Reviewed by Huw Walmsley-Evans

The notion that masculinist ideals and representations defined and dominated American art during the period from the mid-nineteenth  to mid-twentieth century is not a groundbreaking one. The fact of masculine dominance of all facets of American culture during this period (as well as the period preceding and arguably into the present day) is so readily apparent and widely accepted that examinations of masculinity in the American arts frequently offer little more than a statements of fact based on traversing well-trodden academic earth. To make fresh and compelling such subject matter is a true feat, and in achieving this feat, David A. Gerstner’s Manly Arts – Masculinity and Nation in Early American Cinema should earn itself a place as required reading for all those interested in gender studies and the cinema.

The interdisciplinary approach of the work is undoubtedly its major strength. Gerstner masterfully weaves elements of disparate cultural media, historical events and personages together to form a rigorous, holistic image of American culture’s predication on exclusively masculine ideals, and the role that art plays in reinforcing these ideals. The cinema, being the newly adopted national art in the early twentieth-century, inherited the masculinist artistic traditions of America’s painters, poets, writers and thespians, and provided a new and potent battleground against the perceived constant threat of cultural effeminisation.

Gerstner’s thorough backgrounding of the masculine American national identity contextualises the many historical examples offered as evidence of the role of the arts in reinforcing masculinity as harbinger of virility, democracy and common sense; the cornerstones of American identity.   The most potent example and one that is continually referred to throughout the work is the conflict in 1849 between theatrical actors William Macready of England and Edwin Forrest of the United States.

According to Gerstner, their mutual loathing and violent clash is indicative of the warring artistic aesthetics that each actor represented.  Macready represented the effeminate, lofty and exclusive artistic tradition of the old world, while Forrest represented the virile, earthy and democratic sensibilities of the new world. This battle between European effeminacy and American masculinity in the arts is played out throughout the historical scope of the work in varying manifestations, but the assertion of masculinity and abhorrence of effeminacy are constant themes.

The need to rationalise the arts with the established American national identity led to an American artistic aesthetic that favoured realism and the natural sublime, dismissing the avant-garde European impressionist movements. From the highest strata of American society, the necessity of keeping the arts within the reach of the common man and free from European effeminate sensibilities was key to maintain the virility and integrity of the national identity, and it was this artistic aesthetic that informed the American cinematic approach.

The usefulness of this reading of the development of the American national identity and its relationship to the arts extends beyond the U.S. borders. One could almost read “Australia” in place of “America” and apply the fundamentals of Gerstner’s approach to Australian cultural studies. Abhorrence of the effeminate and expenditure of enormous energies on distinguishing an artistic aesthetic separate to that of the mother country are traits both nations share in common. For this reason, the sizeable of Manly Arts extends further still, having added relevance to those studying post-colonial identity. Indeed, such is the rigour and scope of scholarship on show in this work, that its usefulness and appeal ought to extend into many facets of the humanities as well as the creative industries.


Manly Arts – Masculinity and Nation in Early American Cinema
(2006)

by David A. Gerstner
Duke University Press
ISBN: 0 8223 3775 4
336pp  US$22.95