Thesis On Manliness And Civilization

It is interesting that the book is called “Manifest manhood” but focuses on women. While writing the book review, she doesn’t state how men were able to find “manhood”. Particularly, she focuses the book on the south. It seemed like men in the north didn’t have a problem with identity. Greenburg stated in the book that they were businessmen. Although it was restraints in manhood because manifest destiny was technically “over”. She points the direction towards slave owners and southerners, not towards America as a whole. In addition, she separates the rich and poor in the book. The guys who needed “manhood” were most likely the poor. It is weird she chose to do this specific time period to talk about gender roles and manifest destiny. She leaves us to connect the dots and assume things that might not have been

The events that marked the last decades of the nineteenth century led to important historical changes that resulted in a wide crisis of masculinity. Economic growth and advances in technology attracted immigrants to America and soon less-skilled workers outnumbered the highly skilled ones. Men's self-making abilities were challenged by two factors: the increased competition, and the growing women's influence in the public arena. In order to fight these pressures and elevate their sense of manhood, the native-born men turned to "social Darwinist arguments that relegated blacks, immigrants and women to rungs of the evolutionary ladder below white Anglo-Saxon men" (qtd. in Furumota). Men's anxieties further increased with the public emergence of homosexuality in society. For the Middle class men, heterosexuality became a symbol of manhood, "and heterosexual men began to define themselves in opposition to anything considered feminine" (qtd. in Furumota).

The book has as its principal thesis the consideration of race as “a folk classification, a product of popular beliefs about human differences that evolved from 16th to 19th centuries” (Smedley, 2007, pag.24). The book also specifies three characteristics that distinguish the racial ideology in America: the absence of a category for biracial people, the homogenization of the black or African American Americans, and the impossibility to change a person’s race. (Smedley, 2007, pag.7)

Several decades ago the idea of women as subordinate was considered to be a universality by the aforementioned white, Western male anthropologists who lead the field. Despite an anthropologist’s endeavor to be unbiased, the fact is these traditional anthropologists came from a culture where many aspects of human life were male dominant. Though many studied

Masculinity has changed and evolved since the beginning of human creation. Males have had to adhere to the social norms of their time to survive without undue persecution. In the beginning of the 19th century, there was a shift in the way men could attain manhood. It was no longer easy for a man to enter into manhood with straightforward expectations and rituals. The state of manhood became difficult to obtain because of its precarious nature. During the same period, the industrial revolution was in full bloom giving birth to mass information outlets like newspapers, magazines, and advertisement: media. This set a prevailing state where boys and men alike could gain material on how to become or be men

Evans continues to trace the evolution of women’s roles in society, which increasingly diverged from men’s roles-- for indigenous women as male-dominated war metaphors became more culturally central, and for Europeans as men grew very economically successful compared to

The new society has offered people the principle of opportunity equality for all white men. Thus, traditional forms of privileges and elitism were set under attack (Brands et al.). Such development of relations allowing even people not belonging to aristocracy

According to Garbacik (2013), in Ancient Egypt, Ancient Japan, American Indians and Ancient Sumerian women were held in high regard, taking up “leadership posts” and were not considered “inferior” by their male counterparts. In fact, the terms “misogyny” and “Patriarchy” became more prominent in Victorian Britain, where the concept of “gender roles” were closely linked, which advocated female subordination and male dominance. In particular, through his ground-breaking theory of natural selection, Darwin (1859) depicted women as being inferior to men. Darwin theorised about “natural selection” and he suggested that men were “more courageous, pugnacious and energetic” (Darwin, 1859) than women. Darwin also never included species such as “hyenas, anglerfish, ring-tailed lemurs, black widow spiders, meerkat and praying mantis” (Garbacik, 2013) in his research that never shared dominant male and passive female characteristics, proving that his evidence was flawed, advocating a confirmation bias . What’s more, Darwin’s views of the female and male species, were bolstered in the 19th century, by the Victorian viewpoints that men were more “competitive” and “aggressive” compared to women who were more “altruistic” and “nurturing”. Not only was inequality amongst the sexes

