SOCI 4031 Assignment #8

The Masculine Hero Role
Assignment #8 Question
On
Judith Lorber’s Book
Breaking The Bowls: Degendering and Feminist Change.

Sabrina Hickey
SOCI 4031:
Feminist Perspectives.

The benefits of the masculine ‘hero role’ for men is that a male seen as a hero receives social prestige and embodies valor and is seen as having qualities that are traditionally associated with good heartedness, what is seen as embodying quality. The often promoted dominant values of the male hero in Western culture are that is he the good guy who battles evils and wrongs and is seen as the model for social justice and is presented often times as the man all maternal women want. But he is also the man who at the same time is shown, to women (and other observing men), as unattainable indefinably since he is always off on a mission and is needed. One clear popular culture example is Superman, and his doting Lois.

Real life hero’s are the everyday men who go out of there way to help others in the face of disaster and peril. Lorber gives an example of the firefighters and police who died (while doing there jobs) to help in 9/11. No doubt these men were brave and doing the right thing but they were hailed as heroes, while women police officers had risked lives helping out too and were not given the same recognitions to the same degree. The benefits for the male hero’s are social recognition in the media, in their communities and are seen as strong exemplifiers for young generations of men and boys. The female hero exemplifying machismo is not because she is largely not seen as an embodiment of masculine valor.

In a Jungian approach to the hero role, the firefighter and the police officers can be seen as images of the ego, that are struggling with forces of the unconscious. Jungians see the unconscious as creative mental organs that strive for wholeness and the ego comes from this and the relation between the ego and Self is the pivotal axis in the individual. Damage done to the individual is often damage done to the ego- Self relationship. Further, Jung talked about the collective unconscious (the psyche not determined by personal experience), and this is where archetypes exist as universal templates, and so the firefighter or police man become archetypes of the male hero and also much like Lorber has said, increase the social status of these blue collar, lower class masculinities. From the point of view of gender, Jung’s ideas are maternal not paternal or phallic centered like Freud or psychoanalytic thought. (Horrocks 1995: 41-43; Lorber 2005: 104).

The idea of the male hero role is in opposition to the feminist standpoint theory in a degendered perspective, in that these male heroes were involved in the physical world, where they were physically engaging in the material world. Lorber states, “The basis of standpoint feminism is that women live in a world in touch with their bodies, children, and hands on physical labor.”(Lorber 2005: 160). The reason that the male hero role, as in the case of 9/11, is in opposition to standpoint feminists ideas is that they, “argue that degendering will create a masculine world- objective, instrumental, and bureaucratic.”, and so the male hero in the case of 9/11 would in fact not be considered a hero acting in this way, since the degendered masculine world more rationalized and not as maternal. (161).

A Jungian approach to gender relates somewhat to what Lorber explains about standpoint theory and degendering, in that although standpoint feminist theory hold the notion that degendering creates a more masculine- objective, instrumental and bureaucratic- world, this doesn’t account for a full class view or definition of the masculine, since men also do physical (or maternal) labor. (160-1). Basically with Lorber idea, feminist theories that hold a gendered view cannot account for an all masculine view, where men also perform physical labor, like women, they use their bodies too and so, are both- different from upper class masculinities.
Michael Kimmel (1987) suggests that contemporary masculinist response, “is to…dislodge women’s supremacy in the private sphere and support for men … ‘wounded’ in the struggle to exude an aura of masculinity in the public sphere.” (Kimmel 1987: 278). Kimmel further points out that men’s groups like, for example, MALE (Men Achieving Liberation and Equality), “often deny men have power in society…male supremacy is an illusion….” (278).

The male hero role for men can be a marker or noted social reward for the male defined as hero by the media, and sacrifices are needed to be taken in order to be hailed as a hero and also it includes that these qualities are of the male character and persona. But this can be an illusion of male supremacy in the way that it also comes with its drawbacks, for men. Also, in a degendered world, male heroes for men would not exist and both males and females could play out hero roles for both men and women.

The drawbacks of the male hero role for men is the sacrifice that’s is needed to be taken in order to be a hero, there is an element of danger and violence that the man must go against. The firefighters and police officers of 9/11, were both men and women, but the men who were recognized in the media and this show that men who risk their lives and have died are the heroes and that this presents the view in the collective consciences of young men and boys that to die for a cause and helping others in times of extreme violence is recognized by society as being part of the heroism in a man. The drawbacks are that men are faced with violence, violence and death caused by the want and felt needs, to be seen as heroes during times of strife and war. The male hero role media messages, of 9/11, are aimed at the men who come from the same socio-economic class, in which these messages could, in a way, be seen as recruitment strategies for the war in Iraq. These same messages also only reinforces dominant male gender roles, through the absence of women sharing this hero role as well.

In a degendered future, the hero role does not seem to be needed, if one thinks of the hero as the role that inspires and sets the tone as an archetype of example for gendered roles. Heroism is itself a gendered concept to Lorber, considering the role of heroes are explained in terms of gendered embodied qualities. The social construction of heroism and the hero role was a core part of the gender politics of 9/11. Lorber explains that, “The Gender rhetoric heard over and over portrayed men as heroes and theirs as terrorists…but a closer look showed a paralleled phenomenon of multiple gendering…[and] women’s and men’s behavior in the United States and Muslim nations did not match the official gender rhetoric.” (Lorber, 2002). In this way the hero role, based on qualities of goodness and care for one another, can be possible in degendered forms.

In the multiplicity of gendering as visible is important for, “becoming a means of degendering- blurring the lines and ultimately erasing them and the inequalities built on them.” (Lorber, 2000). The further along gendered categories get broken down, then the closer we can be to degendering gender roles. In the gendered ways, heroes have been thought of, would not be included in a degendered future. Heroes of a degendered future could still be included and perhaps necessary and heroes could then be both men and women.

References

Horrocks, R. 1995. Male Myths and Icons: Masculinity In Popular Culture. St. Martin’s Press Inc.: New York, NY.

Kimmel, M. 1987. “Men’s Responses To Feminists At The Turn Of The Century.” Gender and Society. Vol 1(3): 261-283.

Lorber, J. 2005. Breaking The Bowls: Degendering and Feminist Change. W.W. Norton & Company: New York: NY.

--- 2002. “Heroes, Warriors, and ‘Burqas’: A Feminist Sociologist’s Reflections
On Sept 11.” Sociological Forum. Vol 17(3): 377-396. JSTOR. Retrieved Oct 26, 2006.