A Summary Of The Novel Manliness And Civilization

912 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Race as a social determining factor

MANLINESS AND CIVILIZATION : A CULTURAL HISTORY OF GENDER AND RACE IN THE UNITED STATES, 1880-1917. BY Gail Benderman.
Bendermans main point is to investigate the turn of the centuries connection between race and manhood. Bendermans book Manliness and Civilization thesis will state that “between 1890 and 1917, as white middle class men, actively worked to reinforce male power, their race became a factor which was crucial to gender” (Benderman, 4). “In ways which have not been well understood, whiteness was both a palpable fact and a manly ideal for these men” (5). Chapter one analyzes Jack Johnson and Jim Jefferies whom are two “strong” “manly” men. The only obvious difference between these men is one of the men’s races is white and the other …show more content…

In the Victorian years “manliness” was seen as physical and sexual restraint and moderation in all things. However, changes in society called for a different view of “manliness” as the 20th century drew near.. It is important to note the title of the book as being Manliness and Civilization, as the subjects of the book being “manliness” and “civilization”. The “manliness” of whites and white “civilization”.
Primary sources such as photos, pamphlets, newspapers and many monographs are used as evidence to support Bendermans thesis. Benderman uses the example of Tarzan to discuss how Tarzan was the ideal of masculinity and manliness because of his white skin. The depiction of Tarzan was used as a metaphor in her conclusion for her …show more content…

She believes that if a white man was to rape someone he wouldn’t be charged. However, if I black man was to rape someone, he would be charged and lynched. During this time if you were not of the white race, you didn’t have a say in society. This view came from Benderman because she is a white woman herself, she does everything in her power to determine if the white race is superior over the black race. White men determined the manliness of the society. Wither or not you were strong, or if you could hold back your sexual tendencies. Benderman not only address the male gender in her book she also addresses the female gender. She feels that “race suicide” occurs because women aren’t having enough babies to match the number of babies that immigrants coming into this country are having.
These attitudes towards gender and gender roles do play a role in our society because we all have our opinions on what race or gender is superior over the other. Some think the white race is superior, while others think the black race is. Same with gender most feel that the male gender is superior over the female gender due to the fact that the male gender is stronger, and less emotional than the female gender

Show More
Related

  • Summary Of Gail Bederman's Manliness And Civilization

    708 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Gail Bederman’s Manliness and Civilization, she aims to describe the concepts of manliness and masculinity at the turn of the century. Bederman explains that the concept of what it means to be a man is ever changing as a result of the ideology of the time as well as the material actions of the men. During the Progressive Era, many forces were at work that put pressure on the supremacy of white, middle class men. Some of these forces included the growing move toward empowered women, the unionization of the working class, and the move from self-employment to big, corporate business. She delves into the way that both racism and sexism were used to build up the concept of masculinity and the turn of the century discourse on civilization.

    Read More

  • Factory Labor and the Domestic Sphere in the Lowell Offering

    3258 Words  | 7 Pages

    Welter, Barbara. "The Cult of True Womanhood." The Many-Faceted Jacksonian Era: New Interpretations. Contributions in American History, number 67, Edward Pessen, ed. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1977.

    Read More

  • Bederman´s Book Manliness and Civilization and the Ideas of B. Wells

    1068 Words  | 3 Pages

    In Gail Bederman’s book, Manliness & Civilization, she dedicates a whole chapter to the ideas and views of Idea B. Wells. She also writes extensively about G. Stanley Hall, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and Theodore Roosevelt. Each of these people takes on a different view of manliness in “civilized” societies. Hall looks at the ideas of letting little boys be little savage; Gilman explores the ideas of white men needing white women; and Roosevelt tackles manliness and how it directly correlates to being masculine. In this chapter Bederman discusses how whites wove together manliness and racial violence, how Ida B Wells noticed lynching brutality, how she inverts the civilization discourse, her two tours to Britain and there results, and the ideas of the natural man and the primitive man.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Gail Bederman's, Manliness And Civilization

    963 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Gail Bederman’s, Manliness & Civilization: A Cultural History of Gender and Race in the United States 1880-1917, Bederman asserts, manhood, race, and gender are three cultural issues that are inseparable and have shaped our American and human history (4-5). Bederman supports her theory using the journalistic works of those effected, political giants using these social constructions for personal gain, and through pop culture during the period being analyzed.

