From Crisis to Crisis: The Construction of Masculine Identity in John Irving’s The World According to Garp
Katariina Myller 277416
Pro gradu thesis
English Language and Culture School of Humanities
University of Eastern Finland February 2020
ITÄ-SUOMEN YLIOPISTO – UNIVERSITY OF EASTERN FINLAND
Tiedekunta – Faculty
Philosophical Faculty Osasto – School
School of Humanities Tekijät – Author
Katariina Myller Työn nimi – Title
From Crisis to Crisis: The Construction of Masculine Identity in John Irving’s The World According to Garp
Pääaine – Main subject Työn laji – Level Päivämäärä – Date Sivumäärä – Number of pages English Language and Culture Pro gradu -tutkielma X 13 February 2020 86
Sivuainetutkielma Kandidaatin tutkielma Aineopintojen tutkielma Tiivistelmä – Abstract
The purpose of this study is to show how the gender identity of male characters is constructed through gender performance in John Irving’s novel The World According to Garp (1978). The focus of the study is on the male characters of the novel, however, the main character, T. S. Garp, is naturally paid the most attention. The main argument is that the male characters construct their masculine identities by moving from one life crisis to another through various rites of passage. The study shows how the male characters’ personal crises are in deep connection with the crisis they are in with the surrounding society. This study is prominent, since the topics presented in the novel are essential to people still, although over forty years has passed since the publication of the novel. For instance, the novel’s perspectives on topics such as gender equality and the individual’s connection to the surrounding society affect us all in the ever globalising and diversifying world.
As the theoretical framework of my study I use the principles of gender studies and masculinity studies. This means that the distinction between sociocultural gender and biologically determined sex is recognised, and regarded as separate phenomena that complement each other. This study suggests that there is no one solid masculinity. Instead, there is an unlimited number of diverse masculinities – there are as many masculinities as there are individuals who perform masculine identities.
Hegemonic masculinity is presented simply as one type of manifestation of masculinity within patriarchal societies, although it is stereotypically regarded as some kind of standard masculinity. The second principle of my study is that gender is presented as a performative phenomenon. The idea that there are various masculinities is because there are various ways in which individuals perform their gendered identities within varying socio-cultural contexts. Moreover, Irving’s novel is presented as a part of the continuum of American literature where male characters are in crisis with themselves and with the surrounding society. The thesis proves that the character of Garp carries the ideological legacy of some of the most
distinguished male characters of American literary classics.
In the analysis section I examine how Garp and other male characters of the novel perform their masculinities in different contexts. I start by examining how Garp’s male identity develops through one crisis to another towards his inner masculine ideal. I address the rites of passage Garp experiences, chronologically from his birth to his death. When exploring the rites of passage, I utilise the glossary of the anthropological research tradition. In the second part of the analysis section I will present how the male characters perform their masculinities through their bodies. Is suggest that sports, sexual intercourse, violence, and other ways of displaying or using one’s body aim to construct and to strengthen one’s masculinity. Since the male body is the primary object of interpretation for one’s audience, it is one of the most important utilities of gender performance. Thirdly, I show how the male characters must always modify their masculine performance to suit varying contexts and their audiences. Gender performance always aims to grant the individual acceptance. Therefore, the individual must do everything to make their gender socially recognised and approved. While The World According to Garp is set in the 1970s, it is interesting to perceive the disparity in the ways how the gender performances of the novel are received.
Irving’s novel was ahead of its time when it was published in the late 1970s as its topics are addressed rather objectively.
Because The World According to Garp is a satire, some of its depictions of people and the society are deliberately exaggerated.
The means of satire have been considered in my study. It is also the reason why I have ventured to express certain exaggerations and generalisations of masculinities and their interaction with the American contemporary society.
Avainsanat – Keywords
English Language and Literature, American literature, contemporary literature, gender studies, masculinity studies, feminism, gender performance, crisis, rites of passage, anthropology, sexuality, gendered violence, identity, gender identity, 20th century, hegemony, patriarchy, satire, John Irving, The World According to Garp
ITÄ-SUOMEN YLIOPISTO – UNIVERSITY OF EASTERN FINLAND
Tiedekunta – Faculty
Filosofinen tiedekunta Osasto – School
Humanistinen osasto Tekijät – Author
Katariina Myller Työn nimi – Title
From Crisis to Crisis: The Construction of Masculine Identity in John Irving’s The World According to Garp (suom. Kriisistä kriisiin: Maskuliinisen identiteetin muodostuminen John Irvingin teoksessa Garpin maailma)
Pääaine – Main subject Työn laji – Level Päivämäärä – Date Sivumäärä – Number of pages Englannin kieli ja kulttuuri Pro gradu -tutkielma X 13.2.2020 86
Sivuainetutkielma Kandidaatin tutkielma Aineopintojen tutkielma Tiivistelmä – Abstract
Tämän tutkimuksen tarkoituksena on osoittaa, kuinka John Irvingin romaanissa Garpin maailma (1978) mieshahmojen sukupuoli-identiteetti (gender) muodostuu sukupuolittuneen performanssin seurauksena. Tutkimuksen fokuksessa ovat kirjan mieshenkilöt, mutta tarkimmin keskitytään romaanin päähenkilöön, T. S. Garpiin. Keskeisenä havaintona on, että romaanin mieshahmot muodostavat maskuliinisen identiteettinsä siirtymällä elämässään kriisistä kriisiin erilaisten siirtymäriittien avulla. Tutkimuksessa pyritään osoittamaan, että teoksen mieshahmojen henkilökohtaiset kriisit ovat
kytköksissä laajempaan kriisiin, joka heillä on suhteessa ympäröivään maailmaan. Tutkimus on erittäin ajankohtainen, sillä yli neljäkymmentä vuotta teoksen julkaisuajankohdan jälkeenkin sen teemat puhuttavat ihmisiä. Esimerkiksi teoksessa esitetyt näkökulmat sukupuolitasa-arvosta ja yksilön suhteesta ympäristöönsä koskettavat meitä kaikkia 2000-luvun alati
globalisoituvassa ja monimuotoistuvassa maailmassa.
Tutkimukseni teoreettisena viitekehyksenä toimivat sukupuolen- ja maskuliinisuudentutkimuksen perusperiaatteet.
