1984 revision

Masculinity and Masculinities

To define masculinity, we have to determine whether to concern about the cultural and the historical circumstance. Masculinity is a unitary conception which is biologically determined. However, if we take the culture and the historical period in which a person lived into consideration, various masculinities emerge. And sometimes, with a special circumstance, men are feminized while women are masculinized.

Masculinity determined by the biological is the sex. It’s founded on DNA structure and the level of testosterone. And it serves an essentializing function that ignores the factors such as culture and history which also form the masculine (Oxford dictionary online).In this case, masculinity is innate. The different of the masculine and the feminine is the different of the body. It’s the instinct of males to act manly. For example, in 1984, even though Winston is married, and to be caught with a prostitute means “five years in a forced-labor camp (George Orwell, 68)”, he still go with the party woman (66-72). The strong desire of sex is one of the qualities of masculinity as a product of biology. Besides this, as we can see in films and novels nowadays, most leading males are amorous, powerful, aggressive and dominated. This shows masculinity well-known propagandized by the society. The masculine traits include sex desire, strength, competency and self-centeredness, which are distinguish from that of women: “love, communication, beauty and relationships” (Gray, 18). 

     As we all know, most of the blue collars are male. That is because men are stronger than women. They have muscles, and can do harder work. We can see that sports and other magazines with a large male readership are filled with ads for muscle-enhancing products - often equating muscles with violent power. Because this power, they are also aggressive and dominant. From the time of hunting societies, men have competed with each other for women, wealth and fame. Women are only the reward of the man who wins the competition, so that when it comes to the relationship between them and females, males are hegemonic. For instance, in the novel 1984, which is on the social problem caused by Big Brother, most characters are male. And Big Brother, who has the greatest amount of power and influence in this novel, is man. That illustrates the leadership of male in our society.  

However, once the impact of history and culture are taken into account, the biology is less important. Masculinities are plural, specific with each culture and historical period. As an example, in Medieval Europe, masculinity is chivalrous and Christian. It lead to a brief that “a man's body is given to him to be trained and brought into subjection, and then used for the protection of the weak, the advancement of all righteous causes and the subduing of the earth which God has given to the children of Men” (Hughes, p.99). This can be seen in the novels describing the spirit of knights such as King Arthur and knight of the round table. While nowadays, this kind of masculinity doesn’t dominate our society. It may still contain the compassion of the weak, but it’s quite different. For example, in some extent, the booming sex tourism is caused by males’ desire to prove their masculinity on the women and the children from undeveloped countries. This is no longer masculinity in medieval era. What’s more, combined with a specific history and culture, men could become feminized while women become masculinized. Under the control of Big Brother, a person with hyper - masculinity, Winston sometimes is epicene. He does not want to make love with his wife only for producing child, but he dares not refuse because it’s encouraged by the party (Orwell 71).  And after being punished in the Ministry of love, he is de-masculinized. To reduce punishment, he chooses to submit to Big Brother (300). Comparing with him, Julia seems to be virile. She revolts against the control of Big Brother furtively. It’s illegal to sex with party members, however, Julia always does that (131). When Julia dates with Winston, she always prepares everything, even the date route is determined by Julia (112). Maybe the sex role cannot be changed, but the gender role is influenced by the circumstance of the society.

All in all, masculinity determined by the biological is the instinct of males. But standards of masculinity vary from time to time, from culture to culture, which result in various masculinities. And with the effects of history and culture, it is not necessary for men to be manly; similarly, it is not necessary for women to be womanly.

 Work Cited

Oxford dictionaries online. Oxford University Press,2011. Retrieved from:

http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/masculinity

Gray, John, Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus New York: HarperCollins, 1992

Owell, George,1984. London:Penguin,2008. Print

Hughes, Thomas. Tom Brown at Oxford. London: MacMillan,1889