Gary McDonogh. Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Culture

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colonialism. Alliance with the Soviet Union weakened the negative association between

communism and nationalism. Many Americans fighting against Nazism saw connections

among fascism, colonialism and

segregation

at home. As the Japanese dislodged

Europeans from much of East Asia, people questioned whether European colonialism had

ended in the region; the British were beginning to lose their stranglehold on India, with

Gandhi gaining a lot of support among Americans. Meanwhile, Americans appreciated

nationalists and communists who, unlike their collaborating colonial masters, seemed

willing to join them in the fight against Japan. Further, when the US lost the Philippines

to the Japanese, American officials made strong promises about independence that would

follow liberation from Japan. Nevertheless, while the US began to loosen its grip over

Cuba and the Philippines, it made sure that the position of American businesses was

secure, while

language

, culture and

tourism

continued to promote American hegemony.

While President

Roosevelt

had wondered about the advisability of allowing bankrupt

European nations to re-establish control over their colonies,

Truman

decided that not

supporting the French in Indo-China against America’s erstwhile nationalist allies would

run counter to the intentions of the

Marshall

Plan. Loss of

Vietnam,

Cambodia and

Laos, his administration reasoned, would lead to a further French collapse in Algeria and

then in France itself. Even when the French realized that the cost of retaining Southeast

Asia was too great, they passed on the baton to the Americans who learned their lessons,

not from the nationalists’ victory at Dien-bien-

hu, but from the bloody and successful

British assaults on Malaysian nationalists.

Moreover, by this time, an anti-communist

Cold War

mentality had become firmly

established in the United States. The “loss” of

China

to the communists had so shaken

the American government that officials began to re-associate nationalism and

communism. Once this took hold, the reaction to nationalist-inspired uprisings from

Vietnam to

Iran

to Congo to Cuba to Guyana was to send in American forces (either

military or

CIA

counter-insurgency) to oppose them. With the world divided neatly into

those aligned with the Soviet Union and those loyal to the US, the latter had become a

major neo-colonial power.

Defeat in

Vietnam

shook American anti-nationalist resolve for a few years, but

Reagan’s

destabilization of

Grenada

and continued tolerance of apartheid in South

Africa showed that the connections were still largely in place. The collapse of the Soviet

Union and the end of apartheid in South Africa, however, opened up new possibilities.

Anti-communists like Marcos in the Philippines were no longer indispensable, while

military bases could no longer be imposed on an independent country.

The language of neo-colonialism and imperialism shifted in the 1990s to a more value-

free language of globalization. Yet, many legacies of colonialism and American support

for other colonizers remain. Capital, largely in the form of

multinational

corporations,

can now move more freely between nations, and those who profit from them are not

exclusively Americans, but those who do the labor cannot move about so freely

Wealthier nations retain barriers to entry, ensuring that large exploitable pools of labor

are available outside their borders to be used as

migrants

within the US when desirable,

Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Culture 266

or as cheap laborers for a plant that has relocated outside the country Profiting from

cheap labor remains as important now as it was in the heyday of colonialism. As the

“Made in USA” label has become a valuable asset for an article of clothing sold in

America, it has become clear, however, that some of the best

department stores

are

selling goods produced by the sweatshop labor of immigrants in the US, or by such

laborers in places like

Guam, Saipan,

or other American territories.

The policies of US drug-enforcement agencies from Colombia to Panama and relations

with

Castro’s Cuba

(for example, the Helms-Burton Act) provide a barometer of the

level of American postcolonial policies. Anti-colonialism can still be a useful banner—as

in American complaints about Chinese rule in Tibet—yet it represents a strategic interest

to be balanced against others, as American silence on East Timorese bloodletting

reaffirmed.

Finally, both media and business underpin a cultural hegemony that is read as a neo-

colonial strategy by many who oppose the new American colossus and its values, even as

their nations may acquire or emulate them. The processes and terms of colonialism have

changed over time, but their silent and deadly entanglement with the American dream

remains problematic and compelling.

