Reading People - Tips for the Curious

People reveal their thoughts through body language, voice tone, eye contact, facial expressions, and behavior patterns. That being said, reading some people is like reading a rock, while others are a completely open book. Today I'm going to give you curious people-watchers some tips on what to look for when observing your friends, coworkers, strangers, dates, and family members.

Your first step is to remain objective. No preconceived notions about them, just the facts that you are seeing right in front of you. Use logic, though it should be known logic won't tell you everything. This also requires non-linear thinking skills. Pure logical deduction and Sherlock-ing won't get you all the way there. It gets you close, but not quite there. Observe comfortably and don't over-analyze.

Body Language

How are they dressed? For instance, did they put a lot of effort into appearance or just roll out of bed with their hair still a mess. This may tell you some about income, too, if you're curious about that. Are they wearing any symbols, religious or otherwise? That tells you a lot, too. Amount of clothing shows comfort level. Examples being, if a woman runner isn't ashamed of her mid-section and legs and is running in the middle of the city. Say a second woman runner is all covered up from leggings to breathable shirt behind the first woman. What you are comfortable wearing and showing off reveals quite a lot about your comfort zone and confidence.

Posture is another main point. If they hold their head high and walk with secure footing that's confidence, or a facade of it if they are faking it. A less dominant pose may mean they are less confident, or just less dominant in personality. Ego is revealed here, too. If they walk like they are the Queen or an action star they probably have a large ego. 

Physical movement is part of this, too. Leaning is usually reserved for those we like or are close to. Your person may lean toward someone, or look toward them when a joke is told, or both. You close yourself off when you cross arms and legs, like you are defending yourself. If you do cross your legs naturally, you point your toe toward the one you are most at ease with. Hiding hands, in laps, pockets, and behind backs shows they may be hiding something. Or they aren't comforable. It depends on the person, frankly. Biting nails and lips is an anxiety-related thing (not that they have a disorder, though it is possible, but that they are nervous in some form). It eases tension, even if it isn't healthy to do physically. 

Facial expressions are another thing. Clenching is a sign of tension. Any facial expression we use often can be somewhat etched on faces, to varying degrees. Also, the changes in facial expressions and reaction should be noted. For one thing, do they mirror your emotions? If they do they are extremely aware of them. Can you not read their emotions well? They may have a resting face (some have a resting face that is a smile, others a flat face betraying no emotion). It gets harder to read resting faces, but the eyes are the window to the soul. If their eyes betray nothing you may have to let them warm up to you.

Intuition

Intuition, or your guts feelings, are hard to explain. They aren't logic. It is the act of directly and immediately perceiving a fact without logical evidence. Some people don't function well intuitively, while others do. Most that do this well are introverted in personality.

That being said, when reading people you sometimes just know that something is off about them, or that something is great about them. If it feels wrong, don't ignore it. If it feels right, don't ignore it. I'll make this short and sweet. Don't ignore a gut feeling about someone. It may save their or your life, in some cases. In other cases, you may just find that they are destined to be your close friend or soul mate. Intuition can sometimes tell us if an individual can or can't be trusted.

It would, however, be wise to think before you act on anything intuitive. We can be wrong some of the time. We are not perfect. All the same, don't ignore it.

Emotional Energy

If you sense emotional energy already you are probably an introvert. To explain it simply, people give off energy based on their emotions. Being able to sense emotions helps when it comes to reading people as a whole. This has to do with empathy, too. 

I have said before that the eyes are the window to the soul, and I am saying it again here. Look in people's eyes, see how they respond to everything. It will tell you most of what you need to know, if you are good at sensing people's energy. It takes practice to do. It truly reveals personality, but only if they are not masking their emotions. It is possible to mask emotions.

Physical touch is at play here, too. There is physical energy given off in every touch. Is it comfortable? Warm? Does it make you want to run into the next room and lock the door? That's physical energy. Limp handshakes, firm handshakes, shaky hands, all signs of personality and who someone is. 

