they aired on television. Though not in chronological order, this study will establish the masculine themes in each series and utilize episodes from the shows as its primary evidence.

The historical context of the television industry and its production standards also provides a spotlight to the programs and how they are accurate representatives of their genre. Given the censorship of other cultural outlets such as comic books by the Red Scares (both in the late 1910s and following World War II), everyone involved in the creation of a television series produced it within the confines of the censorship codes created in 1952. These codes, introduced and then later enforced by the Television Board of the National Association of Radio and Television Broadcasters, explicitly laid out what was not to appear on the small screen: profanity, disdain of religion, “smut,” or any “illicit sex relations.”28 Within this code also exists an entire section dedicated to the responsibility that television programs have to provide clean, positive material for children. The creators of the code as well as those working within the

27 N. Megan Kelley, Projections of Passing: Postwar Anxieties and Hollywood Films, 1947-1960 (Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 2016). 28 Code of Practices for Television Broadcasters, December 6th, 1951.

television industry during this time operated with the knowledge that they had a duty to American communities and that they had influence over society. Such wherewithal makes it more evident that the presentation of idealized, masculine characters was to further reinforce the societal expectations of hegemonic masculinity during this post-war period. Creators knew that the medium of television could support or destroy one’s beliefs on nearly any subject, as indicated by the wording of television censorship codes: “A television broadcaster and his staff occupy a position of responsibility in the community and should conscientiously endeavor to be acquainted fully with its needs and characteristics in order better to serve the welfare of its 29 citizens.”

There are also other production details to consider when observing masculinity in television. First and foremost, The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Twilight Zone, and Star Trek are all products of CBS. Secondly, every episode of these programs was written within the context of different historical events taking place in America. Knowing the cultural context of these shows and its episodes is important, as it provides an awareness of the state of American society, its fears, and its hopes. One such example is “The Monsters are Due on Maple Street” from The Twilight Zone (aired March 4th, 1960) as a not-so-subtle reference to McCarthyism that began to decline after its decade-long reign over American society.30 The academic field of Television and Film Studies has several significant resources that connect with this subject of masculinity within television (some of which are referenced throughout this analysis). For the sake of brevity, however, this project will focus primarily on the historical context of the shows.

Like the multiple camera angles used to create a television show, this essay implements a variety of perspectives and is interdisciplinary by nature. An analytical structure from works of gender and, more specifically, masculinity studies illuminates the imagery of manhood prevalent throughout each episode. These analyses produce a clear picture of the “doubling down” of traditional masculinity, within the historical context of American postwar society, as demonstrated through television. Some aspects of the episodic analysis tread towards more

29 Code of Practices for Television Broadcasters, December 6th, 1951. 30 The Twilight Zone, “The Monsters are Due on Maple Street,” Season 1 Episode 22. Directed by Ron Winston. Written by Rod Serling. Produced by CBS March 4, 1960.

abstract interpretations, especially that done for The Twilight Zone, however they cooperate to reveal the multifaceted way television presented traditional masculinity as a societal ideal.

This discourse heavily utilizes the three television shows in question as the core collection of primary evidence. Specific episodes from each series provide examples of American masculinity in a variety of representations and contexts. Although there are likely to be contradictions within some of the numerous episodes from each series, those chosen for this thesis demonstrate a continuity of masculine images and behaviors for their respective shows. Other primary sources include archival material related to the shows during the time of their production, ranging from inter-departmental memos between creators, producers, directors, and writers to contemporary pieces that reveal historic significance of what it meant to “be a man” during the 1950s and 1960s. Though not a core focus, evidence of intentionality on the part of the television series creators to generate masculine examples further demonstrate the overarching theme of traditional manhood as an ideal in American postwar society. Furthermore, scholarship from an interdisciplinary collection of secondary sources further contributes to the in-depth investigation into displays of manhood.

Each chapter addresses some aspect or form of hegemonic masculinity. Chapter One covers The Dick Van Dyke Show and its manifestation of manhood and its reassertion within the home. It also discusses the economic ramifications of traditional masculinity as they related to American consumerism and capitalism. Specifically, this chapter investigates gender and its role within a family. It presents the use of comedy as a genre to reaffirm fatherhood as a component of hegemonic masculinity during the New Age of America as characterized by Kennedy’s administration. Chapter Two looks at images of rugged yet intelligent masculinity and monstrous femininity within Star Trek. This chapter also explores male relationships with other men and their significance to the paradoxical masculine paradigm. It utilizes the genre of science fiction/fantasy to showcase hegemonic masculinity in the context of a philosophically and technologically advanced civilization. Finally, Chapter Three utilizes The Twilight Zone as a demonstration of non- or hyper-masculine men and their negative connotations. It also delves into how American masculinity existed against and in relation to the omnipresent backdrop of the Cold War. It employs the genre of horror as a means of demonstrating the terrible fates that await men who subscribe to alternative masculinities instead of hegemonic masculinity.

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Chapter 1: Domesticizing Masculinity in The Dick Van Dyke Show

Following World War II, masculinity experienced a crisis in the United States. Arthur Schlesinger Jr., an influential figure and writer during the 1950s, explicitly outlines the problems with men during the postwar period. He states that some observers may state that merged gender roles within the home, ambiguity regarding gendered expectations, and especially “male anxiety…as the result of female aggression” culminated to create the precarious situation of American society on the brink of feminization.1 The true issue, according to Schlesinger Jr., comes from a loss of identity, which leads to fear, confusion, and eventually desperation regarding the foundation of a man’s identity: his manhood. The result is that of overwhelmed men grasping at straws, attempting to reassure themselves of their manhood and reassert their masculine dominance any way and anywhere they can.

A significant cause of anxiety related to manhood is the fact that masculinity shifted. No longer did society need men to be strong-willed and able-bodied, prepared to fight the Axis threat of World War II. America’s women and children needed supportive and present husbands and fathers. Contemporary advice columns informed couples to partake in “companionate” marriages, in which men and women were more emotionally connected than ever before, and specifically encouraged men to be more involved in the daily lives of their children rather than existing as simply the family’s money maker.2 Such a shift proved difficult for men to grasp given these new values were almost the exact opposite of what men learned prior to World War II.

Other rapid changes within American society further added to the confusion regarding one’s identity as a man. The increased inclusion of racial minorities and women into the workforce as well as their campaigns for increased rights frightened white men as they threatened the exclusion on which they based the foundation of their manhood. Women’s attempts to gain economic independence directly challenged the “breadwinner ideology,” the belief that a significant portion of one’s masculinity depends on their ability to financially provide for themselves and their families.3 Also, the growth of overbearing corporatization of

1 Arthur Schlesinger Jr., “The Crisis of American Masculinity,” Esquire, Nov. 1958, 63-65. 2 Michael Kimmel, Manhood in America: A Cultural History (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006), 65. 3 Robert O. Self, All in the Family (New York: Hill and Wang, 2012), 18.

American business culture further stripped men of their connection with their careers and, by extension, their manhood.4 Individuals became more akin to mindless drones or cogs within a machine: identical and meaningless. Such an issue, though, was more widespread than simply that of men in business, for contemporary writer William Whyte points out increasing uniformity in methods of schooling, societal expectations and interactions, and in images that support teamwork over individual ambition.5 Young men coming to age during the 1950s and 1960s, especially those involved in countercultural movements, came off as weak and emasculated or 6 were juvenile delinquents, romanticized by the youth.

These problems supposedly came from the failings of men, specifically that they were not masculine enough. Boys became delinquents because they did not have a strong, masculine figure to look up to, as presented in the film Rebel Without a Cause (1955) starring James Dean.7 Public figures combatted this alarming trend of feminization by presenting the public with youthful and masculine figures like John F. Kennedy and his “Rat Pack” of famous and virile celebrities like Frank Sinatra.8 Cultural outlets like television presented another effort to reestablish American masculinity by emphasizing the importance of the nuclear, middle class, white family.

Traditional masculinity faced pressures from all sides during this postwar period, the basis of one’s manhood on an individual’s ability to support his family as one of the most significant challenges. Scholar Arlene Skolnick puts it best:

“the father/husband was no longer the boss of the family enterprise but a breadwinner who carried the burden of supporting the entire family; his success or failure determined

4 David Riesman’s The Lonely Crowd conducts a contemporary character analysis of Americans during the post-war period and observes the treatment of working American men as automatons operating as cogs in a machine rather than as individuals adding to their respective industries. 5 William H. Whyte, Jr., The Organization Man (Garden City, NY: Simon and Schuster Inc., 1956). 6 Marlon Brando’s and James Dean’s popularity among American teenagers during the 1950s certainly demonstrates by and large obsession that youth of the postwar period had with such tragic heroes. Dean’s untimely death by car accident and his personality as a misunderstood and troubled young man struck a chord with many contemporary teens and young adults. Todd Gitlin writes in his comprehensive book The Sixties: Years of Hope, Days of Rage that he practiced looking as tough as possible and “never smiled” during the height of his interest in Dean as a cultural icon; Todd Gitlin, The Sixties: Years of Hope, Days of Rage (New York: Bantam Books, 1987). 7 Gitlin, The Sixties, 33. 8 Steven Watt’s JFK and the Masculine Mystique: Sex and Power on the New Frontier fully discusses the masculine image Kennedy cultivated during his political career.

the family’s economic well-being and its standing in the community. Moreover, a man’s 9 sense of himself as a man was tied up with his occupational success.”

Film studies scholar Michael Kackman explicitly states the post-war period as the “moment at which TV established itself as a narrator of history stacked the deck in favor of the domestic father” as a demonstration of the growing importance of male authority in the home.10 The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961-1966) was particularly emblematic of this era.

In the years leading up to the television series’ debut on CBS, a nation-wide anxiety swept men up in profound questions:

“How could men remain responsible breadwinners and not turn into docile drudges? How could men become active and devoted fathers—to make sure that their sons did not become sissies—and not turn into wimps themselves? How could men let their hearts run 11 free with a wife and kids to support?”

This emphasis on financial competence and economic responsibilities took place within the larger context of the Cold War. On a global scale, the United States and the USSR touted the merits of Capitalism and Communism, respectively, via military campaigns and espionage, however a very significant part of this conflict took place within the home. Vice President Richard Nixon, when visiting Moscow in 1959, discussed what came to be known as the “kitchen debate”: the ideal that American superiority “rested on the ideal of the suburban home…and distinct gender roles for family members. [Nixon] proclaimed that the ‘model’ home, with a male breadwinner and a full-time female homemaker…with a wide array of consumer 12 goods…represented the essence of American freedom.”

The Dick Van Dyke Show’s presented Rob as a true man whose deep cultural significance lay within the historical context of the Cold War and its related struggles.

9 Arlene Skolnick, Embattled Paradise: The American Family in an Age of Uncertainty (New York: Basic Books, 1991), 38. 10 Michael Kackman, Citizen Spy: Television, Espionage, and Cold War Culture (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2005), 47. 11 Kimmel, Manhood in America, 238. 12 Elaine Tyler May, Homeward Bound: American Families in the Cold War Era, (New York: Basic Books, 2008), 16.

Male protagonists in typical family-based situational comedies during this era, demonstrated by prominent television shows like Leave it to Beaver, represented a successful negotiation of manhood within the context of postwar corporatism and its societal ramifications. An increase in conformity and conspicuous consumerism was one such set of negotiations. Furthermore, the father characters in 1950s and 1960s sitcoms overwhelmingly presented significant models of how men and their masculine authority should reassert themselves in the domestic sphere as a means of combating the perceived national trend of feminization; television was purposely attempting to support fathers via the shows it aired.13 Although there were a plethora of series during these two decades, they did not vary significantly in terms of their presentations of masculinity within this era. The central male protagonists were primarily fathers or father figures (see The Andy Griffith Show, Father Knows Best, etc.) who demonstrated their male resolve as models for their children or their community. The content of these sitcoms differentiates from show to show, however the structure and story-telling device of masculine examples existed consistently throughout the genre. Thus, this chapter will explore these themes primarily through their manifestation in The Dick Van Dyke Show.

The Dick Van Dyke Show represents the reassertion of masculinity in the domestic and commercial sphere in multiple ways within the popularized genre of situational comedy. Firstly, Dick Van Dyke’s character Rob Petrie and his distinctive personality demonstrates an active attempt to maintain his individualism (and, by extension, his manhood) despite the growing danger of what William Whyte called “the Organization” to which many people fall victim and belong rather than existing separately from it.14 Secondly, Rob Petrie’s sweet yet authoritative demeanor towards his wife as well as his active participation in his son’s upbringing were both examples of men’s efforts during the post-war period to reclaim the home, reintroduce men as the teachers of manhood to their sons, and by extension combat the perceived feminization of the country. Finally, although Dick Van Dyke’s characterization of Petrie was occasionally over the top and silly, his manliness was affirmed through his military service, a common trope used in the context of the Cold War. Petrie had command over his home, but he also relied upon

13 Michael Kimmel, Manhood in America, 247. 14 Whyte, The Organization Man, 3-5.

principles of comedy which allowed for men to flirt with the societal boundaries of their gender more readily than women.

Throughout the show, Rob’s masculinity appeared in specific ways. Commonly, his manliness existed in juxtaposition to either a female character’s femininity or another male character’s lack of manly qualities. Each way presented Rob as the masculine ideal of The Dick Van Dyke Show, the literal “straight man” in the situational comedy.15 In “Never Bathe on a Saturday” (aired March 31st, 1965) Laura became hysterical after getting her toe stuck in a bathtub faucet, thereby causing Rob to try saving the day as a man.16 Though Rob is not without his fair share of foolish behavior, occasionally reversing the typical gender roles, all of which was intended to illicit humor exactly because it was unmanly. His masculinity always came through at the end of the episode in one way or another. Other times, Rob’s masculine authority came out due to the demands of different situations or conflicts, especially when the conflicts were related to crime or chaotic situations like in the episode “Who Stole My Watch?” (aired January 5th, 1966).17 After losing a watch he received for his birthday, Rob took control of the situation by methodically investigating each of his and Laura’s friends as potential suspects. In each episode Rob’s manhood followed a similar pattern in such a way as to be relatable to male audience members.

To combat the common fear that contemporary men lacked masculine authority via their “domestication,” popular male figures demonstrated a positive reassertion of the man in the home as a father figure.18 Rob Petrie, just like other previous fictional fathers in television, neatly fills this role of masculine authority in the form of fatherhood throughout the series. In the first season, Rob was determined to make his son, Ritchie, proud by showing how interesting his job is in the episode “Father of the Week” (aired February 21st, 1962).19 At first, Ritchie did not want

15 The idea of heterosexual men in comedy either as the stoic figure against which all silliness takes place or as the comedic vehicle itself is a deeply entrenched idea in the genre in general, especially within modern media as discussed by John Mundy and Glyn White in Laughing Matters: Understanding Film, Television, and Radio Comedy. 16 The Dick Van Dyke Show, “Never Bathe on a Saturday,” Season 4 Episode 27. Directed by Jerry Paris. Written by Carl Reiner. Produced by CBS March 31, 1965. 17 The Dick Van Dyke Show, “Who Stole My Watch?” Season 5 Episode 15. Directed by Jerry Paris. Written by Joseph Bonaduce and Carl Reiner. Produced by CBS January 5, 1966. 18 James Gilbert, Men in the Middle: Searching for Masculinity in the 1950s (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005), 62. 19 The Dick Van Dyke Show, “Father of the Week,” Season 1 Episode 22. Directed by John Rich. Written by Arnold and Lois Peyser. Produced by CBS February 21, 1962.

to reveal to Rob that he was the next father due to come to school and talk about his career. Rob showed up at Ritchie’s school to discuss his job as a comedy show writer and, after a slow start, he quickly succeeded in entertaining the entire class and won the adoration of the students and the teacher. The most important aspect of this outcome, however, was that Rob made Ritchie proud of him.

