Feelings of Homesickness. Writing Practices of Young Bourgeois Men in the Nineteenth Century and the Role of Gender and Emotions in Youth Diary-Writing Cultures

Reviewed by: Southern Sons: Becoming Men in the New Nation, and: Scarlett's Sisters: Young Women in the Old South Evan A. Kontarinis (bio) Southern Sons: Becoming Men in the New Nation. By Lorri Glover. (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007. Pp. 250. Cloth, $50.00.) Scarlett's Sisters: Young Women in the Old South. By Anya Jabour. (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2007. Pp. 374. Cloth, $39.95.) Historians studying elite young men and women in the early republic South have often fallen victim to employing southern stereotypes in approaching their topics: Men are studied as creatures of honor who live and die by the sword to defend their reputation, while women are presented as one-dimensional southern belles. These studies have provided interesting insights on the meanings of manhood and womanhood in this time period, but they have been criticized for being too restrictive. A new crop of historians is more interested in studying southern men and women on their own terms, as incomplete identities who were always changing, always negotiating and transforming themselves toward a more perfect version of a gendered ideal. Two such historians, Anya Jabour and Lorri Glover, take issue with earlier approaches and make good on taking earlier historians to task by studying manhood and womanhood not as static categories of analysis, but as goals toward which young men and women labored in processes that over time shaped and reshaped the definitions of gender. In Southern Sons, Glover studies the ideal of manhood to which elite young men between the 1790s and the 1820s aspired. Glover finds fault with previous studies that posited honor as the central theme in understanding young southern men. Instead, she argues that honor is merely a single [End Page 760] component of manhood, and that manhood was the culmination of a process that young boys navigated and negotiated in the early republic. Jabour's Scarlett's Sisters traces the lifelong self-fashioning process of womanhood through which coming-of-age women adopted racial, regional, and gender identities. Jabour's "ladies-in-training" rebelled against and resisted society's patriarchal prescriptions and promoted female agency. Both books trace the processes through which elite men and women experienced life stages: youth, adolescence, courtship, adulthood, and the shakeup of the status quo with the coming of the Civil War. While young men and women faced different challenges, both genders exhibited a sense of rebelliousness and questioned authority throughout their journeys of self-definition. Elite families trained their young sons to exhibit an independent nature and a spirit of autonomy. The goal for these youths was to attain what Glover terms "manly independence," a balance between deference to social expectations and an autonomous spirit, and the young men in Southern Sons display that independent spirit extensively. But families who sought to rein in those sons who showed too much independence never ruled these young men with heavy hands. Instead, parents negotiated authority and left good and proper behavior up to their sons. Glover cites many rich examples of parents seeking to coax sons toward good behavior rather than compel them. This type of parenting helped to spur young men toward manhood while nurturing a constant questioning of authority. As a result, we read about young men who exhibited a lifelong negotiation with authority, with society's expectations, with one another, and eventually with the North. Young women on the other hand were expected to embody self-denial, to revel in the pleasing of others, and, in that pleasing, to find personal happiness. But in these expectations for young women, Jabour still finds room for a rebellious nature and individual agency. Young southern women did not display an outward streak of resistance, but in their own way, in what Jabour terms a "safely invisible" manner, they resisted patriarchal notions of womanhood by extending each stage of their lives and avoiding responsibilities they were not ready to face (13). For example, young women who feared the birthing process, and in the early nineteenth century there was much to fear indeed, resisted motherhood and prolonged their single lives. The life stage of engagement allowed women their final opportunity for holding out for true...

