In the wake of the increasingly popular feminist movement in modern USA, is masculinity and masculine history becoming increasingly repressed?
Synopsis:
This piece aims to investigate if masculinity is being repressed in contemporary American society. By drawing on contentions made mostly by accredited historian Michael Kimmel’s ‘Manhood in America,’ which outlines the course of masculine history, this piece will also consider primarily the feminist movement and its profound effect on men and masculinity in modern America. Also considered as a result of the feminist movement is the Men’s Liberation Movement and the creation of Men’s Studies in the academic realm and how they each respectively aim to rediscover masculinity, a masculinity blurred by not only feminism but also economic and social institutions. Conclusively, this piece will close with an interpretation of the research question by the order, is masculine history and masculinity becoming increasingly repressed in modern America?
Considering Masculinity and Feminism:
Masculinity is an area of history that in recent times has been overlooked as an area worth investigating and analysing. Prior to the rise of the feminist movement in the 1960s and 70s, a man’s identity was derived entirely from activities in the public sphere and measured by accumulated wealth and status. However, the nature of the feminist movement of the 1960s and 70s saw a shift in focus from masculinity, as limitations imposed on women were thrust into the political limelight and challenged. Such limitations were taken for granted by men of all spheres, but more specifically men in America, where the feminist movement has taken its most powerful form and continues to ripple into the country’s contemporary social landscape. Accredited2 historian Michael Kimmel’s ‘Manhood in America’ has established itself as a highly influential source for the chosen research question, as Kimmel constructs a history of changing ideals of manhood from the Revolutionary War to modern day America. It is through the consideration of Kimmel’s well structured novel and other such sources that the repression of masculinity in America can be truly explored, all perspectives must be brought forward and juxtaposed against each other by means of understanding present day masculinity. The history and significance of the feminist movement transcends into the contemporary world and still exists in various forms, understanding its goals and objectives, motivation and vision and intended audience is imperative to understanding its effect, direct or indirect on masculinity in America.2 With various forms of feminism continuing to gain ascendency, masculine traits and ideals are being moved aside for a new social construct, one that focuses less on our gender history and more on our status and worth within society. This paper will contend that the repression of masculinity is ultimately contingent on the volatility of the feminist movement.
Section 1: Origins of Feminism and Masculinity
To thoroughly gain an understanding for masculinity in modern Americas, feminism and its constructs must be explored, and in relation to the chosen research question, the ongoing feminist movement in particular. In 1960, the world of American women was limited in almost every aspect, from family life to the workplace.3 A woman was expected to follow one path: to marry in her early 20s, start a family as soon as possible, and devote her life to homemaking. The 38 percent of American women who worked in 1960 were largely limited to jobs as teacher, nurse or secretary, women were generally unwelcome in professional programs.3 The misogynist perspective was common place among men in America, insisting that women be excluded from professional facets of life, including education.
‘Hell yes, we have a quota – We do keep women out when we can. We don’t want them here – and they don’t want them elsewhere either, whether or not they’ll admit it’
– Medical School Dean 19602
Women in America had a history of being inferior to men, and, as a result, this power dynamic acted as the motivation for the rise to prominence of the feminist movement. In the 1960s and 70s women across America united to fight a common cause, a patriarchy that was oppressing every facets of their lives, including their private lives.3 Radical feminists borne out the movement in the 1960s sought to abolish patriarchy by challenging existing social norms and institutions, rather than through a purely political process. The patriarchal beliefs of the time made their way into the women’s private life by establishing a set of unreasonable standards and expectations, highlighted by historian Dr George W Henry:
Under ideal circumstances, the father should be an understanding, tolerant but virile and decisive male. The mother should have gentleness, patience, and passivity usually associated with womanhood. Any mixture, such as an effeminate father and an aggressive masculine mother is likely to be disconcerting to the child and accentuate homosexual tendencies. – Dr. George W. Henry (1937)
Originally, the feminist movement of the 1970s focused on dismantling workplace inequality and the discrimination of women in various facets of personal life, however, when the movement seeped into the contemporary world, it sought, in some forms, to target masculinity and the values that it stood for. As the feminist movement achieved consistent milestone victories in society,3 many women now sought to challenge men, in a way that made them question their own inherent masculinity and what it had stood for for so many years. One of these more significant milestones was the ‘Battle of the Sexes’ tennis match that took place between Billy Jean King and Bobby Riggs on September 20 1973. Women’s tennis star Billy Jean King faced off against Bobby Riggs in a exhibition match that was widely anticipated by the public at the time. 55-year-old Riggs, a former Wimbledon champion, believed he could still beat any woman player, and, after much prodding, King eventually took him up on the challenge. Riggs hyped the contest with a slew of misogynistic comments, including that ‘the best way to handle women is to keep them pregnant and barefoot.’ Yet King, despite the widely held sexist assumptions imposed on her at the time, finished the match victorious eviscerating Riggs 6-4, 6-3, 6-3 in front of more than 30,000 fans at the Houston Astrodome, which at the time was the largest crowd ever to watch a match of tennis. Kings victory had a rippling positive effect on the feminist movement of the 1970s particularly within the domain of sport. The masculine dominance that surrounded the sporting sphere was under scrutiny and the feminist movement had successfully achieved another imperative milestone in their campaign. The state of masculinity in America was quickly becoming under attack, the effects of these attacks would continue to ripple into modern America.
