Bederman frames critical conversations about masculinity through Foucaltian discourse - in other words, the theory that the hegemonic assumptions of what is true inform every conversation about “truth”, even those critical of that truth. It is in this way that feminist and African-American critiques of white masculinity in the Progressive Era never made the argument that the hegemonic masculinity was something to be dismantled. Instead, white feminist critics argued that ideas of “white civilization” should be expanded to encompass white women and their achievements. Similarly, African-American critics argued that African-American men fit the mold of contemporary ideas of masculinity just as well, if not better than, white men. In both cases, critics of the hegemonic masculinity engaged with it on its own terms. (Nick Thodal)

This chapter displays that the public discourse around the match between Jack Johnson, a black man, and Jim Jeffries, a white man, highlighted racial attitudes surrounding gender at the time. For example, white men were outraged at Johnson's victory and felt it showed that he was a better man than the white Jeffries which led to race riots to erupt across cities in America. Additional salt on the wounds of these angered white men was found in how Johnson had a white ex-wife and a white lover at the time of the match making these men fell like their manhood was being undermined by him taking “their women”. (Henry Prior)

This chapter claims that due to changes to traditional ideals of manhood, men started to create a new version where it would fit with their position as middle-class men. They emphasized participation in organizations like the free masons and the odd fellows. Additionally, these men sought to turn their young boys into men by making engage with organizations like the boy scouts and the YMCA. (Henry Prior)

From a conceptual perspective, G. Bederman argues against two historiographically prevalent views of manhood: as an intrinsic essence and as a collection of traits. Partially inspired by Foucauldian discourse analysis, Bederman offers a substantial critique of these approaches, insisting that they oversimplify the mechanisms of gender and power relations. Instead, he suggests that manhood should be understood as a process of producing “men” by connecting anatomy and identity to the broader discources of power and authority. - Nikolai Kotkov

Bederman argues that depending on the overarching social, economic, and cultural changes of the time, manhood as been constantly redefined in order to maintain white supremacy. Hence, why Jack Johnson was such a controversial figure. With each shifting version of manhood, he adjusted. For example, he was physically very strong and a heavyweight champion to align with the idea of physical power meaning peak manhood; and he was also a successful suburban self made man. He aligned with both major versions of manhood at the time basically proving that white men weren't superior. Therefore, in order to prevent him from dismantling the link between white supremacy and manhood in this time period, there was efforts to get rid of him. (Katherine Hamilton)

Bederman explains that the self control that defined Victorian manhood became irrelevant due to industrialization and urbanization, thus, manhood had to be redefined. This is another example of how factors such as unpredictable economic changes leads to social changes which can contribute to the end of an era which then contributes to new shifts in social, economic, and cultural factors. All of these changes and shifts feed into each other hence why Bederman states that manhood is constantly being remade rather than manhood being a constant list of characteristics. (Katherine Hamilton)

In order to demonstrate use of the ideology of civilization in practice, Bederman details the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago that depicted the “White City” and the “Midway Plaisance” in both gendered and racialized ways. The White City was meant to portray the advancement of white civilization, which happened to almost entirely exclude women, invoking both whiteness and manhood as essential to civilization. Meanwhile, the Midway Plaisance portrayed the “underdeveloped barbarism” of uncivilized “dark races.” This portrayal linked racialized barbarism to a total lack of manliness, contrasting heavily with White City's linking of civilization with powerful manhood and whiteness. (Noah Rutkowski)

Civilization exists in this time as a hierarchical system which was the dominant way to distinguish groups of people, rather thsn culture. In this system, Civilization is on top, with barbarism below it, and finally at the bottom is Savagery. Civilization was largely based on non-coercive social diferentiwtion, specifically sex differentiation. Barbarism was seen as “almost civilized”, as if all they needed was a bit of help to reach the point of civilized. They had gender differentiation and technology, yet they were still seen as living in a world shaped by violence and coercion. This was mostly used with Asian countries. Finally is the category of Savagery. This group was directed towards people in their “primative state”, often in tribes or groups that europeans didn't see as having any structure. One of the biggest problems that Bederman lays out with Savagery is that Europeans couldn't ditinguish strict gender norms or sex differentiation. -Caroline Cochran

Bederman explains that during the late 19th century the idea of civilized vs uncivilized people and societies was used to further justify white supremacy. However, he also argues that lower class customs as well as racial customs of non-Anglo-Saxons were deemed uncivilized and inferior. Further, immigrants and non-Anglo-Saxons due to discrimination tended to be lower class, and thus being lower class and non-Anglo-Saxon was linked. Therefore, their painted inferiority was two-fold and only made the ideal of the middle class Anglo-Saxon stronger. (Katherine Hamilton)

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)

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)

Ida B Wells was able to use her work to transfor the conversation of lynching in the South from one about race to one about male power. She turned the picture painted by the south of the “dangerous black rapist” into the idea of white women turning in their black sexual partners. After her failure in the North trying to convice them of the horrors of lynching, she took her work overseas to britain, knowing that white northerners would care more about how they are seen by anglo-saxons, their “racial cousins”, than they would about how they're seen by black people in the South. Her work inspired a new definition of power and civility for white men. - Caroline Cochran

particular those of Britain. This is why anti-lynching advocate, Ida B Wells, made it a point to use this in her strategy to convince northerners to be against lynching. By exposing the British to the horrors of lynching in the South, they became disgusted with the barbarity. This meant that white people in America could no longer ignore the practice and had to acknowledge it for the gross violence it was. Although no anti-lynching legislation came out of the process, the practice notably fell in amount after this. (Tanner Gillikin)