Further reading

Kolko, G. (1988)

Confronting the Cold War,

New York: Pantheon.

Williams, W.A. (1980)

Empire as a Way of Life,

New York: Oxford.

ROBERT GREGG

Coltrane, John

jazz

Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS)

networks, television

columnists

Most journalists prior to the twentieth century did not distinguish as clearly as modern

American journalists seem to between “fact” and “opinion.” Thus, Addison and Defoe in

Entries A-Z 267

Britain or Benjamin Franklin in the United States wrote stories that modern readers

would probably take for “columns.” As the drive for objectivity became more important,

however, a distinct sort of journalist began to appear in the pages of American

newspapers. The origin of so-called newspaper columnists lies some time in the

nineteenth century when literary-inclined journalists began writing regular stories for

newspapers. Some, like Ambrose Bierce, favored social or political satire; others, such as

Lafcadio Hearn, produced humorous or colorful sketches of urban life. Although these

writers were regularly featured in their papers, their writing was still not sharply

distinguishable from the general news stories that surrounded them.

Columns developed a more important institutional role in the twentieth century as

distinctions between “editorial” content—opinionated analysis of current events—and

“news”—empirical descriptions—

ecame more keenly drawn. Readers retained a desire

for a more opinionated take on events: some guidance about not only what happened, but

what the event in question

meant

. This resulted in more individual opinion columns.

Columnists’ articles have generally appeared on the editorial pages, although they have

expanded to sports and features. Gossip and trade news are special subgenres. Unlike

editorials, columns are signed, meaning that they express the opinion only of the writer,

not the newspaper as a whole. Columnists are often reporters of some standing and

expertise or have had reputations in other fields, like Eleanor

Roosevelt

or Hillary

Clinton. The writing in such columns is often more colorful and fiery than regular news,

sometimes more analytical, but always more clearly subjective.

Famous newspaper columnists have included Walter Lippman, Walter Winchell,

H.L.Mencken and Will Rogers. More recently, writers such as Molly Ivins and George

Will have become popular enough among readers that their columns are syndicated.

Some columnists develop reputations in one particular field. Dave Barry, for example, is

known as a humor columnist; Red Smith was primarily a sports columnist.

Further reading

Riley, S.G. (1995)

Biographical Dictionary of American Newspaper Columnists,

Westport: Greenwood.

Mott, F. (1953)

American Journalism,

rev. edn, New York, MacMillan.

MARK BREWIN

comedy and comedians

Comedy resists definition. Some have argued that it is an adaptive strategy providing

relief from the tragic or the mundane through laughter. To elicit this laughter, comedy

Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Culture 268

assumes many forms. Types of comedy include slapstick, farce, black comedy wordplay

burlesque, satire, vaudeville,

situation comedy

television,

stand-up comedy

clowning, mime, etc. However, some material considered “comedy” may not necessarily

induce laughter. Comedy may simply refer to a presentation that focuses on the lighter

side of life. In general, the term “comedy” has certain genre connotations, while the term

“humor”

refers to a comic quality causing amusement, such as dry humor, or

uffoonery. Because of cultural assumptions regarding the nature and function of comedy

many members of marginalized groups (with respect to

race, class,

ethnicity

religion)

have made their way into the entertainment industry through comedy while the world o

serious drama has been harder to penetrate. Women, however, have experienced more

difficulty being taken “seriously” as comedians.

Since the end of the Second World War, one of the most important developments in

American comedy has been the advent of the situation comedy on television. This form

of comedy emerged from a long history of comedy in America—characterized by

vaudeville,

film

comedy (including the silent film comedy of such luminaries as Charlie

Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd),

radio

comedy stand-up comedy and variety

television shows. Since the introduction of the VCR,

video

rentals, and

cable

television

in the late 1970s, there has been much crossover between these various comedic venues.

