Cold War ideology fused masculinity with militarism across American culture

Evidence

In the late 1940s, there was nothing altogether unique about Graham’s instructions to husbands and wives. Many other Americans, too, celebrated “traditional” gender roles in Cold War America. The communist threat positioned women and men in distinct ways; men were to provide for their families and defend the nation, while women were deemed vulnerable and in need of protection. In this way, Cold War masculinity was intimately connected to militarism, to the point that they could seem inseparable. — Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne, 65

Categorization

• XREF: Key to the book’s argument that the gender-military fusion predates and scaffolds the evangelical-Trump alliance.
• ADDENDUM: Strengthens the immodesty article’s point that gender norms are tied to broader political anxieties, here the communist threat.