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Chapter 2 The Mythos of Masculinization: Narratives of Heroism and Historical Identity
- University of Hawai'i Press
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72 chapter 2 The Mythos of Masculinization Narratives of Heroism and Historical Identity In imitating the exemplary acts of a god or of a mythic hero, or simply by recounting their adventures, the man of an archaic society detaches himself from profane time and magically re-enters the Great Time, the sacred time. —mIrcEa ElIadE, Myths, Dreams and Mysteries (1967) Amid the modernization of Japan from the late nineteenth century, hero worship became an important ideological tool for molding adolescent boys into men who could serve the Japanese empire. In history, the figure of the hero is a cultural construct of idealized masculinity that arises within the context of a struggle over the gendered order. Since the meaning of gender is, as Judith Butler argues, always deferred as a kind of imitation for which there is no original, the maintenance of masculine values requires the relentless production of ideologies of gender to reinforce the subordination of women and the dominant position of men.1 In many cultures , the ideology of “masculine hegemony” finds cultural expression in the figure of the hero, whose exemplary masculinity compels imitation.2 Since, as Butler notes, all gendering is a kind of imitation and impersonation that constitutes the performance or production of the self,3 heroes are a significant dimension of the ideological construction of gender ideals. Because identification and desire shape gender presentation, heroes form the structure of impersonation by which gender becomes naturalized. Accordingly , the hero plays an important role in the process of identification among adolescent males since the transition to manhood is predicated upon conformity to normative definitions of gender, which heroes are deemed to exemplify. thE mythoS of maSculINIzatIoN 73 In this chapter, I argue that heroes are one kind of transitional object that is important in the development of identity. Deriving from object relations theory, scholars have begun to examine how our identities are formed out of the relations of the self to external others or objects.4 Throughout our lives, cultural artifacts serve as important transitional objects in an exchange between our inner and outer self. Through a process of object splitting (introjection and projection), the self takes in aspects of others while expelling or projecting out elements of the internal self. On the one hand, this negotiation involves a process of identificatory mimetism , whereby imitation or modeling creates the effect of an idealized self/ other.5 On the other hand, this same negotiation also involves the violent process of the renunciation of some aspect of the internal self. Through this exchange, the identification with heroes constructs gender identity since the impersonation of the hero shapes one’s gender presentation.6 The purpose for focusing on heroes as objects in adolescence is to better understand gender identity formation. As Michael Messner affirms, “masculine identity is neither fully ‘formed’ by the social context, nor is it ‘caused’ by some internal dynamic put into place during infancy. Instead it is shaped and constructed through the interaction between the internal and the social.”7 On the one hand, the essentialism of psychoanalytic interpretations risks reducing issues of development to the problem of the resolution of the Oedipus complex. According to this view, the threat of castration drives the male child away from his dependence on the mother. Such interpretations suggest a universal dimension to the experience of adolescence , which fails to problematize cultural differences and the social and historical context. On the other hand, constructivist views of identity, which rely on cultural determinist explanations, assume the direct internalization of the social and cultural world into psychic reality. In the end, culture shapes identity, but it is mediated through a constellation of complex emotions and psychological processes.8 I argue that the ideological effect of heroes in shaping gender identity can only be understood in relationship to narrativity since the hero is a product of narrative, and it is only to the extent that human actions and events are articulated in a narrative mode that the heroic finds expression. In other words, only through narrativization is the emptiness of meaning of events in history replaced by a story. The heterogeneous elements of human existence are drawn together and configured into a narrative expressive of the mythic and heroic qualities that resonate with moral mean- [3.92.96.247] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 23:20 GMT) 74 thE mythoS of maSculINIzatIoN ing and ideological function in a particular historical and cultural context. As a product of discourse, heroes then are a collective...