Contribution to Book
Violent Masculinity: Ritual and Performance in Southern Lynchings, 1877-1939
Southern Masculinity: Perspectives on Manhood in the South since Reconstruction
(2009)
Abstract
This chapter explores the gender crisis for white males in the New South for white males who participated in ritualized violence as a method for temporarily restoring white masculinity. After the Civil War destabilized the patriarchy in which slavery was rooted, it became imperative for white men to find alternative ways to demonstrate effective manhood. Lynchings became a space where white Southerners defended white male supremacy in a public ritual of brutality against African American men.
Disciplines
Publication Date
February 5, 2009
Editor
Craig Thompson Friend
Publisher
University of Georgia Press
ISBN
978-0820332321
Publisher Statement
The follow-up to the critically acclaimed collection Southern Manhood: Perspectives on Masculinity in the Old South (Georgia, 2004), Southern Masculinity explores the contours of southern male identity from Reconstruction to the present. Twelve case studies document the changing definitions of southern masculine identity as understood in conjunction with identities based on race, gender, age, sexuality, and geography.
After the Civil War, southern men crafted notions of manhood in opposition to northern ideals of masculinity and as counterpoint to southern womanhood. At the same time, manliness in the South―as understood by individuals and within communities―retained and transformed antebellum conceptions of honor and mastery. This collection examines masculinity with respect to Reconstruction, the New South, racism, southern womanhood, the Sunbelt, gay rights, and the rise of the Christian Right. Familiar figures such as Arthur Ashe are investigated from fresh angles, while other essays plumb new areas such as the womanless wedding and Cherokee masculinity.
Citation Information
Kristina DuRocher. "Violent Masculinity: Ritual and Performance in Southern Lynchings, 1877-1939" AthensSouthern Masculinity: Perspectives on Manhood in the South since Reconstruction Vol. two (2009) Available at: http://works.bepress.com/kristina-durocher1/13/