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A New Masculinity
Contributing teacher:
Daniel Kotzin
Time period: 1880–1910
Point
In recent years, historians have grappled with changing definitions of American male identity that developed at the end of the nineteenth century. Casey Blake argues that during the 1890s American men were looking for ways to "compensate" for what they regarded, even if subconsciously, as the feminine elements of modern life, particularly the rapid urbanization and industrialization they saw around them. In response, a new definition of manhood, what Blake terms "aggressive male individualism," emerged. Some men expressed a desire for "raw experience," meaning a need to get out into nature and engage in physical activity. It also meant engaging in politics. Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) personifies Blake's turn-of-the-century male as someone who stressed his own masculine physicality and also threw himself into the difficult world of American politics.
Counterpoint
In her book Manliness and Civilization: A Cultural History of Gender and Race in the United States, 1880–1917 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995), Gail Bederman discusses the role of race in the changing definitions of masculinity at the end of the nineteenth century, something Blake passed over. Like Blake, Bederman uses Theodore Roosevelt as a model for her argument, but she emphasizes how his belief in spreading "civilization" to other countries helped to create and sustain his masculine identity. Bederman, drawing on the ideas of French philosopher Michel Foucault (1926-84), maintains that white men believed in their racial superiority because they had both "primitive" manliness, demonstrated through physical strength and combat, and "civilized" manliness, demonstrated by American culture. This way of thinking contributed toward an imperialistic expansion of American power and, according to Bederman, helped to redefine the "superior manhood" of the white race.
Another interpretation of masculinity at the end of the nineteenth century is that of Susan Curtis in her article "The Son of Man and God the Father: The Social Gospel and Victorian Masculinity," in Meanings for Manhood: Constructions of Masculinity in Victorian America, edited by Mark C. Carnes and Clyde Griffen (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990), 67–78. Curtis examines religion, rather than race, to explore the new definitions of masculinity. Disagreeing with historians who see Christianity as becoming increasingly feminized during this period, Curtis points to Social Gospel ministers, who reshaped the image of Jesus, emphasizing his role as a "manly" reformer. For Curtis, religion, not race, helped to redefine masculinity and promote the Social Gospel ideal of activism in public life.
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