Reversed Marital Roles in Jo and Ben's Relationship

The most obvious of these comparisons arises within the husband and wife pairing of Jo and Ben McKenna.  By 1956, American women had undergone a sort of change to “housewife” conservatism, with the wife staying at home to “patriotically” mind the house while the husband runs of to his job[4]. Jo is anything but this archetypal housewife and mother.  She dominates Ben from the beginning of the film, manipulating his every action at dinner with the Drayton’s, bluntly asking for another child, and constantly leading their search in the right direction. Jo not only “possesses the phallus” as Wood argues, but she also takes over as the film’s main subject [5].  Such uncommon female subjectivity bothers Ben and affronts his masculine pride so much that he seeks to sedate his wife before telling her about Hank’s capture. Paula Cohen asserts that Jo’s constant “correctness” represents an explicit “threat to masculine order” and must therefore be conquered [6].  As the rest of the film shows, however, Jo continues to be correct and Ben continues to falter and fail.