Manliness
Masculinity is a set of qualities, characteristics or roles generally considered typical of, or appropriate to, a man. It can have degrees of comparison: "more masculine", "most masculine'". The opposite can be expressed by terms such as "unmanly'" or epicene. A near-synonym of masculinity is virility (from Latin vir, man). Constructs of masculinity vary across historical and cultural contexts. The dandy, for instance, was regarded as an ideal of masculinity in the 19th century, but is considered effeminate by modern standards.
Academic study of masculinity underwent a massive expansion of interest in the late 1980s and early 1990s, with courses in the United States dealing with masculinity rising from 30 to over 300 Although in a sense all scholarship had previously been masculine studies, the new approach to the study of the characteristics of men was prompted by feminist, LGBT and racial equality campaigners. This has led to the investigation of the intersection of masculinity with other axes of social discrimination and also to the use of concepts from other fields - such as feminism's model of the social construct of gender.
Read more about Manliness: Nature Versus Nurture, Hegemonic Masculinity, Critics of Masculinity, Western Trends, History, Development
Famous quotes containing the word manliness:
“Let there be no steps backward. A thought as to the manliness of persevering, of the want of manliness in yielding to depression, came to his rescue.”
—Anthony Trollope (1815–1882)
“There is a great deal of self-denial and manliness in poor and middle-class houses, in town and country, that has not got into literature, and never will, but that keeps the earth sweet; that saves on superfluities, and spends on essentials; that goes rusty, and educates the boy; that sells the horse, but builds the school; works early and late, takes two looms in the factory, three looms, six looms, but pays off the mortgage on the paternal farm, and then goes back cheerfully to work again.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)