Socially Contructed Masculinities Across Class

Victorian society can hardly be regarded as egalitarian. There were rich people who lived lives of privilege, poor people that despite hard work never seemed to escape poverty, and people in the middle that worked hard and lived comfortable lives. As the notion of masculinity is a social construct, it is not a stretch to assume that variable social contexts will affect that construction.

Multiple Masculinities

Middle class masculinity is the most studied of the Victorian British masculinities and it would make sense to start here. The middle class in the early Victorian period were profoundly influenced by the growth of Evangelist Christianity which espoused a separation of the domestic and public spheres. This separation entailed female control of a domestic sphere that was financed entirely by men. Indeed, a man’s very “manliness” and how he was perceived by his peers depended on large part on whether or not he could provide a comfortable standard of living for his family. Given the prudish reputation of Protestantism in general, men were to do their duty stoically and rarely outwardly showing emotion. The dominant views of the time rejected pleasure for pleasure’s sake and the gratuitous displays of wealth.

Aristocratic masculinity in the Victorian period can best be described as a holdover from the eighteenth century. Aristocrats and the gentry did not necessarily have to work for their money and often led lives of leisure, much in contrast with the middle class that only accepted rational, pious leisure (at least that is what they would like to claim). Furthermore, upper class “society” was a mix-sex affair where women were not necessarily inferior to men, unlike the strict separation of the sexes in the middle classes. Amongst all classes, homo-social sociability was a major pillar but unlike the middle and working classes, homo-social contact was always platonic due to slightly more permissive attitude towards homosexuality in the upper classes.

Due to the impoverished nature of the British working classes, masculinity had a very different meaning there. Unlike the middle classes, working class homes could not depend on only one wage-earner. The separation of the sexes so fetishised by the middle classes would simply not work for the working masses. Because of the toll exacted by trying to scrape together a living, one would say that the working classes were largely untouched by the ideas espoused by middle class masculinity, however one must acknowledge that they had some common values – respect for hardwork, honour and perseverance.

Challeges to Masculinity

Like most social constructions, the idea of masculinity, especially for the middle class was partially reliant upon “othering.” As previously mentioned, there was not one single masculinity, but three from which one could choose. Sticking with the middle class masculine identity, there were two other “others” that developed: the younger middle class men that rejected the masculinity of their fathers and homosexuals. As the nineteenth century progressed, women continually asserted their control over the domestic sphere. Young men saw this as treading on the toes of tradition male dominance leading to a flight from domesticity, whereby young men chose adventure, leisure and homo-social camaraderie over the domestic ideal. Homosexuals on the other hand were seen as a subversive element. Not only did they reject the traditional role of men (especially passive homosexuals) but they also undermined the value of all-male sociability by adding a tinge of sexuality to it.

The Role of Women in Masculinity

Finally, one cannot speak of a social construction without talking about those that aided in the construction – in this case, women. The majority of guide books on etiquette and morality during the period were produced by women because the prevailing belief during the period, that despite Original Sin, women naturally possessed a moral authority that men did not. Because of this moral grounding they were relegated to the private sphere so that they could nurture the next generation and provide them with sound moral foundation. Therefore, women were the main vehicles of socialisation during this period and would have had a direct role in the perpetuation of gender roles.