Kimmel’s ‘Manhood in America’ makes a number of assertions that relate directly to the state of masculinity in modern USA. He argues that, much like the feminist movement made gender visible for women, men too should make their gender visible.3 The book is a story of American Manhood ‘ how it has changed over time and yet how certain principles have remained the same. ‘Manhood in America’ chronicles how the self made man sought to secure his sense of himself in the years before the American Civil War (Chapters 1 and 2); how he confronted new challenges in an increasingly industrialized, urban and crowded society from the end of the civil war to the first decades of the twentieth century; how he turned leisure activities like sports and strove to develop all male preserves to boost his self-image (chapters 3,4 and 5); how he made it through the depression and the two world wars (Chapters 6 and 7); and how he moved to post-war suburbia and now, in contemporary America deals primarily with the pressures of feminism among a number of things.2
Kimmel argues that in America, the treatment of the male military, political, scientific, or literary figures reflects the idea that their gender, their masculinity, had noting to do with their military exploits, policy decisions, scientific breakthroughs, or writing styles and subjects.2 It is through considering these assertions made by Kimmel that it can contended that masculinity has been repressed in the wake of the growing prominence of the feminist movement.2
Section 2: Repression
Historically, masculinity has been at the forefront of social prioritisation. In early texts such as the Iliad by Homer, a warrior culture surrounded masculinity and men. For men who shunned the warrior culture or for some reason did not fully engage with it, they faced being criticized or ostracized. Being a coward or declining an opportunity to engage in war or battles in the society portrayed in The Iliad was one of the worst ways possible for any male to be against much of what notions of masculinity is defined by.
In modern America, this warrior culture, or any culture of masculinity and its history is essentially absent when juxtaposed against masculine cultures of the past. The turn of the twentieth century was a crisis for masculinity in the eyes of Kimmel, in part due to the military mobilization of World War 1, but, even before the economic crash in 1929 ‘men’s work was an increasingly unreliable proving ground’.2 The problems with American masculinity continued into the 1940s with the Second World War which much like the First World War, turned out to be only a temporary respite for American men in the struggle to prove their manhood. First their were substantial difficulties in coping with the aftermath of the war when, in the 1950s ‘the suburban breadwinner father didn’t know exactly who he was.’2Anxious about over conformity, middle class men were nevertheless ‘unable and willing to break free of domestic responsibilities to become rebels on the run’2 Kimmel characterises the 1950s as a decode of discontent and containment, that was to give way in the 1960s when ‘all of the marginalized groups whose suppression had been thought necessary for men to build secure identities began to rebel.’2 It is during this period that many men had difficulty with the challenges from the feminist movement, and as a result, by the mid 1970s were calling for ‘men’s liberation’2 to free themselves of the constricting roles to which they had been consigned.
