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 by Remy Malcolm Willocks Miami University Oxford, Ohio 2019 Advisor: Dr. Nishani Frazier Reader: Dr. Erik Jensen Reader: Dr. Kerry Hegarty ©2019: Remy Malcolm Willocks This Thesis titled MASCULINITY ON EVERY CHANNEL: THE DEVELOPMENT AND DEMONSTRATION OF AMERICAN MASCULINITY OF THE POSTWAR PERIOD VIA 1960S TELEVISION by 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. iv 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. v 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. 1 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