Sosiokulttuurinen ja biologinen sukupuoli ovat kaksi eri asiaa, jotka täydentävät toisiaan. Tutkimuksessa myös esitetään, että ei ole olemassa vain yhtä oikeaa maskuliinisuutta. Sen sijaan maskuliinisuuksia on olemassa rajaton määrä – niin monta kuin on maskuliinisen sukupuoli-identiteetin omaavia henkilöitäkin. Hegemoninen maskuliinisuus tutkimuksessa esitetään vain yhtenä maskuliinisuuden ilmenemismuodoista patriarkaalisessa yhteiskunnassa, vaikka sitä yleisesti pidetäänkin eräänlaisena standardina. Tutkimukseni toisena teoreettisena lähtökohtana toimii käsitys sukupuolesta performatiivisena ilmiönä. Jos maskuliinisuuksia siis on monenlaisia, johtuu se siitä, että jokainen yksilö esittää oman sukupuolittuneen identiteettinsä eri tavalla ja omaan sosiokulttuurisen kontekstinsa yhteydessä. Tutkimus myös esittää Irvingin teos osana amerikkalaisen kirjallisuusperinteen jatkumoa, jossa miehet ovat kriisissä itsensä ja ympäröivän yhteiskunnan kanssa. Tutkimus osoittaa, että Garp on hahmona tunnettujen amerikkalaisten mieshahmojen kirjallisuusklassikoiden ideologinen perillinen.
Analyysiosiossa perehdyn Garpin ja muiden mieshahmojen tapaan esittää oma maskuliinisuutensa eri konteksteissa. Aloitan perehtymällä siihen, kuinka Garpin miesidentiteetti kehittyy erilaisten kriisien kautta kohti omaa ihannemaskuliinisuuttaan.
Käyn kronologisesti läpi Garpin elämän siirtymäriitit aina syntymästä kuolemaan. Siirtymäriittejä tutkiessani käytän siis hyväksi antropologisen tutkimusperinteen käsitteistöä. Tutkimuksen toisessa analyysiosiossa esitän, kuinka Garp ja muut romaanin mieshahmot ilmaisevat maskuliinisuutensa ruumiillaan. Väitän, että urheilun, seksuaalisen kanssakäymisen, väkivallan, ja kehon muunlaisen esittelyn ja käytön tarkoituksena on vahvistaa ja muovata yksilön maskuliinisuutta. Koska keho on vastaanottavalle yleisölle ensisijainen tulkinnan kohde, on se sukupuoliperformanssin tärkeimpiä työkaluja.
Kolmanneksi esitän, että mieshahmot joutuvat suhteuttamaan maskuliinisuutensa esittämisen aina ympäröivään kontekstiin ja vastaanottavaan yleisöön. Koska sukupuoliperformanssi on hyväksymiseen tähtäävää toimintaa, täytyy yksilön tehdä kaikkensa, että hänen sukupuolensa tunnistetaan ja hyväksytään. Koska Garpin maailma sijoittuu lähinnä 1970-luvulle, on mielenkiintoista huomata, millaisessa murroksessa amerikkalainen yhteiskunta on suhtautumisessaan moninaisiin esitettyihin eri sukupuoliperformansseihin.
Irvingin teos on ollut julkaisuajankohtanaan edellä aikaansa, sillä se suhtautuu käsittelemiinsä asioihin varsin objektiivisesti.
Koska Garpin maailma on satiiri, ovat siinä esitetyt kuvaukset ihmisistä ja yhteiskunnasta tahallisen kärjistettyjä. Teoksen satiiri on huomioitu tutkimuksessani, jonka vuoksi olen itsekin uskaltautunut esittämään tietynlaisia kärjistyksiä ja yleistyksiä maskuliinisuuksista ja niiden vuorovaikutuksesta amerikkalaisen nyky-yhteiskunnan kanssa.
Avainsanat – Keywords
englannin kieli ja kirjallisuus, amerikkalainen kirjallisuus, nykykirjallisuus, sukupuolen tutkimus, maskuliinisuuden tutkimus, feminismi, sukupuoliperformanssi, kriisi, siirtymäriitit, antropologia, seksuaalisuus, sukupuolittunut väkivalta, identiteetti, sukupuoli-identiteetti, 1900-luku, hegemonia, patriarkaatti, satiiri, John Irving, Garpin Maailma, The World According to Garp
Contents
1. Introduction 1
2. Constructing the Male Identity 6
2.1. Masculinity – A Manifestation of the Patriarchy 6
2.2. Gender as Performance 14
2.3. Male Representations in Contemporary American Fiction 19
3. Masculinities According to Garp 31
3.1. Becoming a Man: Rites of Passages 32
3.2. Being a Man: Living in the Male Body 44
3.3. Performing a Man: Context-based Gender Performance 63
4. Conclusion 77
Works Cited 84
1 1. Introduction
The World According to Garp is the fourth novel by the American writer John Irving. It was first published in the United States in 1978 and became an instant best-seller. The novel tells a story of a man named T.S. Garp, the illegitimate son of Jenny Fields. Jenny, a nurse by her profession and by her life-long mission, initiates a set of fateful events by breaking the social conventions of the socio-cultural context she lives in: she voluntarily becomes a single mother by questionable means. As she rapes a man by taking advantage of a soldier with a terminal brain damage. Garp’s life and achievements are then observed throughout the novel:
his maturation, work as a writer, and life as a devoted father and husband are followed until his assassination.
Despite the fact that The World According to Garp was published over 40 years ago, it can still be considered an important novel as many of its themes remain topical: the questions of independent decision-making, sexuality, gender equality, and relationship issues have remained the same if transformed to some measure. The novel could be described as a satire or a psychological realist novel by its genre: it satirises the socio-political conditions of the 1970s American society, while being psychological by focusing on the characters’ attitudes and feelings towards the social changes. The novel’s contemporary socio-political context is not commented on explicitly, but it is displayed through the characters’ actions and opinions, and by deliberately ridiculing them.
This study concentrates on the novel’s construction of masculinity and masculine gender identity within the social and cultural context – the male characters are individually viewed regarding to how they adapt or defy the changes in the society. However, the title character of the novel naturally requires attention more than its minor characters. The main thesis of this study is that the image of masculinity provided in The World According to
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Garp challenges the stereotypical image of the American man. Simultaneously the novel addresses the split self-image of the 20th-century male. To be more precise, the novel challenges the construction of hegemonic masculinity by offering a variety of masculinities.
The image of masculinity provided is not an immobile and pre-existing one but constructed through continuous gender performance. That is, the characters of the novel perform themselves in a gendered manner. The choices of the characters can be divided into personal preferences and those that are socio-culturally determined. This study will examine the ways in which the characters act their masculinity depending on social situation. Such acts include their situation-specific behaviour and reactions, the ways they speak and dress, as well as their career and life choices.