Vocal tone is a good indicator of personality, too. How loud they are speaking, softness or hardness of voice, and speech patterns are important. It can also be telling on what they care about. What they talk about is equally important.

Sources:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/emotional-freedom/201402/three-techniques-read-people
https://synctuition.com/blog/science-supporting-intuitive-thinking/
Pictures:
Thrive Global
Kind PNG
Soft Skills Training
Psychology Today

An extroverted society - making introverts adjust from grade school on

Today I'm going to do something a little bit different. I have a personal theory. Our society is mostly extrovert-focused in my perspective. I sometimes have trouble fitting into it, as an introvert, because of this. I'm going to break it down for you.

Extroverts get energy from social life. Introverts gain energy from time alone. This is important to note for this theory. Why's that? Because, to make a long story short, society pushes social activity on us at a young age. Introverts need time to recharge, but most public social activities don't allow that.

There is nothing wrong with community, a social life, and friends. Human beings are made to have community and social life. Hermitting and isolation for long periods of time is not a good thing. I want to be sure you understand this before we go on.

Public Education

I'm betting that introverts will understand exactly what I mean. I know some of you won't, and that's okay. With public education comes a social life, in a classroom, where there is no time to be away from your classmates at all. The only exception might be the bathroom, but I don't even think you're alone there. Point being, there is no avoiding human contact. Everyone knows where to find you.

You'll notice I'm not talking about private schools. That is because they don't take government money and can do, for the most part, what they want. They can make exceptions in their school day for specific students, in some cases. Public education is one size fits all, while private costs far more money and can tailor the curriculum to students. Private schools don't represent most of society. 

Public school curriculum also pushes social contact and verbal participation. It is good to know how to speak well, yes, but it makes life hard for introverts when they get shoved into a situation where they are not comfortable speaking in a class discussion or doing a speech. Class presentations verbally, reading reports in front of your peers, and having to work with people in groups is not what introverts are strong at. I'm not saying we shouldn't try to improve ourselves, we should, but being shoved into the situation because it is 10 percent of your grade is not the best way to do so. 

Another aspect of this is the constant social contact, but not only that, but the peer pressure to be like everyone else. You learn very quickly that you are not like everyone else who is thriving socially. Introverted tendencies, like lack of eye contact and speaking less often, tend to get a person labeled as "shy". Or they think you are crushing on (or liking) everyone. (It's happened.) If you don't want attention you are also in the wrong place. Rule of thumb for gossip is this; the less you say the more that gets assumed. I'm not saying school is awful all the time, but what I am saying is that introverted tendencies combined with no recharge time can lead to a less-than-fun social life. It may result in developing a thick skin and holding people at arm's length.

Working World

Being an adult means you have, ideally, developed into someone with a good balance of alone time and social life. Not always true, but that's the hope. That being said, work saps some energy from us when it requires more social contact. Small talk about your weekend, when you are just trying to do your job and leave, is not the most fun. If you want to socialize there is no dread. If they approached you while you were trying to conserve your social energy you face a challenge. Extroverted society puts a high value on conversation, no matter the content depth, so it is not widely understood that small talk wastes social energy, but there is no polite way to say "go away, you're wasting my energy".

Also, when you are attempting to have recharge time during the week you don't take on more shifts. Coworkers may try to ask you if you can work this day or that day, but if you say what you are truly doing that day (chilling alone) they may assume that means you aren't busy. You are, you're just recharging-busy. So you say you have plans and don't elaborate. This is because recharging is not entirely understood by some of the human population. My main point still stands; we live in an extroverted society that doesn't often consider the need to recharge alone.

