Masculinity In Rebel Without A Cause
The crisis of masculinity in the 1950s led to a series of ingénues, or non-threatening, innocent, young women, appearing in popular culture. As the men felt less important and felt their masculinity dwindling, the lesser women became because in society men are always held above women.“This alteration reflected the social values of postwar society, with its emphasis on marriage and he home as the defining components of a happy American life,” (Nash, pg. 169) After all, concerns about men’s loss of authority to women who were in the nation’s workforce while the men were at war in the late 1940s led to the crisis of masculinity. During this time, popular entertainment took on the masculinity crisis by taking teen film stars out of the spot light
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Two of those characters who were searching for the meaning of masculinity were Frank Stark and his son Jim Stark. On many occasions, Jim struggles with how to be masculine, like when he is faced with The Kids group leader Buzz who challenges him to a drag race. Jim feels the need to prove himself to the group and everyone he meets that he is a man with his rebellious actions. Jim looks to his father for help on how to actually show the world that he is a man, but his father cannot come up with an answer for Jim. Frank cannot produce an acceptable model of masculinity for Jim to follow because he himself is unsure of how to appear masculine part of which is from his overbearing wife who believes she is always right. (lecture/film, 11/12) The crisis of masculinity was a real problem in the late 1940s due to the fact men did not know their place when they returned home from the war, and when they saw women in the workforce. Though men feared the loss of their masculinity, teen-centered media did not because films in popular culture were used to show that men were still more important than women, whether they were in the workforce in the home because at the end of the Rebel Without a Cause, Jim and his father realize what it takes to be a man after all, which showed the audience and men not to
Two of those characters who were searching for the meaning of masculinity were Frank Stark and his son Jim Stark. On many occasions, Jim struggles with how to be masculine, like when he is faced with The Kids group leader Buzz who challenges him to a drag race. Jim feels the need to prove himself to the group and everyone he meets that he is a man with his rebellious actions. Jim looks to his father for help on how to actually show the world that he is a man, but his father cannot come up with an answer for Jim. Frank cannot produce an acceptable model of masculinity for Jim to follow because he himself is unsure of how to appear masculine part of which is from his overbearing wife who believes she is always right. (lecture/film, 11/12) The crisis of masculinity was a real problem in the late 1940s due to the fact men did not know their place when they returned home from the war, and when they saw women in the workforce. Though men feared the loss of their masculinity, teen-centered media did not because films in popular culture were used to show that men were still more important than women, whether they were in the workforce in the home because at the end of the Rebel Without a Cause, Jim and his father realize what it takes to be a man after all, which showed the audience and men not to