Key to the foundation of traditional masculinity is the relationship between father and son. In Rebel Without a Cause, James Dean’s character has a poor connection with his dad because his father’s masculinity is lacking. As a result, Dean’s character misbehaves and becomes a juvenile delinquent. Concerns regarding juvenile delinquency had long been an issue by the time this television program aired in the early 1960s, including the vexing task of determining the source of criminal behavior in youth. A variety of potential reasons behind this national problem arose with its discussion, such as a lack of recreational space for teenagers or youth possessing unnecessarily lucrative jobs without anything meaningful on which to spend their paychecks. However, the primary cause of such misbehavior in young people was a lack of 20 parental guidance or, on occasion, presence.

Rob’s consistent and close presence in Ritchie’s life subtly prevented such a problem from arising in the first place. In the episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show titled “Father of the Week,” the audience watches a healthier, more positive relationship between father and son.21 Though the act of entertaining a class is not related to one’s masculinity in any obvious way, Rob’s acquisition of Ritchie’s respect demonstrates the traditional formula of boys looking up to their fathers for masculine authority.

Here, Rob’s success represents an overall victory for men attempting to renegotiate manhood into fatherhood. This rebranding of masculinity into the role of fatherhood represented changing gender roles for men since the turn of the twentieth century. American masculinity in the latter half of the 1800s saw fatherhood as a potential trap for men. The domestic sphere was considered the domain of women, and if men were to spend any time around their wives, they

20 William H. Young and Nancy K. Young, “Juvenile Delinquency,” in World War II and the Postwar Years in America: A Historical and Cultural Encyclopedia (ABC-CLIO, LLC, 2010), 430-433. 21 The Dick Van Dyke Show, “Father of the Week,” Season 1 Episode 22.

risked losing their manhood via “domestication” or “over-civilization.”22 Escape characterized a man’s lifestyle within his home as best seen by “man caves,” rooms dedicated to providing men an opportunity to avoid the feminizing effects of civilization and domesticity by retreating to a masculine sanctuary.23 By the postwar period, this practice changed to reflect the increased attention given to family life as well as the adoption of “masculine domesticity” in reaction against the power women had over the home.24 Thus, the transition from avoiding family to embracing it was a significant change in the tenets of American masculinity.

In the decades leading up to when “Father of the Week” aired on CBS in 1962, a general anxiety regarding the feminization of boys grew. According to Michael Kimmel, “many believed…a new generation of young boys was being raised entirely by women, who would turn America’s future men into whiny little mama’s boys.”25 Such was the fear that women were infecting boys with gender nonconformity that many believed a close relationship between mother and son results in homosexuality.26 Thus, the proposed solution was for men to reassert themselves and their masculine authorities back into the domestic sphere so as to provide manly role models for their sons. Instead of attempting to stubbornly hold onto prior masculine ideals of “individualism, self-reliance,” and rugged manliness, traditional masculinity rebranded itself to fit within the nuclear family (previously seen as an opponent towards masculinity) while 27 maintaining one’s manhood.

The Dick Van Dyke Show was certainly not the first, nor the last, attempt to demonstrate this adapted masculinity via the medium of television. Ward Cleaver in Leave it to Beaver (1957- 1963) maintained his middle-class suburban home with patience and compassion yet also with a firm resolve. In fact, Mr. Cleaver directly addresses this gendered distinction when discussing

22 The fear of feminizing domestication and civilization is blatantly visible via the popularity of contemporary literature like Tarzan, featuring a man who refuses to be tamed by a woman (and, by extension, civilization as a whole) which scholars have analyzed substantially. Literary critics and other scholars ranging from Jack London and Harry Sylvester to Edgar Rice Burroughs and David Leverenz, greatly detailed the prevalence of masculinity within this story and other works of savage masculinity. 23 According to Michael Kimmel, men were “colonizing” their home by establishing their own distinct space where the wife would not enter; Kimmel, Manhood in America, 158. 24 Margaret Marsh, “Suburban Men and Masculine Domesticity, 1870-1915,” American Quarterly 40, no. 2 (1988): 176. 25 Michael Kimmel, Manhood in America, 157. 26 The fear of homosexuality flared up considerably during the 1950s in a witch hunt accompanied by a series of mass-firings against homosexual people called the “Lavender Scare”; Roel Van Den Oever, Mama’s Boy: Momism and Homophobia in Postwar American Culture (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012), 5-7. 27 Gilbert, Men in the Middle, 16.

with his son why cooking outside (barbecuing) is for men while inside it is for women.28 Rob Petrie, while inclusive of his wife Laura in conversations regarding the upkeep of their house, finances, and raising Ritchie, established himself as the masculine authority and the breadwinner of the home on multiple occasions. When the two argue, Rob had final say over issues and even emphatically stated “that’s final!” in the episode “Washington vs. the Bunny” (aired October 24th, 1961).29 In that same argument, Rob even told Laura to respect his decisions as a man.

The differences between The Dick Van Dyke Show and its predecessors, however, are rooted in JFK’s “New Frontier.” Unlike Leave it to Beaver (1957-1963), I Love Lucy (1951- 1957), or Father Knows Best (1954-1960), the Petrie family represent the “modern” citizen during Kennedy’s administration as forward-thinking, culturally aware individuals who believe in greater equality.30 Despite the progressive beliefs within the series, it was still very much a traditional family-oriented sitcom described by scholars as having “one foot in the old and one in the new.”31 Thus, the persistent visibility of masculinity within this series demonstrates that, despite its progressive ideas, traditional ideas of manhood transcends any societal changes. For example, Laura Petrie has much more authority in the household as exampled by her comfort with pushing back against Rob when he was hysterical or foolish. But like June Cleaver or Lucy Ricardo, Rob does not lose manly status by ceding over some parts of power even in tenuous moments of challenge to authority. Instead, he is the new man in the age of Kennedy’s “New Frontier” where authors wrote about the importance of companionship between a married couple 32 to the success of their relationship.

A similar conflict also appears within the episode “Washington vs. the Bunny,” where masculinity comes into conflict with the new age. Rob faced the difficult decision of traveling for his career (old manhood) instead of seeing his son’s theatrical performance at school (new manhood).33 When his boss, Mel, told him about a business trip which Rob must take on short

28 Leave it to Beaver, “Beaver’s Guest,” Season 1, Episode 38. Directed by Norman Tokar. Written by Joe Connelly and Bob Mosher. Produced by ABC July 2, 1958. 29 The Dick Van Dyke Show, “Washington vs. the Bunny,” Season 1 Episode 5. Directed by John Rich. Written by Carl Reiner. Produced by CBS October 24, 1961. 30 Joanne Morreale, The Dick Van Dyke Show (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2015), 40-41. 31 Saul Austerlitz, Sitcom: A History in 24 Episodes from I Love Lucy to Community (Chicago: Chicago Review Press, 2014), 68. 32 Steven Mintz and Susan Kellogg, Domestic Revolutions: A Social History of American Family Life (New York: Simon and Schuster Inc., 1988), 186. 33 The Dick Van Dyke Show, “Washington vs. the Bunny,” Season 1 Episode 5.

notice, Rob attempted to explain his dedication to his family as a means for not going. In the end, however, Rob’s responsibility to his family as a breadwinner came first and thus led to his decision to go on the business trip.

Rob’s personal conflicts revealed the complexity of masculinity and related to contemporary male viewers’ fears regarding their responsibilities as men. While the difficult decision demonstrated one aspect of American manhood, the escalation of the conflict included a significant masculine fear: feminine dominance. Rob was already reluctant to attend his business trip, but Laura added to the conflict by arguing with him. Her attempts to convince him reminded Rob, if not the male audience, of Mel’s earlier warning to not let his wife turn him into a 34 puppet.

Laura’s blatant challenge to Rob’s manhood becomes an even greater threat when Rob had a nightmare that played directly into contemporary American men’s fear of feminization. During the dream sequence, Laura came out wearing a bunny outfit with a wicked look in her eyes pressuring and moving Rob to see Ritchie’s school play. At one point, Laura calls him a puppet, physically pulled strings and controlled Rob’s movement during the nightmare as if he were a marionette. Rob’s entire performance during the dream sequence as a puppet showed him as both the slave to a hyper-dominant woman and a weak, effete boy who needed his mom.

The entire dream sequence and the essence of the male characters’ preoccupation with the “puppets” reflected an age-old masculine fear of losing standing and power within the home. Men certainly perceived the threat of feminization on a national level, however it went a step further in that men also feared overbearing women and their “feminizing clutches” as direct challenges to their masculine authority.35 As indicated by the creation of woman-free spaces such as “man caves,” fraternities, and other groups, men made certain to avoid women and their threatening influence over them as a means of ensuring that they remain manly and avoid any 36 gender confusion.

34 The Dick Van Dyke Show, “Washington vs. the Bunny,” Season 1 Episode 5. 35 Kimmel, Manhood in America, 157. 36 Ibid, 167 and 172. See also W.S. Harwood’s “Secret Societies in America” in North American Review 164, May 1897 for more information on the plethora of men’s societies used to reinforce their masculinity.

However, sexuality complicated the narrative and led to a balancing act of men attempting to exclude women for the sake of cultivating male-on-male nonsexual relationships while also maintaining their assumed heterosexuality.37 Writers like Irving Bieber linked homosexuality to a physical lack of masculinity, stating that “a predisposition to homosexuality can be…perhaps because of hereditary factors or such physical characteristics as frailness in 38 boys,” thus reinforcing heterosexuality as essential to one’s manhood.

The extent of masculinity and the gendered expectations of men during the postwar period was not a secret by any stretch of the imagination. Americans were aware of the paradoxical nature of manhood, as shown by 1950s contemporary writer Margaret Mead’s commentary on the difficult and confusing internal negotiations men must undergo as manly individuals and as expected heads of the family.39 Mead noted in her 1959 New York Times article that people knew how men were expected to behave. She stated that men are forced to maintain a near impossible balancing act: “Fathers are criticized for both neglecting their children and for spending too much time in the nursery; for being wedded to the rat race in business and for putting their families ahead of their careers.”40 She continued detailing the pressures men faced daily and how it had changed drastically from previous iterations of individualism to an expectation of men to essentially be perfect at near everything they do. Thus, men in television who stood as shining examples of traditional masculinity achieved actively characterized not only maintaining this balance but doing so with ease. Images of men obtaining that manhood for which all men strive acts as a means of encouraging men, showing that such lofty goals are attainable.

“Washington vs. the Bunny” is not the only episode in which Rob’s (and many men in America’s) fear of female dominance appears. In “It May Look Like a Walnut” (aired February 6th, 1963), Rob has a nightmare that Laura and his friends all turned into aliens, with Laura

37 Countless works of scholarship address this complication: Michael Kimmel’s Manhood in America, Robert J. Corber’s Homosexuality in Cold War America, and Robert O. Self’s All in the Family, just to name a few. 38 Irving Bieber, “Speaking Frankly on a Once Taboo Subject,” New York Times, August 23, 1964. 39 Margaret Mead, “Job of the Children's Mother's Husband: Father's Role has Undergone a Revolutionary Change, Raising the Disturbing Question of Whether it is Possible to be both a Family Man and a Man,” New York Times, May 10, 1959. 40 Mead, “Job of the Children’s Mother’s Husband,” New York Times.

maniacally cackling at Rob.41 She also taunted him and used eyes hidden in the back of her head to watch his every move as a subtle means of controlling her husband. Like any other episode in the series and, by extension, sitcoms in general, the conflict resolved by returning to a sense of normalcy. In this episode, Rob woke up from his nightmare, Laura was not an alien and Rob’s masculine authority remained unchallenged.

Though not as “monstrous” of an issue as in other series, such as Star Trek (1966-1969), overbearing femininity was very much in the forefront of the minds of American men as seen by the countless cries of feminization during the 1950s and 1960s.42 Rob explained the issues he was having with Laura to a traveling salesman sitting next to him on his flight before going into a diatribe about masculine authority. He gave a whole speech about the importance of men existing as more than simply husbands or fathers, to which all the other men around him on the plane applauded his logic.43 The episode ended with Laura admitting that she had been hysterical, representing a victory for men, her perceived attempt to dominate Rob failed. It is so important that women do not usurp men’s masculine authority that the only other potential threat, Rob’s coworker Sally, established herself as “one of the guys,” made to be less attractive than Laura and therefore permitted to appear more aggressive.44 Sally’s abrasive humor and personality, as well as appearing more masculine compared to Laura, were indicators that she did not appear as a “lady” to the men on the show.

Despite multiple instances where Rob proved his manhood over Laura’s hysterics, there were some episodes that emphasized the importance of Rob’s responsibilities as a man.45 For example, Rob’s child-like fascination with a motorbike that he bought in “Br-rooom, Br-rooom” (aired May 12th, 1965) demonstrated the common nostalgic desire of men to relive the “glory days” of youth and rugged individualism primarily fueled 19th century concepts of traditional

41 The Dick Van Dyke Show, “It May Look Like a Walnut,” Season 2 Episode 21. Directed by Jerry Paris. Written by Carl Reiner. Produced by CBS February 6, 1963. 42 Steven Watts, JFK and the Masculine Mystique: Sex and Power on the New Frontier (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2016), 11-13. 43 The Dick Van Dyke Show, “Washington vs. the Bunny,” Season 1 Episode 5. 44 Morreale, The Dick Van Dyke Show, 85-86. 45 The Dick Van Dyke Show, “My Blonde-Haired Brunette,” Season 1 Episode 2. Directed by John Rich. Written by Carl Reiner. Produced by CBS October 10, 1961; The Dick Van Dyke Show, “The Curious Thing About Women,” Season 1 Episode 16. Directed by John Rich. Written by Frank Tarloff. Produced by CBS January 10, 1962; The Dick Van Dyke Show, “Coast to Coast Big Mouth,” Season 5 Episode 1. Directed by Jerry Paris. Written by Bill Persky and Sam Denoff. Produced by CBS September 15, 1965.

masculinity.46 Prominent figures around the turn of the 20th century like Theodore Roosevelt were role models of frontier manhood, an ideal sorely missed by American men during the industrialization and bureaucratization of the workplace.47 Men living in the post-war period saw an ever-growing push for societal conformity in terms of the workplace and the home, so 48 escapism was a very real temptation.

Instead, the episode “Br-rooom, Br-rooom” presented men with the internal conflict between the old and new meaning of manly responsibilities as fathers and versus escapism which men might achieve. Rob’s motorbike, for example, is not acceptable because it is too like the rebellious juvenile delinquents who Rob runs into while taking his bike out for a joyride. The juxtaposition of Rob as a man next to the younger bikers presented as hoodlums demonstrates some acts of male escapism, like riding a motorcycle, as inappropriate for middle-class respectable fathers. In short, the episode communicates to men, especially fathers, the proper etiquette of the new man.

In fact, the resolution of several episodes revolves around tempering Rob’s immaturity. Audience members, despite Dick Van Dyke’s relative obscurity at the time of the show’s production, became very familiar with the actor’s signature physical style of using his lankiness to his comedic advantage.49 As a result, any silliness that might rouse an audience’s suspicions regarding Rob’s manhood could easily be chalked up to Dyke’s acting style as a comedic device rather than a shortcoming in Rob’s masculinity. This humor often takes place in the form of a role reversal between Rob and Laura. In “That’s My Boy?” (aired September 25th, 1963) Rob recollected the fiasco of Ritchie’s birth and his fear that they received the wrong baby from the hospital.50 Instead of the traditional assumption that women are hysterical, and men are calm, this episode showed a completely different family dynamic: Laura gently attempted to reassure Rob that they had the right child while Rob, in an increasingly shrill voice, argued that disaster had struck their household. The situation, like most comedic plots, resolved itself and

46 The Dick Van Dyke Show, “Br-rooom, Br-rooom,” Season 4 Episode 31. Directed by Jerry Paris. Written by Dale McRaven and Carl Kleinschmitt. Produced by CBS May 12, 1965. 47 Kimmel, Manhood in America, 148, 181, 300. 48 William Whyte, Jr., The Organization Man (Garden City, NY: Simon and Schuster Inc., 1956), 435-436. 49 Morreale, The Dick Van Dyke Show, 8. 50 The Dick Van Dyke Show, “That’s My Boy?” Season 3 Episode 1. Directed by John Rich. Written by Bill Persky and Sam Denoff. Produced by CBS September 25, 1963.

reestablished everyone in their proper gender roles, though likely with a little more humility for Rob.