    Read More

  • Deborah Gray White’s Ar’n’t I a Woman?

    1623 Words  | 4 Pages

    In the novel, the author proposes that the African American female slave’s need to overcome three obstacles was what unavoidably separated her from the rest of society; she was black, female, and a slave, in a white male dominating society. The novel “locates black women at the intersection of racial and sexual ideologies and politics (12).” White begins by illustrating the Europeans’ two major stereotypes o...

    Read More

  • The Threat of the Mulatto in The Birth of a Nation

    1425 Words  | 3 Pages

    Griffith harbors Blumer’s ideas on the dominant groups fear with his mulatto characters. Mulattos do threaten the position of white dominance. They cannot be totally defined as either black or white, and this moves them further from subordination and closer to white privilege.

    Read More

  • Gender Inequality In The Soul Of Black Folk And The Yellow Wallpaper?

    1130 Words  | 3 Pages

    During the twentieth century, people of color and women, suffered from various inequalities. W.E.B. Du Bois’ and Charlotte Perkins Gilman (formerly known as Charlotte Perkins Stetson), mention some of the concepts that illustrate the gender and racial divide during this time. In their books, The Soul of Black Folk and The Yellow Wallpaper, Du Bois’ and Gilman illustrate and explain issues of oppression, dismissal, and duality that are relevant to issues of race and gender.

    Read More

  • Summary Of The Man Who Was Almost A Man

    1592 Words  | 4 Pages

    Reaching manhood in a segregated society is frustrating. A frustrated adolescent of the oppressed part of such society looks for any means even violent one to gain freedom, power, and respect from its oppressors. In his short story, “The Man Who Was Almost a Man,” Richard Wright makes the character of Dave Saunders as a teenager boy who struggles to break childhood stage and becomes an adult. Regardless of being young gentleman who happened to be poor, black, and he is being perceived as a boy by his community, but he believes that he is a man. Mr. David Saunders is a servant of Mr. Hawkins, a white man, as most of other blacks during that time. Even though the slaves are free nominally at that time due to economic hardship, they work under whites like they used to be slaves. David also garners the consequence of it. To attain his freedom and show his manhood, he stops by Mr. Joe’s store to buy a gun. However, he got humiliated by the white gun shop owner not differently than Mr.

    Read More

  • Disorderly Women : Gender And Labor

    936 Words  | 2 Pages

    In “Disorderly Women: Gender and Labor Militancy in the Appalachian South,” Jacquelyn Hall explains that future generations would need to grapple with the expenses of commercialization and to expound a dream that grasped financial equity and group unanimity and also women’s freedom. I determined the reasons for ladies ' insubordination neither reclassified sexual orientation parts nor overcame financial reliance. I recollected why their craving for the trappings of advancement could obscure into a self-constraining consumerism. I estimated how a belief system of sentiment could end in sexual peril or a wedded lady 's troublesome twofold day. None of that, in any case, should cloud a generation’s legacy. I understand requirements for a standard of female open work, another style of sexual expressiveness, the section of ladies into open space and political battles beforehand cornered by men all these pushed against conventional limitations even as they made new susceptibilities.

