Today, the popular image of the 1950s American Man is of a controlling patriarch, who was firmly in command of house, wife and life, and who conformed to traditional ideas about masculinity - he was aggressive, competitive, self-confident, and powerful. Popular magazines in the 1950s, however, portrayed a very different image, and seemingly had little confidence in the American man. The notion that the American Male was suffering from a 'crisis of masculinity' became a familiar theme in popular cultur sible in cartoons, advertisements, magazine editorials and articles, music, films and television programs.