What is masculinity? What are masculinities?
‘Masculinity’, as the Oxford English Dictionary states, is “The state or fact of being masculine; the assemblage of qualities regarded as characteristic of men; maleness, manliness.” Looking further, ‘masculine’ is “Of a personal attribute, an action, etc.: having a character befitting or regarded as appropriate to the male sex; vigorous, powerful. Of a man: manly, virile.” ‘Masculinities’are properties, characteristics, or behaviours considered typical to men.
While these answers seem to answer the question in reality they don’t. They’re vague and ambiguous, they leave a lot still unanswered. What are the characteristics of men? What befits them? What’s typical? Their ambiguity comes from the fact that ‘masculinity’ and what’s considered ‘manly’ is defined by one’s culture and society.
‘Manliness’ is in part a cultural ideal that men are encouraged to aspire to; like a guideline of how they should act and what whey they should live. Some re-occurring themes in this ideal are: leadership, being family-oriented (head of a family), virile, being a good provider (the head money-maker and thus the one putting the food on the table), being athletic, and being able to defend and protect others (including your country). These are some of the characteristics that are universally found as cultural ideals for men throughout history (Professor Parker has mentioned that the Odyssey could be seen as a cultural guideline for the ancient Greek men; it has these elements found in it).
But yet this ideal doesn’t resonate with the images of ‘manliness’ that I have in my head. Where do beards, perverted jokes and muscles come into play? The answer to that is the social definition of ‘manliness’ or the stereotype of men. Mass media has spread a certain idea to what men should be and how they look, act and think. TV, magazines, they all project a certain image of what is manly and what isn’t (aka what is feminine). This image is fundamentally based on sex, on reproduction, and what we are told to value in our modern society that will achieve it (wealth, looks, and popularity). It can be said that society is essentially based on reproduction; that the majority of our social interactions are to find mates. The media feed into this by selling attraction- they attach products or ideas to elements that are perceived to attract the opposite sex (whether what is perceived is actually what attracts the other gender or not and depending on what they’re trying to sell and to which gender).
Essentially the media has taken ‘manliness’ and marketed it. Take the Old Spice or Dos Equis ‘most interesting man in the world’ ads: the old spice ad is trying to sell deodorant to men, but they do this by playing on the stereotype of what women want and directing their attention to female audiences, “The man your man could smell like”, which in turn gets the attention of men; the Dos Equis ad shows the ‘most interesting man in the world’ being surrounded by women, fame and riches and plays on the idea that if you drink their beer you can get them too. Not only are they playing on the idea of manliness, but they are also defining it in this manner. Besides ads like these, Tv and movies defines the image of what is manly with shows that depict ‘manly’ characters behaving in certain ways to which then we associate these behaviours with being manly, an example being the characters Clint Eastwood plays in his western movies.
But what is Masculinity? In 1984 for example on p.33, “The girl with dark hair was coming towards him across the field. With what seemed a single movement she tore off her clothes and flung them disdainfully aside. Her body was white and smooth, but it aroused no desire in him, indeed he barely looked at it.” This is a dream Winston is having, yet he doesn’t feel any desire to a women’s naked body? That definitely goes against the media portrayal that men are always horny, because being manly requires that a man have a long list of sexual conquests; this is one of the media’s stereotypes of manliness which has roots to the cultural ideal of men being virile. Looking back on the definition of masculinity, “The state or fact of being masculine; the assemblage of qualities regarded as characteristic of men; maleness, manliness,” I find that I have no real clue on any definite aspects to masculinity. There’s the physical difference of men, and the general stereotypes portrayed in media that I can use to reference so I guess masculinity can be defined as ‘chiseled jaws and broad shoulders’ or I could go with the traditional models of masculinity and specific male areas of life to define it (specific jobs associated with men), but that would be outdated in our modern days with women invading those areas and showing their own proficiency in it. So I must wrap this blog up with the answer of “I don’t know” this is really such a vague topic that I really can’t put my finger on something and go, ‘aha, this is masculinity!’
masculine, adj. and n.
Third edition, December 2000; online version September 2011. <http://www.oed.com.proxy.lib.sfu.ca/view/Entry/114561>; accessed 15 November 2011. An entry for this word was first included in New English Dictionary, 1905.
masculinity, n.
Third edition, December 2000; online version September 2011. <http://www.oed.com.proxy.lib.sfu.ca/view/Entry/114566>; accessed 15 November 2011. An entry for this word was first included in New English Dictionary, 1905.
Masculinities, n.
http://www.scrabblefinder.com/word/masculinities/
old spice ad
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpUrz9RvuPk&feature=autoplay&list=SPB9F260CE56D04E73&lf=list_related&playnext=2
Dos Equis ad
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U18VkI0uDxE
Elizabeth, I am impressed! This is a nuanced engagement with the gender issue as it appears in both Orwell's novel and our own society. I am particularly impressed by your dissatisfaction with dictionary definitions of the masculine gender role. These definitions tends to raise more questions than they answer: as you say, the definition fluctuates depending on cultural and historical context. :)
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