by Jessica Clark
12.10.01

A certain style of manliness is once again being honored and celebrated in our country since Sept. 11. You might say it suddenly emerged from the rubble of the past quarter century, and emerged when a certain kind of man came forth to get our great country out of the fix it was in.

speechwriter Peggy Noonan wrote these words in her Wall Street Journal column a month after the terrorist attacks of 9.11, she joined a groundswell of commentators who were suddenly attuned to the burly, gruff charms of working men and everyday heroes.

In the molten glow of the Twin Towers, so the narrative goes, a new (yet suspiciously familiar) masculinity was forged. Even the enemy—real cavemen, those Afghans—crackled with testosterone and resolve.

A retro-fresh array of one-dimensional sociological profiles rose from the ashes of America's symbolic financial headquarters: the Patriot, the Soldier, the Worker, the Father, the Gentleman. Women—even female journalists dropped off the radar.

For her part, Noonan describes her moment of epiphany as she and her fellow New York elites stood and cheered convoys of ground-zero volunteers:

...suddenly I looked around me at all of us who were cheering. And saw who we were. Investment bankers! Orthodontists! Magazine editors! In my group, a lawyer, a columnist and a writer. We had been the kings and queens of the city...I turned to my friend and said "I have seen the grunts of New York become kings and queens of the City." I was so moved, and oddly I guess, grateful. Because they'd always been the people who ran the place, who kept it going, they'd just never been given their due.

Noonan's patently obvious realization blossoms into an embarrassing paean to the manliest man of the large screen: John Wayne. She cites Wayne as the antithesis of many a contemporary plague: feminist brassiness, intellectual weakness, the loss of gentlemanly courtesies. The Duke is back, Noonan assures readers, and he'll surely save the day. We've moved beyond morning in America—now is the time for high noon.

The fact that John Wayne actually never fought in World War II—providing him with extra time to make movies to delight the likes of Noonan—underscores the clot of class and gender fantasy that blocks so many of our shared communication channels.

Behind the Veil

ow, rounding into month three in the practically-proverbial wake of September 11, neither public sentiments nor charitable motives seem so noble or clearcut. Firemen have proved to be argumentative, even violent in their brawl with police officers; the anthrax threat appears to be homegrown; and the monies sent to salve the victims' wounds have become the subject of legal actions.

Lately, both the press and the president (or his advisors) seem to have also realized that perhaps there is another side to the 9.11 story.

Newsstand glossies are scrambling to tell tales of women's oppression, bravery, and forbearance. The December 3 issue of Time offers an impressive package of stories on Afghan women, while the same week's issue of Newsweek offers a singularly unimpressive (but "women-oriented") wall of fluff about Laura Bush's "calm, almost placid" affect, and the ways she soothes her man. Even Latina magazine—generally concerned with issues like sexy hair and "How to Stretch your Dinero"— is showcasing female heroes on this month's cover.

In mid-November, the First Lady was dispatched to address the nation about Taliban atrocities against Afghan women, where, she related, children aren't allowed to fly kites and gaily painted fingernails are summarily pulled out. Around the same time, behind closed doors, top Bush officials met with Elanor Smeal and unlikely feminist Mavis Leno (Jay Leno's wife) of the Feminist Majority Foundation to consult about how women should be involved in rebuilding the war-torn country's government.

It's entirely too convenient for the current administration that the newest enemy's suppression of women's rights is so severe that the demure and unchallenging Mrs. Bush can ring in as a feminist voice. This ill-defined conflict, which, we are told, may continue for years, provides an open-ended chance for conservative forces to reinforce gender notions which stand in service of patriotism, "family values," and old-fashioned violent machismo.

As Jane Smiley notes, in the December 2nd edition of The New York Times Magazine:

Promoting the liberation of Afghan women is a political stance without risk and without a downside. It is kind of like walking down the street and seeing a $100 bill lying on the sidewalk. The administration has to pick it up; it would be against human nature not to. It's also the perfect cause for Laura Bush. She can ally herself with women for whom any sort of life other than imprisonment is a liberation but protect herself from feminists and Hillary types like Susan Sontag amd Barbara Kingsolver, because her position doesn't require any theory or analysis that might reflect on corporate or multinational goals of G.O.P. sponsors or the failures of American foreign policy over the years.

There is no argument that it's good news the administration is finally addressing Taliban atrocities against women, which were widely documented by feminist and human-rights groups for years to little avail. Similarly, there is no denying that the men—and women—who rushed into the rubble of shattered, smoking buildings at their own peril are genuine heroes. The problem is not one of acknowledging these realities, but of managing the way they are framed.