Many of the American comedians who started out with stand-up routines in comedy

clubs and then moved on to film and/or television careers have become quite successful.

(Consider the careers of Woody

Allen,

Bill

Cosby,

Ellen DeGeneres, Robin Williams,

Whoopi

Goldberg

and Jerry Seinfeld—to name just a few.) Prior to this route, many

American comedians started out in vaudeville (George

Burns

and Gracie Allen, for

example, who went on to begin one of the first television situation comedies,

The George

urns and Gracie Allen Show,

which ran from 1950–8). Comedian Bob

Hope

also

developed a genre of television specials based on his shows for American troops abroad,

rebroadcast on holidays.

Still, there are comedians who are known primarily for certain types of comedy.

Analysts have divided comedians into various types, including social commentators,

oliticos, observationalists, fringe players, wiseguys, etc. Other notable American

comedians of the postwar era include (in addition to those mentioned above): Lily

Tomlin, Eddie

Murphy,

Jackie Gleason, Jim Carrey Chevy Chase, Gilda Radner, Walter

Matthau, Margaret Cho, Jack Benny Billy Crystal, Goldie Hawn, Jim Belushi, Jerry

Lewis,

Dean Martin, Johnny Carson, Jane Curtin, Richard

Pryor,

Lenny Bruce, Lucille

Ball,

Desi Arnaz, David Letterman, Sandra Bernhard, Flip Wilson, Jay Leno, Bill Murray

John Leguziamo, Mary Tyler

Moore,

Spalding Gray Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner, Cheech

and Chong, Roseanne, Steve Martin, Marilyn

Monroe,

Gene Wilder, Dan Ackroyd, Redd

Foxx and Henny Youngman.

ee also:

humor; late-night television; sitcoms

Further reading

Entries A-Z 269

Museum of Television and Radio (1996)

Stand-Up Comedians on Television,

New York:

Harry N. Abrams.

Marc, D. (1989)

Comic Visions: Television Comedy and American Culture,

Boston:

Unwin Hyman.

NICOLE MARIE KEATING

comfort food

Comfort

food

evades precise definitions and descriptions. Described by one restaurant

critic as “satisfying stick-to-your-ribs fare” that echoes “simpler times,” and is “informal

and ample;” others define it as food with lots of sugar, or more than fifty grams of fat.

Some focus on comfort food’s emotional and curative qualities, claiming that it evokes

memories, eases emotional discomfort, alleviates boredom, or soothes upset stomachs.

Definitely not for the calorie-conscious, comfortfood menus might include meatloaf,

fried chicken,

mashed potatoes, biscuits and gravy rice pudding, milkshakes, tuna

casserole, grilled cheese, or peanut butter and banana sandwiches on squishy white bread

(or congee or miso soup for other ethnic food traditions).

COURTNEY BENNETT

comics

Comic strips as serially published, episodic stories with consistent characters appeared in

the US newspapers in the late nineteenth century drawing on European traditions o

stories, caricature and publication. Comic books as separate publications with

independent sales and narrative first drew on established strips. In the 1930s, they

ecame a new genre with different audiences, themes and cultural issues. Despite

overlapping form, content and readership, their histories have been differentiated in

intriguing ways.

The first American comic strip, the

Yellow Kïd,

appeared in William Randolph

Hearst’s

New York Journal

on October 18, 1996. Longer stories developed with strips

like the

Katzenjammer Kïds

and

Happy Hooligan,

often taking outsiders and tricksters as

their long-running heroes. These comics often incorporated ethnic, racial and

class

stereotypes in slapstick situations that depended on the interplay of word and picture.

Weekday comics followed in the 1900s, and Hearst added the full comics page to his

newspapers

in 1912, although the page included only four strips. The number of strips

Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Culture 270

offered by competing newspapers grew over the next decades; distribution was soon

controlled by syndicates like Hearst’s King Features or the Newspaper Enterprise

Association.

