Relations Among Masculinities: Controversy in Uncle Tom’S Cabin Relaciones Entre Masculinidades: Controversia En La Cabaña Del Tío Tom
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Relations among Masculinities: Controversy in Uncle Tom’s Cabin Relaciones entre masculinidades: Controversia en La cabaña del tío Tom Luis Fernando Gómez R.* Abstract The American novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin, written by Harriet Beecher-Stowe, has caused historical debate because of its notion of masculinity between white men and African-American slaves in the antebellum period. The description of these two antagonist forces are said to be defined by the author on extreme foundations of sentimentalist and romantic racialism that seem to distort the real objective events related to slavery in America. Beecher-Stowe was condemned by both white and black races because of the denunciation she makes of slavery as a hegemonic male institution. This article examines this polemic in Uncle Tom’s cabin, based on the sociologist R.W. Connell’s theory of relations among masculinities. From this theory, the article argues that while whites’ masculinity is determined by a sense of power based on hegemony, complicity, and subordination, blacks’, represented by uncle Tom, is portrayed as adopting weak submis- sion and resigned marginalization. As Uncle Tom’s Cabin is the inspiration of a historical reality, this article also studies the novel in relation to factual events in which the ideals of hegemonic masculinity established slavery as a powerful institution in America. Keywords: Masculinity, hegemony, complicity, subordination, marginalization, slavery, abolitionists, Chris- tian foundations, Evangelical church. Resumen La cabaña del tío Tom, escrita por Beecher-Stowe ha causado debate histórico debido a su noción de masculinidad entre el hombre blanco y el hombre africano durante el período de la esclavitud. Se dice que la autora describe estas dos fuerzas antagónicas con fundamentos extremos de sentimentalismo y romanticismo racial, que parecen distorsionar los hechos rea- les relacionados con la esclavitud en Estados Unidos. Ambas razas condenaron a la novelista por la denuncia que hace de la esclavitud como una institución hegemónicamente masculina. En este artículo se examina tal polémica en La cabaña del tío Tom, a la luz de la teoría que propone el sociólogo R.W. Connell sobre relaciones entre masculinidades. A partir de ésta, se argumenta el presente artículo que mientras la masculinidad blanca se define por un sentido de poder basado en hegemonía, complicidad y subordinación, la africana, representada por el tío Tom, se caracteriza por adoptar una actitud sumisa, débil y resignada frente a la margi- nalización. Debido a que La cabaña de tío Tom está inspirada en una realidad histórica, a lo largo del artículo se analiza igualmente la novela en relación con hechos reales, en los cuales los ideales de la masculinidad hegemónica hicieron de la esclavitud una institución poderosa en Estados Unidos. Palabras claves: Masculinidad, hegemonía, complicidad, subordinación, marginalización, esclavitud, abolicio- nistas, fundamentos cristianos, Iglesia evangélica. Artículo recibido el 20 de marzo de 2007 y aprobado el 30 de abril de 2007 * Profesor del Departamento de Lenguas de la Universidad Pedagógica Nacional. o FOLIOS • Segunda época • N. 25 • Primer semestre de 2007 • pp. 115-124 115 Folios 25-5.indd 115 03/08/2007 12:16:07 Universidad Pedagógica Nacional We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are complicity, while blacks’ masculinity, represented created free and equal; that they are endowed by their by Uncle Tom, is conceived on submission and Creator with certain inalienable rights; among these are pure moral foundations. Beecher-Stowe demon- life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. strates in the novel that one of these masculinities Declaration of American Independence is stronger than the other. Since masculinity is a social construction and involves cultural ideology, The antebellum period in the USA was a time of she develops the building of both black and white dramatic socio-political concerns in which many masculinities in the novel in very different ways. In ideological modes emerged around the slavery order to understand the notion of masculinity in conflict. The abolitionists’ ideals of setting blacks Uncle Tom’s Cabin, a comparative approach between free were mostly unaccepted by average white men white and black males, as depicted by Beecher- whose economic interests depended on the sub- Stowe, will be established based on the theoretical mission of slaves. The romantic racialism, which model named Types of masculinity proposed by proclaimed kindness for the humane treatment of the sociologist R.W. Connell. This model conceives slaves and sympathy to the antislavery argument that the relationships among male individuals con- –as for it “slavery constituted the oppression of sist of four categories of masculinity: hegemony, ‘one of the best races of the human family’” (Fred- subordination, complicity and marginalization. rickson, 437)– strongly opposed the notions of the Connell affirms, “We must recognize the