A similar situation happens in the episode “One Hundred Terrible Hours” (aired May 5th, 1965): Rob, in a publicity event for his job, was a disc jockey for one hundred consecutive hours to beat a world record.51 Following the event, Rob met his boss, Alan Brady, for the first time in which Rob unintentionally made a fool out of himself. Though Rob acts foolishly often throughout the series, this episode, as well as “The Gunslinger” (aired May 25th, 1966) episode 52 featured his comedic, slapstick antics prominently.

The Dick Van Dyke Show is an interesting point of study in that it occasionally turns common tropes on their heads. The standard gender roles of female hysteria and male stoicism occurs frequently between Rob and Laura (in “The Attempted Marriage” which aired October 10th, 1962, Rob and Laura were both frantic and anxious which caused several delays in their wedding plans).53 However, its humor lies directly within the context of role reversal. It is funny because it is not “normal.”

Despite the occasional contrasts, the show still reinforces masculine authority of fathers; and it does so in unique ways. In “The Bad Old Days” (aired April 4th, 1962), Rob dreamt of life in the past where men were tyrants in their households and the misery it caused their wives and children.54 The episode concluded with Rob realizing how much better life is where women and children have more respect and where men do not terrorize their families. This subtly presents the ideal of men as being gentle yet firm fathers and husbands to viewers, demonstrating that traditional masculinity was somewhat harsh and that one based on more genial foundations is better. Make no mistake though: men are still very much in charge of their houses; the episode simply rejects the extremes of traditional masculinity as it existed prior to the post-war period.

51 The Dick Van Dyke Show, “One Hundred Terrible Hours,” Season 4 Episode 30. Directed by Theodore J. Flicker. Written by Bill Persky and Sam Denoff. Produced by CBS May 5, 1965. 52 The Dick Van Dyke Show, “The Gunslinger,” Season 5 Episode 31. Directed by Jerry Paris. Written by Bill Persky and Sam Denoff. Produced by CBS May 25, 1966. 53 The Dick Van Dyke Show, “The Attempted Marriage,” Season 2 Episode 3. Directed by John Rich. Written by Carl Reiner. Produced by CBS October 10, 1962. 54 The Dick Van Dyke Show, “The Bad Old Days,” Season 1 Episode 28. Directed by John Rich. Written by Norm Leibmann and Ed Haas. Produced by CBS April 4, 1962.

Although there is occasionally some ambiguity as to Rob’s masculinity given his childish behavior, his manhood is reaffirmed through a demonstration of his hobbies and past. His history as a military veteran comes up frequently throughout the show, thereby associating him with what Aaron Belkin calls “military masculinity” for audiences watching at home.55 This masculine archetype dictates that men who serve in the military in any regard has, by default, earned their manhood and the accompanying respect it deserves. Despite Rob’s foolishness, his title as a veteran having served means that he is an example of traditional masculinity. His military career serves almost as a backdrop against which he lives his life as a true man.

Furthermore, the masculine authority Rob has (as well as other men during the post-war period) translates well over into politics. In the episode “I Do Not Choose to Run” (aired January 19th, 1966), some local government officials tried convincing Rob to run for a political office with his military career as a beneficial foundation on which he can claim his authority as a man and, by extension, the votes of citizens.56 This episode presents a real-world parallel of politicians using their prior military status to create an image of youthful, masculine vigor as it applies to their political office. Most importantly, the reference made here is to JFK and his campaign and administration. Though Kennedy had been dead for nearly three years by the time this episode aired, the connections are still there: a younger, charismatic man with a background in the military generating a following as he runs for office.57 Though there are clear differences, the audience’s memory of Kennedy and his virility lends some level of masculine authority to Rob’s campaign.

A significant part of Kennedy’s image was his athleticism as a physical demonstration of his masculinity. Although the real Kennedy was consistently sick and physically weak, the perception of his manhood as represented by his physical prowess harkens back to the fitness craze men undertook during the turn of the 20th century. To physically embody the manhood that they tirelessly sought to achieve, American men took to sports and other physically invigorating activities in droves.58 This movement during the early 1900s, like the renewed athleticism

55 Aaron Belkin, Bring Me Men: Military Masculinity and the Benign Façade of American Empire, 1898-2001, (New York: Columbia University Press, 2012), 2. 56 The Dick Van Dyke Show, “I Do Not Choose to Run,” Season 5 Episode 16. Directed by Jerry Paris. Written by Dale McRaven and Carl Kleinschmitt. Produced by CBS January 19, 1966. 57 Watts, JFK and the Masculine Mystique, 39. 58 Kimmel, Manhood in America, 126.

coupled with Kennedy’s image, took place as an effort to counter the perceived feminization of the country. Contemporary writers believed that in order to have a firm will, a man needed “firm muscles” as the reasoning behind establishing masculinity via physical fitness.59 Thus, given the crisis of masculinity in the face of seemingly overbearing femininity in the post-war period, the need for physically capable men reemerged. Though not as severe as it was during the turn of the century, men could still recognize physical fitness as a sign of masculinity.

Such an idea appears subtly throughout The Dick Van Dyke Show. Rob consistently did push-ups in his office to keep himself limber and to keep his energy up. In the episode “Body and Sol” (aired November 24th, 1965), audience members see Rob’s boxing career when he was in the military.60 Though Laura begged him not to participate in one last boxing match, Rob does so anyway as a demonstration of his manliness. Despite Rob’s loss to a competitor in the episode, the act of boxing is a conspicuously masculine pastime that harkens back to the ideals of athleticism and manhood at its height during the early 1900s.

Finally, Rob’s masculinity is affirmed in yet another way: through the comparison of his behavior to that of other male characters on the show. Other characters come off as being comedic caricatures like Buddy or Mel, while others still demonstrate a sense of immature neediness or nosiness (like Alan Brady’s need to seem loved in “A Day in the Life of Alan Brady” which aired April 6th, 1966, or Jerry, Rob’s neighbor, insinuating that Rob has an affair with an actress in “Jealousy” which aired November 7th, 1961).61 Although there are a few exceptions in which relies on his male friends for support, he is a role model for his buddies and male audience members on how to be a man. He balances work and leisure usually without any conflicts and possesses the ideal of a “contented family life” which dominated American culture during the post-war period.62 Rob’s career is fulfilling and unique, thereby sparing him from the ominous “Organization” and the post-war capitalist trend in America to bureaucratize and

59 Michael C. C. Adams, The Great Adventure: Male Desire and the Coming of World War I (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1990), 38. 60 The Dick Van Dyke Show, “Body and Sol,” Season 5 Episode 11. Directed by Jerry Paris. Written by Dale McRaven and Carl Kleinschmitt. Produced by CBS November 24, 1965. 61 The Dick Van Dyke Show, “A Day in the Life of Alan Brady,” Season 5 Episode 25. Directed by Jerry Paris. Written by Joseph Bonaduce and Carl Reiner. Produced by CBS April 6, 1966; The Dick Van Dyke Show, “Jealousy,” Season 1 Episode 7. Directed by Sheldon Leonard. Written by Carl Reiner. Produced by CBS November 7, 1961. 62 Bill Osgerby, Playboys in Paradise: Masculinity, Youth and Leisure-style in Modern America (Oxford: Berg, 2001), 63.

transform workers into faceless cogs, as decried by many contemporary writers such as William 63 Whyte.

The focus of masculinity during the post-war period was on economic stability and maintaining peace and authority within the nuclear family unit; this emphasis contemporary authors like David Riesman and others decry as being partially responsible for the gender identity crisis of men during the 1950s and 1960s.64 This is a significant departure from the previous style of masculinity in which men tended to be lone rangers, untethered by women, children, and civilization.65 Through its hundreds of hours of content, The Dick Van Dyke Show effectively demonstrates the role of men as fathers, husbands, individuals, and breadwinners as a masculine ideal in the form of Rob Petrie. It shows American men their place of authority within the home and their renegotiated authority within the increasingly bureaucratized workplace.

63 Whyte, The Organization Man, 8. 64 Gilbert, Men in the Middle, 62-64. 65 Kimmel, Manhood in America, 61-64.

Chapter 2: Masculinity on the Final Frontier

While many men attempted to reassert themselves in the domestic and occupational spheres to reclaim manhood, many others looked for an escape and sought an environment of untainted masculinity which often took them to the edges of civilization. Star Trek’s Captain James T. Kirk exemplifies the idea of manhood unaffected by the “feminizing” influences of society. He represents the struggle of balancing emotions with logic as well as the ideal of a pure, passionate yet nonsexual homosocial relationship between two men, the latter being another demonstration of male escapism from all feminine influences. Star Trek (1966-1969), thus, exemplified manhood undiluted.

Men running into untainted masculinity was nothing new by the time Star Trek first aired in the late 1960s. The primary source of stress for men came from the need to prove themselves as men. With the development of the Self-Made Man archetype developed in the 19th century, men became overwhelmed for the need to affirm their manhood constantly and in all aspects of their lives. According to Kimmel, “everything became a test—his relationships to work, to women, to nature, and to other men,” from which burdens only “two choices seemed possible: stay and compete, or try to escape.”1 With such heavy expectations placed on the shoulders of men to demonstrate their masculinity, they did just that, the latter especially.

Whether it was by heading west to explore the wilderness or done vicariously through literature and other cultural outlets, men ran from the pressures which they saw as obstacles in the way of achieving their manhood. They escaped however they could: Henry David Thoreau retreated to Walden pond as a means of isolating himself from the home which he called “a prison, in which [man] finds himself oppressed and confined, not sheltered and protected.”2 Tom Sawyer’s Huckleberry Finn follows a boy attempting to escape his aunt’s efforts to “sivilize” him. The West proved such a popular destination among men escaping as it was “a safety valve, siphoning off excess population, providing an outlet for both the ambitious and the unsuccessful,” exactly the kind of relief men sought from the constant competition they faced 3 back home.

1 Michael S. Kimmel, Manhood in America: A Cultural History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006), 44. 2 Henry David Thoreau, Walden [1854] (New York: New American Library, 1960). 3 Kimmel, Manhood in America, 60.

The mid-20th century brought no relief to the pressures facing men had not changed, but merely shifted as society advanced. Men still desired an escape from the mundane yet competitive expectations to provide for their families as a breadwinner, to be a good employee for their business/industry, and to continually prove their manliness. This time, the medium of television was ready to assist in that affair. It is by no accident that a sizeable portion of early television programs were Westerns or otherwise based on returning to bygone days, when life seemed simpler and easier. Shows like Gunsmoke (1955-1975), Wagon Train (1957-1965), and Lawman (1958-1962) were popular and consistently ranked high in the television ratings charts, and some shows often received ratings in the lower 40s.4 Series about the mythical Old West featured men of action with masculine resolve and frontier go-getter spirit. The successes of these shows speak to men’s longing to escape.5 Furthermore, another testament to how strongly people craved this genre is seen in Gunsmoke’s 18-season run, one of the longest-running television series behind 60 Minutes (1968-present), The Simpsons (1989-present), and Monday Night Football (1970-present).

By Star Trek’s 1966 arrival to the small screen, the Western had been a tried and true genre in television for some time. Though the USS Enterprise and its crew travel through space, use futuristic technologies, and interact with alien species in a century well beyond our own, the concept of masculine escape to the wilderness remains. Creators and writers took these themes and their masculine ideals from historically-based cowboy shows and implemented them within the more futuristic, “cowboys in space” series Star Trek. Thus, the “Final Frontier” superseded the Western Frontier.

Even though the show takes place several centuries in the future, traditional masculinity visibly exists as both a norm and an ideal which man must achieve. Kirk embodies the confidence and compassion of a strong leader and the masculine balancing act of logic versus emotions. He also represents the affirmation of his manhood through his military service, and the idealized homosocial relationships with his fellow crewmen, especially with Mr. Spock. Kirk

4 According to the Nielsen television ratings system which uses different components such as total and average audience to determine the popularity and, by extension, success of a show. A rating of 40 means that 40 percent of television viewers had their channels tuned in. 5 According to the classic television database, classic-tv.com, Gunsmoke had the highest number of viewers from the late 1950s into the early 1960s, and even after it dropped from the number one spot it was still within the top ten. (http://www.classic-tv.com/features/ratings/)

exceptionally represents the paradoxical nature of traditional, American masculinity of the postwar period. He deals with the conflicting characteristics of emotional detachment and humanistic compassion while simultaneously displaying the rugged individualism based on the pre- industrialization masculine paradigm of the “Self-Made Man.” Kirk is the perfect balance 6 between the old and the new man.

Creator Gene Roddenberry and other members of the writing team intentionally made Kirk a role model for traditional masculinity. This personification of manhood manifests through two primary themes: the superiority of balanced masculinity over hyper-masculine characters and dominance of masculinity over threateningly voracious and monstrous femininity.7 Examples of homosocial relationships between men, individualism, and virility form part of the foundation of traditional masculinity. All these subthemes exist within the series and appear in each episode to varying degrees.

Furthermore, Kirk’s competence as a leader demonstrated an aspect of his masculinity as well. As a leader, he showed responsibility and an unbreakable resolve to lead his crew throughout the series. According to Michael Kimmel, “Manhood had been understood to define an inner quality, the capacity for autonomy and responsibility, and had historically been seen as the opposite of childhood.”8 This idea of the term “manhood” as being synonymous with “adulthood” via responsibility and independence lends these characteristics to this archetype and, 9 by extension, Kirk’s twentieth century version of said masculine model.

The theme of masculine balance prevails throughout the series. Whether the balance is between the extremes of logic and emotion or between feminizing civilization and hyper- masculine barbarism, this theme is central to the traditionally masculine ideal, especially related to military service.10 This concept of masculinity based on the balance of opposing themes,

6 Michael Kimmel’s Manhood in America discusses the masculine archetypes at length, with one of the most conspicuous and important ones being that of the “Self-Made Man,” a paradigm that came to prominence following the American Revolution and quickly becoming the ideal throughout the 19th century. 7 Ina Rae Hark, “Decaying Orbits: Men, Women and Fears of Extinction in Star Trek,” in Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek: The Original Cast Adventures, ed. Douglas Brode and Shea T. Brode (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2015), 90; Kimmel, Manhood in America, 25. 8 Kimmel, Manhood in America, 81. 9 Ibid, 14. 10 Aaron Belkin, Bring Me Men: Military Masculinity and the Benign Façade of American Empire, 1898-2001 (New York: Columbia University Press, 2012), 4; Brandon T. Locke, “The Military-Masculinity Complex: Hegemonic

specifically within a context of military service, is a subsect of masculinity aptly named “military masculinity.” Academics such as Aaron Belkin and Brandon T. Locke developed this term as a means of observing the expectations of men within the military and how one could earn their manhood via established foundations of dichotomous balance. Belkin deeply investigated the evolution of this brand of traditional American masculinity starting in the Spanish-American War of 1898 through to the Gulf Wars in the 1990s. He established the basis of this form of manhood on many paradoxical foundations, the most important of which being that of soldiers (and, by extension, men who claim masculine authority through military service) expected to possess rigid masculine resolve and soft feminine gentility.11 Thus, given Kirk’s status as a military officer and his demonstrated struggles to balance aspects of his masculinity, this military masculinity applied to his character.

Kirk’s role as captain of the U.S.S. Enterprise required him to balance thought and feeling to make important decisions that affect his entire crew. Throughout the series, viewers watched Kirk as he weighed the risks and the rewards of dangerous situations. He handled pressures from his crew (representing a miniature society of sorts) as well as personal, internal struggles. Kirk frequently found himself face to face with his own humanity and the darker aspects of traditional masculinity, and thus made his triumphs over such flaws even more dramatic, heroic, and noble. This theme of masculine balance unfolded via internal conflict within the characters and external clashes with antagonists who represented either unbalanced hyper-masculinity or the other extreme of feminine weakness and cowardice.