Comic strips appeal to a general audience. The

New York Times, Wall Street Journal

and

USA Today

carry none, although the

International Herald Tribune

makes a selection

available to expatriates. In other newspapers, daily funnies and Sunday color sections

have grown in pages to become

family

reading rituals.

The range of comics in contemporary newspapers still covers many themes worked out

in early decades—domestic vignettes, adventures, humor with

children

and animals.

Many strips treat family and office, like the long-running

Blondie, Dennis the Menace

amily Circus

. Smart

pets

and children also convey philosophical commentaries in

decades of the remarkably creative ensemble of Charles Schulz’s

Peanuts; Snoopy

earned

global popularity. Later, Bill Watterson’s

Calvin and Hobbes

evoked the imaginary

world of a child and his tiger.

Prince Valient

and the

Phantom

seek exotic adventure.

eetle Baile

offers

comedy

in an army that never fights, while

Dick Tracy

has battled

generations of bizarre criminals. At the end of the twentieth century some once-

opular

genres and strips have faded, including soap operas

(Mary Worth)

and adventure (Milt

Caniff’s

Steve Canyon

). Nonetheless, all these narratives convey the idea of material the

whole family can read.

One of the areas of greatest change in the postwar era is replacement of ethnic, racial

and gender stereotypes that constituted humor in early comics. Many comics still

represent

white

worlds and heterosexual families. Yet Cathy explores the employment,

family and dilemmas of a single working woman, while

Dilbert

has become a symbol o

office politics, with clippings taped to cubicles across the nation. Even

Blondie,

icon o

domesticity took a job in the 1990s. Minority characters have appeared in

Peanuts

and

other strips; in the 1990s, newspapers added focused

African American

stories in strips

Jump Cut

and

Boondocks

Other timely specializations include political satire (

Al Capp

in Pogo, Garry Trudeau’s

oonesbury,

Berke Breathed’s strips) and basic surrealism (Gary Larson). These

cartoonists target issues and politicians (

Doonesbury

on gay weddings, media and

tobacco,

as well as the

presidency)

for educated, adult readers. Hence, some newspapers

have censored strips or moved them to the editorial pages (see

editorial cartoons)

Comic books

If comic strips began with children and immigrants, comic books began with

superheroes

. Booklets of reprinted comic strips had appeared at the turn of the

nineteenth century but separate stories emerged in the mid-1930s.

Detective Comics

offered singletheme issues in 1937. In June 1938,

Action Comics

introduced Superman;

within three years, the Man of Steel was selling 1,250,000 copies per month and had

crossed over to comic strips as well. The

Phantom, Captain Marvel, Batman, Captain

Entries A-Z 271

merica

and others followed, with comics booming during the Second World War at

home and among GIs, as illustrated heroes fought Nazis and Japanese. These comics also

established a format for a mass cultural myth of the dual-identity superhero in the golden

age of comics.

Superheroes diminished in popularity after the war, replaced by crime and horror

comics sold at drug stores, news-stands and other outlets to children and adolescents.

These new consumers bought 180 million copies a year by 1941, alarming parents and

educators who began a crusade against the lax morality violence and other dangers o

comics that would last for decades and foreshadow later debates over

music and

television,

movies and video games. Alternatives were created including

Classic

Comics/Classics Illustrated,

whose illustrated versions of world literature became crib

sheets as well as portals to culture.

After Estes

Kefauver’s

Senate investigations and academic studies of deleterious

impact, publishers themselves created the first substantive Comics Code in 1954. This

created conditions for the revival of the sexless superhero and anodyne comics, including

isne

and

Archie

. By the mid-1950s, nonetheless, superheroes old and new (including

the Flash, Fantastic Four and others from

Marvel Comics

) offered the complex stories

and aesthetic styles of comics’ “second” golden age.