Networking, the act of socializing to make work connections, is hard for us. We are told to go out there and converse for the sake of getting work and moving up in the world. We are also exhausted by the small talk and shallow conversations by the end of the networking event. Most introverts listen more than speak, taking in the world like a sponge. That sometimes makes us invisible at parties with nothing, except conversation, to engage in. It also makes us look like we aren't trying or aren't leaders, which isn't true. Leadership doesn't mean you are the image of the company. It means you lead others, no matter how loudly or softly you speak. 

To Put It All Together

So, this was a lot. I know. It's kind of a big topic. I felt passion for this because I feel the impact of extrovert-focused society. There is nothing wrong with introversion or extroversion. God built us for His glory and wired us how we are for a reason. The main points I want to drive home are that introvert recharging needs are often ignored by our society and that our lower social energy needs to be considered by the society around us. Society is built for extroverts from the education system up. Love your fellow introverts and keep all of this in mind. 

Sources:

http://affinitymagazine.us/2017/07/09/reasons-why-public-school-is-not-fit-for-introverts/

https://vulcanpost.com/592915/introvert-work-office-problems/

Photos:

Meme Guys

Bored Panda

Huff Post

Women's baseball and Wrigley Field

Most baseball movie fans have probably seen A League of  Their Own. In that movie, we see the war take most of the men from the sport of baseball and send them to fight the Nazis. Just how factual is this movie? Here's the scoop on the real facts. Spoiler alert: Harvey Bars was actually Wrigley Gum.

These women are in the Baseball Hall of Fame. They were in the All American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL). The acronym changed a bit, but we know it most for the first one, for the most part. It began in 1943 and lasted 12 years. Philip K. Wrigley, Chicago Cubs owner, created it to keep baseball in business as men went off to war and less male athletes were around to play. Big names went off to war because men were encouraged to be men and fight Hitler. Thus, these women played at Wrigley Field. Big names in Baseball managed the teams. Hall of Famer Max Carey was president of the league.

The teams themselves included Fort Wayne Daisies, Minneapolis Millerettes, Kalamazoo Lassies, Muskegon Lassies, Rockford Peaches, Grand Rapids Chicks, Peoria Redwings, Milwaukee Chicks, Chicago Coleens, and several others.  The names themselves tell you how seriously the men who created them took this (this statement is to be taken sarcastically). For those who dislike minor league park names that aren't real strong, these women had far more to complain about.

Lifestyle Within the League

For all the masculinity that sports brought, the leaders wanted the feminine women in this league and

declared they didn't want tough, pants-wearing women here, according to Carey. No slacks or you use the servant's elevator, and charm school throughout the evenings. Beauty salons and beauty kits were pushed at them. They were taught to be ladies, as well as athletes. This push wouldn't fly now, not with the sportswomen of today.

The rules of conduct were as follows:

1. No slacks/shorts/uniform in the stands

2. lipstick always, groomed hair (preferred long)

3. no language/smoking/drinking

4.chaperones approved social engagements

5.no jewelry

6. chaperone approves living quarters and eating out

7. tell whereabouts and home phone

8.team meal time

9. skirts no shorter then 6 inches above knee

10 - 15 are generally things about equipment, passes, and transportation that probably apply to all of baseball then.

Despite this, fans didn't come to see legs. They came to see talent, and it lasted as long as it did because these were good athletes, not because they wore skirts on the field. It drew bigger and bigger crowds, thus lasting longer than the war itself. It gave 600-some women a chance to play baseball for a living and be more than just homemakers. 

Why It Ended

When games began to be televised, it spelled the end of this league. The men returning from war were probably part of it, too. After the war women were supposed to return to the kitchen and the home, so this league met resistance after the war. With more entertainment and money to spend on more than the war effort, people found more sources of fun, thus giving the league competition. Also, the lack of promotion of these games didn't help them stay afloat. 

Sources:

https://baseballhall.org/discover-more/stories/baseball-history/league-of-women-ballplayers

https://www.aagpbl.org/history/league-history

https://www.britannica.com/topic/All-American-Girls-Professional-Baseball-League

https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/65094/read-1943-rules-conduct-womens-baseball

Washington Post

Today Show

Nancy Drew's Love Interests

Nancy Drew has several TV shows, book series, and games under her belt. Did you know that different series have different love interests? Some promote the "Francy" relationship, while others only show Ned. There is even one book series where she dates multiple men. Let's dive in!