This study is relevant because most of the previous studies concerning John Irving’s The World According to Garp were conducted in the 1980s and 1990s. The previous studies mainly discuss the topics of feminism, and concentrate on the values concerning femininity and women’s status, or the overall gender roles within the socio-cultural and historical context. Marianne Jokivirta, for example, wrote her thesis on the subject in 1993: “Gender Roles in John Irving's The World According to Garp”. There are far fewer studies on the novel that are conducted from the point of view of masculinity studies. However, one such study would be Sally Robinson’s “Rapists, Feminists, and The World According to Garp:
Inauthentic versus Authentic Traumas” (Robinson 101-13). Robinson’s study reflects how male authorship and masculine privilege to express oneself through art are depicted in Irving’s novel. Additionally, there are several studies that address Irving’s literary techniques and his style of narration. For instance, Mikko Saaristo examines Irving’s story- telling techniques in his 1997 dissertation “Identifying the story-teller in John Irving's The World According to Garp”, whereas Paula Hyypiö examines Irving’s use of metafiction and parallel narratives in her 2008 dissertation “The Texts Within: Novel as an Example of
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Complex Text Type: Textual Embeddings in John Irving's Two Novels”. Bouchra Belgaid explores Irving’s “conception of a falling America” and “the nostalgic memories of a lost world” of his novels in John Irving and Cultural Mourning (Belgaid 6). According to Belgaid, “the object of mourning for Irving is the father and for the son” – the change in men’s roles within the domestic sphere due to the cultural changes (6). Unlike Belgaid’s work, this thesis will concentrate on Irving’s depiction of masculinity in both the domestic and the public context in one novel, although I will also examine how fatherhood affects the construction of masculine identity. My study is necessary, since the discussion of sexual politics and gendered identities have newly heated after the publication of Belgaid and other works. This study is prominent particularly in the context of the late 2010s and early 2020s gender politics and the MeToo-movement, which have created growing awareness of multiplicity of genders and various masculinities. This study can be used to demonstrate that the versatility of masculinities is not only a modern phenomenon of the 21st century but an overlooked fact that has gained prominence only within the last decades.
As mentioned, the novel was first published in the United States in 1978, during a decade of heated discussion of gender politics, radical movements, and the sexual revolution.
The setting of the novel is noteworthy because to a great extent this liminal era explains the characters’ choices and social struggles. Several still influential ideologies and movements were established during this time that Irving’s novel depicts. For instance, the establishment of the second wave feminist women’s movement in the early 1960s permitted more open conversation of gender politics and the stereotypical gender roles were challenged (Delmar 24-8). As the ideas of free love and sexual sovereignty were introduced to American women along with the invention of the contraceptive pill, they had the option to choose independent life. Consequently, the stereotypical definition of masculinity and men’s socio-cultural role was questioned and expanded as well. The changes in men’s socio-cultural status caused
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severe damage for their formerly solid sense of self. The traditional masculinity was fractured and split as the contextual expectations were contradictory: men were supposed to adopt the new “soft” values that the social upheaval of the 1960s introduced, as well as the traditional “hard” values of the American nation-state.
Another reason why this study is relevant, is because it is interdisciplinary. The literary studies are combined with the tradition of cultural anthropology within this study. A remarkable proportion of the analysis section is conducted from the anthropological point of view. The novel’s protagonist’s development into his gendered ideal is examined through rites of passages, which is a concept originally introduced by ethnographer Arnold van Gennep in the early years of the 20th century. The solution to combine literary studies with cultural anthropology is logical, since The World According to Garp addresses multiple personal crises that lead to changes in one’s social status. Utilising the ethnographic terminology, the social changes of an individual male can be addressed most efficiently.
The study is divided into two main sections: theory and analysis. The introduction is followed by the theory section that begins with a detailed overview on masculinities and their academic research in chapter 2.1.. The central terminology of gender studies will be examined, since it will be used throughout this study. Moreover, the ideas of patriarchy and hegemonic masculinity will be examined as well, since the study suggests that these ideas are challenged in The World According to Garp. In chapter 2.2. the idea of gender as performance will be presented. The theoretical framework remarkably relies on Judith Butlers ideas of gender performance, according to which all individuals construct their own ideal gender identity through continuous performance. This perspective is taken due to the way in which the novel’s characters continuously highlight their social genders through their actions. Lastly, in 2.3., The World According to Garp will be integrated to the tradition of American literature that addresses the crisis of men and masculinity. Certain recurring
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themes throughout American literary history will be examined in the context of portraying fractured masculinities.
In the analysis section the focus is on The World According to Garp and its male characters. Chapter 3.1. discusses the rites of passage within the protagonist Garp’s life. The rites examined are various crises he encounters on his personal journey towards his socially gendered ideal. Since gendered performance is essentially a bodily phenomenon, in chapter 3.2. the depiction of male bodies within the novel is thoroughly examined. Certain bodily functions such as violence, sports and sex will be examined in relation to bodily performance of masculinities. In 3.3. the switching between varying performances will be discussed. It is suggested, that an individual performs their gendered selves differently depending on the socio-cultural context: the gender expressed may be same, but the way it is expressed varies depending on the audience. Eventually, in the conclusion chapter, the findings of the study will be brought together, and their significance for the contemporary American literature will be reflected on.
6 2. Constructing the Male Identity
This section of the thesis examines the prevalent theories of masculinities, as well as the phases their academic study has undergone through the times. However, the section begins by abstracting the concepts of sex and gender. In order to successfully discuss the deviating treatment of men and women, the stereotypical division between the two must be thoroughly examined. Therefore, the stereotypical classification of feminine and masculine attributes is a necessary prefatory part of this study. Moreover, as the study comments on how Irving’s novel challenges the hegemonic masculinity of the 1960s and 1970s, the features of this type of socially dominant masculinity are presented. After the key concepts of gender studies have been explored, a short history of masculinity studies will be presented, following the examination of the concept of gender as performance. This part of the study is based to a large extent on Judith Butler’s ideas on gender as an active performance of one’s gendered identity. Lastly, the focus is on men and masculinity in contemporary American fiction from the beginning of the 20th century to the 1970s, when The World According to Garp was initially published. The representation of men in fiction is required to indicate how the characters in Irving’s novel both partially adapt to the current socio-cultural values, and on the other hand challenge them. The partial obedience and disobedience are indications of the split masculinity which is a central phenomenon when examining the 20th-century masculinities.
2.1. Masculinity – A Manifestation of the Patriarchy
Sex and gender are generally understood as two separate concepts which are in close connection to each other. As Alvesson and Billing put it, sex is “determined by the chromosome constellation and is manifest in the sexual organs, the internal reproduction
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organs and hormones” (74). The sex is a biological condition determined before one’s birth.