As Ariel Dorfman has pointed out, all of these texts tend to distill fundamental

Amercan myths into child-palatable forms. “Truth, justice and the American way” in

Superman

intersected with capitalism, derogatory stereotypes of foreigners and

intellectuals

and sexless ducks and mice in

Disney

. These messages, moreover, were

consumed by children outside the US even while US parents discouraged comics.

The 1960s saw many changes in comic books, including increasing crossover to

television and film. Contents also changed—inspired by social ferment around them,

artists and writers incorporated drugs, war and racism into the comic world in the 1970s,

although this phase proved short-lived. Instead, new relevance came from underground

comics like those of Robert Crumb. Later, more adult stories, like

Darkman,

which offer

narrative and visual experiments as well as sexual and violent plots, would underpin the

serious comics of the end of the century. At the same time, collectors have sought the

innocence of earlier comics as first editions of

Superman

and other relics of the golden

age skyrocketed in price beyond the reach of children.

Comics no longer sell primarily to the child in the drugstore, but to older adolescent

males or young adults. Moreover, these people are buying specialty store items,

sometimes in plastic bags to preserve their

collectible

value or in brown paper to avert

them from other eyes. In this development, while comic strips have reflected the

changing

family,

comic books have followed the aging and concerns of the

baby boom,

while creating new experiences in Generation X. They also inspire movies like

Batman,

Superman

and

X-Men

(2000).

Further reading

Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Culture 272

Barrier, M. and Williams, M. (1981)

The Smithsonian Book of Comic Book Comics,

Washington, DC: Smithsonian.

Blackbeard, M. and Williams, M. (1977)

The Smithsonian Book of Newspaper Comics,

Washington, DC: Smithsonian.

Dorfman, A. and Mattelart, A. (1975)

How to Read Donald Duck,

New York:

International General.

Harvey R. (1996)

The Art of the Comic Book,

Jackson: University of Mississippi.

Nyberg, A. (1998)

Seal of Approval,

Jackson: University of Mississippi.

GARY McDONOGH

coming of age

Adulthood is marked in American society as in most cultures worldwide, by both rituals

and responsibilities. Differences in individual and collective experience and values,

however, make these passages of

teenage

years foci of anxiety as well as badges o

maturity.

Judaism and many Christian traditions celebrate rituals around adult participation in

the community (

Bar/Bat Mitzvah

confirmation, baptism in some evangelical traditions).

American Catholies, nonetheless, have debated the meaning and timing of confirmation

as a socially relevant life sacrament.

Other secular landmarks are reached—and responded to—in different ways throughout

the teenage years. Obtaining a driver’s license at sixteen (with some states permitting a

learner’s permit a year earlier) has become a major point of transition in an

automobile

culture.

Freedom,

responsibility and danger intertwine here in both mass culture and

parental nightmares. Various

commencements/graduations

(especially

high school

voting (at eighteen) and legal access to alcohol (at twenty-one) also indicate increasing

responsibility as well as risk. These fixed ages also lead to attempts to anticipate or

subvert the law, especially with regard to

alcohol

and

tobacco

Passages may be gendered in both religious and secular observations. Women, for

example, are often still classified as adults in terms of sexuality and marriageability. In a

small segment of immigrant families, female circumcision occurs as the girl reaches

uberty although avoidance of this tradition has also been used to claim refugee status in

the US. The

quinceanos,

an often lavish celebration of a girl’s fifteenth birthday has

become widespread in

Cuban American

and other

Latino

groups. This represents an

adaptation of debutante parties held by the Cuban elite, augmented by the newfound

affluence of many exiles: one father rented the Orange Bowl,

Miami’s

football

stadium,

for a party. Coming-out parties and debutante balls are generally considered upper class

(and sometimes dated) formalities, but they have also served to reinforce

class

endogamy.