For those of you who don't know your Nancy Drew basics, here's a basic overview. Ned Nickerson and Nancy Drew have been together in the books since the beginning. Frank Hardy has had a crush on Nancy throughout the Supermysteries, and this idea is known as "Francy". These two ideas have come up over and over again throughout Nancy's history.

Ned Nickerson

Ted Nickerson and Nancy 

Starting from the original books, we have Ned Nickerson, or as the Bonita Granville Nancy Drew movies call him, Ted Nickerson. He is established as only a close, consistent friend in the original books, but later in the series becomes jealous of the young men around her. With the 1980s Supermysteries comes the idea that there is drama between them, and for the same reason the original Ned got jealous - other admirers. We get into Herinteractive Games to find that same Supermystery drama, slightly toned down, but still present. The latest game, Midnight in Salem, drew out that drama more than the last 32 games before it (because Ned asks Nancy if Frank is there). One strange exception to these series and games are the On Campus book series, where Ned isn't with Nancy but is in the series as her ex-boyfriend. It was a canceled series where Nancy ended the relationship after book two because of a fan poll from the publishers. (It was not aimed at young readers.) In the CW series she is with Ned, but unlike any of these Neds, he was a felon and goes by Nick.

Their relationship in the original books involves casual gatherings, solving mysteries together, and is light-hearted to attract young readers. He isn't in all the original books, but shows up more often later in the series. With the Supermysteries we see him sometimes. They usually have to work out something in their relationship when he is there, but they are definitely together. Going into Herinteractive Games shows that these two have some communication problems. If you play through all the games up to the latest one, you can tell they are trying to consistently work things out, much like the Supermysteries, but both have busy lives and dreams. The On Campus series, on the other hand, was all jealousy and no working out the relationship because Ned was too controlling.

On Campus

book 2 On Campus

So, as some Nancy Drew fans know, this one was not written for younger readers, but for adult readers. As a direct result of a 1-800 number poll, they split up the classic Ned and Nancy pair in favor of her going out with other men who are less controlling than Ned. Whether you like that or not is entirely up to you. Given that it was canceled in 1997, when it had started in 1995, tells me it wasn't all that popular. 

Her love interests for this one include Peter Goodwin, reporter Jake Collins, and a guy named Terry who looks like Ned. All of them end in breakups, but Jake stays through most of the series. One word to describe their relationships would be drama, lots of it! See the second source in the source list to get more details, because it is far too complicated to explain in one paragraph.

Francy

1980s Supermystery
2 - a crime for
Christmas

The Supermysteries TV Show and books (both the first and second series) play with this idea all the time. Frank and Nancy are so similar in lifestyle that it's so easy to imagine them together. Personally, I eat this idea up with a spoon. It creates drama in the books and the games. With this idea comes relationship issues, easily illustrated by the 1980s Supermysteries series. Frank and Nancy kiss during a snowed-in situation - and Ned walks in on them -at some point in that series. You can just imagine how much damage this does to the whole Ned relationship. 

Frank in the games has always been super supportive and worries about Nancy, much like Ned, but ends up working with her during mysteries far more often than Ned. In the 1970s TV show, if there are Nancy and Frank around the same area they work together on it (and obviously Joe and Frank come together, so Joe's there, too). He's shown as a bit shy in the second series of Supermystery books (which combine Girl Detective and Undercover Brothers). Frank is also a little more understanding in some of the games when it comes to Nancy's busy life, as well as eager to see her every time they meet or call. It makes some people think they could work out better than Nancy and Ned (Nedcy is the name some use for short). 

