How to be a man

Document Type

Contribution to Book

Source Publication

Spain in the nineteenth century: New essays on experiences of culture and society

Publication Date

2018

Editor

Andrew Ginger and Geraldine Lawless

Publisher

Manchester University Press

City

Manchester

Series

Rethinking the Nineteenth Century

ISBN

9781526124746

First Page

147

Last Page

173

Department

Spanish

Description

‘Slugs and snails and puppy-dog tails, that is what little boys are made of’. Many of us are familiar with the nursery-rhyme recipe for little boys, but few have considered the ingredients that made Spanish men in the nineteenth century. During this period of shifting status borders and social jockeying—especially in urban centers—identity formation, and gender identity in particular, became a topic of anxiety and constant scrutiny. Conduct literature promised to address the issue of how to be a proper man or woman, turning men into hombres finos and women into ángeles del hogar. The right clothes to wear, the appropriate words and gestures at parties, how to treat a woman, these were just a few of the lessons to be found in Rementería y Fica’s best-selling El hombre fino al gusto del día, manual completo de urbanidad, cortesía y buen tono (1829). Such explicit efforts to normalize male behavior reflect a significant interest in establishing a hegemonic model of masculinity. This essay uses R.W. Connell’s theory of hegemonic masculinity to discuss the evolution of masculine ideals in the nineteenth century. Specifically, it examines the role of conduct literature and popular culture in shaping a new breed of man, one that culled the most desirable qualities of rough and refined masculinities as the gender discourse in nineteenth-century Spain attempted a delicate balancing act between the perceived effeminacy of strict social decorum and the dangerous hyper-masculinity of a bygone era.

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