Gender is considered its opposite. The Oxford Dictionary of English defines gender as a term
“typically used with reference to social and cultural differences rather than biological ones”
(“Gender”). Both categories use the terms male and female to label the differences between individuals. In biological sex, the label depends on one’s physical attributes and appearance:
which body parts they possess. Gender, correspondingly, is a more intricate and variable construction. Although one’s biological sex bears a great importance in the construction of one’s gender identity, it does not fully determine it. That is, if an individual possesses feminine bodily features such as breasts and a wide hip, they may consider themselves to be more masculine than feminine by their gender. The social and cultural factors that influence one’s gender identity may include one’s family and friend’s expectations and pressure, education, living conditions, contemporary fashions, ideological values, and objects of admiration as well as other personal preferences. This study mainly concentrates on masculinity and male gender as socio-cultural phenomena, while the biological sex is merely examined as a crucial part of gender construction.
As the study examines stereotypical gender roles, the distinction between features considered masculine and feminine should be examined first. Women and men are physically different from each other, and their inner qualities and abilities are stereotypically often considered to mirror the outer core. Everything about power is associated with men and masculinity (Whelehan 80-1). Physical, emotional, and mental strength are considered masculine properties: the stereotypical assumption is that men do not show their feelings, cry, panic nor fatigue. Consequently, women are powerless, give in to their intense emotions, and are far more fragile in every aspect of life. The division has for centuries been reflected in the Western economy, as men work and take care of the family’s income while women stay at home taking care of the children and cooking (Benschop and Meihuizen 160-2, 179).
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This division of labour mirrors the presumption of men as rational and logically capable beings, whereas women are comprehended as irrational and emotion-driven creatures.
Further, Joan Acker states that “[w]omen are devalued because they are assumed to be unable to conform to the demands of the abstract work” (Acker 13). This means that they are comprehended as incapable to invest in rational work, as their possible pregnancy and children are regarded as distractions. Moreover, Acker argues that women are discriminated against in the working sphere for they are considered dangerous for men’s concentration due to their sexuality, and suggests that women may also be hired in such positions that support men’s masculinity , e.g. as secretaries in male-dominated work places, as the objects of the male gaze (13-4).
The original assumption of gender as immobile and biologically determined is now an archaic interpretation since biological sex and gender are comprehended as separate, as explained above (West and Zimmerman 15-6). The change in the interpretation took place in the 1960s and 1970s as several movements with the agenda of changing the stereotypical understanding of gender roles took place. The movement which had the most impact on re- evaluating the labour division was the second wave feminist movement. As Delmar notes, the women’s movement was established to gain women more prominence in the highly masculine economy (25). This was a counter-reaction to the post-war years when women felt doubly oppressed after having exceptional independence in the work force and in the domestic sphere as men were sent to battle. The division into masculine and feminine attributes of gender was questioned initially by the doubly oppressed women and followingly, the idea of gender as something that one ‘does’ has been presented.
As this study focuses on the construction on masculine identity, it is crucial to explore what ‘masculinity’ stands for. Levmore and Nussbaum remark in their introduction that whereas “’male’ and ‘female’ [are] fixed natural categories,” “’masculinity’ and
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‘masculine’, by contrast, are eminently social [and] purely descriptive” (9). Essentially, masculinity is about power. As Carrigan et al. state, “the overall relationship between men and women is one involving domination and oppression” (100). In this sense masculine dominance is a social issue where masculinity equals socio-political advantage over women.
The socio-political aspect includes the question of men being the standard whereas women are the exception. According to Carrigan et al., the “social definitions of masculinity [are generally seen] being embedded in the dynamics of institutions – the working of the state, of corporations, of unions, of families – quite as much as in the personality of individuals”
(112). What this means is that any individual is treated as male unless the individual’s gender is separately defined, for example when discussing job applicants, politicians or historical figures. This explains the general usage of the pronouns “he, him” and never “she, her” when discussing unknown people.
It can be stated that masculinity is a form of physical and sexual dominance as well.
Sexual dominance means the division of sexes into socio-culturally determined “sex roles”
(Carrigan, Connell and Lee 103). This means that stereotypically it is considered that women and men have differing functions in relation to the society. Men are traditionally the “bread- winners” of the family, as men work outside the home and take care of the family’s income while women stay at home, taking care of the children and cooking (Benschop and Meihuizen 160-2, 179). It can be argued that (white) men “are where they are socially by virtue of biological, that is, bodily superiority” (Dyer 263). The masculine bodily features are seen superior to women as they are bigger and more muscular. In fact, this view is best manifested in the way how “[b]odybuilding in popular culture articulates white masculinity”
as it refers to classical Greek and Roman art that celebrated the male body (Dyer 264).
This study recognises that there are multiple masculinities, or rather an infinite number of non-conforming masculinities. To recognise the multiplicity, it is necessary to
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examine what is the masculinity they deviate from. The comprehension of men as the dominant and ruling class of humans has created the idea of masculine hegemony. According to Connell, ‘hegemony’ “refers to the cultural dynamic by which a group claims and sustains a leading position in social life” (Connell 77), and hegemonic masculinity is a form of masculinity embodying the current views and needs of patriarchal societies. In this sense, hegemonic masculinity may differ from one time or place to another but is always a fulfilment of society’s needs and beliefs. Connell argues that “the most visible bearers of hegemonic masculinity are [not] always the most powerful people” (77). Men in high offices may not be the embodiment of the hegemony, but celebrities such as actors and musicians may be. Hegemonic masculinity is recognisable within its socio-cultural context and works as a standard masculinity.
Conservatively, hegemonic masculinity is “a particular variety of masculinity to which others – among them young and effeminate as well as homosexual men – are subordinated” (Carrigan et al. 110). This kind of masculinity is on the top of the masculinity hierarchy from which other types are regarded as variant. According to Carrigan et al. this hegemonic group of men is predominantly heterosexual: if masculinity means dominance over women, all feminine attributes should be minimised and denied (Carrigan et al. 113).
Moreover, this type of masculinity is considerably white and middle-class, as it is highly institutionalised and the “contemporary ruling-class family is organised around the corporate or professional career of the husband” (Carrigan et al. 113). Therefore, not only women are oppressed, but also the masculinities that are likened to femininity and seen as “less”
masculine are considered to be less socially accepted and valuable – these include non- westerners, homo- and bisexuals, as well as men of lower working classes.
However, hegemony would not be accomplished without the subordinate groups.
Connell argues that “hegemony is likely to be established only if there is some
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correspondence between cultural ideal and institutional power” (Connell 77). For example, non-hegemonic masculinities tend to be actively differentiated from the hegemonic masculinity by assimilating them with women and regarding them feminine (78-9). Hence, hegemonic masculinity is accomplished via active claiming of authority. Claiming the authority happens generally through social discourse, not through explicit violence as one might believe (77). It is a socio-cultural strategy to gain authority through continuous social intercourse between groups of people. Therefore, hegemony may be continuously challenged. Firstly, as the patriarchy changes through time, its needs change too. Connell states, that whenever the conditions of the patriarchy change, “[n]ew groups may challenge old solutions and construct a new hegemony” (77). The hegemony is rebuilt by generation after generation to preserve the masculine dominance. Secondly, the masculine dominance may also be challenged my women. When this happens, the values and needs of hegemony are reviewed and restructured to suite the current socio-cultural flow but to retain the dominant position. Hence, hegemonic masculinity is a historically mobile yet perpetual social construction.