Fan opinions

Like any fandom out there, Nancy Drew fans have shipped everything under the sun. Some say Joe and Nancy should get together, while others are full-on Francy, full-on Nedcy, or even Deirdre Shannon and Nancy shipping. With the game fans comes the idea that, since Ned and Nancy are so bad at communication, Ned is kind of clingy, or Nancy doesn't make time for Ned that they need to break up and just be friends. Team Single has a legitimate voice in the fandom. 

What do you think? Comment below and let me know!

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nancy_Drew_on_Campus

http://nancydrew.info/ndoncampus.htm

pictures:

Pinterest

JSTOR daily

WWI and II spies

Spies were in every war. Espionage was how you got information about the next enemy attack and their strategy, as well as who was in charge of what and anything else that made a difference in the war.

Knitting Stitches were a way of sending coded messages.

When it came to WWI and II this meant hiring women to be 'code girls'. These women would go home and tell their folks they pushed pencils and were personal secretaries, when they were actually breaking codes for the military. WACs and WAAVs were hired to do this, though WAAVs got cooler uniforms and more perks.

This wasn't the only espionage that went into these wars. Men and women were both spies, through code-breaking and undercover work. Today I'm here to tell you all about them.

WWI

Mata Hari

Exotic dancer Mata Hari did strip teasing and was shot for spying for the Germans. She was Dutch, but claimed to be raised as an Indian temple dancer. She performed under the name Lady Gresha MacLeod, then took on the name Mata Hari. She had several affairs with military officers and wealthy aristocrats, as a matter of financial survival, before she was forced back to Holland. She was paid to become a German spy and had the name H 21 as a spy. She continued her affairs with the military men and politicians like before, but now the British had caught on to her. She was offered money to spy for France, and then switched sides. Because of this, they could track her codename to the German espionage and she was caught for being a German spy. She claimed not to have done anything for the Germans, but still got shot for it. Researchers say the case was flimsy against her, or that she was a great spy, or that she was a scapegoat to raise French moral. Either way, it is unclear if she actually spied for the Germans or just took the money and codename. Her accuser turned out to be a German spy.

The Statue of Edith Cavell
at St. Martin's Park

Edith Cavell, a matron at a hospital, helped 200 or more soldiers escape the Germans. She helped

soldiers from France, Belgium, and England get to safety. She also cared for anyone who needed help, no matter what side, out of religious conviction. There is a statue in her honor at St. Martin's Park with the epitaph 'Humanity, Fortitude, Devotion, Sacrifice' and what she told the priest before her death, "Patriotism is not enough, I must have no hatred or bitterness toward anyone". She was executed for harboring foreign soldiers on German soil.

WWII

Virginia Hall

There was once a woman spy with a wooden leg. I know that sounds like the beginning of a joke, but it was true. Virginia Hall, 'the limping lady', had a prosthetic she named Cuthbert because of a freak hunting accident. She was the first female resident agent in France. She radioed information and recruited resistance spies, as well as filing "news" stories with coded messages in them. She would signal pickup spots with potted plants. The Nazis eventually put her face on a wanted poster, but that didn't deter her. She just did her spy work from another place, after hot-footing it out of France. She planned sabotage missions that were credited with killing 150 Nazis and capturing 500 more. She retired from the CIA (a mandatory retirement) at age 60. She was the only woman to receive the distinguished service cross during WWII.

Juan Pujol Garcia

Some spies faked their deaths, this next one for 36 years, because they

could take on new identities. MI5's Juan Pujol Garcia did just that. He joined British forces against the Germans. To pad his resume after being rejected by the British, he posed as a Spanish Official and fed wrong information to Germans. He became a rogue double agent. After padding his resume enough, he tried again. This time they let him in. His double-agent status was never found out by Nazi forces.  He was a large part of the success of the D-Day invasion due to bringing false information to the Nazis. He faked his death in 1948 until 1980. A reporter looked into him around 1980 and suspected he was actually alive, as did Garcia's wife. He died for real in 1988. Some say he would have been okay to come out of hiding in 1960, but suspect he was ashamed for not making a war career in Venezuela and stayed in hiding because of that.

