Analysis Of John Robert Adams Male Armor: The Soldier-Hero In Contemporary American Culture

In John Robert Adams novel, “Male Armor: The Soldier-Hero in Contemporary American Culture,” he writes about how American media (films, books, plays, etc.) reflect our societies changing ideas on what masculinity is. He describes a persisting gap between what the American culture perceives masculinity to be, and the individual experiences of men who’ve gone to war (pg.6). He writes, “These gaps appear largely responsible not only for soldiers’ treacherous reintegration into civilian society… but also, for continuing support of the war enterprise.” In this passage, Adams argues that this gap is what is responsible for the continuing support of war and he critiques the popular view in American culture that war ensures masculinity both in men

At this time young men were moving away from their fathers farms and rural life to the big cities where they worked in businesses and factories. The older generation wasn’t approving of this as they saw cities as morally corrupt and fully of sexual temptations that would be harmful for their manhood (pg.10). The fear was that the huge shift towards urban life would overtly feminize men. Adams quotes George Chauncey who writes, “Politicians, businessmen, educators, and sportsmen alike protested the dangers of over civilization to American manhood and thus to American culture, in a not very oblique reference to the dangers of women’s civilizing influence and effeminization of men.” (pg.11). Basically, men were afraid they were spending too much time around women (especially that young boys were spending too much time in the home surrounded by female relatives) and that this would weaken their masculinity, thus an emphasis was placed on creating boys clubs that excluded women and were set primarily outdoors, for example the Boys Scouts of America