It is widely accepted today that there are multiple masculinities that may differ from each other significantly. Certainly, not all men represent the hegemonic masculinity. An individual’s masculinity may be defined by their socio-cultural background, heritage, race, colour, and sexual orientation. While the hegemonic masculinity still exists in the 21st century, it has changed drastically over the decades and centuries to suit the current socio- cultural standards and the needs of patriarchy. The varying masculinities are now increasingly understood and accepted as are the varying forms of femininities as well.
However, as Connell suggests, the varying forms of masculinity may be considered more as
“alternative lifestyles” than as performances of their true identities (76). It seems that even
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today the masculinity variations are regarded as exceptions and deviances from the accepted standard.
For this study, it is relevant to recognise the fact than generally masculinity is always about testing. It is about testing one’s own masculinity as well as testing others.
According to George L. Mosse, “reaching true manliness” is about the act of “getting there”
– it is a kind of survival of the fittest (Mosse 77). If the stereotypical masculine is anything but stereotypical feminine, it must be the opposite to anything weak and fragile. The more masculine one is, the more successful he is at everything compared to others. Whereas stereotypical femininity is associated with peace and tranquillity, masculinity is linked with aggression and belligerent behaviour. The manliest man beats his contestants not only in the context of sport, but in all sectors of life: at work, at social gatherings, at dinners, at school, and even when they are by themselves. Due to its ever-testing nature, it can be argued that masculinity is in constant crisis. Men move from one crisis to another, in search for their
‘true masculinities’, competing with other males and with themselves. They are in constant state of war with the surrounding world. In this study, it will be demonstrated how a man may shift from one crisis to another to grow as a man, and as a person.
To summarise, it can be stated that masculinity is social and sexual power in relation to women and other men. The men who define the most powerful socio-cultural category of hegemonic masculinity are predominantly white, heterosexual and middle-class (and middle-aged). The power of this masculine category is created in the social context and supported by the social rules and stereotypes. Moreover, the physical body is a central part of masculinity – it is both justified and manifested through the male body. This study aims to present the ways in which the hegemonic masculinity is questioned and challenged in John Irving’s novel.
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Until the latter half of the 20th century, the masculine experience was regarded as equal to the all-encompassing human experience in western literature. Women’s experience was regarded a special case in literature and other media: for example, literature with female protagonists was automatically seen as women’s literature, whereas texts with male protagonists were for all audiences. Thus, masculinity was invisible and taken for granted.
As women’s studies and feminism gained academic importance towards the end of the 20th century, a need for study of masculinity or masculinities emerged. Correspondingly, “men’s studies” was established in the 1980s. According to Reeser, men’s studies mainly concentrated on making masculinity visible (12-3). The aim was to separate male experience from the general human experience, and “making the male body as gendered body” (16). As a result, the gendering of men questioned their stereotypical power within traditional male representations. Therefore, it is only natural that men’s studies were closely connected to its contemporary feminist studies. Reeser, however, remarks that men’s studies failed to answer directly to women’s studies (27). Men’s studies were unsuccessful in fully recognizing sex and gender as separate issues, as well as in recognizing the multiplicity of various masculinities.
In the 1990s a more open-minded field of study of masculinity or masculinities was developed. Reeser states that “the increasing use of the terms ‘masculinity’ or
‘masculinities’ is often thought to suggest that they do not have to be directly or naturally linked with the male body or with men, and that they are complicated and unstable phenomena, […] thus much more than simply the lives of actual men” (27). Masculinity, therefore, in this field of study is recognized as a complex socio-cultural construction. This view of masculinity fits appropriately with Judith Butler’s theory of gender as a performance. It is a corporeal style constructed within a certain socio-cultural continuum.
The Butlerian approach would claim that an individual accepts their bodily features (e.g. the
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existence of the penis) and builds their masculinity within what is considered masculine in their own growing environment by repeating such behaviour as evident in the actions of the previous generations (Butler 31). Furthermore, this idea of masculinity as a liquid and changing phenomenon allows women access to masculinity. Correspondingly, men can embrace their femininity. The modern study of masculinities is rather close to general gender studies, or can be interpreted as a subcategory of this academic field.
2.2. Gender as Performance
“Doing’ gender alludes to gender as an active concept, not as a definite condition set at one’s birth. According to West and Zimmerman, gender from this perspective is seen as “the activity of managing situated conduct in light of normative conceptions of attitudes and activities appropriate for one’s sex category” (14). In other words, an individual can choose and mix attributes that are complementary to one’s biological sex: one can adapt either female or male characteristics as long as the persons are socially recognised as representatives of their sex. This notion of gender as an act of doing, building one’s identity piece by piece, and giving an individual some freedom of choice is already revolutionary.
However, Judith Butler sees a fault in viewing gender simply as a mixture of readily determined attributes (Gender Trouble 24). A collection of feminine and masculine features alludes to the fact that an individual would not have much freedom to choose freely or interpret their gender. In this sense, it is society that determines which characteristics individuals can portray. As West and Zimmerman remark, gender would then be “an outcome of and a rationale for various social arrangements” (14).
Butler does not fully deny the idea of gender as ‘doing’ but rather takes it further.
She rejects the former idea of gender as a collection of “free floating attributes” (Gender
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Trouble 24). Instead, she sees gender as performative. In this sense, gender is constructed through the individuals’ performance as the gendered (or degendered) persona of their own ideals: they act their selves to achieve and express the identity they believe to be theirs.
Furthermore, gender performance includes individuals’ sexual orientation and desire. In other words, Butler sees gender as a corporeal style – a coherent action of one’s bodily features and abilities, and their imaginary target (Gender Trouble 139). What is notable in Butler’s theory is that it allows full independence for determining one’s gender as it rejects the idea of ready-set catalogue of gender features.
According to Butler, gender is formed through years of practice. Fundamentally gender is “a stylized repetition of acts” (“Performative Acts” 519). There are no random acts and gestures but rather acts typical to the individual. Through continuous repetition of gender acts, a recognisable gender identity can be established. This means that repetitive performance causes that both the audience and the performer come to believe in one’s gender identity (“Performative Acts” 520). Gender, in this sense, is a belief – it is both the performer’s own fantasy of themselves as well as a socially and culturally constructed illusion. This illusion, nevertheless, is not solid since the performer and the recipient audience may see the performance differently, especially if the audience is not readily familiar with the performer. Moreover, one’s gender is attached to their social and cultural background, and it may seem strange if the performance breaks the culture’s taboos.
