Norman Mailer: Works and Days

The Womanization of America

Mailer's contribution to a Playboy symposium on the place of men and women in postwar American culture — a polemic against what Mailer takes to be the feminization of American life and a brief for his still-developing thesis on the relation between virility, totalitarianism, and the creative act. Mailer's second appearance in Playboy after the July 1961 'Sex and Censorship' (61.8). Reprinted as part of 'Petty Notes on Some Sex in America' in Cannibals and Christians (66.11) and partial in The Idol and the Octopus (68.11). See 61.8.

“The Womanization of America.” Playboy, June 1962, 43–50, 133–34, 136, 139–44. Symposium contribution.

Mailer’s contribution to a Playboy symposium on the place of men and women in postwar American culture — a polemic against what Mailer takes to be the feminization of American life and a brief for his still-developing thesis on the relation between virility, totalitarianism, and the creative act. Mailer’s second appearance in Playboy after “Sex and Censorship” (61.8) the previous summer. Rpt: as part of “Petty Notes on Some Sex in America” in Cannibals and Christians (66.11), and partial in The Idol and the Octopus (68.11).

First published: 1962-06
Form: essay
Lennon & Lennon: 62.11
Cite as: /works/1962-06-womanization-of-america
Last updated: 2026-05-27