the inner man

Masculinities and Identities by David Buchbinder, Melbourne University Press, 114pp, ISBN 0522845452; Real Men by Helen Townsend, HarperCollins, 285pp, ISBN 073225017X

Xiphoid phalli have, for time immemorial, been the only real symbol for male gender identity. In recent years there have been numerous attempts to explore this problem, attempts permitted by an ideological revolt against the assumption that all socio/anthropo/psychological evaluation should concern itself with "minorities" or with the "oppressed" (as if such evaluations were the booby prize for those with whom our culture is not economically preoccupied). This traditional focus on the put-upon "little guy" has done intellectual evaluation a disservice, reducing it to an exercise in apartheid rather than expanding its definition to that of an embracing discipline.

Townsend joins the essentialist vs. constructionist bunfight with Real Men, a work which is, for want of a more euphonious noun, crap. On page 84 the girl, wishing to chide herself for the preceding comment, writes: "Okay, I know that’s terrible." What she doesn’t know is just how terrible it really is.

Townsend strokes the shaft of discursive subjectivity with much girlish enthusiasm, but enthusiasm, as any real man will tell you, is never quite enough. In the introduction she informs us that to prepare for this book, she read "psychology, history, sociology, [and] feminism". As she has dispensed with anachronistic organizational devices such as the index, addenda, and the bibliography, I can only assume that she is a speed-reader of truly intimidating velocity to have covered such extensive ground in such an abbreviated period of time. Why, it takes me at least an afternoon to finish James and the Giant Peach, never mind reading even a bit of psychology or history.

Speed-reading aside, Townsend is no bubble-wrapped egghead, and got her gristle the hard way - by sitting in places like pubs and interviewing "real" men (as opposed to interviewing department store dummies or female transvestites). Her process is as follows: the men discuss their "deep feelings", she removes the context, hacks the interviews down to sound-bites, and then enlightens us with pert explanatory paragraphs (which yield insights such as "men have feelings").

It takes a work like David Buchbinder’s Masculinities and Identities to reaffirm my belief that we have actually evolved from - rather than remained - chimpanzees capable of navigating a typewriter keyboard. His prose trots along at a lovely clip, and his gentle curiosity suffuses the all-too-brief text with a rosy glow. Buchbinder’s case for the fluidity and adaptability of gender identity is a valuable one, and argued with much elegance and flair.

In exploring the illusion of masculinity as being unitary, he challenges most of the accepted assumptions about masculine behaviour. His arguments are deft and neatly step amongst dogmata to present statements of beautiful significance. "Essentialism," he writes, "creates a social division between the sexes that is much sharper and more obstructive than the anatomical division created by genital difference."

And when he writes of men’s efforts to "efface their anxieties and emotions in order to present [an] ... impassive face to the world" he does justice to the topic, citing heartbreaking examples such as the response of medical authorities to men traumatized by war: "The term `shell-shock’ was coined because it was thought that ... cases of mental breakdown [in soldiers] ... resulted from the concussive effect of [exploding] shells ... rather than ... emotional upset or psychological disorder."

He occasionally slips, most notably with his comparative analyses of masculine and feminine gender-boundary fears. His examination of the relationship between actual and televisual violence is also inadequately researched and superficially argued. Otherwise, he shows himself as a thorough and very worthy investigator of the behavioural strictures which have transhistorically inhibited men’s emotional development and social receptivity.

The conclusions of both books perfectly illustrate the incongruity of "genetically imparted" baseness in men and refinement in women. Buchbinder concludes Masculinities and Identities with a philanthropic wish for difference to signify nothing but itself. Townsend ends her book with a "real" man’s quote which captures both the dainty spirit and subtlety of her quest for understanding: "I reckon we’ve got to grab it with both hands and start enjoy being men."

*Originally published in The Sydney Morning Herald