The first and most obvious occurrence of Kirk directly confronting the darker aspects of his personality appeared in the episode “The Enemy Within” (aired October 6th, 1966).12 When Kirk used the teleporter to return to the Enterprise, the equipment malfunctioned and created a malevolent double of Kirk. After capturing this malicious duplicate, Kirk, Spock, and Dr. McCoy determined that “Evil Kirk” was the physical embodiment of all the negative human

Masculinity and the United States Armed Forces, 1940-1963,” Master’s Thesis, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2013, 44. 11 Belkin, Bring Me Men, 36. 12 Star Trek, “The Enemy Within,” Season 1 Episode 5. Directed by Leonard “Leo” Penn. Written by Richard Matheson. Produced by CBS October 6, 1966. An interesting note about this episode is that its writer, Richard Matheson, also wrote extensively for The Twilight Zone. Thus, despite different genres, Matheson’s style as a screenwriter lends itself to the manifestation of masculinity within both series.

flaws that Kirk typically possesses. Not only does this alter ego of the captain demonstrate a savage propensity for violence, but he also represents sexual violence and lust as shown when he lured a female crewmember into real Kirk’s quarters before attempting to rape her.13 While Evil Kirk became increasingly sinister and cunning, viewers saw the real Kirk lose the commanding tone in his voice, his ability to make decisions, and essentially everything that made him a strong leader.

Not only did viewers watch Kirk lose his ability to command, they observed his emasculation as he became overly emotional which prevented him from making decisions. While the augmented characteristics of Evil Kirk such as violence and forceful virility demonstrate a critique of the negative extremes of traditional masculinity, the real Kirk admitted to himself that he can’t survive without the evil version, which Spock and Dr. McCoy later repeat.14 This vigorous display of animalistic tendencies compared to gentle, humane compassion and Kirk’s recognition of their mutual dependency epitomizes the paradoxical balance of traditional masculinity in which men are expected to embody conflicting ideals, especially regarding aggression.15 By the end of the episode the crew successfully repaired the transporter and Kirk reunited with the embodiment of his negative characteristics, literally embracing him as they merged back into one. The episode explicitly demonstrated the male protagonist embracing his more savage traits and reinforces traditional masculinity and its contradictory aspects as a necessity for strong leadership and true manhood.

This futuristic version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde very much reveals the numerous seemingly paradoxical attributes which men are expected to embody.16 The idea of balancing oneself and exerting self-control blends the Self-Made Man with the family breadwinner. This archetype, based on themes of control and proof of manhood, struggles to keep up with an evolving social framework and thus demands that men exemplify a perfect balance between feminine civilization and barbaric savagery (also another example of the previously mentioned 17 dichotomies which form the basis of the military masculinity Kirk possessed).

13 Star Trek, “The Enemy Within,” Season 1 Episode 5. 14 Ibid. 15 Margaret Mead, And Keep Your Powder Dry (New York: Morrow, 1942), 68-69. 16 Roberta Pearson and Máire Messenger Davies, Star Trek and American Television (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2014), 141. 17 Kimmel, Manhood in America, 31.

Civilization is a bit of a paradoxical topic regarding masculinity, especially as it exists within the context of Star Trek. The program itself is set centuries in the future and features advanced civilizations in terms of technology, diplomacy, and society. Kirk and his crew behave according to military protocol and attempt to avoid conflict, symbolizing their civilized nature as opposed to stooping to savagely violent tactics. Every combative action taken by the men and women onboard the Enterprise is efficient and pragmatic rather than reckless and overly aggressive. Yet, as Kimmel notes in Manhood in America, American masculinity contrasts civilization as synonymous for “domestication” and “pacifying.” Men saw such efforts as direct threats to their independence, a cornerstone in their foundation of masculinity, coming from women who acted as “domesticators.”18 This fear evolved from perceptions that women, by turning their sons and husbands into good, obedient Christians, took away their manliness which further developed into a severe distrust of all things feminine that might attempt to civilize men.19 A second facet of this fear existed in the form of education as well. Women were often in charge of raising and teaching boys, thus men feared that young men would grow up to be effeminate through the teaching of masculinity by women, an anxiety which started as early as the late 1890s.20 Kirk’s demonstration as a balanced yet determined man of action in Star Trek, therefore, shows the distinction between civilization as a progression of society versus a feminine threat to subdue men.

The episode “Mirror, Mirror” (aired October 6th, 1967), similar to “The Enemy Within,” also presents extreme demonstrations of violence and aggression compared to moderate and composed masculinity.21 In a moment of interaction between parallel universes, crewmembers of the Enterprise confront malevolent doppelgängers. Kirk, Scotty, Dr. McCoy, and Lieutenant Uhura find themselves in an alternate reality in which the peaceful Star Fleet and crew of the Enterprise are violent, aggressive, and brutal. Instead of rank based on merit, one must murder any competitors to secure their desired position. Though the resolution of the conflict in this episode is not based on asserting one’s masculinity as superior (as in “Space Seed”), the

18 Kimmel, Manhood in America, 60. 19 Barbara Welter, “The Feminization of American Religion, 1800-1860,” in Clio’s Consciousness Raised, ed. Mary Hartman and Lois Banner (New York: Harper and Row, 1974), 139. 20 Rabbi Solomon Schindler, “A Flaw in our Public School System,” Arena 6, June 1892, 60. 21 Star Trek, “Mirror, Mirror,” Season 2 Episode 4. Directed by Marc Daniels. Written Jerome Bixby. Produced by CBS October 6, 1967.

significance here is on the stark contrast between the real crewmembers and the vicious behavior of the alternate Enterprise crew. Other Sulu lustfully and forcefully handles Uhura; Other Spock tries to pressure Kirk into annihilating a peaceful civilization that refuses to trade and tortures a crewmember who attempted to assassinate Kirk. These dramatic actions serve to demonstrate the excessive intensity of masculine violence as compared to the manly virtues of balance and self- 22 control.

Occasionally the men of the Enterprise solidify the ideal of balanced manhood by traveling to extreme behaviors and back. In “The Naked Time” (aired September 29th, 1966), a strange affliction removes the men’s logical reasoning skills, including Spock’s, which causes them to act almost savagely.23 Sulu runs around with a fencing sword, violently challenging people to duels and “rescues” Uhura with lust in his eyes. Spock openly weeps. This demonstration of the chaos that ensues when rationality disappears is a subtle commentary on masculinity. Since this mysterious ailment mostly just affects the men, their deranged behavior takes place when they lose their inhibitions exhibits a true need for men to balance their emotions with reasoning. This balance is what makes them true men.

Kirk is not the only character to demonstrate an internal balance as an affirmation of his manhood in the spotlight. In the episode “Galileo Seven” (aired January 5th, 1967), Spock became the episode’s primary male protagonist when he and other crewmembers ran into trouble that tested his leadership and, by extension, his humanity and masculinity.24 Stranded on an alien planet populated by giant, uncivilized, and hostile humanoids, Spock and his crew faced massive and aggressive creatures and a major dilemma: with their space shuttle damaged, they needed to lighten their cargo by several hundred pounds to take off and rendezvous with the Enterprise. Spock, characterized as logical and unemotional to the extreme, proceeded to lead his team based on rationality. His logic and calculating began infuriating the rest of the crew when it started conflicting with emotion and tradition; Spock refused to step away from the task of fixing the shuttle to give a proper burial to the crewmen killed by savage creatures, much to the chagrin of the other crewmembers. “It is more rational to sacrifice one life than six,” Spock said to

22 Kimmel, Manhood in America, 31. 23 Star Trek, “The Naked Time,” Season 1 Episode 4. Directed by Marc Daniels. Written by John D.F. Black. Produced by CBS September 29, 1966. 24 Star Trek, “Galileo Seven,” Season 1 Episode 16. Directed by Robert Gist. Written by Oliver Crawford and Shimon Wincelberg. Produced by CBS January 5, 1967.

McCoy’s protests about his lack of compassion.25 Only after they achieved a temporary orbit on low fuel reserves, Spock made a purely emotional decision. In a huge gamble to get the attention of the Enterprise, he ignited the rest of the fuel which sent out a flare-like burst of light. After the Enterprise saved Spock and his crew, Kirk teased the half-Vulcan about the desperation of the latter’s actions. Spock, however, refused to admit that he behaved in an emotional way.

Similarly, to Kirk’s reunion with his evil self in “The Enemy Within,” Spock’s moment of irrational decision was a brief achievement of the internal balance. Usually Kirk is the primary protagonist and, by extension, masculine model on Star Trek. In this episode, however, Spock represented the traditional masculinity- logical, unemotional, cold. He maintained his composure while still feeling human emotions (despite his alien heritage) and acted as the leader and a man. Furthermore, he and McCoy are often at odds with each other due to their opposing perspectives based on logic and emotion, respectively. Not only did Spock achieve this inner balance on his own, but his very cooperation with McCoy exemplifies in larger terms the equilibrium men must attain to definitively prove their manhood. Logical Spock and emotional McCoy balanced each other out, together representing masculinity via their unity.

Alternatively, a more external example of this theme of masculine balance exists in the episode “Space Seed” (aired February 16th, 1967).26 In this episode, Kirk faced a genetically modified Middle Eastern man from the 20th century named Khan who the Enterprise rescues. While aboard, Khan became a growing threat as the crew discovered that he was a warlord on Earth in the past, just before he and his other genetically modified compatriots suddenly took over the ship with the help of a female crewmember whom Khan seduced. After a brief skirmish, Kirk and the rest of the crew successfully retook the ship and banished Khan, his compatriots, and the traitorous female crewmember, Lieutenant Marla McGivers, to a nearby uncivilized planet.

While this episode grew into a full movie in the 1980s, the important part is Khan’s extreme expressions of his masculinity juxtaposed with Kirk’s manhood. Firstly, Khan’s sexual advances towards McGivers resemble that of Evil Kirk’s with Yeoman Janice in “The Enemy

25 Star Trek, “Galileo Seven,” Season 1 Episode 16. 26 Star Trek, “Space Seed,” Season 1 Episode 22. Directed by Marc Daniels. Written by Gene L. Coon and Carey Wilber. Produced by CBS February 16, 1967.

Within.”27 Though not nearly as aggressive or physically violent as Evil Kirk, Khan exhibited his hyper-masculinity and virility through his somewhat forceful handling of McGivers. She affirmed his virility and his manhood by falling “irrationally, instantaneously in love” with the seductive warlord, the significance of which is that men in Star Trek desire women but never in 28 love like the women in the series.

He also demonstrated his masculinity through his attire: Khan’s outfit was open, revealing his chest, and decidedly hedonistic via its suggestive design, contrasting directly with Kirk’s crisp military uniform. Khan exudes confidence and commands his comrades efficiently in a manner very similar to Kirk. In fact, Khan mirrors Kirk in several fundamental aspects like leadership and virility. The significance here is how Khan proves to be excessively masculine, to the point of violent savagery, and therefore a poor role model of balanced manhood as compared to Kirk who represents said standard.

Kirk’s success in apprehending and exiling Khan and his associates demonstrates a superiority of the former’s logic over the hyper-masculinity of the latter. It is important to note, however, that this victory came from Kirk’s level-headedness and resourcefulness.29 He did not attempt to override Khan’s violence and savagery or even remotely challenge him in that respect. Rather, Kirk used his wits and composure to defeat Khan. He redirected incapacitating gasses into the room in which Khan was holding some of the crew hostage instead of going for a full- frontal assault which would have likely failed. Furthermore, Khan’s exaggerated masculinity includes a hyper-inflated sense of pride, thereby proving that “this popular villain is certainly not a ‘better’ man than Kirk or any of his crew.”30 As a result, Kirk outmaneuvered Khan and proved himself as the masculine victor.

Kirk’s battle with the Gorn in “Arena” (aired January 19th, 1967) similarly asserts his manhood through a balance of cunning and physical strength via the defeat of a significantly stronger, violent, and savage creature.31 While in pursuit of an unidentified vessel that recently

27 Star Trek, “Space Seed,” Season 1 Episode 22; Star Trek, “The Enemy Within,” Season 1 Episode 5. 28 David Greven, Gender and Sexuality in Star Trek: Allegories of Desire in the Television Series and Films (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, Inc., 2009), 26. 29 James F. Broderick, The Literary Galaxy of Star Trek: An Analysis of References and Themes in the Television Series and Films (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, Inc., 2006), 178. 30 Broderick, The Literary Galaxy of Star Trek, 178-9. 31 Star Trek, “Arena,” Season 1 Episode 18. Directed by Joseph Pevney. Written by Gene L. Coon. Produced by CBS January 19, 1967.

annihilated an Earth colony, an unknown, technologically-advanced third party transported Kirk and the lizard captain of the enemy ship onto a small asteroid in order to fight to the death. The Gorn clearly outmatches Kirk in terms of strength and size, however Kirk managed to assemble a makeshift cannon with various elements available to him and mortally wounded his adversary. Much to the surprise of the Metron, the alien who brought the two together to fight, Kirk spared the Gorn instead of delivering the final blow. Not only do Kirk’s clever tactics demonstrate his resourcefulness like how he defeated Khan in “Space Seed,” but his merciful compassion towards a wounded foe following his violent cunning epitomized the masculine balance between extreme aggression and gentleness.

The antagonist does not have to possess extreme physical strength to fulfill the role of unbalanced masculinity. In both “Where No Man Has Gone Before” (aired September 22nd, 1966) and “Charlie X” (aired September 15th, 1966), Kirk confronted humans with god-like abilities with his masculine confidence and authority.32 The latter of the two episodes is a better example that allows for a more in-depth analysis. In it, a teenager named Charlie arrived on board the Enterprise to be taken to an Earth colony. Charlie’s teenage angst, sexual desires, and awkwardness came through conspicuously to the audience as he observed and mimicked the behavior of crewmen (such as homosocial bonding rituals like slapping one another’s rears) to win the affections of Yeoman Janice. After embarrassing himself and desperately trying to handle the confusing emotional turmoil typical of adolescents, he turned to Kirk for advice. Kirk tried to explain how human relationships work and show him physical activities to release his pent-up aggression, the use of exercise harkening back to the physicality of masculinity where a man must prove his manhood via his fitness as was also seen in The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961- 1966). Instead of participating, Charlie began demonstrating his incredible psychic powers like zapping crewmen who laugh at him out of existence. The only thing that kept Charlie from taking everything over in the ship was his respect for Kirk’s authority. However, his respect ran out and Charlie fought Kirk for control of the ship, at which point the powerful creatures who gave the teenager his powers appeared, subdued him, and took him back to their home planet.

32 Star Trek, “Where No Man Has Gone Before,” Season 1 Episode 3. Directed by James Goldstone. Written by Samuel A. Peeples. Produced by CBS September 22, 1966; Star Trek, “Charlie X,” Season 1 Episode 2. Directed by Lawrence Dobkin. Written by D.C. Fontana. Produced by CBS September 15, 1966.

While Kirk’s masculine authority is significant to both this episode and the larger theme of balanced manhood overcoming extreme representations of power, the historical context of this episode is significant. The episode contained an entire scene dedicated to Kirk teaching Charlie some basic self-defense and martial arts with the underlying intent of releasing some pent up aggression through the act of physical exercise.33 This idea of physical exercise and improving one’s physique as an act of obtaining masculinity comes from the turn of the 20th century in America when men were almost fanatical about being in the best physical condition they can achieve. Theodore Roosevelt, one of the more famous advocates for manliness achieved through physically improving one’s own body, exemplified his own masculine transformation from a weak, over-civilized New Yorker into one of physical strength and resolve through a strenuous lifestyle of ranching.34 Newspapers, writers, and other pro-male voices around the 1900s purported the simple act of leaving the city (a symbol of feminine power over the declining male 35 body) and working on a farm or in the wilderness was enough to turn any “sissy” into a man.

By the 1960s, men “compulsively attempted to develop manly physiques as a way of demonstrating that they possessed the interior virtues of manhood.”36 “Charlie X” closely reflects this thinking when it airs on CBS, a period marked by feminized occupation, rise of the New Left, Women’s Rights Movement, and the Civil Rights Movement, all of which threatened 37 traditionally masculine identities.

