James Madison University JMU Scholarly Commons Masters Theses The Graduate School Spring 2012 One nation under salary: Business, critics, and the body in the 1950s Thomas Andrew Joyce James Madison University Follow this and additional works at: https://commons.lib.jmu.edu/master201019 Part of the History Commons Recommended Citation Joyce, Thomas Andrew, "One nation under salary: Business, critics, and the body in the 1950s" (2012). Masters Theses. 245. https://commons.lib.jmu.edu/master201019/245 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the The Graduate School at JMU Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Masters Theses by an authorized administrator of JMU Scholarly Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. One Nation Under Salary: Business, Critics, and the Body in the 1950s Thomas Joyce A thesis submitted to the Graduate Faculty of JAMES MADISON UNIVERSITY In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the degree of Master of Arts History June 2012 ! ! ! Dedication This thesis is dedicated to all of the average men, who are often forgotten about by history. These men often led quite and unremarkable lives, and are rarely thought of as the actors of history. This is a story about them. ii ! Acknowledgments First and foremost I would like to thank my thesis director Dr. Westkaemper for reading countless drafts and being there to answer my endless questions. I would also like to thank my committee members, Dr. Guerrier and Dr. Davidson, for their thought provoking comments and insight. A special thank you is due to Dr. Borg and Dr. Reich. While neither directly read the thesis, the topics of their classes and conversations with them helped shaped my research and ways of thinking about history. Without them this thesis would not have been possible. Finally, I am deeply indebted to the library staff, specifically the inter-library loan department, for helping me track down all of the sources which appear in this study. iii ! Table of Contents ! Dedication ........................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgments ............................................................................................................. iii Abstract .............................................................................................................................. iv List of Figures ..................................................................................................................... v Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter One: A Nation of Employees: Change and Reaction in the Long 1950s ............ 21 Chapter Two: Manly After All: White-Collar Workers and the Defense of Corporate Manhood ..................................................................................................................... 65 Chapter Three: Looking Your Best For Success: White-Collar Men, Vanity, and the Necessity of Being Thin ............................................................................................ 108 Conclusion: Summary and Implications for Future Research ........................................ 141 Appendix A ..................................................................................................................... 146 Bibliography ................................................................................................................... 158 iv ! Abstract The 1950s was period of dramatic social upheaval. The massive changes brought on by suburbanization, the G.I. Bill, postwar dislocation, the rise of the white-collar worker, the cold war and more significantly impacted ideas about gender. This thesis explores the meaning of corporate work and its impact on masculinity from 1946 to 1963. During this period a group of public intellectuals attacked corporate work as unmanly and white-collar workers as effeminate. These intellectuals believed masculinity was in decline, and that white-collar men were no longer men. While commentators challenged postwar masculinity, business leaders rallied to defend white-collar men’s masculinity. Pro-business intellectuals defended white-collar men’s positions in 1950s both as masculine and valuable to the company. Ultimately, these discourses impacted ideas about men’s bodies. Male beauty culture emerged during this contest over the proper ideal of masculinity. Some elements of male beauty culture embraced commentators’ rhetoric, but most sided with white-collar leaders. Thus, in a period where middle-class white men’s grip on masculinity was tenuous, male beauty culture and white-collar leaders sought to reaffirm their position atop the social and cultural hierarchy. v ! List of Figures Appendix A Figure 1.1……………………………………………………………………….146 Figure 1.2……………………………………………………………………….147 Figure 1.3……………………………………………………………………….148 Figure 1.4……………………………………………………………………….149 Figure 1.5……………………………………………………………………….150 Figure 2.1……………………………………………………………………….151 Figure 2.2……………………………………………………………………….152 Figure 2.3……………………………………………………………………….153 Figure 2.4……………………………………………………………………….154 Figure 3.1……………………………………………………………………….155 Figure 3.2……………………………………………………………………….156 Figure 3.3……………………………………………………………………….157 vi Introduction The 1950s was a period of social upheaval. Almost all major institutions of American society underwent some form of change between the end of World War II and 1963. These changes profoundly affected white, middle-class men living in new suburban communities. Middle-class men, as a group, included more college graduates than in any other previous era. They obtained new managerial careers, which allowed for more leisure time than ever before. While many of these changes had roots in earlier eras, they intensified in the postwar period. The vast increase in their material success pushed white-collar men to the center of larger cultural discussions on masculinity in the 1950s. Popular culture and public intellectuals presented one idea of masculinity based on the dominant self-made man notion of American masculinity that emerged from the middle of the nineteenth century. The form of producerist ideology espoused by social commentators argued that corporations deprived men of their masculinity by making them work in hierarchical organizations where they had little control over their own lives or careers. According to commentators, the conformity necessary for success in corporations prevented men from fulfilling traditional masculinity. However, the leaders of the new managerial class offered a differing ideal. Business leaders argued that white- collar work was masculine, and that managers needed to be manly in order to succeed in the business sphere. Business leaders did not see the corporation as feminizing, but a new competitive sphere where men could demonstrate traditional masculine, just in new ways. These two opposing ideas about masculinity both claimed they represented what it meant to be a man, sending contradictory messages to white-collar men. Commentators questioned the legitimacy of middle-class men’s new positions, while 2 business leaders sought to legitimize their managers’ role in society by portraying them as the proper inheritors’ American manhood. As social commentators championed the self-made man and corporate and business leadership supported the white-collar man with equal vehemence, the male body took on increasing cultural significance. The male body was not the only part of men’s lives that came under scrutiny during the postwar period, but focusing on the body illuminates the depths of these competing discourses and how they affected men on the most intimate of levels. Male beauty culture emerged in the 1950s containing elements of both arguments. However, most of the works on male vanity sided with white-collar leaders. Both white-collar leaders and fitness guides argued that masculinity was not in crisis, and they served to demonstrate the compatibility between masculinity and the contemporary middle-class lifestyles. Commentators challenged white-collar men’s positions, and business leaders and male beauty culture solidified white-collar men’s tenuous position atop 1950s society. The emergence of a large scale managerial class dominated the imaginations of business professionals, intellectuals, fitness experts, and popular culture. It seemed as if everyone with a public platform wanted to comment on this new and growing phenomenon: the white-collar worker. Despite the variations on the individual level, some characterizations can be made about the 1950s white-collar man. The stereotypical white-collar man lived in a newly created suburb and commuted to a job in a city.1 He !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 1 This thesis considers the perception of white-collar males, as presented by social commentators to the public. Thus this thesis relies on statistics found in popular newspapers and cited by social commentators, not to be taken as completely accurate like statistics from government agencies, but as representative of public discourse. These statistics are an attempt to demonstrate what the 1950s reader was being told about white-collar workers. ! ! ! 3 normally stayed in one career, or at least did not change jobs frequently.2 His occupation ranged from junior executive to office clerk. White-collar jobs usually involved some type of management of