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American Femininity in Soviet Films during the Early Cold War (1946—1955) Another important factor is the inclusion of gender discourse in power relations: gender markers also produce a system of evaluations and preferences. In the first place, this concerns social relations proper between men and women that are characterised by the privileged status of men. However, the hierarchical relations between the sexes are used as a matrix, which legitimates other forms of social inequality. Culture’s androcentrism, that is, the presence of a value hierarchy of masculinity and femininity, also influences the ranking of social subjects, the marking of which as feminine or masculine involves attributing to them some particular qualities and an appropriate position in the social structure. Thus, the use of gender metaphors serves as an effective mechanism for the production of power hierarchies. Interpreting the feminine as something second-rate and subordinate determines the main form of exploitation of gender metaphors in political rhetoric: ‘us’ are represented as being masculine and ‘them’ as feminine (Verdery 1994: 228; Eriksen 2002). Due to the role that gender discourse plays in producing social borders and hierarchies, it is widely used in international politics. Competition in international relations is often represented as a competition in masculinity. In turn, the discourse on international affairs serves as a means of shaping and reshaping gender orders (Hooper 2001: 84-88). Ann Tickner points out that “the historical construction of the state, upon which the unitary-actor model in international theory is based, represents a gendered, masculine model. In the West, the image of a foreign-policymaker has been strongly associated with elite, white males and representations of hegemonic masculinity” (Tickner 2001: 54). This was especially visible in the Early Cold War: on both sides of the Iron Curtain the cold warriors were expected to possess stereotypical masculine qualities to a high degree (see, for instance, Goscilo & Lanoux 2006: 11-15; Kaganovsky 2008: 1-6).? American Women as Victims of Capitalism As for the Cold War issues of femininities, the female question featured prominently in the ideological confrontation. The tenet of Soviet ideology that women held high positions in Soviet society played a significant role in arguing for the superiority of socialism over capitalism (May 1988: 18; Rikhter 1997). The ideal image of Soviet femininity combined stereotypical feminine features (kindness, mercy, compassion, submission, selflessness etc.) with traits of “New Soviet Man (collectivism, comradeship, learning, professional achievements, self-respect, proletarian internationalism, love for the Soviet Motherland, and devotion to Communist ideals). The female ideal was constructed against the background of a negative image of women’s status in Western society, which was based on Marxist criticism of the bourgeois family. For instance, one film critic wrote that, “in bourgeois 2 This masculinisation of representations of international affairs was reflected in particular in the popularity of sexual images and metaphors in Cold War discourse (May 1988: 98). 297
