Masculinity, the New Woman, and Power in 1910s Popular Mediaby Carolyn Kitch, Northwestern University
ABSTRACT: During the 1910s, the final decade of the suffrage drive, women's social, economic, and professional opportunities seemed to broaden dramatically at the same time that political leaders and psychologists decried the "feminization" of manhood. The spectre of a world in which domineering women emasculated powerless men inspired a visual motif that ran throughout popular culture: the pairing of large women and tiny men. Through humor, explosive notions were discussed but then dismissed. This rhetorical analysis, which draws on hegemony theory, explores the symbolic cultural work of such imagery in mass media, especially magazines, at a pivotal moment in American gender relations. During the early decades of the twentieth century, American women's social, political, and economic opportunities seemed to broaden dramatically. More and more young women entered higher education and the professions (1), while Progressive-era reform work and the women's-club movement offered a chance for married women also to enter the public sphere.
At no time did lasting change in gender roles seem more likely than in the 1910s, the final decade of the suffrage drive. The vote was not the only potential gain for women during this era: radicals who called themselves "feminists" pushed for reforms in the institution of marriage, the American popularity of the works of Freud prompted a public acknowledgement of women's sexuality, and a new birth-control movement enabled women to express that sexuality more freely and safely.
The same period saw extensive public discourse on the role of men in American society as well. This national preoccupation with masculinity--what historian John Higham called "a muscular spirit" in America (2)--was a response partly to women's advances and partly to racial and ethnic population changes due to massive waves of immigration. New organizations such as the Boy Scouts embraced President Theodore Roosevelt's vision of the "strenuous life" to help boys and men avoid becoming "over-civilized." Experts in the new social science of psychology believed that athletics and outdoor adventure would help to remove young men from the "feminizing" influence of overbearing mothers and female schoolteachers. (3)
During the 1910s, Americans' hopes for, and anxieties about, changing gender roles were frequently debated in magazine and newspaper articles. These concerns also provided a recurrent theme for visual communication. The spectre of a world in which domineering and destructive women emasculated weak and powerless men inspired a distinctive motif that ran through various forms of popular culture: the pairing of large (though usually beautiful) women and little, often tiny, men. While this motif was always presented as a joke, it never was only a joke.
CREATES WORLD’S LONGEST MAD LIB®
Dayton, Ohio – Call me Ishmael. Or Marsha Brady. Or, maybe, Mr. Potato Head.
Using the literary classic Moby Dick, nearly 200 writers registered for the upcoming University of Dayton's Erma Bombeck Writers' Workshop (www.HumorWriters.org) have created the world's longest ''Mad Lib®." A Mad Lib is a story with blank spaces where words have been left out. The leader asks the other players to provide words to fill in the blanks but doesn’t tell them what the story is about. The result is humorous story with lines such as, “Call me Mr. Potato Head.” Mad Libs is a registered trademark of Penguin Group (USA) Inc..
Pulitzer Prize-winning humorist Dave Barry will give the opening address at the sold-out writers’ workshop, which is held every other year to teach and encourage humor and human interest writers. The world record will be announced at the 5:30 p.m. dinner before his 8:15 p.m. talk on Thursday, March 23, at the Dayton Marriott Hotel, 1414 S. Patterson Boulevard.
A typical Mad Lib has 10 to 20 blank spaces and is played with three to four players. The Moby Dick Mad Lib features more than 1,100 blanks and is believed to be the longest Mad Lib ever created. The blanks were filled in by 197 attendees of the March 23-25 workshop.
“I think Herman Melville would approve of using Moby Dick as the base for the world’s longest Mad Lib,” said Tim Bete, director of the workshop. “After all, Melville wrote, ‘A good laugh is a mighty good thing, and rather too scarce a good thing.’”
Some of the funniest lines in the Moby Dick Mad Lib include:
• “Tonya Harding, nevertheless, is a mighty pleasant rottweiler.”
• “My going on this whaling sissy, formed part of the sultry bobblehead of Antonio Banderas that was drawn up a long time ago.”
• “Fifty years ago did Viagra kill fifteen whales between a sunrise and a sunset. And that Brad Pitt -- so like a corkscrew now -- was flung in Microsoft seas, and run away with by a whale, years afterwards slain off the Cape of Blanco.”
Price and Stern are both well known for their comedy writing. In the1950s, Price developed cartoons called “Droodles,” which were turned into a television show. He also worked with Bob Hope on a newspaper humor column. Stern was a successful television writer, who worked with Jackie Gleason on scripts for the “Honeymooners.” He also wrote for the “Phil Silvers Show” and “The Steve Allen Show,” and he wrote and produced the original “Get Smart” television series.
Why create the World’s longest Mad Lib?
“We wanted to give workshop attendees something to write about and what could be a better cure for writer’s block than helping set a world record,” Bete said. “The attendees have an incredible combined vocabulary, suggesting words such as ‘bodacious,’ ‘flammable’ and ‘aardvark.’ And I think Dave Barry would agree that the “Bodacious, Flammable Aardvarks” is a great name for a rock band.”
Humorist Erma Bombeck graduated from the University of Dayton in 1949 and credited UD with preparing her for life and work, for making her believe she could write. Her syndicated column, "At Wit's End," appeared in more than 900 newspapers. She wrote 12 books, nine of which made The New York Times' bestsellers list. Bombeck also appeared regularly on ABC-TV's "Good Morning America" for 11 years. She was still writing her column for Universal Press Syndicate and developing a new book for HarperCollins Publishers when she died from complications of a kidney transplant on April 22, 1996.
“This is probably the first and last world record for the Erma Bombeck Writers’ Workshop,” said Bete. “The largest simultaneous whoopee cushion sit is 3,614 participants and we can’t compete with that – but we could create a Mad Lib about it.”
Download the blank Moby Dick Mad Lib (Word file)
Download the filled-in Moby Dick Mad Lib (Word file)
Tsze-chang asked Confucius, saying, "In what way should a person in authority act in order that he may conduct government properly?"
The Master replied, "Let him honor the five excellent, and banish away the four bad, things;-then may he conduct government properly."
Tsze-chang said, "What are meant by the five excellent things?" The Master said, "When the person in authority is beneficent without great expenditure; when he lays tasks on the people without their repining; when he pursues what he desires without being covetous; when he maintains a dignified ease without being proud; when he is majestic without being fierce."
Tsze-chang said, "What is meant by being beneficent without great expenditure?" The Master replied, "When the person in authority makes more beneficial to the people the things from which they naturally derive benefit;-is not this being beneficent without great expenditure? When he chooses the labors which are proper, and makes them labor on them, who will repine? When his desires are set on benevolent government, and he secures it, who will accuse him of covetousness?
Whether he has to do with many people or few, or with things great or small, he does not dare to indicate any disrespect;-is not this to maintain a dignified ease without any pride? He adjusts his clothes and cap, and throws a dignity into his looks, so that, thus dignified, he is looked at with awe;-is not this to be majestic without being fierce?"
Tsze-chang then asked, "What are meant by the four bad things?"
The Master said, "To put the people to death without having instructed them;-this is called cruelty. To require from them, suddenly, the full tale of work, without having given them warning;-this is called oppression. To issue orders as if without urgency, at first, and, when the time comes, to insist on them with severity;-this is called injury. And, generally, in the giving pay or rewards to men, to do it in a stingy way;-this is called acting the part of a mere official."
The Master said, "Without recognizing the ordinances of Heaven, it is impossible to be a superior man.
"Without an acquaintance with the rules of Propriety, it is impossible for the character to be established.
"Without knowing the force of words, it is impossible to know men."
THE END