    Read More

  • The House Behind the Cedars by Charles W. Chesnutt

    991 Words  | 2 Pages

    The author distinguishes white people as privileged and respectful compare to mulattos and blacks. In the racial society, white people have the right to get any high-class position in job or live any places. In the story, all white characters are noble such as Judge Straight lawyer, Doctor Green, business-man George, and former slaveholder Mrs. Tryon. Moreover, the author also states the racial distinction of whites on mulattos. For example, when Dr. Green talks to Tryon, “‘The niggers,’…, ‘are getting mighty trifling since they’ve been freed. Before the war, that boy would have been around there and back before you could say Jack Robinson; now, the lazy rascal takes his time just like a white man.’ ” (73) Additionally, in the old society, most white people often disdained and looked down on mulattos. Even though there were some whites respected colored people friendly, there were no way for colored people to stand parallel with whites’ high class positions. The story has demonstrations that Judge Straight accepted John as his assistant, Mrs. Tryon honor interviewed Rena, and George finally changed and decided to marry Rena; however, the discrimination is inevitable. For example, when Mrs. Tryon heard Rena was colored, she was disappointed. “The lady, who had been studying her as closely as good manners would permit, sighed regretfully.” (161) There, Mrs. Tryon might have a good plan for Rena, but the racial society would not accept; since Rena was a mulatto, Mrs. Tryon could not do anything to help Rena in white social life. The racial circumstance does not only apply on mulattos, but it also expresses the suffering of black people.

    Read More

  • Double Indemnity Gender Roles

    974 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the society we live in, gender plays a great role, is not biological rader it’s refereed to as a social behavior pattern. It is constructed on male and female character and traditional beliefs. The society has often reflected its passion on gender roles. For instance In the media today women are given roles that suit men which makes them challenge men for their right, they are represented as entertainment for men, women are likely to be the source of leading news stories nowadays.

    Read More

  • Hegemonic Masculinity in American Society

    1499 Words  | 3 Pages

    Summers, Martin. The Black Middle Class and the Transformation of Masculinity. Chapel Hill: University of Carolina Press, 2004.

    Read More

  • Avowed Identity

    765 Words  | 2 Pages

    Gender roles are based on the norms and standards in different societies (Flores 2012). Each societies has their own set of social norms, and the identities that fit those norms. In the United States masculine roles are associated with strength, dominance, and aggression. Women in the US are expected to be more passive, nurturing and subordinate (Flores 2012).

    Read More

  • Theme Of The Man Who Was Almost A Man

    1716 Words  | 4 Pages

    Understanding the time period of this narrative helps the reader fully comprehend the struggles Dave endures and how those struggles contribute to his strong desire to become a man. According to an article in the book, Short Stories for Students, “The Man Who Was Almost a Man” occurs in a rural southern community in the early years of the twentieth century. The first decades of the twentieth century were extremely difficult and sometimes even violent for African Americans in the South (Short Stories 208). The article further states the following: “Jim Crow segregation… [Kept blacks] oppressed with limited opportunities. Moreover, African-American masculinity was threatened during the time when “The Man Who Was Almost a Man” takes place, offering a useful context for Dave’s struggle for manhood and respect” (Short Stories 209). In addition, everything Dave does and experiences happens within the area between the Saunders’ home and Dave’s employer Hawkins’ large farm. Critics believe “This constricted setting suggests the limitations of Dave’s options and contributes to an atmosphere of entrapment” (Short Stories 208). The setting emphasizes the themes of rich and poor and white and black, which are evocative of the larger segregated culture (Short Stories 208). Ultimately, the time period and location of this short story stress the suppression of

    Read More

  • Personal Narrative: My Experience with Gender Roles

    638 Words  | 2 Pages

    Gender roles are unavoidable at any stage of your life. They are taught to you by parents, conveyed in the media, practiced and honored in organizations and supported by our government. No matter how many feminist groups attempt to bring the two sets of gender roles for males and females together, there will always be the unwritten expectations that males and females are taught. Boys will always play with guns and girls will always play with dolls. As long as this occurs, the ambitions for boys and girls will be directly related to the stereotypical form we are taught. It is up to the families, media and peers to use the gender roles appropriately.

    Read More

More about A Summary Of The Novel Manliness And Civilization

Open Document