In the present article, we look at attitudes toward gender roles among young women and men in 36 countries with different levels of societal gender inequality. By applying multilevel models to data from the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study 2009, the study contributes to our understanding of gender inequality by showing that (a) both young women and young men (in 8th grade; Mage = 14.39 years) display more gender-egalitarian attitudes in countries with higher levels of societal gender equality; (b) young women in all countries have more egalitarian attitudes toward gender roles than young men do, but (c) the gender gap in attitudes is more evident in more egalitarian contexts; and (d) a higher level of maternal education is associated with more gender-egalitarian attitudes among young women. In contrast, no statistically significant association emerges between maternal employment and young men’s attitudes. Overall, the findings suggest that adolescents in different contexts are influenced by the dominant societal discourse on gender inequality, which they interiorize and display through their own attitudes toward gender roles. However, the findings also indicate that young women are more responsive to external cues than young men are. This result, coupled with the fact that young men in egalitarian contexts have not adopted gender-egalitarian attitudes to the same extent as young women, is concerning because it suggests a slowdown in the achievement of societal gender equality that is still far from being reached.

ABSTRACTAnalyzing 5 focus group interviews with 46 college-going men (18–25 years), this qualitative study specifically explores perspectives of young Turkish men about meanings and conceptualizations of masculinities and gender roles. Our study finds that they viewed masculinity as demonstrating and maintaining superior, tough, self-sufficient, exteriors. Homosocial practices, including sexual objectification, competition, and homophobia, are important for the maintenance of male dominance and masculinity. Our respondents felt that men should avoid housework so as not to be identified as feminine or ridiculed by their families or peers. In this qualitative study, we illustrate how masculinities and gender roles are shaped among college-going young men with specific examples from the interviews. The study revealed that, societal pressure stemming from cultural traditions and Islam has a significant influence on these men’s understanding of acceptable gender roles and masculinity. Based on these findings, we propose strategies to reformulate a healthy gender identity and to support young men at individual, community, and societal levels.

Contradiction among Essentialism: How Some Mormon Fundamentalists Do Gender

The transition to adulthood is marked by interrelated changes in the areas of education, employment and family formation. Using frameworks on gendered transitions to adulthood and links between assets and livelihoods, we analyse nationally representative, sex-disaggregated data from 42 countries to characterize rural youths’ transition to adulthood by gender and according to a four-category typology of low and high levels of structural and rural transformation. Overall, we find that young women and men experience the transition to adulthood differently according to the structural and rural transformation classification of the countries where they live. Across all structural and rural transformation categories, young women are more likely to be married and living with their spouses or in-laws, less likely to be in school or employed, and less likely to own land solely. Gender gaps in secondary school education favour young women only in countries with higher levels of structural and rural transformation, and favour young men in the other three categories. Moreover, a larger proportion of young women than young men are not in education, employment, or training (NEET), but many NEET youth, especially young women, have transitioned into domestic and reproductive roles (i.e. are more likely to be married and/or have children.) Additionally, we review impact evaluations of interventions targeting youth. We find limited evidence on the gendered impacts of such programmes, and these programmes seldom consider how constraints differ for young men and young women. Addressing gaps in programmes and building an evidence base on the gendered impact of interventions can provide insights into how gender roles can simultaneously limit options and offer opportunities to young rural women and men in the context of structural and rural transformation.

Health behaviors are important resources for the development and display of masculine identity. The aim of this mixed-method study was to examine how "masculine capital" is accrued via traditionally masculine behaviors and used to permit nonmasculine behavior. An online survey assessing personal importance of gender identity, gender role stereotypes, and beliefs about the gender of various health behaviors was completed by 731 university students. Interviews were conducted with a purposive sample of 16 of these men and women. Quantitative data showed significant positive associations between perceived masculinity and engagement in a greater number of traditionally masculine health behaviors. Such patterns were clearest among young men and women who endorsed gender role stereotypes and gave greater importance to their own gender identity. Qualitative data supported the quantitative data: participants with more traditional gender role beliefs had more strict beliefs about the masculinity of various health behaviors. When asked about their own experiences, many men described having engaged in traditionally masculine health-related behaviors so as to accrue masculine capital or use it to permit nonmasculine (or feminine) behavior. The novel use of a gender-relations approach in this mixed-method study of young men and women expanded on earlier smaller scale studies of men and masculine capital. The findings add to understanding of the concept of "masculine capital" and suggest how it may aid efforts to better understand and improve young men's health. Young men's concerns about masculinity could be harnessed to encourage healthy "masculine" behavior. However, such approaches may not be effective for men who eschew traditional definitions of masculinity. Furthermore, failure to question socially constructed definitions of gender may reinforce stereotypes that restrict men's and women's opportunities.

