Mariah Adin

Adlin writes, “For parents in 1954, regulating your child’s access to the mass media was simply common sense” (xiii). New standards of parenting at mid-century stressed children’s psychological development as well as physical development. Discussing the impact of the 1950s focus on juvenile delinquency, Adlin writes, “…In the early 1950s, solutions to juvenile delinquency – whether following the model of the Gluecks and focusing on the family or of sociologists and focusing on the community – centered on remedies to correct the world outside of the male delinquent, rather than the teenager himself” (29-30). In discussing the role of gender, Adlin writes,
Solutions to the problem were therefore typically community centered…Further, unlike female delinquents for whom criminal behavior conflicted with normal feminine comportment, male delinquency had to be more carefully dealt with so as not to inhibit the aspects of the behavior that reflected positive masculine development (30).
These fears about delinquency led to various programs in order to curb or prevent it. Writes Adlin, “Ultimately, the first eight months of 1954 saw a shotgun approach to juvenile delinquency, in which neither social theorists nor citizen reformers could agree on what caused juvenile delinquency or how best to solve it” (37). Wertham’s interview with gang member Jack Koslow confirmed his belief that comics led to sadomasochism and homosexuality, as “Jack claimed that he started becoming sexually excited by scenes of whipping as early as the age of seven, and he began self-flagellating by the age of thirteen” (72). Along these lines, “he informed Wertham that were he ever with a woman, he would certainly prefer to be the sadist with the female playing the masochistic role” (72). Adlin, like other social historians of the early Cold War, returns to the “perceived crisis of masculinity” in the 1950s “in which it was feared that new patters of consumption, a workforce that rewarded teams and consensus over rugged individualism, and a new emphasis on the domestic sphere all conspired to feminize America’s most vital Cold War asset – the white male citizen” (73). In this climate and in order to reassert masculinity, men objectified and dominated women, such as in the womanizing lifestyle advocated by Playboy. As the gang’s sexuality was suspect, they presented a threat to Cold War masculinity and were deemed delinquent. The New York State Joint Legislative Committee to Study the Publication of Comic Books considered the case of the Brooklyn Thrill-Killers as proof of the damaging effects of comic books. Adlin concludes, “Whether the Brooklyn Thrill-Kill case was a deciding factor for the various state senators and assemblymen who voted for the legislation cannot be determined, but the case was certainly featured prominently…as the one direct, causal example of the degenerative effects of comic books on the nation’s children" (119).… (meer)