There are several possible acts included in gender performance. The ways in which individuals perform themselves include repetitive speech, gestures, expressions, and the overall habitus; it also concerns the way they dress and move, what they do, and how they do it (Butler, Gender Trouble 136). What is more, gender is always in deep connection to the individual’s body, although one’s bodily features do not fully determine gender, as discussed above. What Butler suggests is that one’s body is “an embodying” or “a continual
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and incessant materializing of possibilities” (“Performative Acts” 521; emphasis original).
One’s body is thus a basis for gender to be socially and culturally constructed, a starting point for the development. Only bodily actions enable the performance of one’s inner gender fantasy. Butler uses the term “dramatic” to emphasise the fact that through bodies individuals enact historical conventions and reproduce them (“Performative Acts” 521). As mentioned above, through repetitive performance the body is an act itself, or a corporeal style. One’s gender is only properly recognized through the bodily visage (523). Thus, the body can be stylised by transforming it into the desired form, for instance by shaping it by exercise, decorating it with tattoos and jewellery, and by covering it with a particular set of clothes – or by deciding not to wear any.
Butler acknowledges the impact of social networks and pressure on one’s identity formation. She argues that although individuals are responsible for their portrayal of their gender, society may determine whether they do it right or wrong (“Performative Acts” 528).
Depending on how they perform a socially and culturally accepted gender, individuals are either sanctioned or rewarded. Such sanctioning can be both explicit or implicit: the person can, for instance, be excluded and avoided, and there may even be actual confrontations as the society tries to correct the individual’s performance. Rewarding can appear as the acceptance of the individual into the society without prejudice, as their gender is not questioned. However, Butler highlights that gender is not a role that can be used to disguise one’s inner self since gender is an act that combines both socio-cultural conditions as well as one’s personal preferences. She states that genders “can be neither true or false, neither real or apparent”, except to that point that they are performed (“Performative Acts” 527-8).
In other words, gender is simply a sum of every aspect in one’s life and cannot be used against nor to gain anything. If one decides to perform knowingly in a certain situation in a certain way, it is a performance of a certain role – not of their inner self.
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Although masculinity as a gender is a social construction, it is built through one’s physique. Male body is an entity of various beliefs and symbols that are continuously reproduced in the socio-cultural context with only some variation. As Connell states, “[t]rue masculinity is almost always thought to proceed from men’s bodies” (Connell 45).
(Hegemonic) masculinity, therefore, glorifies male bodies: they are regarded the truest and most desirable form of humanity. Connell states that stereotypically “the body drives and directs action [or] sets limits to action” (45). In hegemonic masculinity, it may be argued that due to the nature of male body, men are more prone to violence. Rape, for example, is the result of uncontrollable lust and to which men cannot do anything – in such a theory it is only nature’s call. Simultaneously men could argue that their bodies are not built to nurture their offspring. Thus, in hegemonic masculinity, socially controversial subjects and accusations may be avoided by blaming the male body and its natural tendencies. The male body, in its essence, carries a dilemma: it is simultaneously the most desirable physical form, yet it justifiably causes most damage to others.
In hegemonic masculinity, the male body is regarded the embodiment of power and dominance. The justification for male dominance in social life is seen as a consequence of men’s bodily properties. As stated by Connell, patriarchal societies are seen to be “based in a hormonal ‘aggression advantage’ which men hold over women” (Connell 47). Therefore, in hegemonic masculinity claiming political and social power, and taking the authoritative position in social hierarchies is justified as hormonal activity. Connell remarks that men’s bodily prowess such as success in sports is comparable to social constructions: “the institutional organization of sport embed definite social relations”, by excluding women, and glorifying competition and hierarchy among men (54). Connell also states that “sport has come to be the leading definer of masculinity in mass culture” (54). It continuously displays male bodies in action. In sports contests men can challenge each other by demonstrating
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their superior skills and force, as well as their fitness and size: survival of the fittest is to be regarded as the most masculine and compatible in the socio-cultural context. However, hegemonic masculinity only glorifies the structured and organised sports in which men compete against each other, such as ball games or martial arts. “Running, throwing, jumping or hitting outside these structures are not sport at all”, Connell explains, since these are all bodily performances that do not affect the social hierarchies between men, as there are no winners and losers (54). Moreover, it must be mentioned that as “the penis stands for masculinity” (54), sexual intercourse is often assimilated to sports. Therefore, the better a man is at organised sports, the better he must be in the physical performance of sexual intercourse as well. Moreover, an idea can be deduced that the taller and more muscular a man physically is, the larger his penis is: therefore, his masculinity is superior in the sense of hegemonic masculinity. These ideas explain why so many athletes gain the status of a sex symbol.
Connell states that although the sociobiological interpretation of the body as the determinant of one’s gender is ambiguous, the social constructionist interpretation of the body as a tabula rasa is problematic as well (Connell 50). “With so much emphasis on the signifier, the signified tends to vanish”, Connell argues, referring to the fact that when intensely abstracting the essence of gender, the bodily activity of sex becomes disembodied as well (50-1). However, the importance of biological sex is crucial. As Butler argues, one’s body is “an embodying […] of possibilities” (“Performative Acts” 521). Though the body one can express one’s gender, as gender performance is always visual and in connection to the audience.One’s biological sex can be clinically altered since the 20th century in case it is seen as too restricting an attribute. Tattoos, piercings, bodybuilding, weight watching, and surgically planted implants may all be considered as intentional enforcement of one’s gender
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identity and gender performance through one’s bodily visage. Therefore, “bodies, in their own right as bodies, do matter” (Connell 51).
Performing masculinity or the male gender means accepting one’s bodily features and using them to create a socially and culturally recognisable image of man. If the individual possesses male organs and other physical masculine features, the formation of a recognisable male image is much easier within their society. If, however, the individual does not possess such biological male attributes, they must convince themselves and the surrounding people of their masculinity: they must work harder to be taken seriously as masculine and to avoid sanctioning of unrecognisable or strange gender behaviour. In the spirit of Butler’s ideas of gender performance, it can be suggested that masculine gender identity is constructed through internalising what is socially and culturally recognised as masculine in one’s own society, and consequently adopting these attributes. It must be noted that what is considered masculine may differ between varying temporal, (sub-)cultural, and geographic contexts.