In today’s society, and throughout modern history, masculinity has often taken the role of defining how men should act, and be seen amongst everyday living. Throughout Michael Kimmel’s excerpt from his critically acclaimed nonfiction Guyland excerpt published 2008, he addresses, and researches these social queues and aims to put perspective on why, and how the rules of masculinity define manhood. He does this through his vast use of credible resources, and stories of effected individuals which further support his claims and credibility. Not only does he provide several examples of well-known psychologists whose own ideals support those that he writes about, he also uses a variety of other professions ranging from psychologist, anthropologist, poets, and even well noted playwrights to show that his views and ideals of masculinity can be observed across all aspects of careers, and

This critical textual analysis will examine feminine identity and the essentialistic ideas of the late nineteenth century between men and women as elaborated by Kaplan and Rogers in “Essentialisms, Determinisms. It will include an analysis of theories regarding dichotomies of biological determinism and cranial classification. Essentialism argues that there are categories of objects and genres that have essential characteristics, notwithstanding individual variation, and that these essential characteristics define the objects and genres to an extent that they reveal truth (Kaplan and Rogers 27). Determinism is a theory or in some cases a doctrine. “Nature” has been the historical burden women have faced. It is not the only such burden, but it has been the largest and the heaviest. Psychological and social implications of essentialist beliefs create gender segregation, inequality, and is often used to excuse gender-based biases in society. These types of ideas are often used as a justification for misogynistic and essentialistic systems in society.

A week ago I found myself reading Patricia Hill Collins, “It’s All In the Family: Intersections of Gender, Race, and Nation” and it made me reflect on the ways in which both gender and race are socially built out of distorted interpretations of family. Collectively constructed as opposed to an innate understanding. We have grown dependent on dysfunctional projections of family, giving rise to a hierarchy which aims to serve all: “…a male headship that privileges and naturalizes masculinity as a source of authority…mothers comply with fathers, sisters defer to brothers, all with the understanding that boys submit to maternal authority until they become men.” (Collins 159) The commitment towards this flawed assemblage of characterizations, has in a way, normalized the social hierarchy. However, this expectation has become unrealistic. Many females find that they are not adequately prepared to survive in a male dominated country, although there is little rebellion against these imposed values.

Historically, men have held every position of power and status in known societies, civilized or otherwise. Men have been the fore-runners, the providers and the respected warriors of every age since the dawn of recorded time. These cultures did not confuse their identities or cultural roles in regards to gender; men were expected to win fame and fortune for themselves and their families, tribes or clans while women were expected to support their men in domesticity and child-rearing. Men knew what was expected of them since birth as they were often surrounded by masculine role-models in their own societies. However, modern masculinity has become something else entirely. Too much has been written about these time periods to rehash any of the

In the Wages of Whiteness (an edition revision) by David Roediger, an American labor historian, he examines the growth and social construction of race during the 1800s and its relations to white workers. Roediger states by labeling race based on its skin color and social status, white folks were“...seen as ‘naturally’ white, and Black workers become ‘intruders’ who are strongly suspected of being ‘loafers’ as well” (Roediger 19). The production of race formed once white workers accepted their class positions by accepting their identities as ‘not slaves’ and as ‘not Blacks’. In this case, there was a necessity for white workers to have its own sense of class and gender identity to determine who has power and who does not.

The stark differences between men and women seem to have existed for as long as men and women have existed. In early seventeenth century Virginia, men migrated for the rugged independence of the New World, and women avoided the same path due to the illness, danger, and isolation. A severe gender imbalance quickly emerged. To remedy this issue, women were essentially imported into the colony to marry the excess of single men. This pattern of marital immigration developed in deep contrast to contemporary mail-order marriages. These early mail-order brides had more rights in Jamestown than they ever could have had in their European homes. In “The Mail-Order Brides of Jamestown, Virginia,” Marcia Zug, writing for The Atlantic on August 31 of 2016, challenges the

19th century America was a time period in which the definition of masculinity grew through a man’s power and work. To be considered as “that man”, what was needed was power, wealth, and even the appearance of a man himself. It was often times violent in the battle for who was the “manlier man”, as it related to the real world of Twain’s 19th century. Masculinity was a way for these men to create dominance and get their way throughout duels and even bargaining. Twain’s view on 19th century America can be of comparison to Arthurian England with the comparison of a King and the lower man. Twain builds on the world that men have come to think that doing one bad thing, is even good for their wellbeing, and to hold that masculine image.