'Man Up!': Tracing the war on 'effeminacy'
In 1937, American eugenicist Lewis Terman created a four-hour test to measure ‘manliness’ in boys
Part two of Man Up! — a three-part series exploring masculinity in crisis.
*Originally published on June 1, 2023.
The story of the four white feathers provides an early 20th-century cultural definition of manhood.
The story features Harry Feversham, who refuses to follow in the footsteps of his military family and resigns his commission during the British military action in Sudan. So three fellow soldiers each hand him a white feather, with the fourth coming from his fiancé. The message to Harry is crystal clear: you are a failed man.
Anthony Rotundo, author of American Manhood, says Harry was being taught to "man up" — an expression first used in American football, but has become a central term in what some observers have called the war on effeminacy.
"It's the way a man behaves in the way we expect a woman to behave. It's about policing the traditional boundaries of masculinity," said Rotundo.
Boosting masculinity
At the time of the First World War, the cultural conversation about masculinity often centred on the idea that war itself creates a new and more virile man.
Historian Angus McLaren, professor emeritus at the University of Victoria, says that new medical treatments, rejuvenation therapies, were explored to "boost masculinity, restoring energy and sexual potency."
A medical scientist working in France, Serge Voranoff, pushed this notion to the extent of transplanting slices of chimpanzee testicle tissue and placing it into men's scrotums.
"It seemed to make a certain amount of sense that... it would have a similar rejuvenating effect. Memory, energy and sexual functions would be restored. So you had the chimpanzees being used in Europe by Voranoff, and in America, various doctors used goat glands," explained McLaren.
"It's been said by some that there was no surprise that rejuvenation research emerged in Central Europe, following the First World War... the notions of rejuvenation were wide-spread, in Nazi Germany and fascist Italy but also too in the Soviet Union. And all these societies were talking about creating 'new men' and new nations."
Testing for manliness traits
In "upholding manhood" concern often emerged about the future of boys.
As the 20th century progressed, boys were increasingly monitored for gender nonconformity. The Boy Scouts believed boys in general were suffering from nervous disorders and so provided lessons on citizenship, the great outdoors and chivalrous behaviour.
Other organizations and thinkers got involved in buttressing masculine values as well. Lewis Terman, an American eugenicist and psychologist, grew fascinated with quantifying masculine and feminine traits in the young.
Sociologist Michael Kimmel says that Terman came up with a four-hour test in 1934, to measure heterosexuality amongst boys.
"There would be questions like: 'is an egg cooked in grease, boiled, broiled, poached or fried?' A boy shouldn't know that, Kimmel said.
Another question: 'do you think that the greatest fortunes should be divided up and distributed among the poor?'
"If the answer was yes, you had feminine qualities," Kimmel said, adding that the final question test-takers were asked was: "'Do some of these things cause you fear or disgust or pity. Darkness? Snakes? Negroes?' If you had no fear, you were masculine."
Introducing patriarchal masculinity
On the battlefield, masculinity has always been measured.
Enlightenment philosopher Immanuel Kant asked: "Is war something noble to which man is inspired through his love of honour?" The answer is no, according to Tanner Mirrlees, a professor of Communication and Digital Media Studies at Ontario Tech University.
Mirrlees says "many men fight wars because they've been compelled by the state or get incentivized to do so or get drawn in by slick wartime propaganda. And honour itself is socially constructed, as is masculinity."
Following the Second World War, men returning from the battlefield were conscripted into a new kind of consumer culture. And in this context, Mirrlees says, "masculinity played a very significant role in this reintegration process."
Men now needed to "win" at capitalism, "the breadwinner, the head of the family, men weren't necessarily in control of their income and labour, but they had to play the role and look like they were in charge. This is called patriarchal masculinity."
Mirrlees adds that, "to be a real man was at this time, not to be a communist, Marxist or socialist."
The McCarthy era has been described as the American hunt for communists "under every bed."
But Rotundo says the "Red Scare" was about more than hunting communists; it was also about exposing "deficient" men. And he says there were more homosexuals than communists or ex-communists impacted by the hearings.
