To be masculine is to have the particular qualities of a male, especially strength and aggressiveness. Society has pressed the idea of masculine as being the strong protector. When taking a look at media when looking at characters that are representing masculinity, they are strong, muscular and are often the hero but they may also be the villain. The main focus of masculinity in our society is the ability to be a protector, someone to possibly be afraid of. Masculinity and power being the same thing are also ideas pressed on us by society. We get these ideas from authority figures and the suppression of women's rights. We don't see that as often in our culture presently but in other countries and our history we see that men have asserted a dominance over females.
Using this this definition of masculinity one can quickly see that Winston from 1984 is not masculine at all. Winston conforms and is scared of the idea of being caught, he doesn't hold any form of power. He is not aggressive and not someone to be feared. In the novel 1984 the people seem to of escaped the ties of our societies outlook on masculinity. Men and women were equal with the only difference being biological. Once newspeak had been fully developed I doubt the words masculine and feminine would even exist. The people would not know that masculinity represented strength and power. The only people who embody our societies definition of masculinity is Big Brother and the thought police. Big Brother is strong, powerful, people respect and fear him he is the perfect example of what the popular concept of masculinity is.
With the contrast of 1984 and our present culture, you can see that society is what shapes our definition of masculinity. Not only our society in the present but society in the past as well. The tradition of the man being a protector and strong goes back to the beginning of the human race when men were the hunters and warriors. In 1984 people are not shown the history of the sterotypical gender roles so they don't associate certain character traits with certain genders. As we progress we have slowly began to break the gender stereotypes that tie masculinity to strength and femininity to fair. We are beginning to recognize that we shouldn't tie words like masculine to the characteristics of power but we still have a long way to go before the idea is completely gone.
Good work, Kaila! This is a strong engagement with the masculine stereotypes in our society and with the issue of gender in Orwell's 1984. I urge you to keep thinking about the novel in this light. For instance, do you think Big Brother's hyper-masculinity and Winston's feminization are at all related?
ReplyDeleteWhere this post could improve, however, is in your discussion of specific cultural sources (media, pop culture, etc.) from which we get our ideas about the 'ideal' man and woman. Can you identify some concrete examples?