A boy growing up is automatically placed under the pressures of acknowledging, accepting, and demonstrating masculinities. These are the characteristics and attributes that separate girls from boys and men from women. As a kid, these pressures include refraining from crying, horseplay/fighting, and so on. However as a boy develops into a man, he is expected to display more and more masculinities. These include the prevention of visible emotion, bravery, independence, confidence, strength. Physical masculine attributes are heavily involved with separating males and females as well. A typical masculine male is portrait as big, strong, and fierce.
All of the listed masculinities are typical characteristics of a masculine man. This is not to say that all men are masculine. Winston Smith is the central character in George Orwell’s “1984”, and he is far from masculine. Winston is tentative, paranoid, emotional, and dependant. He relies on Julia to instigate and motivate almost all of his significant actions, and prior to their acquaintance he was emotionally unstable. Winston works a mundane, effortless job that requires absolutely no strength, while Julia works as a mechanic. This is opposite to the norms of a regular society. Traditionally speaking, a man would work an exhausting, labor intensive job, and the female would work a mundane, degrading job. However in this situation Orwell actually uses Julia as a masculine icon. All of the masculinities that Winston lacked, Julia possessed. A masculine character in the novel would have taken on a leadership role, established his authority, and used his strength and power to issue a revolt against Big Brother. It becomes evident throughout the novel that Julia’s character would be the one to fit this roll.
It almost seems as though Orwell completely reverses the rolls of men and women in his story. Aside from the example of Julia’s job, the women in 1984 wear cross gender clothing and appear to be the more courageous gender. Of course in today’s society this could not be more opposite. Take for example professional sports. It would be nearly impossible to turn on the T.V and track down a female team sport being aired. As you flick through the channels, you will notice that men participate in fishing shows, while women participate in cooking shows. The evidence oh the pressures of men to follow certain norms in society is so clearly portrait by the media. Almost every commercial intending to sell a product to men advertises the products ability to boost ones ego and to enhance the changes of picking up women. Further evidence can be seen when looking at the work force. Never has there been a female president, and for the most part the high end jobs that generate the largest salaries are occupied by men.
It is difficult to find an area in society where men are not expected to demonstrate prevalence over women. The pressures to portrait masculinities are literally everywhere and are connected to every aspect of life. As discussed, the roles of the dominant character in 1984 are reversed from man to woman, but the characteristics portrait by Julia clearly outline how a masculine person should act. In order for one to be considered masculine, they must possess bravery, independence, leadership. And while these traits are not visible in Winston’s character, they certainly are through Julia’s.