Red, White, and Blow Job
(or, From Baywatch to the Burka)

ne gaggingly automatic reaction of the media/entertainment complex, for example, has been to serve up girly girls to support all of those newly-glamorized manly men.

"Operation Playmate," a program to provide active-duty soldiers with a bit of hot snailmail chat, is back in business. This high-stakes mission was such a hit when it started during the Gulf War that "Stormin'" Norman Schwarzkopf called the gals "true patriots."

Britney Spears, our Barbie-of-the-moment, also felt the call of duty. She dedicated her dubious charms (virgin? whore? Pepsi action figure?) to the troops during her Thanksgiving concert in all-American Vegas—and, for good measure, scored the "Navel Academy" award at the VH1 awards.

Beneath the shimmering boob brigade, though, uglier and more enduring tensions about women's bodies and freedoms uncoil.

Abortion clinics, already menaced by the current administration's convictions, in October found themselves the target of hundreds of anthrax threats that have made the similarities between fundamentalists in the US and their counterparts in Afghanistan all too clear.

Even more bizarrely, in Boulder, family man Bob Rowan, infuriated by a library's refusal to display an oversized flag, donned the identity of "El Dildo Bandito" and stole a collection of 21 ceramic penises that were part of the library's exhibition on domestic violence. The bandit's take on his action, as reported in the Rocky Mountain News, is telling: "The two symbols, the flag and the phallus, were inseparable to Rowan. One supported fighting men overseas; the other, he said, was a strident, sensational 'male-bashing' work, and the library selected the latter."

Translation: when men are bashing enemies, women shouldn't bash them. Period.

Spreading the Bashing Around

omen aren't the only ones who should watch their backs; girly-men and effete highbrows are also victims of the uptick in masculinity.

Journalists are kicking ass and taking names. Consider the complaint of Washington Post writer Hank Stuever upon the release of the Harry Potter movie. American kids, he warns, have become "major dweebs" in the past few decades.

"We told our children that it was best to be smart, kind, open-minded—and yes, that was a good thing. We encouraged their obsessions with dinosaurs, planetary physics, recycling, the trombone, mathletics, Achievement Camp. But it went too far...When did this happen? Where are the kids who are supposed to be beating up the kids who like Harry Potter? Where is the bully who is going to tell them what kinda dorkface fairies they're being?"

So... in this model, rebellion is tied to masculinity, where in Noonan's worldview, masculinity is patriotic. For her, royalty is a plaudit—she yearns for "the Duke" and converts "grunts" into "kings," but for Stuever, the British-inspired elitism of Harry Potter calls for a sound thrashing. Stuever laments the blandness of white fairytale fans, while the country's leaders blare on about the barbarity of foreigners.

What a mess.

And where do the feminists fit into this morass of class, color, and whoop-ass? Camile Paglia to the rescue!

"Male-bashing was a poisonous feature of American feminism for 30 years," the ever-fractious commentator told UPI in mid-October. "Every sexual minority is glorified by campus gender-studies—from gays to transsexuals—but the masculine heterosexual man gets no respect...."

"Campus leftism claims to speak for the common man," she continued, "but it's been totally blind to the natural, vigorous masculinity of working-class men, whose labor and courage sustain the complex infrastructure enjoyed by the effete upper middle class. The sacrifice, energy, and tenacity of the virile rescue workers at the World Trade Center disaster site have dramatically demonstrated the pathetic vulnerability, self-deception, and parasitism of the modern professional class."

Well, she should know.

What Would Ally McBeal Do?

imply put, Americans particularly, and industrialized Westerners in general are steeped in fiction and symbolism, and too often confuse the fabrication of tantalizing caricatures with action or wisdom. But even a team made up of Buffy, Xena and Trinity would not prove strong enough to clobber the recurrent demons of gender stereotyping, and no amount of post-feminist analysis will suffice to cut through narcissistic, self-loathing media generalizations.

As usual, those of us attuned to subtlety, difference, and the struggle for equality in an unequal world have to hew to this manifestly unsatisfying but commonsense truth: people cannot be reduced to comforting labels. The contemporary globalized mediascape teems with both Harry Potter wannabees and Chynas, firemen and female freedom-fighters, brave Congresswomen and cowardly male Senators. Actual human beings are even more diverse and baffling.

Much has been made of the sense of community that developed in post-9.11 America. Splitting the country down race/gender/class lines for the sake of a quick rhetorical fix does nothing but hasten the fragmentation of that tenuous and temporary connection. Pundits and culture warriors should learn to accept and communicate that the world is dangerous, complex, and unpredictable. Terrorists do not operate under the Code of the West, and no duke—royal or big screen—is coming to our rescue anytime soon.