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 But just as Terman's categories and questions seem outdated to us, so will our own standards seem temporary to our successors.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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... Society was the pioneer of the modern hereditary , patriotic Society , and its influences led to the formation of all of them . Some of these constitutions , with the circulars and bulletins of the California Society , were sent , year ...
... Society was the pioneer of the modern hereditary , patriotic Society , and its influences led to the formation of all of them . Some of these constitutions , with the circulars and bulletins of the California Society , were sent , year ...
Page 65
... Society Network (CiSONET, organised by the WZB für Sozialwissenschaften as an FP7 (the EC's Seventh Framework Programme) research programme under the leadership of Jürgen Kocka) project concisely summarised the different aspects of this ...
... Society Network (CiSONET, organised by the WZB für Sozialwissenschaften as an FP7 (the EC's Seventh Framework Programme) research programme under the leadership of Jürgen Kocka) project concisely summarised the different aspects of this ...
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... society, but in this case, as part of the institutional structure, it is a conception held by its own members as applied to their own society. It is thus the society that is the relevant object of evaluation to which both terms of the ...
... society, but in this case, as part of the institutional structure, it is a conception held by its own members as applied to their own society. It is thus the society that is the relevant object of evaluation to which both terms of the ...
Contents
The Birth of the SelfMade Man | 13 |
SelfControl and Fantasies of Escape | 43 |
PART | 79 |
Copyright | |
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American manhood argued Barbara Ehrenreich baseball become Bernarr Macfadden Billy Sunday Boston celebrated Chicago Christian cited City Civil claimed Coeducation cowboy culinity cultural feminization Culture D+N+ David decades domestic economic Education effeminacy effeminate efforts emasculated fantasy father fear feel female feminine feminist feminization film fraternal frontier gender George girls hero Heroic Artisan History homosexual homosocial hood ideal James Jesus John labor Leslie Fiedler liberation lives magazine male bonding man's manly masculinist masculinity men's men's liberation men's movement men's rights middle-class moral mother movement Muscular Muscular Christianity nation nineteenth century novel Owen Wister Oxford University Press percent Pleck political Pro-Feminist Men race rituals Robert role Self-Made sexual social society sons sphere Theodore Roosevelt tion traditional transformed turn urban virility virtue William wimp Wister woman women workers workplace writes wrote York young