Bederman explains how, after the South’s loss in the Civil War, many white women felt betrayed by white men’s supposed inability to protect and provide for them. The “black male rapist” myth was in part constructed as an unfair projection of this disappointment onto black men, portraying them as naturally inclined towards rape and therefore deserving of punishment. In this way, lynching provided an opportunity for white men in the South to avenge rapes that white women claimed had happened. White men were able to use lynching to portray themselves as ideal, protective men. (Noah Rutkowski)

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)

I concept of neurasthenia is that the nervous system, particularly in men, has a finite amount of energy and being civlized takes up a lot of that energy. It is suggested that, in order to perserve enough energy to be a civilized adult man, young boys should be encouraged to act uncivilized. This idea is where the notion of boy scouts and summer camp, even a lot of sports, comes from. The “nerasthenic paradox” is the idea that only white men are able to lead and manitain civilization, but civilization drains their nervous forces. -Caroline Cochran

The concept of the neurasthenic paradox also plays into the idea of race suicicde. By this concept, civilization grows when sexes are seperated, however, by being over civilized, the seperation between men and women can grow so vast that they are no longer reproducing with each other. Because white people were deemed the “civilized race” this could lead to a decline in white people, as well as an inclide in more “savage races” who do not have that seperation of sexes. -Caroline Cochran

In the early 1880s, Stanley Hall created the theory of recapitulation. This theory states that all boys go from a state of uncivilized and through aging they enter higher levels of civility. All boys similarly started at a level of savagery, but depending on their race, they could only reach so far. White boys were at a similar level as black boys, but at a certain point, the black children stop developing, and the white children continue. Hall does not posit that this theory applies in the same way, stating that women have “natural proclivity towards civilization.” (Tanner Gillikin)

The rise in fear of the disease neurasthenia, a nervous exhaustion due to over-civilization, led to a rise in sports and institutions that allowed men to act out on some primal urges. The idea of the time is that the body acts like a battery, and mental (civilized) work drains that battery. Before industrialization, men most often did physical work, so they did not suffer from the disease, but now, since men were doing less physically strenuous jobs, they could not recharge their batteries. By taking part in sports or clubs (such as the Boy Scouts or YMCA) men had an outlet to act on more primal needs and recharge. (Tanner Gillikin)

In his idea of recapitulation theory—the idea that young white boys must relive their ancestors’ primitive evolutionary history in order to combat excessive civilization as adults—G. Stanley Hall believed that it was exclusively boys who held such primitive capacities. Girls, on the other hand, were already governed by adult motives, and were much further away from their primitive ancestors than boys. Recapitulation theory sought to channel the primitive sexual energy of young boys and adolescents into nonsexual pursuits to avoid draining them of this “nerve energy,” but this rechanneling tactic was thought to destroy the sexual force of girls rather than strengthen it. (Noah Rutkowski)

The contemporary, orthodox views of sexual evolution posited that as races “advanced”, their sexual differences became more and more pronounced. For example, the World's Columbian Expedition invited sexually differentiated Anglo-Saxons to gawk at “savages” and wonder whether they were male or female. Charlotte Gilman argued the opposite. She argued that sexual differentiation was a sign of “race decay”, a symptom of white men demanding that white women be “oversexed”, and these oversexed genes being passed down. As Gilman argued, men and women in truly civilized society would be more alike than different, equally able to contribute to the uplifting of their race. (Nick Thodal)

Early in her life, Charlotte Gilman was diagnosed with neurasthenia. The conventional wisdom of the day held that neurasthenia in women was a result of them thinking too much and being too active, as their vital energy was more at risk of being drained in this way due to their menstrual cycles. Later in life, after much reflection on her condition, Gilman would argue that neurasthenia in white women came from a lack of participation in the work of “civilization”, not in over-participation. White women were equally capable of participating in “civilization”, Gilman argued, and contemporary society's insistence they stay in the domestic sphere and contribute little to the “race” was really what drained them of their vital energy, and could only thrive if they lived an active and intellectual life. (Nick Thodal)

Discussing the feminist ideas of Charlotte Perkins Gilman, G. Bederman analyzes the myth of the male rapist as one of the central concepts in Gilman’s evolutionary narrative. Gilman attempted to replace the biblical patriarchal narrative of Adam’s preeminence and Eve’s original sin in order to emphasize the original equality of both sexes in the primal world. She argues that the fall from the “golden age” occurred after the primal man discovered rape and violence against the primal woman. However, this fall was indispensable for the development of civilization, as men had to provide for dependent women, thereby gradually making them “effeminate” through the care of others until they reached the state of civilization. According to G. Bederman, this narrative appeared to have been particularly useful for C. Gilman, as it appealed to the established discourse of the male rapist while attempting to accentuate the leading role of women in white civilization. - Nikolai Kotkov

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)

G. Bederman’s study situates T. Roosevelt’s trip to Africa within the broader discourses of race and masculinity. In particular, G. Bederman argues that this trip functioned both as a performance of masculinity through exposure to danger (hunting, fighting, surviving) and as a reinforcement of his views on race and civilization. T. Roosevelt considered Africa to be in a stage comparable to the Stone Age or the Pleistocene, where masculinity could be reexperienced in the most primal way due to the conceptualization of space as a location of incessant struggle between “wild men” and “wild beasts.” Unlike the followers of recapitulation theory, Roosevelt did not intend to entirely act like a “primal man,” but instead sought to emphasize his civilized manhood through several practices, including the reduction of African males to children and the use of substantial symbolic equipment (books, the American flag, imported goods). Overall, Roosevelt’s trip to Africa was a fundamentally gendered and racialized event that attempted to emphasize the difference between “civilization” and “savagery.” in the American cultural discourse of the early 20th century.- Nikolai Kotkov

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