The Politics of Cultural Nostalgia: Don’t Worry Darling and the Fifties

Nostalgia for an idealized version of the U.S. during the 1950s, often referred to as “fifties nostalgia,” has long been a constituent element in right-wing politics and thus a target of progressive political critique. Recapitulating the thematic, narrative, and aesthetic features of earlier films dedicated to this critique, Olivia Wilde’s film Don’t Worry Darling (2022) critiques the misogyny inherent in Fifties nostalgia as part of recent Trumpian politics. Like its predecessors, Wilde’s film focuses on gender inequality as a key issue best represented by the Fifties as a social dystopia. While Don’t Worry Darling is a skillful and compelling piece of filmmaking, especially in regard to production design and cinematography, the film’s alignment of its critique with key elements in the current cultural climate raises questions about “fifties nostalgia” as a viable target of progressive politics.