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--- bederman_manliness_civilization [2026/03/12 23:42] – [Chapter 3: "Teaching Our Sons to Do What We Have Been Teaching the Savages to Avoid": G. Stanley Hall, Racial Recapitulation, and the Neurasthenic Paradox] ccochra2
+++ bederman_manliness_civilization [2026/03/20 23:46] (current) – [Chapter 5: Theodore Roosevelt: Manhood, Nation, and "Civilization"] jjardine
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 Ida B Wells was able to use her work to transfor the conversation of lynching in the South from one about race to one about male power. She turned the picture painted by the south of the "dangerous black rapist" into the idea of white women turning in their black sexual partners. After her failure in the North trying to convice them of the horrors of lynching, she took her work overseas to britain, knowing that white northerners would care more about how they are seen by anglo-saxons, their "racial cousins", than they would about how they're seen by black people in the South. Her work inspired a new definition of power and civility for white men. - Caroline Cochran
+particular those of Britain. This is why anti-lynching advocate, Ida B Wells, made it a point to use this in her strategy to convince northerners to be against lynching. By exposing the British to the horrors of lynching in the South, they became disgusted with the barbarity. This meant that white people in America could no longer ignore the practice and had to acknowledge it for the gross violence it was. Although no anti-lynching legislation came out of the process, the practice notably fell in amount after this. (Tanner Gillikin)
+Bederman explains how, after the South’s loss in the Civil War, many white women felt betrayed by white men’s supposed inability to protect and provide for them. The “black male rapist” myth was in part constructed as an unfair projection of this disappointment onto black men, portraying them as naturally inclined towards rape and therefore deserving of punishment. In this way, lynching provided an opportunity for white men in the South to avenge rapes that white women claimed had happened. White men were able to use lynching to portray themselves as ideal, protective men. (Noah Rutkowski)
 ===== Chapter 3: "Teaching Our Sons to Do What We Have Been Teaching the Savages to Avoid": G. Stanley Hall, Racial Recapitulation, and the Neurasthenic Paradox =====
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 The concept of the neurasthenic paradox also plays into the idea of race suicicde. By this concept, civilization grows when sexes are seperated, however, by being over civilized, the seperation between men and women can grow so vast that they are no longer reproducing with each other. Because white people were deemed the "civilized race" this could lead to a decline in white people, as well as an inclide in more "savage races" who do not have that seperation of sexes. -Caroline Cochran
+In the early 1880s, Stanley Hall created the theory of recapitulation. This theory states that all boys go from a state of uncivilized and through aging they enter higher levels of civility. All boys similarly started at a level of savagery, but depending on their race, they could only reach so far. White boys were at a similar level as black boys, but at a certain point, the black children stop developing, and the white children continue. Hall does not posit that this theory applies in the same way, stating that women have “natural proclivity towards civilization.” (Tanner Gillikin)
+The rise in fear of the disease neurasthenia, a nervous exhaustion due to over-civilization, led to a rise in sports and institutions that allowed men to act out on some primal urges. The idea of the time is that the body acts like a battery, and mental (civilized) work drains that battery. Before industrialization, men most often did physical work, so they did not suffer from the disease, but now, since men were doing less physically strenuous jobs, they could not recharge their batteries. By taking part in sports or clubs (such as the Boy Scouts or YMCA) men had an outlet to act on more primal needs and recharge. (Tanner Gillikin)
+In his idea of recapitulation theory—the idea that young white boys must relive their ancestors’ primitive  evolutionary history in order to combat excessive civilization as adults—G. Stanley Hall believed that it was exclusively boys who held such primitive capacities. Girls, on the other hand, were already governed by adult motives, and were much further away from their primitive ancestors than boys. Recapitulation theory sought to channel the primitive sexual energy of young boys and adolescents into nonsexual pursuits to avoid draining them of this “nerve energy,” but this rechanneling tactic was thought to destroy the sexual force of girls rather than strengthen it. (Noah Rutkowski)
 ===== Chapter 4: "Not to Sex-But to Race!" Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Civilized Anglo-Saxon Womanhood, and the Return of the Primitive Rapist =====
+The contemporary, orthodox views of sexual evolution posited that as races "advanced", their sexual differences became more and more pronounced. For example, the World's Columbian Expedition invited sexually differentiated Anglo-Saxons to gawk at "savages" and wonder whether they were male or female. Charlotte Gilman argued the opposite. She argued that sexual differentiation was a sign of "race decay", a symptom of white men demanding that white women be "oversexed", and these oversexed genes being passed down. As Gilman argued, men and women in truly civilized society would be more alike than different, equally able to contribute to the uplifting of their race. (Nick Thodal)
