Masculinity In The Maltese Falcon

Googling ‘Philip K. Dick - masculinity’ produces a multitude of reviews from blogs and journals. Many discuss masculinity and men’s struggles within Dick’s work. Masculinity seems relevant, especially in the context in which Holliday presents

Throughout history, our society has created gender norms that are followed consistently by members of communities. Though they differ from place to place, we recognize trends that seem almost prescribed to certain genders. Specifically, in the 1600s, men and women had explicit roles that were designated by people of stature. These expectations were followed loyally and people who failed to follow suit were shunned or sometimes even suffered seriously punishment including crude public beatings that were mot only pain inflicting but also status damaging (Rocke, Gender and Sexual Culture, 159). Looking deeper into the novel The Return of Martin Guerre, we identify from the start the expectations that are in place and how they play a role in the story. In comparison of Characters, taking into consideration the standard that had been set for men of this era, we notice that Pansette (Arnaud du Tilh) is an almost faultless example of what is expected for men and in contrast, Martin Guerre fails to meet these standards.

Tall, dark, and handsome has long been the standard of a desirable man. There is undoubtedly something about a “man’s man” that is intriguing and beguiling. However, there must be a point where too much masculinity becomes a problem. As society continues to praise men with the biggest muscles, the nicest cars, and the most women, it is becoming increasingly hard to draw the line between healthy masculinity and toxic masculinity. In Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire, toxic ideas about what it means to be masculine ultimately ruins several characters, but most overtly Stanley, Stella, and Blanche, showing that toxic masculinity is a threat to everyone’s well-being, both male and

Masculinity is not a single-definition trait; it relies on an ever-changing spectrum which can never be truly measured because of all the different factors having to be considered. The “manly” man of the 1800’s, who’s emotions were hidden to display strength, would no longer be considered the “ideal” male in society. As shown in the ads of Suistudio; feminist ideals have permeated into the “thick coating” of the masculine archetype. No longer is “femininity” in need of the male protectorate as a sturdy platform to build a steady life on in an ever-changing world, for they are becoming one in the same. Suistudio’s recent ad campaign shows that preferred-masculinity is changing from its traditional firmness to a strength shown by a man’s emotional comfort within an evolving world while protruding the outward appearance of physical health.

Masculinity, as developed in the dime novel, has provided a model for modernism by reforming the social world in terms of both literary and art form. This claim holds valid as representations of frontier masculinity with literary modernism’s representations will be reviewed. Within Western literature, gender and queer theory seems to not only reform manhood, but also challenges the tendency to read literary western masculinity as embodying patriarchy, and heteronormativity. Instead, many nineteenth-century writers use the frontier and its assertion of masculinity to protest masculinity by presenting it as performative, rather than being the physical characteristic of the male body.

Over the years, changes in gender order has been a foundation for anxiety instilled in both genders. The identity of “man” has been lost in the midsts of redefining masculinity, and the two have been mistakenly associated with each other. As Kosofsky-Sedgwick emphasizes in Constructing Masculinity, “when something is about masculinity, it is not always ‘about men’”. In previous class discussion regarding Beowulf, translated by Seamus Heaney, characters of both genders define the norms of masculinity as needing to prove oneself, being valorous in the eyes of other men, assuming and maintaining power, and building upon the legacies of those generations before them.

Clemens supports my personal outlook on toxic masculinity, in that these shortcomings of masculinity are what make it toxic. Stanley Kowalski’s masculinity is primitive, affecting all those around him. A component of what

The third attribute of the “hard-boiled” detective is that they are often amoral. Sam Spade certainly fits this criteria. To begin, we find out that he is having an affair with his partner’s, Miles Archer, wife. That, however, is just the beginning. After Miles dies Spade wants nothing more to do with Mrs. Archer and continually pushes her away. He shows no loyalty to anyone other than himself. He is not upset at his partner’s death. Instead, he treats it like any other murder case. He acts with coldness towards other people and does what helps him instead of applying to the moral code that most people use.

To understand either work’s take on hegemonic masculinity, it is important to identify masculinity as a gendered hegemony. In her definition of gender, Judith Halberstam notes that gender is socially systematized, performed, and reproduced in cultures, institutions, and individual identities (Burgett, Bruce, and Hendler, 116). In a like manner, in her article on gendered violence, Mimi Schippers notes R.W. Connell’s research on masculinity to expand this definition, implying that masculinity is central to gender relations. In short, Connell defined masculinity as “simultaneously a place in gender relations, the practices through which men and women engage… in gender, and the effects of these practices on bodily experience, personality, and culture” (Schippers, 86). Here, masculinity is classified as a social position, the set and practice

According to the author, the character of Walter White embodies qualities of the spirit of the post 9/11 form of masculinity that have demonstrated decisively unique changes and aspects from what masculinity was before; however, he is only able to develop this expression of masculinity after undergoing a dynamic transformational process that begins at the onset of his diagnosis of cancer, which to him is the equivocal bad news of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. This was the critical turning point that brought forth the beginning stages that caused the series of events to occur, which transformed Walter White from being a disrespected and beaten down man to becoming a masculine and demanding presence of hegemonic masculinity. Irén Annus uses a claim of definition by defining the concept of hegemonic masculinity, introduced by Connell’s latest study (1987), as a set of practices that made male dominance possible in contemporary societies.

The second point is that masculinity is fragile and heavily relies on the approval of other men. On pg 140 the author states “We are under the

The following will examine the theme of masculinity in relation to style using two specific RC short stories. "Cathedral" and "Why Don 't you dance?" are very similar in structure and are useful for comparison. Both characters involve the dynamic of a couple with a challenged relationship who encounter another male. In both stories, it is a younger couple, and in both stories, the older male is partially defined by some eccentric and important features. In "Cathedral", the blind friend of a wife and her husband meet for the first time and there is a tension between the couple over a few differences of expectations. In "Why Don 't you dance?", a young couple walking along together encounter an older man who has

The notion of Sherlock Holmes as a “policeman of masculinities” in either of the two stories we read

Thesis: I believe that the identity of manliness, is not only defined by a male. Think you are able to gain manly qualities, and lose them.

This research task touches on the way males are represented in Laurence Sterne’s Tristram Shandy. The following articles/books/chapters in books look in depth at how Sterne satirises the patriarchy through his depiction of the Shandy men. I will be looking directly at how Sterne portrays the Shandy men — namely Tristram, his uncle Toby and his father Walter — and how they represent different aspects of the patriarchy. Homunculus Economicus : Laurence Sterne's Labour Theory of Literary Value — University of Toronto Press — Scott R. MacKenzie