Invisible ink, now a gag gift or kids toy, was not a toy during wartime. In fact, Josephine Baker, a black singer and dancer, put invisible ink messages in her sheet music while working for the French Resistance, in order to get the messages into Portugal from France. Invisible ink was a way to get messages out that was used in more than one war. This is only one example of its' use, but even in the Civil War, it was used. Also used was knitting stitches, something that could easily hide a coded message in an innocent sweater. 

Invisible Ink being read

Spies and their techniques are fascinating to me, and if you share my enthusiasm, I'd suggest reading my sources and digging deeper. Women and men spies and Code Girls are easy research topics and you can find a lot of information, and not all of it can fit in one blog post. There are several movies on famous spies out there, too.

Pictures:

Atlas Obscura

BBC

Urban75

NPR

Art of Manliness

Sources:

https://www.history.com/news/female-allied-spy-world-war-2-wooden-leg

https://www.history.com/news/spy-double-agent-death-hoax-world-war-2

https://www.history.com/news/the-exotic-dancer-who-became-wwis-most-notorious-spy

https://www.thoughtco.com/female-spies-of-the-world-wars-3530435

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/knitting-spies-wwi-wwii

civil war women spies

The Civil War, two sides fighting each other over the issue of slavery. This war was filled with female spies. Who else could get closer to a general or an officer than a 'harmless' woman? There were dresses that held secrets in their underskirts and women wouldn't be frisked. It was genius!

In the Civil War women weren't equal to men, according to society, so women could get real, real close to diplomats, politicians, officers, and leaders in the community and pass on what they overheard to the side they actually supported. A little charm, some romance here and there, maybe some listening at doors, and you already have a lot of information at your fingertips.

As for messages being hidden, try hiding a message in your hair or underskirts. Most men are not going to frisk a young or aged woman. Women spies were caught, in some cases, but by then the other side had gotten quite a bit of information if the spy was smart. Some got messages out despite house arrest.

Famous Women Spies

Harriet Tubman

You have, most likely, already been taught about one of them. Harriet Tubman is considered a woman spy for helping slaves escape through the underground railroad. Spy work is no picnic, and if caught you could die for it, but that never stopped her from saving her fellow slaves. She even set up an espionage ring for the Union side of the war. She coordinated the sending of black men to the other side to get information. Because black people were considered less of a person, it got a wealth of information to the Union side of the war. She organized missions to destroy plantations and free slaves. She led a group to disrupt Confederate supply lines and freed 700 slaves in the process. This woman was more than an underground railroad conductor and freed slave. 

Belle Boyd

When it comes to beauty and brains, I'd say Belle Boyd had it. She supported the Confederate side of

the war and had southern loyalties. Despite shooting a drunk Union soldier, she got her share of military secrets to pass on to her side. She eavesdropped through holes and rode into enemy lines. She was caught a few times, but she survived the war. One officer, out of his love for her, helped her escape to London, then married her.

Elizabeth Van Lew

Loyal to the abolitionist movement, Elizabeth Van Lew, who brought help to prisoners in the form of basic needs, got information from guards and prisoners. She helped Union soldiers escape and smuggle out valuables and messages. She headed an espionage ring in Richmond. Using invisible ink and hollow vegetables, she got messages to union soldiers. She recruited a Libby Prison high ranking official to her ring. Unfortunately, her spy work left her in poverty, so a Union officer provided for her until her death in 1900.

Tactics and Techniques

How did they do it? Other than feminine wiles and a friendly smile, there were societal rules in their favor. For one, women were considered harmless and not equal to men. If they had been considered equals this would never have worked. This is the only situation that women being unequal was an advantage. For another, they were being intelligent about it. Using people to get what they wanted was a smart move here. It may have saved their lives and the lives of others. We know it saved and freed slaves. 