The current study investigates how descriptive and prescriptive gender norms that communicate work and family identities to be (in)compatible with gender identities limit or enhance young men and women’s family and career aspirations. Results show that young adults (N = 445) perceived gender norms to assign greater compatibility between female and family identities and male and work identities than vice versa, and that young men and women mirror their aspirations to this traditional division of tasks. Spill-over effects of norms across life domains and cross-over effects of norms across gender-groups indicated that young women, more than young men, aimed to ‘have it all’: mirroring their career ambitions to a male career model, while keeping their family aspirations high. Moreover, young women opposed traditional role divisions in the family domain by decreasing their family aspirations in face of norms of lower family involvement or higher career involvement of men. Conversely, in line with traditional gender roles, young men showed lower family aspirations in the face of strong male career norms; and showed increases in their career aspirations when perceiving women to take up more family roles. Young men’s family aspirations were, however, more influenced by new norms prescribing men to invest more in their family, suggesting opportunities for change. Together, these findings show that through social norms, young adults’ gender identity affects aspirations for how to manage the co-presence of their work and family identities. Altering these norms may provide leverage for change to allow both men and women to combine their multiple identities in an enriching way.

Newton Arvin and the Police: Contexts for <i>The Scarlet Professor</i>

SUMMARY Recent transgender literature has been sharply critical of existing medical models of the psychosexual development of transsexuals and of the treatment of Gender Identity Disorder. Transgender authors have pointed out that subjects have deliberately falsified their reports in order to conform to medical and psychiatric models for the sake of gaining access to services. In newer transsexual narratives, gender and sexual orientation development appear far more fluid and ambiguous over the life span. This paper reviews the nosological history of gender atypicality, from nineteenth century “sexual inversion” to transvestitism and transsexualism, examining how deviations of gender identity, gender role, sexual object, and sexual aim were often collapsed together. These imbrications continue to persist in both the medical and popular literature on transsexualism. A topic that has especially been neglected is the relationship of ethnicity to the development of gender and sexual identity. Presented is cas...

Debates about the so-called crisis of masculinity have tended to focus on the experiences of white working class young men and black young men to the exclusion of other groups of men. This article seeks to redress this omission by exploring young Muslim men's knowledge and understanding of the crisis of masculinity and the ways in which they respond to such discourses. Using qualitative data collected during interviews and focus groups with young Muslim men – mainly of Pakistani heritage – living in Glasgow and Edinburgh in Scotland, I demonstrate that young Muslim men's responses to the crisis of masculinity debate are informed by a complex range of issues including their own class position, familial and related gendered expectations alongside the young men's interests in sport and leisure activities.

This thesis argues for a re-thinking around young men, masculinities and urban cultures. It asks how are young masculinities practiced and what are the tensions that arise for young men in maintaining their gender identity? As a five-year ethnographic study of young men conducted through youth work spaces in South London, it gives a detailed account of the ways young men do gender and the relational practices through which vernacular cultures are made, maintained and (re)produced. Young masculinities are over-determined in the urban imagination readily explained through crime, gangs and violence and stereotypical representations of cultural productions and resistance. Bringing together literatures on urban cultures and space, young men in urban contexts, and masculinities it offers an understanding of how young men and masculinities can be better understood in relation to urban cultures and spaces. Moving across four youth work projects it examines the inter-personal and group relationships amongst young men giving an account of their emotional life, to show how belongings are practiced and re-made in the active production of urban multiculture. Young men carry their bodies in certain ways and embody distrust operating an instrumental relationship to language. But these practices are also active in building relationships and are used as ways to address uncertainties and develop knowledge in gendered ways. The thesis shows how young men navigate their peer relationships and the complex belongings of urban life through navigating exclusions and threats and remaking local identities linked to place whilst focusing on their futures, by maintaining codes of humour, respect and trust.

