I had a revelation the other day while I was thinking about the 1950's Superman TV series. The original run of the show was way before my time, but reruns of the show were in heavy rotation on one of the local New York TV stations when I was a small child in the early and mid 70's. I loved that show as a child and still take pride in the fact that I can still recite the intro to the show word-for-word today.
I was repeating the lines of that intro to myself a few days ago ( something had reminded my of Superman ) when I started to thing about the term "mild-mannered" from the intro. Clark Kent was described as a "mild-mannered reporter", not only in the TV intro from the 50's but also in Max Fleischer cartoons from the 40s, and in many other depictions of Clark Kent in that era and the years to come.
As I'm sure everyone reading this knows, Clark Kent is Superman's secret identify. While it is an absolutely ridiculous idea that glasses could be an effective disguise, it has always been understood the the effectiveness of the Clark Kent secret identity relies more on Clark's personality than his glasses. After all, Clark is "mild-mannered", and nobody would ever suspect that somebody as mild-mannered as Clark Kent could be the same person as the heroic Superman. As I thought about this, it occurred to me that the Superman mythos that was cemented in the 40's and 50's is asserting that "mild-mannered" is the opposite of "hero".
I then started to think of how the idea of using "mild-mannered" as a slightly pejorative term was very much a product of the era of the 40's and 50's, and how the concept of masculinity was very different in that era than it is today. I'd like to think that plenty of people today would no longer consider "mild-mannered" to be the opposite of "heroic". To be sure, a lot of people still do, and it's unfortunate that a lot of people with 1950's conceptions of masculinity are still holding on to so much power and influence in society today. We need to work to change those kinds of attitudes in the years to come, because if there is one thing the world needs more of, it is kind, patient, and mild-mannered people. After all anybody who grew up with the mild-mannered guy below knows he was the real Superman.
Rich