+Early in her life, Charlotte Gilman was diagnosed with neurasthenia. The conventional wisdom of the day held that neurasthenia in women was a result of them thinking too much and being too active, as their vital energy was more at risk of being drained in this way due to their menstrual cycles. Later in life, after much reflection on her condition, Gilman would argue that neurasthenia in white women came from a lack of participation in the work of "civilization", not in over-participation. White women were equally capable of participating in "civilization", Gilman argued, and contemporary society's insistence they stay in the domestic sphere and contribute little to the "race" was really what drained them of their vital energy, and could only thrive if they lived an active and intellectual life. (Nick Thodal)
+Discussing the feminist ideas of Charlotte Perkins Gilman, G. Bederman analyzes the myth of the male rapist as one of the central concepts in Gilman’s evolutionary narrative. Gilman attempted to replace the biblical patriarchal narrative of Adam’s preeminence and Eve’s original sin in order to emphasize the original equality of both sexes in the primal world. She argues that the fall from the “golden age” occurred after the primal man discovered rape and violence against the primal woman. However, this fall was indispensable for the development of civilization, as men had to provide for dependent women, thereby gradually making them “effeminate” through the care of others until they reached the state of civilization. According to G. Bederman, this narrative appeared to have been particularly useful for C. Gilman, as it appealed to the established discourse of the male rapist while attempting to accentuate the leading role of women in white civilization. - Nikolai Kotkov
+In the time of Charlotte Perkins Gilman, women were painted as less able to lead civilization. Gilmas argued that civilization was not a question of gender difference, but of racce difference. She wanted to make white women central to civilization's advancement by playing on the idea of the "savage rapist". She held many of the same ideas as many feminists at the time where their fight was not for the advancement of all women, rather for the advancement of white women, and therefore, the "civilized" white race. She aimed to revise the practice of civilization by reising the ideology behind it. -Caroline Cochran
+Charlotte Gilman argued that to be a woman was to make a civilized home for her husband and children and to be an anglo-saxon was to be an intellectual and further the white race to a perfect civilization. She wanted women to be equal because women helped bring civilization to men and forcing women to stay at home and not be intellectual with men held white society as a whole back. Civilized advancement was as much a man's concern as it was a woman's, women shouldn’t have to choose between that and the female sphere. (Katherine Hamilton)
+While Gilman argued that women were inferior to men because they were evolved to be that way due to being over-sexed by men, she also said that in order to avoid race decay, women needed to be able to evolve back into being as civilized as men. She also argued that women were superior and men were the ones created to be sexed but she said that men's desire for dominance and the primitive rapist was what was holding civilization back both ways. Unfortunately for her thanks to Teddy Roosevelt the primal rapist, violent, egotistical man was seen as a positive thing and what masculinity should be and important to white civilization. Even though she contradicted herself and shifted her arguments to combat the shifting arguments of anti-feminists, her ideas were not very popular or taken seriously and she fell out of favor. (Katherine Hamilton)
+Charlotte Perkins Gilman believed that women's dependence on men was an unnatural occurrence resulting from overcivilization and racial rather than being a trait of advanced civilization. To explain the origins of this unnatural dependence, Gilman lectured on what she called "the fall of man." This was her belief that, upon discovering that he could violently compel woman, man became the primitive rapist and ceased being woman's equal. In Gilman's view, the discovery of rape is what led to women's unnatural oppression. (Noah Rutkowski)
+Charlotte Perkins Gilman, a scientist of the early 20th century, used the discourse of civilization to help create feminist arguments. The discourse of the time portrays women as being inferior to men in terms of the civilization of men, citing how primitive matriarchal societies were far behind the white patriarchal nations. While not explicitly invoking white supremacist language, Gilman often aligned herself along a similar axis. Gilman said that the language of civilization was more understandable and usable for those of the white race. (Tanner Gillikin)
 ===== Chapter 5: Theodore Roosevelt: Manhood, Nation, and "Civilization" =====
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 Bederman explains the idea that civilization was used to argue that the advancement of humans is dependent on race instead of sex, however, discourse surrounding “civilization” always involved both race and gender. “Civilization” is a fluid ideology and can be used to reinforce differing political agendas like validating white supremacist ideas and challenging the dominance of men. In a racial sense, “civilization” is used to reinforce definitions of manhood, specifically in the late 19th Century where Theodore Roosevelt introduced frontier civilization ideology. The frontier was used to showcase conflicts between savages and civilized people. The identifying feature that separates the two is racial identity. Americans were identified as white masculine expansionists and the center of white superiority. Traits of these men included physical strength, resourcefulness, and showcased traditional gender roles as a protector. On the contrary, indigenous people were seen as brutal savages and the conceptualization of this group allowed American men to justify violence against them. The American man during this period used conquest and conflict with “savages” to contribute to the definition and portrayal of manhood. (Reiley Gibson)
