Why are men always trying to prove their masculinity? At least some
of theblame may date back to 1832, when Senator Henry Clay declared the
United States "a nation of self-made men."
That seemingly innocuous statement of national pride has some
profound psychological implications, contends Michael Kimmel, Ph.D., a
sociologist at the State University of New York, Stony Brook. If men are
self-made, "it means that you can always be unmade. You have to
continually prove your masculinity. You watch Jack Palance doing his
one-armed pushups at age 77 and you think, When does it end? When do men
get to stop proving it?"
In his book, Manhood in America: A Cultural History (Free Press),
Kimmel traces the evolution of manhood from its original conception--as
simply a stage of life, the opposite of childhood, something all men
possessed--to what it is today: a term fraught with insecurity, emotional
baggage, and gender politics. Among the revelations he uncovers along the
way: around the time of World War I, pink was a boy color and blue was
for girls. (It's not clear exactly why, after years of debate in
magazines, parents flip-flopped.)
In an interview with PSYCHOLOGY TODAY, Kimmel singled out some key
moments in American manhood:
1820: Henpecked husband Rip Van Winkle awakes from a 20-year nap
and learns his wife has died, "When he finds out," notes Kimmel, "a smile
creeps across his face and he lives happily ever after, hanging out in
front of the saloon."
1832: Henry Clay's declaration that "we are a nation of self-made
men."
1840: During the presidential election campaign, challenger William
Henry Harrison plays the "wimp card," portraying himself as a manly
man--born in a log cabin and fond of hard cider--while casting aspersions
on incumbent Martin Van Buren for his ruffled shirts and for installing
indoor plumbing in the White House. Harrison wins,but in an ironic coda
catches pneumonia on the day of his inauguration when he manfully braves
the weather sans overcoat despite record cold temperatures. He dies a
month later.
1845: Henry David Thoreau ventures into Walden Woods and does his
own Robert Bly initiation ceremonies. Thoreau dunks himself in Walden
Pond and barely contains his urge to devour raw woodchuck. 'If he could
have," Kimmel quips, "he would have gone into a sweat lodge."
1848: The first women's rights convention draws 30 male supporters,
including abolitionist Frederick Douglass, who is subsequently denounced
by newspapers as an "Aunt Nancy Man."
1860: The Civil War, with a manly metaphor--"brother fighting
brother." The message: Events are experienced through masculinity.
Shortly before the war's end, Confederate leader Jefferson Davis
allegedly escapes from Richmond, which is surrounded by Union troops, by
dressing as a woman.
1897: The Golden Age of Fraternity. Nearly 1 in 3 men belong to
fraternal orders like the Freemasons.
1902: Birth of the cowboy myth: The first Western novel, The
Virginian, is published.
1910: The Boy Scouts is founded "to rescue boys from the feminizing
clutches of mothers and Sunday School teachers, and to get them out into
the woods to learn how to be men."
1905-1915: Fed up with wimpy ministers and a bland Savior, the
Muscular Christian movement reinvents Jesus as 'a kind of religious
Rambo." The movement emphasizes the Son of God's carpentry background and
such macho Bible tales as Jesus kicking the Honey changer out of the
temple.
1929: The Depression throws an entire generation of men out of
work, depriving them of one of the key arenas in which to prove their
manhood.
1930: A Hollywood producer recommends that a budding actor named
Marion Michael Morrison change his name to something less feminine.
Morrison later becomes an icon under a macho, monosyllabic moniker: "John
Wayne."
1936: Legendary social psychologist Lewis Terman invents the "M-F"
scale, a behavioral checklist that alerts parents if their boys aren't
turning out okay (i.e., heterosexual). Among the "danger" signs: boys who
keep a diary or like to take baths.
1953: First issue of Playboy.
1965: President Lyndon Johnson opts not to withdraw the American
troops that JFK had sent to Vietnam, lest he be thought "less of a man
than Kennedy."
1967: The hippie movement rejects the traditional view of
masculinity, embracing long, flowing hair and clothing. Hit song: "Are
You a Boy or Are You a Gid?
1982: Real Men Don't Eat Quiche hits the best. seller list. Some
men don't get the joke and mistake the book for a manifesto.
1991: Robert Bly's Iron John inspires thousands of men to head into
the woods to rediscover their wild, "warrior selves."
1992: Bill Clinton becomes the first president with a dual-career
marriage--and is promptly wimp-baited for having a successful, ambitious
wife.
1995: The Million Man March on Washington, D.C., brings attention
to issues of black masculinity and male responsibility.
PHOTO (COLOR): Bill Clinton
PHOTO (COLOR): The Million Man of March
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