relations superiority of the white man who degraded Afri- between the different kinds of masculinity: relations can-American race. There was also a contradicting of alliance, dominance, and subordination. These conception of America as a democratic nation since relations are constructed through relations that the ideals of human equality and freedom were be- exclude and include, that intimidate, exploit, and ing censored by the practice of slavery. In addition so on. There is a gender politics within masculinity” to that, the public’s acceptance of violence, abuse, (2005, 37). This idea relates to the exercise of power and intimidation as efficient methods to exercise among male figures in Beecher-Stowe’sUncle Tom’s on slaves became a social construct in the south, Cabin. Her novel clearly shows opposite relations and religious communities such as the Evangelical of dominance, subordination, exploitation, and ex- church and the Methodist Episcopal Church raised clusion between black and white males. Therefore, concerns about the moral degradation that the Connell’s model of types of masculinity elucidates white man was going through. Even more, there not only how these relationships functioned in were strong overtones of a civil war likely to happen the antebellum society, but how Beecher-Stowe since the United State Congress had also passed the pictures them to demonstrate that slavery was a second Fugitive Slave Act in 1850, which punished wrong institution. those who helped runaway slaves to go to freed Hegemony, the first category of Connell’s theory, states. This law brought disappointment among refers to a cultural dynamic through which a male anti-slavery citizens in the North because it made group sustains a leading position in social life. This them responsible for supporting slavery. Within group is generally exalted (2005, 77) and is estab- this social turmoil, Uncle Tom’s cabin was published lished by cultural ideals and institutional power. in 1852, mainly as a reaction to the Fugitive Slave In this sense, being the American society mainly Act, and it brought even more controversy to the a patriarchal society in the time of slavery, many slavery issues. white men popularized their supremacy by defining Uncle Tom’s cabin is a novel that causes debate. themselves a superior race. In fact, Thomas Jefferson One of its most controversial topics is its notion in his Notes of the State of Virginia had noted in 1785 of masculinity, in which whites’ manliness is por- that he not only believed in black inferiority, but was trayed by a sense of power based on hegemony and convinced that blacks could never become citizens o 116 FOLIOS n. 25 Folios 25-5.indd 116 03/08/2007 12:16:07 Facultad de Humanidades of the United States, being this a clear expression of boy represents the future masculinity of the black masculine hegemony: race, but before he becomes a man, his masculinity I advance it, therefore, as a suspicious only, that the is already being subordinated. blacks, whether originally a distinct race, or made These initial events cited from the novel are just distinct by time and circumstances, are inferior to a minimum part of the controversy that Uncle Tom’s the whites in the endowments both of body and Cabin caused. Slaveholders reacted against Beecher- mind . This unfortunate difference of color, Stowe’s novel, arguing that it was a vulgar distortion and perhaps of faculty, is a powerful obstacle to of slavery. However, historical references show that the emancipation of these people . The slave . white masculinity was culturally characterized by when freed, he is to be removed beyond the reach a strong notion of superiority and, in the words of of mixture (compiled by Levine, 2000, 341). Moller, by a sense of “compulsory heterosexuality.” Since hegemony is a product resulting from Griffin Wolff states that whites believed that African cultural ideals, Caucasian men considered that, as Americans were by “nature” emotionally, intellectu- being white, they had the power to exploit black ally, and morally inferior. They were seen more like males because they were, in words of Jefferson, “in animals than people (1995, 597). Equally, George reason much inferior” (compiled by Levine, 2000, Fredrickson explains that the superiority of white 338) and, therefore, could be used as essential means men was a common idea among critics of the slave to achieve whites’ economic goals. Thus, reducing system. He refers to Theodore Parker, liberal Unitar- Africans to slaves became socially and culturally ian minister, who declared, “I look at great pride on a normal practice based on the conception of su- this Anglo-Saxon people. It has many faults, but I periority and inferiority. In this sense, masculine think it is the best specimen of mankind which has hegemony became a destructive social force. Ac- ever attained great power in the world” (1987, 432). cording to Robert Moller, citing Mike Donaldson, Undoubtedly, white men created a high sense of hegemonic masculinity is “exclusive, anxiety-pro- superiority of their own image by means of looking voking, internally and hierarchically differentiated, down other races and popularizing it as an accept- brutal and violent.