The women above used their care-giving and support roles to hide messages and smuggle messages and valuables out of prisons and camps. All those undergarments and good looks, as well as hairstyles, came in handy for the use of espionage. Who would question a woman giving aid to the men in the prisons? 

The clothing of the time for women made great hiding spots for weaponry, clothing, supplies, you name it! For the sake of modesty, strip-searching was not something a woman would likely experience. Men? Yes, but women? Not often. Fans that came with clothing could also be used for morse code. With the care-giving role came cooking pistol parts into bread and hiding supplies using domestic arts. Messages could hide anywhere- eggs, hair-dos, bread, false-bottomed baskets. 

Towards the end of the war, however, the men learned and women had to be more and more careful how they smuggled information in. Men started searching women more aggressively and women started getting caught. Hoop skirts could be torn off in an effort to find hidden weapons, and sometimes they were found out that way. It got harder as the war continued.

Pictures:
National Women's History Museum
The Herald Dispatch
Pinterest
Military History Now



Sources:
https://www.history.com/news/secret-agents-in-hoop-skirts-women-spies-of-the-civil-war
http://www.clarabartonmuseum.org/spies/

propaganda toward men Part 2

In a previous blog post, I talked about propaganda toward women. Today is propaganda directed toward men. Propaganda is political, biased information put out to influence the public through any media source possible, sometimes subtle in nature and other times extremely obvious.

The Disney Cartoon Private Snafu  - WWII era propaganda from Warner Brothers

I'm starting from the Civil war and ending on today's propaganda, because believe me, propaganda is still out there. It just isn't as obvious as the 1950s carpooling posters and offensive appliance ads. I'd encourage all of you out there to analyze the messages in your daily dose of media to see what comes up over and over again. You might be surprised.

Civil War

proslavery propaganda

The civil war, as most know, was within one country over the issue of slavery. Most of the propaganda was in the form of songs, songs that sang that real men went off to fight. Some propaganda toward men was in the newspapers, like the cartoon of black men taking white men's' places in a ballroom while the white men watched. That example was clearly for slavery, given that it played on the fears of what could happen when slaves were free. Others showed slavery to be despicable and showed a slave mother sold separate from her children, among other things. They also showed slaves being whipped.

Union Recruiting poster

As you'd expect, men were called into the fighting, but what ended up happening to the women back home was near or actual starvation. They were begged to come home, but the propaganda continued to draw them into the war. It was unpatriotic not to be fighting. The vast majority of the propaganda, however, occurred before the fighting and was a tug-of-war between pro-abolitionist and anti-abolitionist views.

World War I

1917 recruiting poster

Here we have a beacon towards the fighting, yet again. This is the theme in every war, except the cold war, which we will get to later. This was the years of visual posters and Uncle Sam urging you toward war, a poster that was reused in WWII later on. People were into isolationism and didn't want to enter the war, so they were being encouraged into it by the emotional appeals of the posters showing what could happen if the enemy came to them. Fear tactics and pride in your country was used big time. 

Images of women and Uncle Sam drew countless men into the conflict. A woman in a loose Navy outfit declared how if she were a man she'd join the Navy. Vivid images of the enemy as a mad brute holding a victimized woman (much like King Kong) declared that women and children were in trouble and men had to step up and defeat that enemy. If you were a pacifist, you were harassed by your own neighborhood, in some cases. All roads pointed to the war effort, and fighting was the goal if you were a man. It was that simple. 

World War II

After the first world war poster went so well, it was used again. Uncle Sam was urging men to fight once again. It was basically a repeat of the first, in many ways, except that it was a different war. Add Hollywood into the mix and we have even more propaganda power behind the recruitment messages. No surprise here, those directors went on to be more famous than those who didn't get in on the war. 

