So I thought I should do some research

16.9.17

Don’t worry. I have been doing research before. But I haven’t really done research in order to say something in particular. The research has been building up different experiences of masculinity. So it’s been talking to lots of different people.

So I spoke to a lot of male friends. I have wanted to avoid making this too narrow a project- I don’t want it to be overly male. But I suspect that the female experience of hypermasculinity is likely to be one of toxic, or even aggressive masculinity. Not that these experiences are in any less valid. More that I want to understand what the men are thinking when they perform their gender, rather than the reactions from the audience for that performance. So I have focussed my research mostly with men.

I would, of course, like to speak to some non-binary people and trans people, but need to be careful to avoid making the conversation something of a ‘curiosity’ event. Which is something writers can easily find themselves doing. ‘Hello. I’m writing a play about gender. Would you mind please giving me some easily consumable information about your gender?’. I don’t feel that’s very appropriate. I need to work out how to phrase my questions better first.

So I’m doing some research. Something I touched on before to do with Elvis’ cultural ‘mixing’ seems to be a significant factor in gender conceptions. But the research shows that I was wrong. The Columbia Business School’s study, entitled ‘Gender and Race: How Overlapping Stereotypes Affect Interracial Dating, Leadership Selection, and Athletic Participation’, addressed the idea of gendered race. The study showed that, in America, black men are seen as the most masculine, followed by white men, and last, Asian men. (I’m not sure about the study’s decision to lump all races into three groups- but that’s a whole other topic. I’m not disagreeing; I’m just not sure). Furthermore, men find Asian women the most attractive (because being Asian is associated with femininity, and men find femininity attractive). Equally, women find black men more attractive: and these results are born out in the 2000 US Census: of all black-white marriages, 73% were black man/ white women. Correlatively, of all Asian-white marriages, 75 % were white man, Asian woman.

So my idea that ‘Elvis’ mixing cultures of might lead to a different conception of masculinity’ was along the right lines. I just got the conclusion wrong. If this study is correct, I should have found him more masculine through his plagiarism of black identity. So I was wrong on that front.

So gender and race are connected. Obviously not inherently, but Americans see race as having an effect on the perpetuation of gender.

I don’t feel like drawing any particular conclusions from this study because first, I feel like having a ‘type’ based on race is tacitly offensive. If I were to say ‘I only find Spanish women attractive, it would I think non-Spanish women are unattractive.

But also, I feel the study is a bit simplistic. It only really speaks of three types of man and woman: this ignores mixed race people; I’m unclear about the three categories of race chosen; the study doesn’t explain much of what is meant by ‘more’ or ‘less’ masculine or feminine. It doesn’t really explore the actual genders it talks about. Though I suppose the take away point is that gender is more complicated than we thought.

Well, gosh