+G. Bederman’s study situates T. Roosevelt’s trip to Africa within the broader discourses of race and masculinity. In particular, G. Bederman argues that this trip functioned both as a performance of masculinity through exposure to danger (hunting, fighting, surviving) and as a reinforcement of his views on race and civilization. T. Roosevelt considered Africa to be in a stage comparable to the Stone Age or the Pleistocene, where masculinity could be reexperienced in the most primal way due to the conceptualization of space as a location of incessant struggle between “wild men” and “wild beasts.” Unlike the followers of recapitulation theory, Roosevelt did not intend to entirely act like a “primal man,” but instead sought to emphasize his civilized manhood through several practices, including the reduction of African males to children and the use of substantial symbolic equipment (books, the American flag, imported goods). Overall, Roosevelt’s trip to Africa was a fundamentally gendered and racialized event that attempted to emphasize the difference between “civilization” and “savagery.” in the American cultural discourse of the early 20th century.- Nikolai Kotkov
+In Bederman's discussion of Roosevelt's life and more specifically actions, a connection is drawn between civility and acts of savagery. Roosevelt himself throughout his life believed in the balance between modern anglo-saxon civility and controlled interactions with baser instincts. this is shown through Roosevelt's desires for conflict and war for American Masculinity, as well as through his actions during his hunting trip in Africa. ( JDJ)
+Bederman shows how Theodore Roosevelt was able to build his claim to political power on his claim to manhood, but also in terms of nationalism and civilization. Roosevelt beilived in building a race of white American values. He promoted his idea of "The white man's burden", or the idea of it being the white man's duty to be "protective" over smaller nations while really translating to an excuse for imperialism. He brought back the idea of civilization as a result of white supremacy. He argued that it was important for white men to exhibit a small amount of violence and savagery in order to maintain masculinity and civilization. By doing this, however, he was seperating white violence from violence of other races. Along with this, a lot of his masculinity was performative, which goes along with his classic narrative of "big stick politics" -Caroline Cochran
 GOT TO HERE --WBM
+In his ideas of race, gender, and civilization, Theodore Roosevelt drew from the same concepts that Rudyard Kipling, author of "The White Man's Burden," believed in. While Roosevelt thought the poem was poorly written, he strongly endorsed the imperialist, racist views that it portrayed. Roosevelt believed that he and other white Americans had a racial duty to colonize and civilize so-called "barbarous" races and nations, like the Philippines and Hawaii. If a nation was already civilized, then there would be no need for imperialism. (Noah Rutkowski)
+Theodore Roosevelt believed that black people were the most primitive of all races, and that their presence in the US was a grave historical error that could not be reversed. While he was strongly against lynching, he still excused its reasons to some extent, believing that racial violence was just an inevitable consequence of white and black people living in such close proximity. He argued that the solution to racial inequality was to simply let "natural selection" take place rather than to address race and oppression through legislation or otherwise. Though he claimed he believed every individual man had equal right to compete in this natural selection, he still believed that, as a whole, black people were much too inferior to pose any threat to the white race. (Noah Rutkowski)
+Theodore Roosevelt believed in the idea of the “strenuous life,” which held that men needed to engage in physical activity and use their strength to resist idleness. By giving in to sloth, Roosevelt proposes that men lend themselves to overcivilization and the degradation of their race. This is why Roosevelt was an ardent supporter of the Spanish-American War (and any war generally). Going to war, it allowed men to act on a small portion of their savage energy in a controlled environment and maintain their strength and intelligent civilization. (Tanner Gillikin)
+The early 20th century saw a rise in fears of race suicide, the idea that a “civilized” race tends to have decelerated birth rates and accelerated death rates. This alarmist theory, similar to those of neurasthenia, preys on the fears of overcivilization. Race suicide used the language of Darwinism to help propel it as more truthful, as it used some of the most advanced scientific thinking of the time. These fears reached popularity through the media in popular science magazines of the time. (Tanner Gillikin)
+Bederman introduces Theodore Roosevelt as an individual that civilization used to see as "over-civilized" and effeminate, due to the way he spoke and dressed, this shows a part of the fear society had about overcivilization. Roosevelt decided to remake his image completely to a very masculine ideal that allowed for a prominent grab of power and authority. This grab for authority and power showed through Roosevelt's fervent support of the Spanish-American War, since it was allowing for American men to take the power as savages within a civilized society. (Sage Milton)