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Masculinity In The Civil Rights Movement

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In the mid to late 1900s, Black women were heavily involved in the Civil Rights Movement, as well as the Black Power Movement. These two movements, which spanned from the 1950s to the late 1970s, displayed the constant battle Black people had to fight against their local and national government. As Black women all across the country gained positions of leadership, whether they organized boycotts protesting racial discrimination or led a group of individuals fighting against police brutality, they frequently encountered sexism and racism from both white men and black men. Within the public and private sector of the Civil Rights Movements and the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, black women often had to adopt the strategy of performing …show more content…
Traditional masculine ideology has several standards and expectations that can include negative aspects of antifemininity, homophobia, emotional restrictiveness, competitiveness, toughness, and aggressiveness (Wade and Rochlen, 2013). Given that traditional masculine ideology and Black men’s masculinity ideology has been measured on similar scales, data has shown that Black men tend to support traditional values of masculinity, more so than White men. Within the construct of traditional masculinities and hegemonic masculinities, R.W. Connell has provided ground-breaking research on the sociology of gender. Connell proposed the idea that masculinity has three separate components. The first component describes how individuals, regardless of whether they identify as male or female, can embody masculinity through practice. That being said, women can perform masculine characteristics because masculinity is not solely reserved for men. Secondly, this “set of practices and characteristics are only understood to be ‘masculine’ (Schippers, 2007). This second component reinforces the first idea in that masculine characteristics are not solely for men, although men often display them more. Lastly, when all people personify masculine characteristics, …show more content…
Steve Estes’ book, I am a Man!: Race, Manhood, and the Civil Rights Movement skillfully captures the attitude and way of thinking for black men during the twentieth century. Systematic racism has forced black men and women to develop a dual identity; one that is their true unapologetic self and one who must disguise their identity and thoughts from whites as they struggle with their black humanity (Estes, 2005). Black men have often had to mask their masculinity in order to protect their lives and the lives of others around them as threats of murder, lynching, and incarceration loomed above their heads. The black man’s journey for racial equality began as black men and women wanted recognition of their basic human rights. During the Civil Rights and Black Power Manhood, many male leaders referred back to the past in order to justify their rights for all citizens (Estes, 2005). The philosophy of “manhood” within American society derived from the ideas of European Enlightenment thinkers, who used terminology such as, ‘rights of men’, in order to represent all citizens (Estes, 2005). Southern white manhood during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries was explicitly defined as white, male, and land or slave owners. Southern white manhood depicted having numerous dependents such as wives, children, and

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