The war propaganda films were all about patriotism, recruitment, and

Der Fuehrer's Face

portraying the enemy badly, much like the posters. Newsreels can even be considered propaganda, in my opinion, especially during the wars. It portrays the US as heroic and the enemy as barbaric. Walt Disney threw himself into war cartoons during this war, which is part of the reason that Disney is probably big now, given the war films saved him from bankruptcy. His war cartoons included Der Fuehrer's Face, starring Donald Duck, as well as Donald Gets Drafted, Commando Duck, and Adolf Hitler Goes to Hell. Plus, Disney put out war training films for the troops.

The Cold War

An ad for a tie

Living in this era was restricting for women, yes, but was it restricting for men? I doubt that. The 1950s was a time where men went to work, came home, and sat down to a good meal, then (if I may be so bold) knew their wife and could boast of a large family while leaving household childrearing to the wife. Does that sound hard? I didn't think so. Unless you were ADHD or unconventional (couldn't sit still and didn't fit in) or homosexual (manhood and dominance were a definite thing), men were holding the stick while women got the short end of the stick. Some men were even, figuratively, dragging the women behind the stick. 

 coffee ad

Watch the sitcoms Father Knows Best, I dream of Genie, or Bewitched and you will immediately notice who the head of the family is, even if there are no children. The women serve the men. There is even an ad in a magazine that says "show her it's a man's world". Men weren't active fathers, though, so if you were more domestically involved as a father you were the exception to the rule, because domestic tasks were womens' work at that time. It was also acceptable to criticize women for their looks and homemaking abilities, so if a husband was mad at his wife for doing anything wrong it was almost acceptable to punish the wife for it, as shown by this ad for coffee. Like I said, men were holding the stick and women got the short end of it. 

Today

Propaganda today is a little more subtle, especially now that social media, film, art, and false news can be spread like wildfire across the internet. With all the ideas floating around our political climate, politics is everywhere. You can no longer ignore it like you could before. When it comes to messages about manhood from society I'd say that war recruitment still goes, but it is not as urgently pressing as before. It also includes women, so it is no longer just men. On top of changing politics, men have more freedom to be in the domestic sphere, even to the point of being a stay-at-home dad. LGBTQ is also not taboo, according to most society, so homosexual men are not trapped in the 1950s role of playing happy family. Manhood has definitely changed, but the 1950s ideal still stuck some places and in some families, so it sometimes depends on how men were raised when it comes to manhood standards. 

I'll end this with a warning, and some advice to avoid being herded into a society standard like sheep. Check out all your facts and find the truth. Think about who gets the short end of the stick, no matter what perks you get. Gender continues to work toward equality, but men still, to some degree and in some places, have more power. Yes, women are no longer trapped into the 1950 standard, but some spheres have some old traditions that tend to keep women out. Some old traditions keep men who don't fit the mold out, too, so my basic advice is this; be intelligent and consider who could be potentially dragged behind the stick. We may not live in the 1950s, but there are minority groups who lose out. Find out facts for yourself and you can't go wrong. 

On a slightly strange note, I found the perfect way to either show off a sarcastic sense of humor or be single for eternity. See the picture below. Show this off in your bathroom and never be bothered by women again!

This is a shower curtain. I don't know why it was made, but here it is. 

Pictures:
New York Historical Society
Vintagraph
Disney Film Project
The Society Pages
Tribupedia
Fine Art America

sources:
https://ideologicalart.com/war/
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/posters-sold-world-war-i-american-public-180952179/
https://allthatsinteresting.com/world-war-1-propaganda-posters
https://www.history.com/news/world-war-1-propaganda-woodrow-wilson-fake-news
https://www.sagu.edu/thoughthub/the-power-of-propaganda-in-world-war-ii
https://hazlitt.net/feature/hollywood-and-wwii-kings-propaganda
https://insidethemagic.net/2017/01/influencing-america-through-animation-wwii-propaganda-cartoons-part-three-walt-disney/
https://alphahistory.com/coldwar/cold-war-propaganda/