Entries A-Z 273

Meanwhile, at eighteen, men have been expected to register for the selective service. In

the Vietnam era, this act became a boiling point of protest, as well as a commitment with

potentially devastating consequences; while the

draft

was ended in the 1970s,

registration remains an obligation. The US, with its longstanding tradition of a volunteer

army, is unusual in the absence of compulsory military service as a male rite o

passage—although it may be evoked in debates like the intergenerational conflict

between Bob

Dole,

wounded in the Second World War, and Bill

Clinton,

who avoided

service in Vietnam.

One of the crucial elements of coming of age, however, has even less ceremony:

leaving home. American youths have often sought independence in living, whether

moving away to

college,

taking an apartment with work-mates, joining a

commune

defining a separate space in the home (basement or

garage

apartment). This can also be

linked to entry into the job market and is hence dependent on cycles of employment

opportunity. Since the 1980s, media have also focused on children who stay—or return—

to the family home in their twenties or thirties as social dilemmas.

GARY McDONOGH

coming out

In the largely heterosexual context of American society the process of revealing onesel

as a homosexual or bisexual individual is termed “coming out of the closet.” Coming out

is, strictly speaking, a never-ending process, because there are always more people to tell.

However, coming out is commonly understood as the period of time in which individuals

first begin to tell people about their sexuality Individuals generally make different

decisions about which people in their lives they should tell about their sexuality

according to their personal situation.

ELIZABETH A.GALEWSKI

commencement/graduation

American graduations, from preschool through

Ivy League

doctorates, represent highly

ceremonial public rites of passage. Typical features include academic robes (modeled on

European ones), processions of faculty and students, music, prayers based in civic

Christianity and speeches; graduations are also accompanied by rounds of parties and

gifts. Friends and family attend these events even in early years, although young children

Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Culture 274

may treat them as costumed play-acting. By

high school,

speakers, usually drawn from

distinguished graduates or local celebrities, take on more importance, while the presence

religion

has become a debate for many public institutions. High-school graduations

also form part of a constellation of events, from the prom (a formal dance based on a

romantic theme from movies or popular culture) to “socially accepted” disobedience (e.g.

wearing inappropriate clothing to school). Graduation gifts and opportunities thereafter

reveal stratification these communal rituals deny.

olleges

and universities expand graduation events, competing for well-known

speakers via honorary degrees and/or fees up to thousands of dollars. More than 2,500

speakers are needed annually to please parents, contributors and media. Politicians may

use such opportunities as campaign appearances; presidential candidates and their

spouses receive particular media attention (with military academies especially visible

sites for incumbents). Other coveted speakers include

intellectuals,

artists, journalists,

social and ethnic leaders, and philanthropists/donors. Celebrities including Muppet

Kermit the Frog, also prove entertaining alternatives.

Commencement talks range from autobiography to national and world affairs.

Generally however, these inspirational observations demand special responsibility from

the group whose new maturity and citizenship the ceremony recognizes. Hence, the

theme of beginnings (commencement) mingles with the ambivalent emotions of ending

and leaving.

Large and highly established institutions foster distinctive programs, regalia and

surrounding events. Some, for example, hold speeches on a separate day or break into

component units to provide intimacy and individual recognition in conferring degrees (in

English or, rarely in Latin for the doctorate). Doctoral robes may have distinctive

colors—crimson for Harvard, blue for Yale, etc.—although without the elaboration o

many European institutions. Religious rituals may accompany these events too, whatever

the affiliation of the institution.

The image of this rite of passage is prominent in literature and movies, whether

The

Graduate

(1967), the prom chaos of

Carrie

(1976), or many

television

series (e.g.

everly Hills 90210

). It represents less a dedication to education within American life

than a culture of recognition that democratizes many honors (even as institutions and

individuals set themselves apart). Hence the prestigious model of university graduation

has spread to younger age groups and to more limited programs (such as job-training

programs or self-improvement courses). Even non-human settings like canine obedience

schools may imitate this form, stressing the notions of individual achievement and group

recognition as much as divisive special merit. The latter, nonetheless, comes out in the

distinctions among programs and rewards thereafter.

GARY McDONOGH

Commoner, Barry

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