2.3. Male Representations in Contemporary American Fiction
Ever since the late 19th century, literary representations of American men and masculinities have been fragmented. The fragmentation of literary characters stems from the altering socio-cultural expectations men faced at the turn of the 20th century. According to Nyman, the crisis was caused by the urbanisation, as well as “industrialization and consequent changes in social structure and values of the late nineteenth century” (Nyman 64). Working environments changed and entrenched, creating urban centres, and replacing the former image of America as rural frontier. Nyman also remarks that “the masculine culture felt threatened by emasculation and feminization”, as women entered the public sphere and
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workplaces more actively (Nyman 65). Therefore, it was figured that the masculine culture of the turn of the century needed an uplift. There was retrospective admiration of the frontier era, during which the physical traits connected to hegemonic masculinity were emphasised, and “athletes, soldiers, and hunters were all admired and elevated into role models for boys who were expected to fight for the nation” (66). Since the crisis of masculinities in the late 19th and early 20th centuries was characterised by such nostalgia towards the men in wilderness, many new genres of fiction were developed during this era. For example, sports fiction, westerns, and hard-boiled detective fiction all hailed the stereotypically masculine, athletic, and serious men.
From the very beginning of American literature (meaning literature written in America, by Americans and about America) the focus has been about most commonly on men. The stories of the first pilgrims, who “settled” the area that would later be the United States of America, are written similarly from the male perspective. Later, the novels that would form the canon of American classics of literature in the 19th century were all similarly from the male perspective. For example, what unites such American classic as Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and James Fenimore Cooper’s The Last of the Mohicans, is that they are all depictions of white men experiencing adventures on American soil and shores. The protagonists of these novels are all white and masculine in the stereotypical way (strong, healthy and witty), and they take advantage of the nature and other peoples surrounding them. They are all in connection to people of other ethnic background, yet always come across as superior compared to these people. Moreover, the male protagonists in these novels do not wish to live in harmony with the nature, but to harness it to their own benefit. For example, in Moby Dick captain Ahab attempts desperately to kill the whale that hurt him. Commonly, the central male characters are in one way or another in crisis with themselves, with each other, or with the surrounding
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world. This can be interpreted as the first crisis of masculinity in American literature. The first crisis stems from the need to highlight one’s superiority over the natives as well as other rival settlers from other parts of Europe.
However, the American literary history is not solely masculine. During the late 19th century and early 20th century a women literary canon began to develop. According to Nelly Furman, women’s search for their own place within the literary world “has led feminist critics to collect and study the works of women authors in order to recover ‘a female tradition’” (Furman 62). It is suggested, that the existence of two separate literary traditions, masculine and feminine, may not be due to the biological differences of men and women, but because of the socio-cultural perception towards the two sexes. While women have been subsidiary to men in western cultures for centuries, women’s literature has been patronised as a literary sub-culture, rather than as equal to literature written by men. Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar state that “the striking coherence [they] noticed in literature by women could be explained by a common, female impulse to struggle free from social and literary confinement through strategic redefinitions of self, art, and society” (Gilbert and Gubar xii).
Therefore, it is typical for women’s literature, that their characters are searching for their place and their voice within the oppressive society. The search for oneself is presented more clearly in women’s literary tradition, whereas in literature of male writers such personal growth and individualism may be disregarded as irrational (non-masculine) foolishness.
Although women have their own marginal literary tradition, the American literary tradition is dominated by male authors with their male characters. Leroy G. Dorsey suggests that during the early the 20th century “changes in American culture had already spurred an uncomfortable redefinition of identity for once disenfranchised immigrants and black men”, and as a growing number of women demanded equal rights, men had an urge to express their masculinity in a more pronounced way (Dorsey 425). At the turn of the century, President
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Theodore Roosevelt became the most acclaimed example of such American masculinity.
According to Dorsey, “Roosevelt addressed manhood far more frequently than he did womanhood. He routinely preached lessons about manhood and American identity because he believed the men of his era had become complacent, seeking physical ease and moral laxity instead of exhibiting masculine vigour” (425). Roosevelt promoted the picture of a stereotypically manly man that was supposed to be a physically and mentally strong head of the house who hunts and tames the wildlife around him. The frontier rhetoric of the previous century was revived, and men were to become modern western “warriors”, like the one Roosevelt perceived himself as (424). However, the example given by Roosevelt was not without contradiction. There is a distinct paradox in the way he on one hand advocates the preservation of the American wildlife “while simultaneously enjoying his status as a big game hunter” (424). There was also a distinct conflict in his warfare politics. He accepted military interventions and institutionalised – or even racial – violence if the nation’s interests were compromised, which in practice would mean forcible suppression of global or local foreign objection, wars against other nations and the xenophobia of civilians with non- European roots. Nevertheless, President Roosevelt was awarded the “Nobel Peace Prize for his diplomatic mediation to end the Russo-Japanese War” (424).
It can be stated that the crisis of masculinity resurfaced after the wars while new anxieties developed. After the first and second World Wars and during the Cold War the frontier rhetoric was revived once more, yet the crisis of masculinity hit the male population more powerfully than earlier. According to Suzanne Clark, the era is characterised by
“disorientation of profound shock – the trauma of the atomic bomb, the returning veterans, the post-Holocaust refugees, the new responsibility of the United States, [and] the difficulty of assessing Soviet policies” (Clark 23). During this time, Americanness was practically equal to hegemonic masculinity, since naturally everything non-masculine in the hegemonic
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sense was considered non-American, and therefore condemnable. Clark argues, that in order to equip the United States with a strong and sustainable image within the national and the international standards, “national realism might have been formed out of the older discourses of frontier manliness” (23). The American self-image was bolstered by frontiersmen like President Roosevelt: whiteness, physical strength and economic competitiveness were considered admirable traits. For example, the character of Rocky Balboa, created by Sylvester Stallone, becomes gradually a national hero. While in Rocky (1976), the first film of the franchise, the title character is an underdog, a poor young Italian American challenger, as Balboa maintains his winning streak and becomes the world heavy-weight champion, he gains the status of a national hero. What makes him more American as the champion, is that he is a strong, victorious, and wealthy – a vigorous warrior. Balboa’s American masculinity is ultimately tested in Rocky IV (1985), as he must defeat his Soviet competitor, and avenge the death of Apollo Creed, the former American champion. What is interesting in the Rocky films is that both the African American Creed and the Italian American Balboa are representatives of American minorities, yet it is ignored as long as they are on the winning side.
However, the national elevation of the masculine image has its reverse effect. Brian Baker suggests that the latter crisis is characterised by the recognition of the diversion in men’s lives between the state of war and the mundane reality that was highlighted by “the elevation of modernity in the post-war American economic boom to a lifestyle aspiration”
(2). Baker claims that as men are sent to war to fight and kill people, and to live in a very homosocial environment with other men, they are expected and encouraged to be rough, cold-hearted and violent – to express their “primitive” masculinity. David Savran agrees and writes that “[t]he post-war hegemony exerted some of its greatest power […] not in the public sphere but precisely on those privatized lives to which so many retreated” (Savran
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46). When men come back home to their families, they are expected to merge into the mundane life, to work and be fathers to their children who they hardly know. As Baker states, the “new economic and cultural system [is] designed to enforce their domesticity,” which creates a significant juxtaposition to what they were forced to in war (2). According to Savran, the “Cold War domesticity aimed at enforcing submission to a wide variety of social and cultural norms”, most importantly policing “nuclear family as a self-contained unit”
through which gender norms and labour division were defined (Savran 47).
