“In this era of Cold War anxieties,” Daddis writes, “adventure magazines
helped shape young male readers’ world views, driving home an
alternative version of masculinity for a mass society seemingly bent on
weakening American manhood.” Contemporary threats to masculinity — women
succeeding in business, men failing to perform — are paired with stories
of action and adventure (where men/never/fail to perform), offering a
sense of escape from the humdrum of midcentury masscult. In a typical
escape adventure and some two years before/The Godfather/would bring
lasting commercial success, Mario Puzo wrote a story for/Male/,
chronicling the “2,000-Mile Jungle Breakout from the Amazon’s Captive
Girl Pen.” In the story, “‘lush, silken bodied females’ are rescued from
a ‘lust-crazed’ South American warlord.” The accompanying illustrations
“suggested the heroes would be justly rewarded not long after they make
their escape.” Performance in war, the pulps suggest, inoculates against
the threats of domesticity.
https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/performance-anxiety-how-cold-war-mens-adventure-magazines-shaped-soldiers-misunderstandings-of-the-vietnam-war/
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