In "The Manchurian Candidate and the Gender of the Cold War," author Tony Jackson explains the characteristics of gender roles in the 1962 John Frankenheimmer film The Manchurian Candidate. Jackson makes interesting and novel observations; take, for example, his explanation of Senator Iselin doing the limbo using his wife's staff as a representation of "how low can you go?" a symbol both of Iselin's lack of morals and his submission to his wife. Jackson continues his exploration of Cold War gender, arguing that the film links the "evil of communism to femininity and the demasculinization of the American male." Jackson also explores the idea of the lack of a complete functional family within the film along with other representations of gender.

    Jackson makes a strong case for The Manchurian Candidate as a film that surpasses the issues of East and West, communists and the anti-communists and uses those topics to illustrate a change in gender roles. Mrs. Iselin is, although an evil character that evokes strong feelings of dislike, a representation of a strong woman in society. In an age when women were rarely allowed to or able to be powerful, Mrs. Iselin represents a shift in gender roles and perhaps American society's fear of a strong and powerful woman. Overall, Tony Jackson's article provides a new and noteworthy reading of The Manchurian Candidate as a film not only about communism and espionage but also about gender roles in the Cold War period.