This duplicity of masculinities creates anxiety and depression, and the question of
“Who am I really and who am I supposed to be?” emerges. Baker continues to explain that the anxieties of the post-war era have “to do with the idea of the ‘damaged soldier’, a man so inured to war that he transports violence and aggression back into the peacetime world;
and secondly, that the kind of relationships forged between men in combat may have disrupted not only the familial normative, but heterosexuality itself” (2-3). In this sense, men may have created distrust against the surrounding society and its values, as well as disgust towards oneself. For instance, even Rocky Balboa, whose extremely physical masculinity was discussed above, has difficulties with integrating his public boxing persona with his domestic role as a husband and father: in public he must be a savage warrior without any weaknesses, but at home he must suppress his public persona to protect his family.
The post-war generation of men, whose fathers had fought in the war, followed in their footsteps. This was the generation of men with the same anxieties as their fathers without a clear origin for their hatred nor anywhere to unload their emotional package, men
“with no war to fight” (Baker 31). The male offspring of the war-time men was, according to Baker, the “embodiment in the figure of the ‘Angry Young Man’, who seemed to rebel against the traditional forms of social organization and the ‘phoniness’ of post-war life” (31).
That is, the anxieties of masculinity were delivered from one generation to another, and the
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crisis was manifested in varying ways depending on the current contexts. In one form or the other the “split” masculinity was learned from the older generation and implied in one’s own life without the understanding of its origin. To exemplify, in Sloan Wilson’s 1955 novel The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit the male protagonist, Tom Rath, suffers from anxieties caused by his experiences during the second World War. He has difficulties in assimilating to the mundane American suburban society and the world of business after all his killings and extramarital affairs during combat.
Due to the fragmentation of post-war generations of men, contemporary American literature includes multiple depictions of the “new” masculinities. Several new genres were developed during the latter half of the 20th century to match the writers’ needs to address the crisis of masculinity. Especially in the post-1960s American literature the emphasis was on
“visibility politics” and “identity politics” (Robinson 1-3). The depictions of American men in literature had earlier been significantly universally unmarked, and thus invisible.
Robinson states that as the feminist movement and women’s rights gained prominence, the white western masculinity was compromised again: they became “marked men, not only pushed away from the symbolic centres of American iconography but recentered as malicious and jealous protectors of the status quo” (5; emphasis original). In other words, men were considered to form a homogenic group whose every member intends to victimize and oppress women. In either case, the male identities and varying masculinities were dismissed. Therefore, the focus of the post-1960s literature was now on presenting the multiplicity of masculinity: the aim was to prove that men were and have always been individuals too with varying approaches to women and other men. Although the multiplicity of masculinities was emphasized, the presence of “split” manhood, as well as the detachment from society and other people was an integrative element in literary texts. Examples of literature that have made male characters particularly marked include Philip Roth’s 1969
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novel Portnoy’s Complaint, where significant emphasis is laid on male sexuality and psyche, as well as Joseph Heller’s 1961 Catch-22, which satirises the absurdity of the masculine institution of warfare.
There are certain attributes that are common in such post-1960s contemporary American literary works with a focus on men. Firstly, its main male characters are often lonely or solitary heroes. Such solitary men are displayed in genres like espionage literature and hard-boiled cop crime literature (Baker 34, 86). This is only natural considering that men felt alienated from the society and their rights to express their individuality in context with other people. They work alone since they do not have the urgency to perform their acquired masculinity in front of the others. In their solitude they can explore their true identities and express them with no fear of judgement. Moreover, they are “safe” from the fear of being regarded homosexual that follows when one is a part of a homosocial environment. Such solitary heroes are Remo Williams, in Warren Murphy and Richard Sapir’s The Destroyer-series since 1971, and Jack Reacher, Lee Child’s creation who originally appears in the 1997 novel Killing Floor. Remo Williams is a former police officer and an operative agent in a secret fictional U.S. government organisation. He works alone, and is lethally skilled in martial arts. Similarly, Child’s protagonist Jack Reacher is a former military officer, who wanders around the country and works as a kind of private detective.
Both Reacher and Remo are extremely skilful fighters and clever at solving people’s troubles, yet they are very detached from the society due to their troubled past.
In post-1960s American literature the central male characters stereotypically tend to disregard the female characters. Women are mainly used to fulfil men’s needs and therefore mainly perform minor importance in the text: to satisfy their hunger and sexual desire, and to offer them a solid reason for their manly quests. This clearly makes them descendants of Melville and Copper’s male adventurers. In spy novels, for examples, women
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are often depicted as unreliable and vicious temptresses, who turn out to be on the enemy’s side after the protagonist has had a sexual encounter with them (Baker 42-4). Alternatively, female characters may be “damsels in distress” who need to be rescued by the manly protagonist, and therefore are the motive (or an excuse) for the man to begin the journey during which they can explore their own masculine identity in solitude. In western fiction this scheme is very typical. Bandy and Stoehr suggest that the search operation may symbolize the male protagonist’s search for their self (Bandy and Stoehr 163). This too, is a situation in which a female character is only used to fulfil the male character’s need to reinforce their ego. It is very rare that men and women are depicted as equal companions which highlights the men’s detachment and deliberate distance from women. For example, in Larry McMurtry’s 1985 Western novel, Lonesome Dove, the central female character, Lorena Wood, is a prostitute who falls in love with Jake Spoon, a former Texas Ranger. Jake promises to take Lorena with him but soon abandons her, which results in her being kidnapped by a Native American bandit, and then being rescued by other former Rangers.
In other words, her life is not in her own hands. She is more like a merchandise whose fate depends on the male character’s actions and whims.
The contemporary male protagonist is generally in good physical condition, tall and ruggedly handsome. Their physical appearance is mainly socially acceptable because if they had some malformation or another distinct feature, they would face certain restrictive treatment from the society. This is explained by the insight that the American male body is
“connected with the ideological imperatives of the American nation-state” and “[a]n armoured masculinity must be therefore produced to withstand it” (Baker 66). A healthy, strong man represents a healthy, strong nation. Handsome Americans make America seem handsome. When it comes to the male protagonist’s age, they are neither very young nor old but somewhere in between. Therefore, they are not stigmatized by their age. A very young