Kirk’s interactions with Charlie reveal much about his masculinity and how it relates to other men. Interestingly, Kirk’s reaction to this almost “fatherly” responsibility represent two aspects of masculinity present in American society during the post-war era: male escapism and the reestablishment of masculine dominance in the domestic sphere. David Greven establishes the context of Kirk’s position well: “This plea, Charlie’s pained need for guidance, is treated as a bit of a joke between the principal characters; the ship’s physician McCoy relishes Kirk’s palpable discomfort with having to teach Charlie X about sex.”38 On the one hand, Kirk’s desire

33 Star Trek, “Charlie X,” Season 1 Episode 2. 34 Kimmel, Manhood in America, 135. 35 David Shi, The Simple Life: Plain Thinking and High Thinking in American Culture (New York: Oxford University Press, 1985), 197. 36 Kimmel, Manhood in America, 82. 37 Ibid, 173-174, 176, 181. 38 Greven, Gender and Sexuality in Star Trek, 9.

to avoid this fatherly responsibility resounds strongly with the theme of men escaping responsibilities in order to maintain their masculine individualism. If men could not physically avoid such pressures by venturing elsewhere, they often would escape through fantasy.39 On the other hand, though Kirk is much less symbolic of men retaking the home than Dick Van Dyke’s character, he still symbolized the establishment of men as teachers of manhood to boys. Thus, despite his trepidations towards his responsibilities, Kirk’s efforts to teach Charlie shows a retaking of this important aspect of the education of boys away from feminizing influences.

Equally important to the representation of masculinity throughout the series is the theme of masculine dominance over the threat of feminization and other feminine symbols. Fears of feminized men existed in different forms in closer proximity to the airing of Star Trek. Though men’s role in the domestic sphere received increasing importance following World War II, some feared its impact on fathers and husbands.40 Such threats appear in various forms across different episodes with some more conspicuous than others. The proclivity of young men towards the counterculture movement of the late-1950s and 1960s further threatened traditional masculinity as many male Baby Boomers identified with alternate forms of manhood discovered via progressive new music and enclaves.41 Such movements represented direct challenges to societal institutions, especially masculinity, as followers experimented with psychedelic drugs and philosophy to, ironically, escape the pressures of society demanding their adherence to their gender roles. It did not help this antifeminine fervor that these hippies, running from traditional masculinity, adopted feminine-associated traits such as passivity and pacifism via peace protests and draft dodging and gender nonconformity as demonstrated by their long hair.

With young men questioning the effectiveness of traditional masculinity as well as perceived feminine threats, men needed a positive and powerful example of successful manhood. During the episode “This Side of Paradise” (aired March 2nd, 1967), Kirk must yet again prove

39 Kimmel, Manhood in America, 43. 40 See Margaret Mead’s article in The New York Times, ““Job of the Children's Mother's Husband: Father's Role has Undergone a Revolutionary Change, Raising the Disturbing Question of Whether it is Possible to be both a Family Man and a Man.” (May 10, 1959) 41 Areas like San Francisco and Greenwich Village in New York were, much like the dude ranches Theodore Roosevelt frequented to achieve manhood, escapes for like-minded individuals. It is important to note here, however, that counterculture should not be confused with the other major youth movement, the New Left, as the former rejected political involvement in favor of “hedonist escapism.” Blake Slonecker, "The Counterculture of the 1960s and 1970s," in Oxford Research Encyclopedia of American History (June 28, 2017).

his masculinity, which is a common theme in American manhood.42 This time, instead of fighting an internal enemy, Kirk must face the most terrifying antithesis to manliness and for all that traditional manhood stands: femininity. In a Star Trek-style allegory of the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, viewers watch as the crew of the Enterprise travel to an Earth colony and succumb to a native plant which produces mind-altering spores. One of the colony leaders, a young woman named Leila who is in love with Spock, lures him to the flowers. Spock falls under their influence and loses all his logic and sense of duty, just like the rest of the crew. Kirk catches him with flowers in his hair. It takes Kirk discovering the “antidote” to the influence of the spores of emotion to successfully regain control of his crew.

Author Ina Rae Hark explains this phenomenon in Star Trek best: “In the majority of cases in which Kirk, Spock, or McCoy succumb to desire for a woman in a way that threatens their retention of the phallus [as symbolic of their masculinity], they are portrayed as being not in their right minds or displaced within the space/time continuum.”43 There are several themes present in this episode, however the most pertinent one is that of feminine dominance. This is not to say that women themselves are supreme rulers of the land; rather the enemies which Kirk must face is passivity, pacification, and seduction, in other words the symbolic dominance of womanly influence over men. Thus, the spores’ influence and Leila’s successful attempts to lure Spock to the plant blatantly represents men’s fears of succumbing to feminizing influences.44 Although the audience witnesses Spock succumbing to Leila’s Eve-like seduction, his masculinity remains intact because the audience recognizes that he is in an altered state due to the spores.

The theme of combating feminine influence is not subtle throughout the episode. Leila takes on the role of the temptress, enticing Spock and the rest of the crew of the Enterprise to give up the freedom they had exploring the frontier and instead become “domesticated.”45 It is only through the rescue from Kirk that Spock shakes off the effects of the spores, thereby

42 Star Trek, “This Side of Paradise,” Season 1 Episode 24. Directed by Ralph Senesky. Written by D.C. Fontana and Jerry Sohl. Produced by CBS March 2, 1967; According to Michael Kimmel in Manhood in America, the archetype of the Self-Made Man in 19th century America “embodied economic autonomy” and reflected the middle class. With this meant that “manhood [was] no longer fixed in land or small-scale property ownership or dutiful service. Success must be earned, manhood must be proved—and proved constantly.” (p. 17). 43 Hark, “Decaying Orbits: Men, Women and Fears of Extinction in Star Trek” in Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek: The Original Cast Adventures, 90. 44 Kimmel, Manhood in America, 25. 45 Ibid, 39-41.

regaining his masculinity. This is a classic example of a crisis of masculinity: Spock is rendered weak and feminine as shown by his immature, care-free attitude hanging from trees and wearing flowers in his hair, and Kirk helps him regain his manhood by goading Spock into a fight. With Spock (and, later, the rest of the crew) having recovered his masculine identity, they successfully eradicated the influences of the plant and its femininizing effects.

This symbolic representation of the phallus and fears related to its loss also appears in other episodes related to the masculine triumph over feminization, such as “The City on the Edge of Forever” (aired April 6th, 1967).46 The crew of the Enterprise comes across a gateway into Earth’s past into which McCoy, enraged by an unintentional dose of chemicals, stumbles, thereby changing the course of history. Kirk and Spock go through to prevent these changes and arrive in America during the Great Depression. Kirk falls in love with the young woman housing him. However, Spock learns that she must die in a car crash to maintain the present course of history. They find McCoy right as the woman walks into oncoming traffic, at which point Kirk must prevent McCoy from saving her. It is this moment, as pained as Kirk is to watch what James Broderick calls “the most powerful and painful romantic relationship fans of Trek would ever experience in the show’s history” end, Kirk remains the stalwart futuristic space cowboy that he is.47 He, like the mythic cowboy of American legend, travels into the unknown, is a “man of action,” lives and acts in a world driven by men, and maintains his rugged individualism by moving on after “the environment has been subdued…unhampered by clinging women.”48 Kirk recognizes his duties as superior to personal desires, does what is necessary, and continues onward to the frontier.

A more horrific version of this theme of feminine seduction comes in the episode “The Man Trap” (aired September 8th, 1966).49 In this episode, a shapeshifting, vampire-like creature that feeds on salt drains the substance from a few crewmembers, thereby killing them. McCoy sees the creature as an old lover he once had and is infatuated with her. He does not listen to Kirk

46 Star Trek, “The City on the Edge of Forever,” Season 1 Episode 28. Directed by Joseph Pevney. Written by Harlan Ellison. Produced by CBS, April 6 1967. 47 Broderick, The Literary Galaxy of Star Trek, 39. 48 Kimmel, Manhood in America, 100. 49 Star Trek, “The Man Trap,” Season 1 Episode 1. Directed by Marc Daniels. Written by George Clayton Johnson. Produced by CBS September 8, 1966.

or Spock pointing out their suspicions and is almost killed by this salt vampire until the latter two successfully kill it.

The literary implications of a vampiric character establish that the significance of this character’s drive to consume the salt from its victims is more than just to obtain biological sustenance, rather it is after “the psychic energy, or ‘life force’.”50 Given the context of this succubus’ attempts to drain the men of their “life force” (read “manhood”), this episode is very fitting within the theme of male dominance over an attempted feminine usurpation of masculine power. The salt vampire represents an almost literal emasculation of the male crewmembers. McCoy, under the impression that it is his old lover, only survives because other men (Kirk and Spock) save him from her temptations by killing her. Furthermore, the theme of masculine control appears within this episode as well. According to Ina Rae Hark regarding the salt vampire’s behavior, “Repeated incidents of unfulfilled sexual longing serve as [a] metaphor for the creature’s hunger.”51 The masculine theory of the self-made man archetype is based primarily on the theme of control, especially self-control related to sexual behavior and pleasure.52 Therefore, Kirk and Spock demonstrate their masculine success over evil, feminine seduction by maintaining self-control and refusing to succumb to the sexual temptation of the salt vampire.

Fears of the feminization of men and society as a whole were ubiquitous and profound in America during the late 1950s. Writers such as Arthur Schlesinger Jr. published numerous articles detailing a crisis of “masculine degeneration,” one of the causes being the perception of increasing female control over all aspects of the lives of men.53 Like the symbol of youthful, masculine virility and strength which JFK portrayed during his campaign and presidency, Kirk also embodies this masculinity.54 These men, within the context of a nationwide crisis of manhood, intentionally reinforce notions of traditional masculinity as an ideal. Kennedy achieved his image of manliness through developing a cultural persona in which he, surrounded by other masculine men like Frank Sinatra in his so-called “Rat Pack,” appeared to the public as

50 J. Gordon Melton, The Vampire Book: The Encyclopedia of the Undead (Farmington Hills, MI: Visible Ink Press, 1999), xxi. 51 Hark, “Decaying Orbits: Men, Women and Fears of Extinction in Star Trek” in Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek: The Original Cast Adventures, 89. 52 Kimmel, Manhood in America, 31-33. 53 Watts, JFK and the Masculine Mystique, 12-13. 54 Ibid, 41.

energetic, athletic, shrewd, and strong in both will and body.55 Similarly, creator Gene Roddenberry purposefully developed the character of Kirk to be a paragon of masculine power; when, in a memo commenting on a screenplay draft, Roddenberry expresses how the writer made Kirk seem like “too much of a nice guy,” and insists that the writer needs to “give Kirk 56 some balls!” (His emphasis, not mine).

A more literary example of men combating symbols of feminine dominance occurs within the plot of “The Doomsday Machine” (aired October 20th, 1967).57 On their way to rescue Commodore Decker, the Enterprise comes across a colossal, automated, and ancient planet- devouring ship. Driven mad by the annihilation of his crew by the machine, Decker attempts to directly confront the device by taking command of the Enterprise while Kirk and Scotty are making repairs on his ship, the Constellation. After Spock and McCoy relieve Decker of duty, the latter takes a small shuttle from the Enterprise and dies after attempting to enter the machine in a fashion like the Bible’s Jonah. Kirk uses the same tactic; however, he destroys the machine by using the larger Constellation and detonating its engines inside it.

The attempts of Decker and Kirk to destroy the planet-killer represent attempts to reassert masculine dominance. They face an enormous machine with a large opening or “maw” with which it devours entire galaxies. This machine, as a figurative example of “the monstrous feminine,” is a direct threat to the masculine power of Decker and Kirk.58 Decker, hysterical after the loss of his crew and foolish via his endangerment of the Enterprise and its crew, attempts to reclaim his masculinity by destroying the machine. However, his attempt to “recapture phallic power fails.”59 This failure, coupled with his instability which translates into weakness, juxtaposes the masculine-deficient Decker next to Kirk. His success in defeating the machine and

55 Watts, JFK and the Masculine Mystique, 2, 5-6. 56 Gene Roddenberry, memo to Gene L. Coon, May 23, 1967. 57 Star Trek, “The Doomsday Machine,” Season 2 Episode 6. Directed by Marc Daniels. Written by Norman Spinrad. Produced by CBS October 20, 1967. 58 Barbara Creed, The Monstrous-Feminine: Film, Feminism, Psychoanalysis (London: Routledge, 1993). Male fears of the vagina as a concept persists throughout most of literature, for anything that threatens to consume men connects to this deep-seated discomfort. Kimmel discusses the sperm whale in Moby Dick and its themes of feminine insatiability and castration. See also Peter Rudnytsky, “The Darke and Vicious Place: The Dread of the Vagina in King Lear,” Modern Philology 96, no. 3 (1999): 291-311. 59 Hark, “Decaying Orbits: Men, Women and Fears of Extinction in Star Trek” in Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek: The Original Cast Adventures, 90.

maintaining his composure and firm leadership proves yet again the strength of his masculine resolve.

This showcase of male characters rising to the challenges that they face and displaying a level of inner strength represents a defeat of the masculine insecurities men experienced in the 1960s. While male anxiety regarding their manhood deteriorated from a “gradual erosion and uneasy footing [into] a landslide,” men tried turning to models of true masculinity from previous eras.60 Even though the soldier, previously one of the apotheoses of manliness, lost its respect and stability as a masculine symbol due to the Vietnam War, there still existed the notion of strong leadership and military duty as a noble virtue.61 In this example, Spock represents the embodiment of those characteristics and, therefore, successfully redeems his disgraceful actions of refusing to participate in burial rites for his crew. He conquers his personal flaws and proves his manhood through his actions, a theme which is consistent throughout Star Trek.

Some episodes possess aspects of traditional masculinity which are important to note, yet do not fully demonstrate either of the two themes. Such episodes like “Amok Time” (aired September 15th, 1967) feature the famous homosocial relationship between Kirk and Spock.62 In a Vulcan mating ritual, Spock must fight Kirk to the death. Spock, enraged by his Vulcan instincts, loses all his logic as he attempts to kill Kirk. This harkens back to the theme of Kirk’s balanced masculinity versus a savage, hyper-masculine antagonist, however the context of this fight within his and Spock’s friendship adds depth to the themes in this episode.

The relationship between Kirk and Spock represent a significant aspect of the archetypal frontier man constantly on the move. Typically there is the pairing of a white primary male protagonist with a counterpart of a different race (or, in this case, a different species) who both establish a “charged but chaste” bond.63 These two Star Trek characters are merely the 20th century version of an ongoing trend in 19th century American literature which critic Leslie Fiedler describes as “the pure marriage of males, sexless and holy, a kind of counter-matrimony, in which the white refugee from society and the dark-skinned primitive are joined till death do

60 Kimmel, Manhood in America, 174. 61 Ibid. 62 Star Trek, “Amok Time,” Season 2 Episode 1. Directed by Joseph Pevney. Written by Theodore Sturgeon. Produced by CBS September 15, 1967. 63 Kimmel, Manhood in America, 44-45.

them part.”64 These two male characters and their intimate relationship with each other represents the homosocial bond which is of tantamount importance to traditional masculinity.65 Within the manly space is found the reinforcement of homosocial bonds with other men at the exclusion of women (and, often times, men who were ethnic minorities). The underlying fear of losing one’s masculinity and “growing soft,” so to speak, due to the influence of women propels the emergence of homosocial bonds. This relationship appears throughout the series, however it is most clear within this episode as both characters convey their pain of fighting a friend whom they each consider to be their brother.

Historically, men sought such a bond via their involvement in various clubs and activities deemed worthy only for men. By joining groups like fraternities or other male-only orders, members used such exclusivity from women and frequently non-natives and non-whites as a means of reestablishing their manhood via the strengthening of a sort of brotherhood.66 The consumption of products intended specifically for men also supported this endeavor as popular magazines like Playboy came to be a way for men to shore up their masculinity.