Most men responded with either hostility or stunned silence to the feminist movement in its early years. At the same time during the first half of the 1970s, some men, mostly centred around colleges and universities, were starting to consciously engage with feminist ideas and politics, and to ask a potentially subversive question: What does this all have to do with us? One of the first organized responses by U.S. men to the re-emergence of feminism was the organisation of “men’s liberation” consciousness-raising groups, workshops, and news- letters.6
Men’s liberation discourse walked a tightrope from the very beginning. First, movement leaders acknowledged that sexism had been a problem for women and that feminism was a necessary social movement to address gender inequities. But they also stressed the equal importance of the high costs of the male sex role to men’s health, emotional lives, and relationships. In short, they attempted to attract men to feminism by constructing a discourse that stressed how the “male role” was “impoverished,” “unhealthy,” and even “lethal” for men. Thus, from the outset, there were obvious strains and tensions from the movement’s attempt to focus simultaneously on men’s institutional power and the “costs of masculinity” to men. By the mid- to late 1970s, men’s liberation had split directly along this fissure. On one hand, an overtly anti-feminist men’s rights movement developed. Men’s rights organizations stressed the costs of narrow conceptions of masculinity to men and either downplayed or angrily disputed feminist claims that patriarchy benefited men at women’s expense. On the other hand, a pro-feminist (some- times called “antisexist”)6 men’s movement developed. This movement tended to emphasize the primary importance of joining with women to confront patriarchy, with the goal of doing away with men’s institutionalized privileges. Patriarchy may dehumanize men, pro-feminists argued, but the costs of masculinity are linked to men’s power.6
It becomes clear that men didn’t intend to dismantle to the momentum of the feminist movement through the men’s liberation movement but rather to discover masculinity entirely once again. In addition to the liberation movement, masculinity studies or ‘Men’s studies’ was created as a result of ultimately the repression of masculine ideals during the feminist movement.
Masculinity Studies is an interdisciplinary field of cultural, social, historical, political, psychological, economic, and artistic analysis that interrogates the constructions of masculinity in communities across the world and at various times in history.2 It also looks at the tense and complex relationship between hegemonic masculinities (that is, the idea of a ‘real man’ in a given time and place) and subordinate masculinities (masculinities that, in a given time and place, fall short of the ‘real man’ ideal). For example, being involved in sports and being a provider are the examples of American hegemonic masculinity, while shunning sports and being a stay-at-home-dad are examples of subordinate masculinities. Usually, hegemonic masculinities have power and meet with social approval, while subordinate ones do not. Throughout history, men have paid a steep price for not adhering to, or consciously resisting, hegemonic models. Masculinity-studies scholars know, however, that times change, and that what was subordinate half a century ago, may be relatively mainstream, if not hegemonic, now.” Because masculinity-studies scholars realize that sex and gender are separate entities, they also study the lives of, and become advocates for, transgender individuals who are born biologically female but live as men.
Much like the Men’s Liberation Movement, the creation of Men’s Studies is directly linked to the attempts made by men to rediscover their masculinity. The subject gained popularity in the 1990s8 and in contemporary America numerous institutions such as the American Men’s Studies Association have been established to further explore masculinity and its interplaying influences.
Section 3: Conclusions:
Masculinity in America seems to be in a constant state of flux and development, loosely as a result of the feminist movement in America. The qualities that once made masculinity so prevalent in society have repressed and collapsed, not solely as a result of the feminist influence, but more so a general shift in societal values. In looking into the future, Kimmel stresses that he is not calling for androgyny or a male dominated American social landscape, but more so he claims ‘we must begin to imagine a world of equality in which we also embrace and celebrate difference.’2 This change will not come about through a revolutionary upheaval but as ‘the result of countless quiet daily struggles by American men to free themselves from the burdens of proof.’ Moreover, Kimmel believes that men will be helped in this transformation by the very people they have so desperately tried to keep out ‘feminist women, gay men and lesbians, and people of colour.’2 Kimmel concludes: ‘the battle to prove manhood is a battle that can never be win. Inly by renouncing the battle itself’ can we American men come home from our wars, heal our wound, and breather a collective sigh of relief.’ 2
Conclusively, the repression of masculinity in modern America can be attributed partially to the feminist movement of the 1960s-present. The feminist movement paved the way for gender equality and continues to fight for justice in modern America,3 masculinity benefits both positively and negatively from this success. The feminist movement left men stunned and wondering, where has masculinity been during the century long transition that is the feminist movement. This ambiguity led to the formation of a number of organisations and movements including the Men’s Liberation movement which sought to rediscover masculinity in the wake of growing feminist influence. Additionally, the academic field of ‘Men’s Studies’ gained ascendency following the feminist movement, particularly in the 1990s,7 with men seeking to discover masculine traditions that had been lost in history and analyse them within a contemporary society. However, the creation of these entities has essentially resulted in an increased interest and application of masculine history in America. Both the Men’s Liberation Movement and the establishment of Men’s Studies have enabled masculinity to be treated as its own historical focal point. History has been dictated by both men and women, however, history has not addressed why men do what they do in the discourse of history.2
However, it seems mostly that the repression of masculinity in America was largely attributed to the economic and cultural institutions of society. It has become increasingly difficult for men to prove their masculinity in the modern world, this, coupled with the continued influence of feminism and radical feminism has led to men constantly asking questions about their masculinity rather than being confident in their inherent values.
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