Young women with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) have a higher risk of adverse outcomes than men. However, it is unclear how young women with AMI are different from young men across a spectrum of characteristics. We sought to compare young women and men at the time of AMI on six domains of demographic and clinical factors in order to determine whether they have distinct profiles. Using data from Variation in Recovery: Role of Gender on Outcomes of Young AMI Patients (VIRGO), a prospective cohort study of women and men aged ⩽55 years hospitalized for AMI ( n = 3501) in the United States and Spain, we evaluated sex differences in demographics, healthcare access, cardiovascular risk and psychosocial factors, symptoms and pre-hospital delay, clinical presentation, and hospital management for AMI. The study sample included 2349 (67%) women and 1152 (33%) men with a mean age of 47 years. Young women with AMI had higher rates of cardiovascular risk factors and comorbidities than men, including diabetes, congestive heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, renal failure, and morbid obesity. They also exhibited higher levels of depression and stress, poorer physical and mental health status, and lower quality of life at baseline. Women had more delays in presentation and presented with higher clinical risk scores on average than men; however, men presented with higher levels of cardiac biomarkers and more classic electrocardiogram findings. Women were less likely to undergo revascularization procedures during hospitalization, and women with ST segment elevation myocardial infarction were less likely to receive timely primary reperfusion. Young women with AMI represent a distinct, higher-risk population that is different from young men.

The article examines the nature of marriage and the expectations of husbands and wives in nineteenth century America by analyzing trial reports of famous nineteenth century divorce cases. The article argues that the textured history of divorce law in the United States shows how the law has affected gendered marital roles through its regulation of divorce. While fault is no longer the focus of divorce, conformity with gendered expectations remains a central aspect of the marital dissolution legal process. In the nineteenth century, conformity benefitted women; if they were the innocent spouse who had taken care of the children, the household, and their husbands, then they were protected in divorce proceedings. Nineteenth century ideology strongly supported this gendered role of both women and wives, and there was a significant overlap between gendered and marital roles. By the late twentieth century, those very same actions of gender conformity had very different consequences. In the nineteenth century, a woman's highest calling was to act as a wife; this is no longer true. Late twentieth century wives who try to live the same lives as their nineteenth century counterparts are penalized. While gender roles and expectations, together with domestic relations laws, are changing, the realities of most women's lives do not yet accord with these changes. Instead, the social norms for marital roles diverge from the legal norms embodied by divorce law. Examining nineteenth century divorce illustrates the confining nature of these congruent legal and social norms, but also illustrates how contemporary divorce law has become separated from these norms. Although divorce law should not return to fault or to reinforcing confining gender roles, it should respect the diverse roles of men and women within marriage. This examination of nineteenth century divorce shows the relationship between gender roles and domestic relations law, but also shows how social norms and legal norms can reinforce, or conflict, with each other.

Chapter 9 - Gender Roles and Gender Identity in Midlife

Gender and power are theoretical constructs linked to discussions of sexual transmission of HIV/AIDS among heterosexual couples. Despite the fact that HIV rates are rising among young men who have sex with men in the United States, work examining the role of gender in sexual decision making of young men who have sex with men remains in its infancy. Through qualitative interviews with 34 young gay men (YGM), the authors seek to contribute to the literature in this area by focusing on the ways that YGM understand and enact sexual positions during anal sex. The authors' results highlight the diversity of YGM's sexual preferences, as well as the high degree of sexual fluidity. Ideas of gender appear to inform part of this process; however, YGM critiqued conventional gender norms and emphasized the centrality of relationships (i.e., casual vs. romantic) in their sexual decision making. The authors discuss the importance of considering gender and interpersonal factors when designing HIV/AIDS prevention messages for YGM.