As a quick note, it is necessary to mention race as it relates to masculinity. Traditional manhood, at its core, relies upon tactics of exclusion to maintain power and purity: exclusion of women, ethnic minorities, and homosexuals. In the idealized homosocial bonds between men which constitute an important aspect of traditional masculinity, bonds between white and non- white men have a clear power difference between the two: the non-white man typically exists within the role of the “noble savage” or that of a male maternal figure.67 The formation of male societies which excluded members based on sex and race demonstrates the use of exclusion as a foundation for white masculinity. Kirk’s superior rank above Spock and, in “This Side of Paradise,” Kirk’s tactics of goading the half-Vulcan into a fight and subtly reaffirming the

64 Leslie Fielder, Love and Death in the American Novel (New York: Dell, 1966), 211. 65 The forms that homosocial bonding can take vary greatly. In Star Trek, it is a clean relationship founded on respect for each other’s knowledge, skill, and rank. Aaron Belkin describes in Bring Me Men how homosocial bonding within the context of American military masculinity tends to be more violent and aggressive, covering male-on-male rape and other hazing in the U.S. Navy as a means of establishing this relationship between male servicemen. For more information, see: Belkin, Bring Me Men, 79. 66 Mark A. Swiencicki, “Consuming Brotherhood: Men’s Culture, Style, and Recreation as Consumer Culture, 1880- 1930,” Journal of Social History 31, no. 4 (1998): 773. 67 Kimmel, Manhood in America, 45.

latter’s position under him subtly showcases the mechanics of race within masculinity and how it plays out in Star Trek.

It is abundantly clear that the men aboard the Enterprise, especially Kirk, are conspicuous representations of traditional masculinity. Their interactions with hyper-masculine antagonists who attempt to savagely destroy the principle characters, seductive women who try to drain the men of their masculine power (and sometimes their lives), and figurative representations of symbolic feminine monstrosities relate to contemporary male insecurities. Fears of feminization or loss of power via the increasing integration of women, ethnic, and sexual minorities into sections of society previously dominated by straight, white men all appear within Star Trek in different forms. The significance of this show is not only the portrayal of these perceived threats to traditional masculinity, but also the triumph of the male characters as embodiments of manliness over these fears. Savage, macho male characters lose to the more balanced manhood of Kirk and representations of feminine dominance fail to best the strength and cunning of men.

Chapter 3: The Twilight Zone

The Twilight Zone (1959-1964) poses the biggest analytical challenge. It lacks an overarching narrative and a consistent cast to tie its episodes together, unlike Star Trek (1966- 1969) and The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961-1966). Instead, this anthology-style television series provides short, half-hour scenarios in which various social issues take center stage. Despite the added difficulty of sifting through each distinct episode or through creator Rod Serling’s unique, personal convictions and cynicism, the masculinity ideal clearly appears within this show. Characters still resolve conflict through their strength of will and courage, thereby setting them apart from others as “true men,” or else fate penalizes them for their lack of manliness. In this series, masculinity manifests in the various episodes within two major themes: a male protagonist either successfully proving his manhood or failing to do so. The latter theme further divides into two subthemes of male defeat by either an external usurpation of power or an internal imbalance in one’s masculine identity. The line between these two subthemes tends to blur, however the analysis of the episodes will keep them distinct. Furthermore, a separate theme of conformity to society also plays a major role throughout multiple episodes and thereby relates to masculine identities or lack thereof.

The Twilight Zone first aired on October 2, 1959 against a backdrop of several cultural and historical events. The Cold War, Sputnik, and McCarthyism were all very much in the minds of the American public, though the latter was in decline. However, despite citizens’ shift away from the infamous senator, American fears and anxieties were far from disappearing. On the contrary, Americans worried about several major changes taking place within society ranging from school integration to juvenile delinquency. Regardless of what specifically they feared, a weakening society tended to be the root theme of Americans’ fears. People feared Communism and its negative effects on the United States, they feared juvenile delinquency as a representation of the declining strength of the younger generations, and they feared conformity as a societal 1 means of eliminating one’s individuality within the home and the workplace.

1 Scholarship on American fears related to Communism during the Cold War exists in abundance and is a common trope of the post-war period. Slightly less well known yet nearly as influential are the fears of juvenile delinquency and conformity, the former of which arguably represented a failure on the part of parents. This gave credence to an overarching fear of a weakening society degenerating further with each subsequent generation.

These masculine identities, especially their related fears and anxieties, exist within a unique space in American postwar society. Like Betty Friedan’s description of the “problem that has no name,” aspects of masculinity also remained in the back of the minds of American men with arguably an even greater social stigma surrounding its discussion.2 This issue appears within president of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), Gregory Calvert’s speech in 1967:

“The problem in white America is the failure to admit or recognize unfreedom. It is a problem of false consciousness, that is, the failure to perceive one’s situation in terms of oppressive (class) relationships. Only when white America comes to terms with its own 3 unfreedom can it participate in the creation of a revolutionary movement.”

Although addressing the difficulty student movements in the 1960s faced in terms of rallying white, middle class Americans to different revolutionary causes, this speech also subtly touches on the unspoken nature of masculine identities: particularly their anxiety-inducing changes related to the development of a conformity-based, bureaucratized, and hierarchical corporate styles of business that arose during the postwar period.

The anxieties of masculinity during the 1950s and onwards connects closely with the development of a culture of conformity. This period exists within a social context where the expectation to “fit in” as a component of a larger work was so ubiquitous, people dared not to directly address it except for contemporary William Whyte. He points out that people only ever refer to the overarching system in which people operate and on which they depend (what he calls the “Organization”) in code: “rat race” and “the treadmill” are both ways people may address this.4 As further proof of such, Margaret Mead’s New York Times article about men expected to balance precariously between the “rat race” of business.5 Americans as a whole, not just men, accepted this need to exist as a piece of a whole because, according to Whyte, they rationalized

2 Betty Friedan, “The Problem that has no Name,” in Takin’ it to the Streets: A Sixties Reader, ed. Alexander Bloom and Wini Breines (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011), 396. 3 Gregory Calvert, “In White America: Radical Consciousness and Social Change,” in Takin’ it to the Streets: A Sixties Reader, ed. Alexander Bloom and Wini Breines (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011), 101. 4 William H. Whyte, The Organization Man (Garden City, NY: Simon and Schuster Inc., 1956), 3. 5 Margaret Mead, “Job of the Children's Mother's Husband: Father's Role has Undergone a Revolutionary Change, Raising the Disturbing Question of Whether it is Possible to be both a Family Man and a Man,” New York Times, May 10, 1959.

the system as being a necessity based on the “sense of dedication” one might receive from 6 participating.

Such a change in society mirrored the changes that took place regarding the values of masculinity following World War II. Individualism lost its emphasis in both male gender roles and society at large, the result being a level of acceptable “individualism within organization life.”7 Furthermore, Whyte also goes into great detail about the departure from the Protestant Work Ethic, a set of cultural values based on one’s active struggles against their environment to succeed, towards cooperation and avoidance of conflict within the Organization.8 The trajectory of this societal shift reflects the softening of manhood from triumphant achievement in the face of herculean challenges to collaboration within business, home, and community. Despite Whyte’s lack of any explicit discourse on shifting masculinity, his observations of a rapidly changing society are uncannily applicable to threats against masculine identities and authorities.

The Twilight Zone presented different approaches to combating such cultural changes. These episodes demonstrate male characters resolving their respective conflicts through the assertion of their masculinity. However, that is not what makes The Twilight Zone unique. What sets it apart from The Dick Van Dyke Show, Star Trek, and other contemporary shows is its characterization of men who do not fit the masculine paradigm. Instead of solely presenting male protagonists as positive, manly role models to male viewers, The Twilight Zone exhibits tragic male characters who clearly do not fit within the mold of traditional manhood and the negative consequences and punishments associated with it. These characters reinforce fears and anxieties of men by demonstrating potential repercussions that affect those who do not adhere to the rigid qualities of traditional masculinity.

Although some men of The Twilight Zone series do not embody the ideals of traditional masculinity, it is very clear that the central focus on these characters are designed to highlight how they fail to be positive role models. Such episodes explore the unfortunate consequences of the men’s lacking manhood through particularly cruel punishments that befall these characters.

6 Whyte, The Organization Man, 4. 7 Ibid, 10. 8 Ibid, 14-18.

While other shows provide shining examples of men proven to be masculine, The Twilight Zone stands out as the only space where the failure of manhood received punishment.

The male protagonist in the episode “Five Characters in Search of an Exit” (aired December 22nd, 1961) is one example.9 Without any explanation of how they got there, a military officer, a clown, a ballerina, a homeless man, and bagpipe player struggled to escape their prison: a tall, cylindrical room with perfectly smooth walls but no doors or windows. The officer rallied the others and organized them to form a human ladder, so he could help them escape. After he reached the top, he disappeared, and the camera showed a Salvation Army volunteer collecting dolls in a steel barrel and ringing a bell. The dolls were the characters who tried escaping.

At first glance, this episode does not appear to have much commentary on masculine paradigms. However, masculinity appears in two significant yet different examples within the episode. Firstly, the resolution of the episode demonstrating that the characters were dolls all along presents an almost anti-masculine perspective. Dolls are toys for children and thereby represent that child-like innocence. Masculinity is based partially on components of adulthood, the most significant of which is the idea of rugged individuality. This ideal is a defining factor of masculinity, harkening back to the myth of the lone wolf, and plays a role in male response to social and cultural trends like conformity.10 Therefore, the characters being dolls speaks to their lack of masculinity, as they are children’s toys and far from adulthood or independence. Their fate, then, of being stuck within the prison of the barrel is something of a punishment for their lack of manhood.

Secondly, the other demonstration of masculinity is present within the military officer’s character. The officer, by virtue of his identity as part of the military, fits within one of the common masculine paradigms of the noble soldier.11 Though there are numerous ramifications and paradoxical qualities of what scholar Aaron Belkin calls “military masculinity,” the importance for this episode is simply the masculine authority derived from the officer’s identity

9 The Twilight Zone, “Five Characters in Search of an Exit,” Season 3 Episode 14. Directed by Lamont Johnson. Written by Rod Serling. Produced by CBS December 22, 1961. 10 June Pulliam and Anthony J. Fonesca, Richard Matheson’s Monsters: Gender in the Stories, Scripts, Novels, and Twilight Zone Episodes (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2016), 39. 11 Kimmel, Manhood in America, 174.

as a military man.12 This establishment of the officer as having the masculine virtues contradicts that of his fate as a doll; however, this paradox becomes clear when understanding a brief history of the man who wrote the episode: Rod Serling.

The creator of The Twilight Zone, Rod Serling is known as television’s “last angry man.”13 He wrote most of his works as commentaries on contemporary social situations and consistently contended with corporate network censorship throughout much of his career. Furthermore, Serling served in World War II as part of a paratrooper division, so his experiences tempered his views on society and the messages about them via his writings. Although he does demonstrate a “failure” of masculinity in the episode “Five Characters in Search of an Exit” through their identities of being dolls, this does not detract from the fact that The Twilight Zone presents characters that represent traditional masculinity. When the protagonist does not embody such characteristics within the show, fate or their situation subsequently punishes them as a result. Thus, this anomaly is due to Rod Serling’s writing style and likely his own personal issues 14 with manhood.

The first theme of a successful demonstration of masculinity occurred within the episode “The Lonely” (aired November 13th, 1959), in which the fear of the threat of feminization plays a major role.15 The fear of women as influential temptresses taking away men’s manhood appears throughout literature and other story-telling mediums, especially in this episode. Corry, a man wrongfully convicted spent his sentence alone on a tiny, inhabitable asteroid far from Earth where his only company was the crew of a supply ship that visited every several months.16 To fight his debilitating loneliness, the captain of the ship, Allenby, brought Corry a life-like robot that looked like a woman to keep him company. While the robot, who Corry named Alicia, provided him company and kept him from descending into madness, she simultaneously exerted

12 Aaron Belkin, Bring Me Men: Military Masculinity and the Benign Façade of American Empire: 1898-2001 (New York: Columbia University Press, 2012), 3; the Twilight Zone episode “Where is Everybody?” contains an element of this military masculinity in that the male protagonist is in the military, just like the officer within “Five Characters in Search of an Exit.” 13 Gordon F. Sander, Serling: The Rise and Twilight of TV’s Last Angry Man (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2012). 14 Rod Serling was very short, around 5’4”, which would have likely contributed to insecurities regarding his manhood and thereby motivated him to work harder to prove his manliness. 15 The Twilight Zone, “The Lonely,” Season 1 Episode 7. Directed by Jack Smight. Written by Rod Serling. Produced by CBS November 13, 1959. 16 Ibid.

a “civilizing” influence. Corry became softer, more compassionate, and almost content with his isolation with Alicia; after seeing her cry, he comforted her, later he pointed out constellations to her, and he told himself that he loved her. It is clear, however, that Corry was losing his sense of self and individualism. He admitted to himself in a voice over of an inner monologue, “There are times even when I know that Alicia is simply an extension of me. I hear my words coming from 17 her. My emotions. The things that she has learned to love are those things that I have loved.”

When Allenby returned unexpectedly and said that Corry’s appeal went through, thereby proving his innocence, Corry attempted to bring Alicia with them. Allenby told Corry that there was not enough room on the ship for Alicia before shooting her. Although harsh and violent, Allenby rescued Corry and his manhood from Alicia’s feminizing influences. In this episode, Corry does not prove his masculinity so much as Allenby saves it. Like how American men sought their “masculine salvation” through the rejection of feminine civilization, Allenby took a direct, violent approach to eliminate the source of Corry’s feminine weakness to help him reestablish his manhood.18 This came right at a time when men were especially fearful of losing their masculinity.

American men in the post-war period could see numerous demonstrations of “failed” men not only on television through The Twilight Zone but also all around them in society: “[Men who failed] became homosexual, they became juvenile delinquents, they became Communists—soft, spineless dupes of a foreign power who were incapable of standing up for themselves.”19 Thus, Allenby’s solution at the end of the episode represents a common fantasy of successfully proving 20 one’s manhood through the elimination of the feminine.

Another example of one’s manhood successfully liberating oneself from overbearing femininity is in the episode “A World of Difference” (aired March 11th, 1960).21 A businessman named Curtis, while living out a normal day at his office, discovered that he was an actor named Gerald Raigan playing a character named Curtis. He, however, was extremely confused and

17 The Twilight Zone, “The Lonely,” Season 1 Episode 7. 18 Kimmel, Manhood in America, 41-42. 19 Ibid, 156. 20 This theme of eliminating one’s own femininity to prove their manliness is another reference to the previously mentioned subsect of masculinity known as “military masculinity,” as described by scholar Aaron Belkin. 21 The Twilight Zone, “A World of Difference,” Season 1 Episode 23. Directed by Ted Post. Written by Richard Matheson. Produced by CBS March 11, 1960.

could not accept this, insisting that he was, in fact, Curtis and not an actor. Gerald has a bitter ex- wife who tries to get every nickel and dime out of him that she can, while his friend Brinkley describes him as “a sweet, unhappy man.”22 Gerald’s life was crumbling around him, as he was nervous, confused, and financially crippled from his nasty divorce with his ex-wife; he was a man without any control in his life. Therefore, he experienced a loss of masculinity as an 23 individual as he lost his freedom and authority.

Curtis, on the other hand, was the ideal man in the post-war period. He had a loving wife who respected him, a job in which he had the authority to make decisions instead of being just a cog in the machine of what William H. Whyte calls “the Organization,” and he had the power to decide what to do with his life.24 As Gerald recognized that his life is no longer his own, but his ex-wife’s, he responded by returning to where his manhood is firmly established and where he was in control: Curtis’ life. Curtis was the escape for Gerald that many American men had been craving since the mid-19th century. Kimmel sums it up perfectly: “In both fiction and fact, they [men] ran away.”25 Gerald was a weak, nervous, downtrodden man. His ex-wife aggressively pushed him around, belittled him, and demanded he pay her alimony. The episode ended with Gerald returning to his life as Curtis, a life in which he had his masculinity and control; however, the negative consequences of Gerald’s existence outside of the movie studio are conspicuous. His friend Binkley told him that the studio executives are cancelling the film, thereby eliminating Gerald’s ability to earn for himself. This scenario did not fully play out, but the threat of both an overbearing, controlling woman and the inability to support oneself feed directly into masculine anxieties.

