My last blog post was about Paul D's "a man ain't a goddamn ax" comment, and his surprisingly progressive take on masculinity. As I was reading further, I found a contradiction to this statement.
Paul D is describing how frustrating it is to lose control to Beloved, and how it strips his masculinity. He says, "because he was a man and a man could do what he would: be still for six hours in a dry well while night dropped; fight raccoon with his hands and win; watch another man, whom he loved better than his brothers, roast without a tear just so the roasters would know what a man is like."
I sighed a little when I read this, shaking my head. Oh, Paul D. The concept of masculinity is going to follow us, no matter what. Paul D can stand up to Sethe about Halle not "acting like a man," but it seems he is unable to stand up to himself. He still holds himself to a manly standard, forcing himself to not feel, not express fear, be aggressive. He has internalized the messages of what is a man, and these have spread everywhere back in those times, without media or the Internet. Now, we have infinite forms of simple mass communication to get our messages across, and too often those messages contain gender standards that have infatuated all of us, to some extent.
Girl, you're so right. It is sad to think that the defeatism I think we feel today about change existed even this long ago. A lot of people are so used to the way things are, the way gender roles dictate the rules of our "system" that we often forget that we have power to unhinge the system. In fact, we are the only ones who can do so. If we do not reject the roles given to us, like Paul D did before when he took apart the metaphorical relationship between men and axes, then things will only stay the same. Why, I wonder, did he give up against these gender roles?
ReplyDeleteWhile I understand everything you said regarding the concept of masculinity that occurs for Paul D, I think for a black man at this time it was essential to make themselves feel as manly as possible. As a slave,everything possible was done to dehumanize all slaves and to make men feel as least manly as possible. Therefore, I think Morrison is creating an accurate representation of a man in this time period.
ReplyDeleteI do keep noticing things like this throughout the book. Just little random assertions of the gender binary, in descriptions of both men and women. I think this is mostly to keep within the mindset of the era of the book, but I do wish Morrison would do a little more to try and deconstruct that idea, just like she does with the ideas of race.
ReplyDeleteAnika, what a great topic and point you are making. And Trey's comment is a great extension of it. While Paul D is a complex, "progressive" man, he is also can't escape the constructions of masculinity around him.
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