Sex and Gender in Cold War Culture Essay

Introduction

The Cold War significantly impacted socio-political processes in the United States. Although it is believed that only the Soviet Union built its ideology around the opposition between socialism and capitalism, America was also forced to take part in the ideological conflict and used different methods to manifest its superiority. Adapting all dimensions of life to the ideological needs reflected in gender politics generated deep-seated stereotypes about women and men existing even today. During the Cold War, the polarizing gender ideology and the expressive dichotomy between men and women was a means of gaining an advantage in the capitalism-socialism struggle in the global political arena.

America as a Political State and Its Cultural Beliefs about Gender

As a political state, the US endured various challenges and tensions during the Cold War. The period between the 1950s and 1960s was especially problematic due to a range of events, such as the War in Vietnam, the civil rights movement, and so further. It is possible to assume that in those times, America had other externally oriented goals rather than internal domestic concerns about gender roles, equality, and culture.

Moreover, the period after World War II was significant due to the preservation of maternal power in the context of always threatening war-related uncertainty. As Rogin wrote, driving women back to “domestic subordination” was not only the embodiment of support of husbands returning from the war but also a new kind of independence, which still hints at ideological implications (6). It is possible to suppose that the Cold War era envisaged a human as not a full-fledged and free being but a function called to ensure the state’s goals and vision. This circumstance suggests that developing an ideology where men and women have firmly established roles was the only approach to survival in the global and dangerous world. The clear distinction of gender roles was also supposed to tie up loose ends in social well-being, which allowed focusing more on the American political image in the world.

Analysis of Advertisement

The Cold War also included the cultural opposition of the capitalistic and socialistic worlds, which was reflected in advertising. In addition, the US strived to demonstrate its leading positions in addressing the values of social life. In her book, Cucuz described that depicting the happy life of an American woman was vital in showing the benefits of capitalism over socialism, as juxtaposed to the image of Russian women and their hardships (28-36). Thus, advertising became a powerful instrument of American capitalistic propaganda.

The washing machine depicted in the advertisement represents the advancement of technologies inherent to the US, though it has an expressed Cold War ideological implication. Contrary to the USSR, where technologies were the subject mainly of the military industry, the US seemed to emphasize its cultural superiority by addressing prosaic household comfort with convenient facilities. Thus, American politicians could represent it as caring for women and improving their lives. The Kitchen Debate between Nixon and Khrushchev serves as an emphatic demonstration of American dominance, including the socio-cultural stance. Nixon claimed: “In America, we like to make life easier for women…” and then restated this utterance, asserting that this attitude is universal, in response to Khrushchev’s objections (The Kitchen Debate 1). As one can admit, the Cold War envisaged ideological opposition, and the counterparts had to show their leading positions in all areas of life.

Another detail of the advertisement that draws attention is the selection of color. A viewer can see the predominance of red and pink, which signifies the distinction between inherently ‘female’ and ‘male’ tones. Remarkably, not only the color is critical, but also what it implies. A woman should wear pink and red dresses and ‘know her place,’ speaking figuratively. Colors facilitate building associations, and thus, if specific colors pertain to ‘female nature,’ then ‘purely female’ activities also exist because all areas of life are structured to have a clear division between genders and their roles. As one can notice, it is vital for propaganda to create images as they simplify the perception by offering clear and almost axiomatic views.

Emphasis on what the depicted woman is doing in the advertising picture is also essential, as it serves as an exemplary demonstration of ‘female’ duties. The central idea of female function stemmed from her primacy in the household for the good of her husband, children, and the good of the nation (MacLean). An American mother was commonly regarded as supporting her husband and son, which also excluded any domination over them (Rogin 7). A working woman represented a considerable threat to American national security, but not because she supposedly could stage demonstrations battling for her rights. On the contrary, the purpose of driving women to home duties was pragmatic. Keeping sufficient demographic levels served as a warranted availability of younger generations to defend the US against the Soviet Union if the opposition could continue over time (MacLean). Thus, the advertisement depicts a woman carrying a child in her arms, which also embodies that she fulfills the duty assigned to her by the nation and state.

Moreover, the advertisement also pinpoints the stereotypic attire with dress, heels, and pinstripes. While dresses and heels are conventional attributes of a woman even today, the pinstripes have a more ideological hue. During the World Wars, many women worked as nurses, which anchored the female role of caring for others. The professional nursing attire was often pinstriped, and it also creates corresponding associations, like in the case of the red and pink colors. In that period, female wartime jobs were oriented to facilitating male readjustment and restoring men as providers (MacLean). Given this, the pinstriped garments of the depicted woman can also suggest the idea of stability against the background of global political tensions.

The text analysis of the advertisement also reveals the nature of ‘female’ activities during the Cold War period. On the one hand, the phrase about the machine doing the wash indeed correlates with Nixon’s manifestation described above. On the other hand, the part of the slogan about skipping off to bathe a baby highlights the situation that a woman has no other activities besides household duties. It is crucial to emphasize that it was perceived as far from reality that a woman could go for sports or spend time resting in a park. Instead, she can only change over one household-keeping task to another. Furthermore, it is also evident from the two framed backgrounds with the family room and kitchen, symbolizing a clear set of women’s duties.

Finally, the advertisement in the US during the Cold War does not only speak about propaganda but also implies the state’s attitude toward individuals and relationships between the nation and population. Here, it is essential to emphasize that the state and government intervened private lives of people, especially women, in an attempt to attribute the importance of national security affairs to them. As Rogin claimed, America wanted to defend privacy from Communism, but this politicizing inevitably led to wiping it out (9). Through the advertisement, one can see the dissolution of private life into the public and vice-versa (Rogin 9). Such thinking finds its embodiment in the ‘people-for-the-state’ principle, which turns individuals into functions, as mentioned above. In this regard, the methods and strategies chosen by the US in the ideological conflict are relatively similar to those used by the Soviet Union because they serve to praise their own nation and besmirch the opponent.

Conclusion

To conclude, the dichotomous gender ideology focused on winning political advantage globally, and it is possible to consider it an epoch hazard. The US adhered to a policy of demonstrating dominance in the world’s political arena during the Cold War. Moreover, it was reflected in advertising as a tool for propagating capitalistic values and depicting female gender roles that grew into hydra-headed stereotypes in modern times. The analysis of the advertising picture revealed that America lived in difficult times when it urgently needed internal domestic support for its global politics. The discussed media has striking ideological attributes concerning female gender roles limited to household duties. It is difficult to find excuses for the US methods, as they do not seem to consider the consequences of such propaganda today. The developed ideology served as a means to warrant national interests without respecting individuals’ views.

Works Cited

Cucuz, Diana. Winning Women’s Hearts and Minds: Selling Cold War Culture in the US and the USSR. University of Toronto Press, 2023.

MacLean, Eliza. “Why Women Went Home Again.” U.S. History Scene, Web.

Rogin, Michael. “Kiss Me Deadly: Communism, Motherhood, and Cold War Movies.” Representations, vol. 6, 1984, pp. 1-36.

The Kitchen Debate. Central Intelligence Agency. 1959.