It rings especially true for middle-class American men living in the post-war period. Masculine-based anxieties persisted following World War II in part because of the reorganization of society into one based less on individualism and more on collectivism. This is not to say that the economy was developing social tendencies, as is typically the connotation of the term “collectivist.” Instead, the post-war period saw an increasing push for societal conformity across all aspects of life as demonstrated by suburbanization, its inhabitants’ “group-

22 The Twilight Zone, “A World of Difference,” Season 1 Episode 23. 23 Kimmel, Manhood in America, 40. 24 Whyte, The Organization Man, 3. 25 Kimmel, Manhood in America, 40.

mindedness,” and the establishment of policies, values, and beliefs, which emphasize the organization rather than a lone individual.26 As a result, men were increasingly wary of the direction in which society developed.

The fear of feminine control is a consistent and obvious male concern throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. The inability to financially provide for oneself was an even greater fear than that of female dominance over men. Since the mid-19th century, the American masculine archetype of the self-made man became the primary model of manhood through the subjugation of other paradigms.27 Gerald’s potential inability to earn for himself conflicts with the defining characteristic of the self-made man: “the embodiment of economic autonomy” which is based upon repeated financial success.28 Thus, his very failure to earn a living translates to a failure to prove his masculinity. By this definition, Gerald could not claim to be a man.

It is important to note that traditional masculinity “cooperates,” so to speak, very well with conservative values and beliefs. In the Sharon Statement from a group of conservative students called the Young Americans for Freedom (YAF), they specifically establish that, as conservatives, they believe that “liberty is indivisible, and that political freedom cannot long exist without economic freedom.”29 Although not explicitly about masculinity, these beliefs possess the same foundations as the traditional masculinity that The Twilight Zone portrays. The basis of economic independence and success for both proof of manhood and conservative values during the postwar period further colors the anxieties men experienced at this time. Frequently, masculine and conservative anxieties overlap and further distinguish the parallel between the two collections of values and ideals. Spiro Agnew’s disdainful statements regarding his perception of the parasitic nature of the different political demonstrations and movements reveal his fear as a conservative and as a man: “We are an effete society if we let [‘parasites of passion’] happen here.”30 Here, the heavily implied solution is the reestablishment of conservative-based values, similar to the resolution of “A World of Difference” in which masculine authority reasserts itself.

26 Whyte, Organization Man, 435-436. 27 Kimmel, Manhood in America, 19. 28 Ibid, 17. 29 M. Stanton Evans, “The Sharon Statement,” in Takin’ it to the Streets: A Sixties Reader, ed. Alexander Bloom and Wini Breines (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011), 289. 30 Spiro T. Agnew, “Impudence in the Streets,” in Takin’ it to the Streets: A Sixties Reader, ed. Alexander Bloom and Wini Breines (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011), 311.

By escaping to his perfect life with his wife who loves and respects him, Curtis represents a symbolic success of manhood defeating male anxieties. This success simultaneously plays into two masculine fantasies: escape from feminine dominance and reestablishment of male authority. He escaped his overbearing ex-wife and her financially emasculating threats, which mirrors similar themes that take place within cowboy television shows like Gunsmoke where manly men escape the overbearing, feminized civilization. In addition, the resolution of the episode demonstrated a reestablishment of “natural” gender roles after experiencing the role reversal of Gerald’s life, thereby reinforcing the expectation of men to prove themselves and step up to their gender roles as true men.

An important distinction to make here is that the style of masculinity that Curtis’ success represents is that of white, middle class masculinity. Themes and representations of manhood for ethnic minorities are very different from those that appear within not only The Twilight Zone, but also The Dick Van Dyke Show and Star Trek. Were it possible, an analysis of the demonstration of alternate masculine archetypes would certainly appear. Despite this limitation, some of the masculine themes that appear within this show that seem to represent solely middle-class men relate to men in the working class. Specifically, working class men experienced the middle class male anxieties regarding the industrialized and bureaucratized workplace and its perceived threat towards their masculine independence, the only resolution of which would come from “radical rearrangements in the economic patterns of ownership and control,” according to SNCC activist Casey Hayden in 1964.31 It is appropriate, then, the established connection between conservative America and traditional masculinity as their primary advocates most often fit within the white, middle and working class demographic, as they are the citizens who feel most threatened by the changes happening in American society. Therefore, while the masculine themes of The Twilight Zone tend to present white, middle class masculinities, some anxieties and representations relate to working class Americans in terms of economic independence and fears of financial emasculation.

Several influential works published during this time, such as David Riesman’s The Lonely Crowd and William Whyte’s The Organization Man, drew attention to the dangers of this

31 Casey Hayden, “Raising the Question of Who Decides,” in Takin’ it to the Streets: A Sixties Reader, ed. Alexander Bloom and Wini Breines (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011), 67.

conformity-based trend and pointed to the changes in the workplace as well as the home. This increasing pressure to “fit in” with society only exasperated male fantasies of escape to reassert themselves both as individuals and as men in control. Therefore, television episodes like “A World of Difference” played directly into all these insecurities and fears. It also gave male viewers a sense of satisfaction when the episode ended when Curtis reclaimed control, his life, and his masculinity instead of falling victim to the pressures of the outside world.

Men taking control and asserting their manhood appears in several more episodes throughout the series. In “The Nick of Time” (aired November 18th, 1960), a young couple driving across Ohio on route to New York stopped in a small town to get their car repaired.32 Whilst waiting, they visited a diner with small fortune-teller machines on the tables. Don Carter, a superstitious man, quickly became obsessed with the machine and used it to make every decision for him. In “The Long Distance Call” (aired March 31st, 1961), a young boy’s grandmother fell ill and died; however, he could communicate with her through a toy phone she gave him on his birthday.33 His grandmother exerted more and more control over him until she convinced him to drown himself in their pool in the backyard.

Although both episodes devolve into dark themes of non-human objects controlling otherwise happy people, they both ended with a man reasserting himself as having more power, control, and (implicitly) masculinity than the malicious figures. In the beginning of “The Nick of Time,” Don Carter and his wife demonstrated an emasculating role reversal in which he was the anxious, ridiculous figure and his wife more practical. He reclaimed his manhood and reestablished the traditional gender roles by deciding on his own to leave the town and the fortune-teller machine.34 In “The Long Distance Call,” Chris (the boy’s father and the grandmother’s son) confronted his mother before she died, at which point she revealed that she “lost” Chris when he married his wife. This overbearing mother exerted control over Chris’ son and infantilized both Chris and his son, thereby playing directly into the masculine fear of the “insatiable mother” who controls everything and prevents men from claiming their manhood.35 It

32 The Twilight Zone, “The Nick of Time,” Season 2, Episode 7. Directed by Richard L. Bare. Written by Richard Matheson and Rod Serling. Produced by CBS November 18, 1960. 33 The Twilight Zone, “The Long Distance Call,” Season 2, Episode 22. Directed by James Sheldon. Written by Charles Beaumont and William Idelson. Produced by CBS March 31, 1961. 34 Twilight Zone, “The Nick of Time,” Season 2, Episode 7. 35 Kimmel, Manhood in America, 25.

was through Chris’ desperate monologue at the end of the episode, when his dead mother attempted to steal his son from him, that he demanded she leave him alone and reasserted himself as the man of the house. She released the boy and Chris, like Don from the other episode, successfully retook his manliness.

The episodes “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” (aired October 11th, 1963), “The Monsters are Due on Maple Street” (aired March 4th, 1960), and “Time Enough at Last” (aired November 20th, 1959) contain aspects of subthemes of external and internal causes of men who failed to prove their manhood.36 In the former, a young man named Robert Wilson recovering from a prior off- screen nervous breakdown boards a plane with his wife to go home and resume their lives. Wilson, played by William Shatner, becomes distressed when he sees a hideous creature on the outside of the plane and tries to alert the flight staff, however the creature disappears every time they come to inspect the situation, much to his chagrin. Wilson grows restless and anxious as he continues to see the creature, to the point where he takes a gun and shoots through the windows of the plane. After the flight staff subdue him and safely land the plane, an ambulance comes to take Wilson away. The external factor of the creature triggers Wilson’s anxieties and fears; however, his internal masculine failure seals his fate. Rather than keeping a level head and avoiding a scene, Wilson becomes hysterical and resorts to extreme violence via the use of a gun in a desperate attempt to maintain control over his situation. As a result, his lack of nerves and masculine resolve places him back in an institution. Although there is some ambiguity as to whether the ending is morally just, this episode demonstrates the fate of men who fail to fit within the mold of masculinity. The flight crew finds evidence of the creature on the damaged plane wing, thereby proving that Wilson was telling the truth. However, his extreme reaction and inability to handle the situation leads him to a mental hospital and a reputation.

The episode “Time Enough at Last” is an impeccable example of the fate that befalls unmanly men.37 In it, a bespectacled, bookish man named Bemis embodied nearly the exact antithesis of traditional masculinity: he is neither strong, confident, hardworking, nor in control of his own life. Instead, his boss and wife constantly pushed him around, the latter of which did

36 The Twilight Zone, “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet,” Season 5 Episode 3. Directed by Richard Donner. Written by Richard Matheson. Produced by CBS October 11, 1963; The Twilight Zone, “The Monsters are Due on Maple Street,” Season 1 Episode 22. Directed by Ron Winston. Written by Rod Serling. Produced by CBS March 4, 1960. 37 The Twilight Zone, “Time Enough at Last,” Season 1, Episode 8. Directed by John Brahm. Written by Rod Serling. Produced by CBS November 20, 1959.

so with malicious glee. He was truly a beaten down man and is slave not only to his wife, an example of the feared gender role reversal, but also to his boss. He had no ambitions except to spend all his time reading, which inadvertently saved him when an atomic bomb suddenly struck his hometown and destroyed nearly everything and everyone. Upon discovering a full library of books untouched, he is ecstatic. In a cruel, ironic twist of fate, however, he fell and broke his glasses, leaving him to suffer for the rest of his days. The connection between Bemis’ shortcomings as a man and his circumstances was blatantly clear to viewers, even though his lack of manhood did not cause the atomic Armageddon.

“The Monsters are due on Maple Street” similarly has components of external characters and events that lead to internal male failings.38 After a series of seemingly supernatural events take place in a standard American suburb, people begin blaming one another for these events in a manner reminiscent of the Red Scare during the McCarthy era just years prior to when this episode aired. The situation quickly devolves into chaos wherein a townsperson accidentally shoots someone else. The paranoia grows as accusations fly, with people prying into their neighbors’ privacy and asking what they do when they are not with the rest of the community. As the neighborhood falls further into madness and the townspeople run about screaming, breaking, and shooting indiscriminately, the camera pans out to see two men next to a spacecraft overlooking the violence from a nearby vantage point. They discuss this situation as part of a study they conduct in which people consistently “pick the most dangerous enemy they can find: 39 themselves.”

The inability to stand up to external forces like women or children is a theme of the episode “It’s a Good Life” (aired November 3rd, 1961).40 This episode features a young boy with god-like powers who controls all aspects of a rural town, including the people. The citizens, including his family, avoid upsetting him for fear that he might kill them with his special abilities. Nothing ever changed, and no one dared to move against him. It was not until one man stood up to him in a drunken tirade, ranting about how the boy has ruined his life, that anybody confronted the child. The man admonished the other adults for allowing the nightmare to

38 The Twilight Zone, “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street,” Season 1 Episode 22. 39 Ibid. 40 The Twilight Zone, “It’s a Good Life,” Season 3 Episode 8. Directed by James Sheldon. Written by Rod Serling. Produced by CBS November 3, 1961.

continue without intervention. For a moment, he asserted his manhood and establishes control; however, the boy turned him into a grotesque Jack-in-the-box before making him disappear.

Although the man who asserted his masculinity received a terrible fate, the punishment is not in response to his actions. Rather, the boy punishes him because other adults, especially the men, fail to respond. The episode presents an ironic twist in which those who adhere to traditional masculinity meet their demise within a community of people without any sense of manhood. To be clear, this is less a castigation of manliness and more so a demonstration of a cowardly, weak society. A community in which a child possesses power over adult men than they do over him represents a true failure of everyone in terms of their masculinity. Though most scholarship and much of this analysis focuses on masculinity as being distinct from femininity, a significant component of manhood is its distinction against childhood. Men are adults and thus possess a level of strength, maturity, and wisdom. Children do not. This episode’s unique role reversal placed a child in control of a community of adults and thereby demonstrated infantilized men who did not attempt to assert themselves over nor did they embrace fatherly duties to train the child. For this lack of masculinity, they condemned themselves to live in fear for the rest of their lives.

The failure of masculinity within “The Monsters are Due on Maple Street” is unique among other Twilight Zone episodes for a few reasons. First, this is not the failing of a single man but rather the men within a community, like that of the submissive men obeying the whims of a super powerful child in “It’s a Good Life.” Secondly, the lack of masculinity is not as conspicuous as Bemis’ passive, feminized character in “Time Enough at Last.” Instead, the failing here comes from the men’s adherence to conformity within the community. The men of the neighborhood are primarily the leaders of the witch-hunt in this episode; they further push this idea of conformity as they accuse each other of hiding details regarding their activities and whereabouts.

The failure of the men is their participation in the development of the conformist society which 60s contemporaries William Whyte, David Riesman, and Mario Savio decried as an awful, freedom-stealing (and, by extension, masculine-killing) nationwide phenomenon, slowly

draining Americans of their individualism and control over their own destinies.41 The community of Maple Street and the larger pressures of conformity within American society thereby transformed the men of the neighborhood into identical cogs within this larger organization, feminizing them by making them dependent upon said social system.42 Their dependence came from what Whyte describes as a need for “belonging” and “togetherness,” both major 43 components of the development of post-war American culture.

The demonstration of the subordination of men to conform to society, thereby feminizing them in the process, compared to those asserting their individualism and masculine resolve, conspicuously appeared when a couple of men interrogate a fellow neighbor. The men, Dan and Charlie, questioned Steve about a secret radio set he has been building in private. Steve’s wife, representing conformity, hysterically explained that it is a normal radio set and that “a lot of people have them.”44 When she moved to show the crowd the radio, to succumb to social pressures to conform, Steve stood his ground and refused to let the crowd exercise power over him. His brief monologue on the ridiculousness of the situation addressed the evils of conformity and explained the paranoia in a thinly veiled reference to both Communism and the Red Scare:

“Let’s get it all out. Let’s pick out every idiosyncrasy of every man, woman, and child on this whole street. And then we might as well set up some kind of kangaroo court. Now, how about a firing squad at dawn, Charlie, to get rid of all the suspects, nail them down 45 for you, make it easier?”

Except for his line about the firing squad, Steve’s commentary on the events of the episode was ambiguous. He could have been referencing the terrorizing hunt for enemies within authoritarian regimes like Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union under High Stalinism, as well as the panic in America during the post-war Red Scare in which Senator McCarthy and the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) attempted to hunt down all Communists within the U.S. This and cultural ramifications of conformity.

41 All three of these authors (Whyte, Riesman, and Savio) call attention to the seeming automation of society, though from different perspectives based on when, within the nearly fifteen years between them, each published their respective works. 42 Pulliam and Fonseca, Richard Matheson’s Monsters, 25. 43 Whyte, The Organization Man, 36, 52. 44 Twilight Zone, “The Monsters are Due on Maple Street,” Season 1 Episode 22. 45 Ibid.

According to Michael Kackman, the “broader cultural climate of Red-baiting suspicion and pressures” was more than just political, as it influenced American society to conform to political, social, and cultural ideals, lest one wishes to risk accusations of being labeled deviant and, thereby, a Communist.46 Though the cultural impacts of the McCarthy era diminished throughout the late 1950s, the pressures of conformity conspicuously remained around the time of this episode’s airdate in early 1960. Twilight Zone writers Rod Serling, Richard Matheson, and Charles Beaumont were keenly aware of these pressures when writing episodes with 47 messages that censorship might consider subversive.