"That's why some masculinity scholars call it the 'Lavender Scare'," Rotundo explained.
There were other investigations in the 20th century that measured "insufficient masculinity."
In Canada, the "fruit Machine" was a device created by a Carleton University psychology professor to identify gay men who then might be removed from the civil service.
Men's liberation movement
The Women's Liberation movement set off cultural fires, seemingly everywhere. Women were restless, resentful and angry. In Vancouver, women set fire to a porn video store.
In France, there were public bra-burning events. Miss America pageants were ambushed by protestors, some hurling mops and cosmetics. As women attempted to lead the cultural conversation, they were met with a backlash.
In his books Sexual Suicide and Naked Nomads, political theorist George Gilder stated that men were fragile creatures and only marriage gave them purpose. And he warned aggressive career women could make men impotent.
According to sociologist Michael Kimmel, the 1970's was a strange time for many men.
"There's two trends that we're talking about. On the one hand, feminism creates a backlash. That what women are doing is not natural. Their nature is to be warm and loving and nurturing homemakers and housewives. You're going against nature. Stop it. You're destroying men in doing this. That's one thing," Kimmel said.
"Another thing was that the men's liberation movement begins with an idea that women have it right. Men, think about the chains you're in! Never show your feelings, be a rock, a sturdy oak. Like, yuck. What a recipe for misery, right? That's the psychological piece."
Kimmel adds that when women were asked what the source of their unhappiness was, they answered, sexism, patriarchy, men.
"Men said, well, patriarchy, maybe. Or women. Maybe they're the source. And that's where the men's liberation split between a psychological group that says men need to be free. And the political group, which becomes the men's rights movement."
Mythopoets
In the early 1990s, there were different groups vying for attention and political visibility.
The Promise Keepers was a conservative, religious group who believed in fortifying marriage through male dominance. It also subscribed to fidelity, chasteness and hard work. Fathers and daughters took a vow of purity and attended chastity balls together.
But there was no greater shift on the landscape of masculinity than the emergence of what's called the Mythopoetic Movement in the 1980's. The term welcomed men to quote "re-story ourselves in order to restore the world."
Men were tired — alienated from each other and society. Inspired by feminism, a largely white group of psychologists, poets, musicians, storytellers and authors followed the lead of Robert Bly and his block-buster quasi-manifesto, Iron John: A Book About Men.
The mythopoets believed the male identity crisis suffered from a number of tangled roots: fatherless sons, dominant mothers and dog-eat-dog capitalism, all of which had emptied men of emotion and spirituality. Self-help workshops and retreats flourished.
Mens' movements would separate further in the 21st century. Some emerged within far right groups, while others emphasized the need for deep and intimate fathering to begin, with positive results for men. Educator and author Michael Kaufman says, "what feminism did for women, strengthening fatherhood will do to improve the lives of men."
Guests in this episode:
Michael Kimmel is one of the world's leading experts on men and masculinities. Among his many books are Manhood in America, Angry White Men, The Politics of Manhood, The Gendered Society and the best seller Guyland: The Perilous World Where Boys Become Men. With funding from the MacArthur Foundation, he founded the Center for the Study of Men and Masculinities at Stony Brook University in 2013.
Anthony Rotundo is the Alfred E. Stearns instructor in history and social sciences at Phillips Academy Andover. His book is American Manhood: Transitions in Masculinity from the Revolution to the Modern Era.
Michael Kaufman has spent a lifetime as an activist, writer and speaker, addressing issues about masculinity and how to transform mens' lives, including The Time has Come: Why Men Must Join the Gender Equality Revolution.
Angus McLaren is a professor emeritus of history at the University of Victoria and has written The Trials of Masculinity, amongst other books.
Tanner Mirrlees is an associate professor and an undergraduate program director of Communication and Digital Media Studies at Ontario Tech University.
Ryan Thompson is a contributor to CBC.ca.
*The three-part series, Man Up! The Masculinity Crisis was produced by Mary O'Connell.
