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--- bederman_manliness_civilization [2026/02/27 16:14] – [Chapter 1: Remaking Manhood through Race and "Civilization"] smilton
+++ bederman_manliness_civilization [2026/03/11 05:10] (current) – [Chapter 3: "Teaching Our Sons to Do What We Have Been Teaching the Savages to Avoid": G. Stanley Hall, Racial Recapitulation, and the Neurasthenic Paradox] hcovin
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 For Bederman's explanation on how racial difference can bring the types of civilization in a very clear way. That for Anglo-saxon's who were believing that they had the highest racial advancement, they were the most civilized, since their women stayed at home and did not perform hard labor, and their men were providing the ability to keep their families and wives at home and away from the labor. The gender expectations for everyone to partake in made the racial aspect for how a society is civilized or uncivilized due to how different societies and races viewed the division of labor for men and women. (Sage Milton)
+There is a strong linkage between views of masculinity contemporary to a time period and the physical manifestation of men’s bodies. In the antebellum period, the ideal male body was tall and sleek, showing a man could restrain himself from acting in excess and did not need to bend himself to physical labor. The most popular sports of the time all involved cardiovascular capabilities, and physical strength and muscle would be of little benefit (baseball). By the late 19th century and early 19th century, the ideal male body changed to being much more muscular and strong. This change is reflected in popular sports and media of the time, in which body building, football, and boxing were the most popular which all require men to have more physical strength. (Tanner Gillikin)
 ===== Chapter 2: "The White Man's Civilization on Trial": Ida B. Wells, Representations of Lynching, and Northern Middle-Class Manhood =====
 In the chapter, it is claimed that the Victorian idea of masculinity was self control in the face of sexual desire. It was seen as unmanly to participate in masturbation, commercial sex, and rape making people see black men as less manly due to the black rapist myth. However, in marriage, it was seen as masculine to have a powerful sexual passion with a forceful virality and strong manliness. (Henry Prior)
+Discussing the civil activity of Ida B. Wells, G. Bederman frames her trip to Britain in 1893 and 1894 as an attempt to acquire substantial media coverage of lynching in the United States through its exposure in Britain. In particular, Wells acutely understood the intricacies of the civilization discourse in America, which led her to argue that lynching revealed barbarism in the United States. This claim alone was not sufficient to generate meaningful discussion in the United States, but the possibility of being viewed as “uncivilized” by Britain ultimately sparked a series of debates and discussions regarding lynching in the United States. - Nikolai Kotkov
+The creation of the control of sexual desire aiding in the ideals of masculinity was almost a strictly white American belief, and allowed for Northern white men to see themselves as superior in different ways to both African American men and Southern white men. The usage of lynching in the south as a punishment for their belief that all African American men were desiring sexual relations with white women and the "sexual fantasies" surrounding the myth of black rapists. Having these beliefs around lynching and the overtly sexual nature of African American men made the notion of civility as a major part of white American men's masculinity. (Sage Milton)
 ===== Chapter 3: "Teaching Our Sons to Do What We Have Been Teaching the Savages to Avoid": G. Stanley Hall, Racial Recapitulation, and the Neurasthenic Paradox =====
+According to G. Bederman, one of the major intellectual preoccupations of the psychologist and pedagogue G. Stanley Hall was the attempt to solve the neurasthenic paradox. From the perspective of American Victorian society, neurasthenia resulted from the overuse of the limited amount of nerve force spent on developing the intelligence necessary to meet the expectations and standards of civilization. The core of the paradox lay in the assumption that only white manhood could create civilization, but this form of civilization inevitably deprived white men of their nerve force. The psychologist Hall developed the recapitulation theory to find a possible solution to this paradox. In his view, white men could avoid nerve drainage by accumulating significant reserves through exposure to “savage” behavior during childhood. Hall argued that children were able to relive the “savage state” of their ancestors as a result of the developmental and gradual nature of the human evolutionary process. - Nikolai Kotkov
+After giving up on the making of a 'super-man' Hall shifted his focus to adolescent races that he believed would eventually become the perfect human. It is also interesting to see the the way that Hall was reinforcing a new view of masculinity that was not about self restrain and instead was focused on passion and aggression. (Hannah)
 ===== Chapter 4: "Not to Sex-But to Race!" Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Civilized Anglo-Saxon Womanhood, and the Return of the Primitive Rapist =====
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 Bederman explains the idea that civilization was used to argue that the advancement of humans is dependent on race instead of sex, however, discourse surrounding “civilization” always involved both race and gender. “Civilization” is a fluid ideology and can be used to reinforce differing political agendas like validating white supremacist ideas and challenging the dominance of men. In a racial sense, “civilization” is used to reinforce definitions of manhood, specifically in the late 19th Century where Theodore Roosevelt introduced frontier civilization ideology. The frontier was used to showcase conflicts between savages and civilized people. The identifying feature that separates the two is racial identity. Americans were identified as white masculine expansionists and the center of white superiority. Traits of these men included physical strength, resourcefulness, and showcased traditional gender roles as a protector. On the contrary, indigenous people were seen as brutal savages and the conceptualization of this group allowed American men to justify violence against them. The American man during this period used conquest and conflict with “savages” to contribute to the definition and portrayal of manhood. (Reiley Gibson)
+GOT TO HERE --WBM