Conformity demonstrates a lack of masculine individuality. The episode further exhibits this point via the hysteria of the people as they descended into chaos at the end. The men in the community failed to establish themselves as levelheaded, decision-making individuals and instead descend into the panic themselves. Steve attempted to assert his authority; however, the other neighbors overwhelmed him with their frenzied behaviors. Typically, civilization represents feminization when related to masculine identities in which women became domesticators, tempering men and male behavior into well-mannered citizens.48 However, this devolution of the residents on Maple Street did not move towards masculine savagery, the opposite of feminine, civilized passivity. Instead, the men descended into hysterics and lost all masculine authority. Their punishment was living within a chaotic society.

A variation of this narrative and the themes it presents appears within the episode “Eye of the Beholder” (aired November 11th, 1960).49 A young woman, whose head was fully covered in bandages and gauze, was recovering from a facial reconstruction surgery. When the doctors and nurses finally pulled off her bandages, the patient screamed in horror at her completely normal face and cried about the procedure “failing.” The camera panned to show the doctors, nurses, and their political leader known just as “the leader” on a television broadcast, all of whom had pig- like snouts and clef lips. As the woman ran hysterically through the halls of the hospital, the leader’s speech about “glorious conformity” boomed over her panic. The episode concluded with

46 Michael Kackman, Citizen Spy: Television, Espionage, and Cold War Culture (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2005), xxv-xxvi. 47 Pulliam and Fonesca, Richard Matheson’s Monsters, 85. 48 Kimmel, Manhood in America, 41. 49 The Twilight Zone, “Eye of the Beholder,” Season 2 Episode 6. Directed by Douglas Heyes. Written by Rod Serling. Produced by CBS November 11, 1960.

a normal looking young man meeting the young woman and the doctors, his stated purpose to take her to a community of normal looking people just like them. Though different in style from “The Monsters are Due on Maple Street” and lacking its representation of failed masculinities, it possesses a similar message regarding the issue of conformity and the pressures of larger American society to fit within specific standards or else face being accused of treason.

Though the presence of feminine men is a common trope in both seriously and light- heartedly toned films and television shows (especially within comedy), overly masculine and aggressive men are present as well.50 In “Living Doll” (aired November 1st, 1963), a cold, tyrannical man attempted to control his wife, stepdaughter, and a malicious toy.51 Rather than cowering under the rule of a domineering woman, Erich commanded his household with an iron fist without a shred of compassion for his family. He represents attempts by men to reestablish themselves within the domestic sphere to an extreme degree, to the point where he chastised his wife for spending money without his permission. His punishment came in the form of a malevolent, living doll who threatens and eventually kills him.

Erich, while bitterly talking to his wife, explained that, “I’m only her stepfather. I’m incapable of loving children because I can’t have any of my own.”52 His impotency is emasculation and takes away one of the most important aspects of his masculine identity: virility. Furthermore, his inability to both handle the doll’s presence and destroy it creates a comparison between the two in which the doll is “stronger” than he is. It is especially significant that he met his demise through his own actions; by running out of his bedroom in a panic, he tripped on the doll at the top of the stairs. Had he maintained his composure and control like the ideal masculine paradigm, he would not have met this unfortunate fate.

In this case, the doll also represents femininity and childhood. Dolls are toys primarily girls leaned towards, and thus Erich’s obsession with it interestingly juxtaposes his hyper- masculine aggression with a fixation on a feminine object. This direct clash between extreme masculinity and evil femininity symbolically took place when Erich tried using his power tools

50 John Mundy and Glyn White, Laughing Matters: Understanding Film, Television, and Radio Comedy (New York: Manchester University Press, 2012). 51 The Twilight Zone, “Living Doll,” Season 5 Episode 6. Directed by Richard C. Sarafian. Written by Charles Beaumont. Produced by CBS November 1, 1963. 52 Ibid.

(“toys for boys” possessing a masculine characteristic of penetration with them) to destroy the doll, however it remained unscathed. Erich, by losing a fight with a doll, exposed his lack of manhood. His punishment, therefore, is death at the hands of the feminine object.

A more personalized and internalized example of men losing the adulthood aspect of their masculinity takes places within the episode “Walking Distance” (aired October 30th, 1959).53 While passing by his childhood town, a man named Martin decided to visit while he gets an oil change for his car. As he went through the town, he realized that he somehow travelled in time to his past. He saw himself as a boy and became progressively nostalgic, near to the point of childishness. When trying to speak to his younger self, the frightened boy ran, and Martin grew upset. Only when the boy fell and broke his arm did the adult Martin stop his pursuit. After speaking with his father about the situation, he returned to the present and his life.

The significance here is primarily in Martin’s conversation with his father in which the latter convinced him to return to his time. Martin expressed his frustration and anxieties related to his career and his world and explains how he wanted to return to a “merry-go-round…cotton candy…a band concert” as a way of avoiding the pressures he faced in his everyday life.54 This particular moment demonstrated some of the anxieties that William Whyte and David Riesman address in their respective, contemporary books about post-war pressures, as well as the theme of escaping. Martin’s father responded with a hopeful message of searching for this kind of escape in Martin’s time rather than stealing it from his childhood, subtly telling him to be mature and possess the adult qualities of masculinity.

These themes and the episodes in which they appear demonstrate the proliferation of masculine archetypes and anxieties within The Twilight Zone. It is important to note that, although not all episodes in this series possess themes of traditional masculinity, most other episodes present manly characters. In “Twenty Two” (aired February 10th, 1961), the episode followed a woman recovering from a mental breakdown and her premonitions of catastrophe, thereby unrelated to themes of masculinity.55 The male characters with whom the protagonist

53 The Twilight Zone, “Walking Distance,” Season 1 Episode 5. Directed by Robert Stevens. Written by Rod Serling. Produced by CBS October 30, 1959. 54 Ibid. 55 The Twilight Zone, “Twenty Two,” Season 2 Episode 17. Directed by Jack Smight. Written by Rod Serling. Produced by CBS February 10, 1961.

interacted embody typically masculine traits, the most obvious of which is the doctor’s virility— each time he greeted the woman, he commented on her beauty and makes comments like “you make this doctor wish for his younger days as an intern.”56 Symbols of traditional masculinity still appear. In the pilot episode “Where is Everybody?” (aired October 2nd, 1959), the male protagonist did not confront any feminizing threats to his manhood, nor did he lack any manliness.57 The episode highlighted the debilitating effects of loneliness and lack of human interaction on individuals. Though it was not the focus, the man still demonstrated his manhood via a military uniform as a symbol of his military masculinity. He searched through the town looking for answers with a firm resolve rather than cowering in one place.

There are likely to be multiple counterexamples where traditionally masculine characteristics do not exist. Such anomalies are likely products of Rod Serling’s unique background and style. His tendency to utilize The Twilight Zone as vehicles to transmit social messages that corporate executives or interested parties with political power might view as subversive created potential for characters and plots that do not adhere to traditionally masculine standards.58 Nevertheless, Serling’s famous television program presents themes of traditional masculinity in many variations, specifically addressing masculine standards and the fate that befalls those who do not adhere to them. Episodes in which said themes do not appear still contain examples of masculinity through the attributes and behaviors of the male characters present

56 The Twilight Zone, “Twenty Two,” Season 2 Episode 17. 57 The Twilight Zone, “Where is Everybody?” Season 1 Episode 1. Directed by Robert Stevens. Written by Rod Serling. Produced by CBS October 2, 1959. 58 Serling’s works, ranging from his Twilight Zone episodes to his other teleplays, radio programs, and short stories such as Requiem for a Heavyweight and Patterns all demonstrate his unique writing style, consistent with his efforts to convey messages addressing societal issues.

Conclusion

This thesis observed a narrow section of masculinity within American television history as a demonstration of the reflection of society through the influential medium. As history progressed from 1970 onwards, the divide between traditional masculinity and more progressive views on gender roles deepened thanks to the second wave of feminism to take place during the 1970s. As American women began questioning and pushing against their own traditionally assigned gender roles, so too did some men. Other men, especially white men, continued feeling threatened by this liberalizing of society regarding gender. This led to the resurgence of traditional ideals during the late 1970s into the 1980s as a form of backlash against the radical social activism from the previous decade. Ronald Reagan and his neoconservatism was a blatant example of this direct response to New Age liberalism during the 1960s.

The development from gender studies or purely women’s studies to include masculinity studies represents a progression in the cultural significance of gender roles, at least within the arena of academia. Much of the secondary source material for this thesis included the structures of masculinity studies in some form. Though it is still an expanding subject, the topic of masculinity studies acts as one type of litmus regarding the changing of male gender roles in the United States, to say nothing about the larger cultural implications.

As a result, masculine images evolved. Societal and cultural changes translated into different adaptations of masculinity throughout the life of television series to the inclusion of openly gay male protagonists, non-white male characters, and men of different economic backgrounds. Throughout these changes, however, some threads remain from past masculine archetypes such as its basis on economic success (in sitcoms, the male character considered truly masculine tends to be the breadwinner or the successful businessman, regardless of sexuality or ethnicity, like Will from Will and Grace airing from 1998 to the present or Uncle Phil from Fresh Prince of Bel-Air airing from 1990 to 1996). These changes coincide with the evolution of television from its “Golden Age” origins into the multi-channel era starting around the 1980s and continuing until the introduction of television streaming technologies such as Netflix or Hulu.

As the medium diversified, fragmented, and began presenting television shows to appeal to niche audiences and their interests, so did the representation of male characters and their

variations of masculinity. Some television series had non-traditionally masculine men proving their manhood in different ways, an ironic example being that of Captain Jacques Picard from Star Trek: The Next Generation (aired 1987-1994), played by Sir Patrick Stewart. Unlike Shatner’s virile portrayal of Captain Kirk, Stewart’s characterization of Picard displays a masculinity that does not rely on constant trial and reinforcement to show his capabilities as a man. By the 1980s, television series for the most part no longer actively attempted to present masculine role models to men who were wrestling with the shifting values of hegemonic masculinity.

Alternatively, other television shows appeared during the latter half of the 20th century as examples of further reinforcing traditional masculinity. This reinforcement closely mirrored the societal development of men reacting against changing cultural values related to male gender roles. The Six Million Dollar Man (1973-1978) gave male audiences a man of incredible strength as a physical demonstration of traditional manhood. M*A*S*H (1972-1983) featured the homosocial relationship between military men which strengthened their camaraderie and masculine resolve. Fox Sports grew quickly in popularity soon after its creation and represented yet another attempt by men to escape what they felt was a rapidly vanishing foundation of their manhood. The demonstration of a masculine, rugged, and yet compassionate father in the series Little House on the Prairie (1974-1983) also showcased efforts to shore up traditional masculinity and its cultural significance. Characters like Magnum, P.I. continued the trend of models of manly men on television well into the 1980s.

Though this thesis focused on efforts to revitalize the importance of traditional American masculinity via the cultural medium of television in the postwar period of the 1950s and 1960s, such attempts did not cease after Star Trek, The Dick Van Dyke Show, and The Twilight Zone aired their final episodes. Neither did the seeming crisis of masculinity end. Thanks to a progression of American society towards equality and the increasing tolerance of ethnic and sexual minorities, men (especially white men) felt even angrier and more threatened than ever before. These “angry white men” were and are still to this day upset at the gradual evening of the societal playing field where their privileges as white men, while still significant, are seemingly in

decline.1 The societal changes over the last fifty years produced an American society that became less reliant on gender roles for both men and women, however there are still examples today of men who feel the basis of their manhood to be threatened. Their reaction, just like that of their predecessors in the postwar period facing the pressures of the Cold War, is to double 2 down on that anger and nostalgically wish for a return to a time where “men were men.”

Television was not the only space within American society where this clash of gendered ideologies occurred. Other cultural outlets like musical groups and movies also showcase this diversification of masculinity in the United States. Within the political arena, the development of the infamous “Culture Wars” of the 1990s in which a concerted effort on the part of conservatives within politics and academics pushed back against what they saw as an American society changing all too quickly. Though the Culture Wars covered a far larger collection of topics than just male gender roles, the structure of their response towards the reshaping societal perspectives very closely mirrored that of the postwar period reactions towards the perceived crisis of masculinity.

During the post-war period, masculine images proliferated throughout television series as an indirect (or, in the case of Star Trek, direct) response to the perceived crisis of masculinity in the United States. This is in direct contrast with the evolution of how women appeared on television: over the first decade or two of its lifetime, female characters developed from the idyllic, asexual, and largely obedient housewife of June Cleaver to the driven, authoritative, and sexually present Laura Petrie (not to mention Mary Tyler Moore’s even more independent character in The Mary Tyler Moore Show which aired from 1970 to 1977, less than ten years after the end of The Dick Van Dyke Show).3 Such developments coincide with cultural and social changes taking place in American society from the 1950s to the early 1970s with the Women’s Rights Movement and the increasing surge of feminism.

1 Michael Kimmel, Angry White Men: American Masculinity at the End of an Era (New York: Nation Books, 2013), xii. 2 Following the defeat of 2012 presidential candidate Mitt Romney at the hands of then-incumbent President Barack Obama, political television host and journalist Bill O’Reilly demonstrated this sentiment of frightened white men when he sadly proclaimed that he did not live in “a traditional America anymore”: Bill O’Reilly, “It’s Not a Traditional America Anymore…The White Establishment is Now a Minority,” Interview by William Bret Baier, Fox News, November 6, 2012. 3 Joanne Morreale, The Dick Van Dyke Show (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2015), 15.

Male characters had a nearly opposite trajectory. Male protagonists became even more masculine as representations of what it meant to be a man during a perceived nation-wide issue of feminization. Sitcoms, especially family-oriented ones such as The Dick Van Dyke Show, demonstrated men reestablishing themselves in the home. These series featured male protagonists who fit the renegotiated masculine mold of fathers and husbands as breadwinners and strong, manly role models for their sons and, by extension, other men. The men in these shows successfully handled and maneuvered through the increasingly unstable situations of contemporary American society, mainly that of a growing pressure to conform in the face of the fear of Communism and the growth of bureaucratized labor that turned men into faceless cogs in a machine.

Sci-fi and fantasy genres provided a vicarious escape for men who felt trapped by their responsibilities and the rising threat of feminism to the power of men. Western shows featuring the mythic cowboy reinvigorated the ideals of rugged masculinity and stoic individualism as nostalgic examples of a time when “men were men.” Star Trek’s futuristic setting presented a twist on this genre, yet still very much fulfilled that male fantasy in which men were free to explore far past the edges of civilization, face countless masculinity-proving dangers, and avoided any obligations to women. Male characters did not have to answer to women in these shows, especially Star Trek, thereby providing male viewers of the shows with the sweet escape from the women in their own lives.

Finally, the smaller genre of suspense did its part to reinforce the importance of masculinity within American society. The Twilight Zone prominently featured many male characters that fit the molds of traditional masculinity, whether it be the sitcom family man or the fantasy lone ranger. Its unique contribution to the plethora of images of manhood on television throughout the post-war period, however, is its demonstration of non-masculine men and their fates. It was not enough to reinforce the positive male role models; The Twilight Zone vividly showed audiences the effects, both personal and societal, of men who lack masculine virtues. These unmanly men experienced fates that often included bodily or psychological harm, or sometimes death. The messages this show presented were clear: men should be masculine or else face terrible fates.

Although there are always exceptions to these trends, the patterns remain as a clear demonstration of the cultural and societal values of Americans during the 1950s and 1960s. As a media that simultaneously molds and reflects the society that watches it, television and the shows it aired during these two decades, especially during the latter, did so with the intent of presenting an ideal American society: white, middle class, and male-dominated. The details vary from show to show, however the trend is undeniable: television shows during this time frame featured masculine characters as role models for male viewers.

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The Twilight Zone-

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