Mailer is famous for his tumultuous relationship with the Second Wave Feminist movement of the 1960s and 1970s. This arguably reached a peak during the 1971 Town hall panel (later dubbed “Town Bloody Hall” by Germaine Greer), during which Mailer – the sole male panelist – became the target of the audience’s ire, a perceived representative of the patriarchal society against which they were fighting. The chapter addresses the context for and implications of Mailer’s engagement with the Feminist movement.

Mailer’s definitions of manhood lie at the center of much of his work; they not only inform the construction of his fictional protagonists, but are also connected to his ideas of existentialism, and are tied to his hopes for the future of America. Mailer’s notions of manhood also often intersect with his theories of violence, and thus threaten to uphold toxic notions of masculine power (which Mailer himself internalized throughout his life, evident in his performance of machismo), though Mailer also confronts the many pressures and vulnerabilities associated with cultural expectations of manhood.

“The Search for Social Power” considers the development of radical movements after the crisis year of 1968, showing how revolutionary tactics were adjusted even as new concerns and actors came to the fore. Exploring how activists responded to the danger of “recuperation”—the act by which consumer capitalism packaged rebellion and sold it back to its constituents—the chapter examines the rise of political undergrounds determined to live authentically even while searching for new avenues in the political struggle. While numerous small new communist parties emerged demanding a return to Marxist-Leninist basics alongside small cells dedicated to armed struggle, new movements such as second wave feminism emerged to challenge the usually male-dominated politics of militant struggle in favor of attempts to reshape the experience of daily life. In every case, the post-1968 moment was shaped by the attempt to achieve “social power,” that is, to find workable strategies for producing real change in the world.