Manhood in America: A Cultural HistoryFree Press, 1996 - 544 pages In a time when psychologists are rediscovering Darwin, and much of our social behavioral is being reduced to ancient, hard-wired patterns, Michael Kimmel's history of manhood in America comes as a much needed reminder that our behavior as men and women is anything but stable and fixed. Kimmel's authoritative, entertaining, and wide-ranging history of men in America demonstrates that manhood has meant very different things in different eras. Drawing on advice books, magazines, political pamphlets, and popular novels and films, he makes two surprising claims: First, manhood is homosocial - that is, men need to prove themselves to each other, not to women. Second, definitions of manliness have evolved in response to women's movements. When women act, men react. Originally, manliness was an internal virtue and a democratic ideal - British men were viewed as fops, and American men had to be independent, honest, and responsible. By the 1890s, however, manhood changed to masculinity, something that had to be constantly proven through the new explosion of sports, fraternities, and fashion. Finally, in 1936, Lewis Terman, the creator of the IQ test, developed an "M-F" test to analyze adolescents' masculinity and femininity. Until well into the 1960s, the test penalized boys who preferred to draw flowers instead of forests, or who knew that a teacup was used for drinking tea. But just as Terman's categories and questions seem outdated to us, so will our own standards seem temporary to our successors. |
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Page 3
... gender visible — at least to women . Courses on gender in the universities are populated largely by women , as if the term only applied to them . " Woman alone seems to have ' gender ' since the category itself is defined as that aspect ...
... gender visible — at least to women . Courses on gender in the universities are populated largely by women , as if the term only applied to them . " Woman alone seems to have ' gender ' since the category itself is defined as that aspect ...
Page 4
... gender do not refer only to the marginalized " others " ; they also describe me . Writing a history of men in America , I have placed gender in the center of my historical analysis . I argue that the quest for manhood— the effort to ...
... gender do not refer only to the marginalized " others " ; they also describe me . Writing a history of men in America , I have placed gender in the center of my historical analysis . I argue that the quest for manhood— the effort to ...
Page 209
... gender - role identities and that passive male homosexuals manifested a feminine gender - role iden- tity . ( The " normality " of the active homosexuals was theoretically fi- nessed by the authors , whose theories required that all ...
... gender - role identities and that passive male homosexuals manifested a feminine gender - role iden- tity . ( The " normality " of the active homosexuals was theoretically fi- nessed by the authors , whose theories required that all ...
Contents
The Birth of the SelfMade Man | 13 |
SelfControl and Fantasies of Escape | 43 |
PART | 79 |
Copyright | |
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