hegemonic masculinity = a practice that authorises and encourages male domination, therefore justifying the subordination fo woman and non-hegemonic males

• Connell’s (1995) gender order theory

• hegemonic masculinity is displayed through Stanley and Steve whereas non-hegemonic masculinity is displayed through the effeminate Mitch and the homosexual Allan.

  • Mitch enforces norms of sexual purity - it is not only alpha males who reproduce misogynistic ideologies which oppress women

• Williams explores moral problem concerning the extent to which societies are polluted by patriarchy, bestow power upon men, and allow them to exploit the vulnerable.

• Blanche acts as social commentary on the treatment of women who owned their sexuality and rebelled against patriarchal norms.

Context

Masculinity and the New South

• rise of market economy and Republican government saw a shift to masculinity being based on the ability of a man to succeed and support his family.

• ‘passionate manhood’ in twentieth century - expression of self became paramount

  • evolved as a result of WW2 - veterans returned to prospering economy and were concerned with living passionate and pleasurable lives

• ‘Since earliest manhood the center of his life has been pleasure with women […] heartiness with men […] his love of good drink and food and games’ - Stanley embodies passionate manhood.

• Stanley’s pleasure is prioritised over Stella and Blanche’s comfort.

  • ‘go upstairs and sit with Eunice’ - no regard for wellbeing

• Heavy load of expectations provoked fear and anxiety in men, which resulted in defensiveness and aggression if there were any perceived threats to masculinity - explains tension between Blanche and Stanley.

• Stanley represents masculinity in transition - propensity for violence and valuation of his own pleasures and desires.

Initial Performance Context

• play was first performed in 1947, feminist consciousness emerging

• Stanley’s brutish mannerisms and violent behaviour would have been scarring, shameful and condemned to a contemporary audience

• Stanley symbolised the world of masculinity and fierce individualism

Feminine Codes of Conduct

• Williams introduces social and sexual hypocrisy of post-war America when Stanley alludes to the ‘Napoleonic code’

• Napoleonic code = legal code acknowledged in New Orleans from French colonial rule which gave a husband authority over his wife’s assets

• ‘I couldn’t believe her story and go on living with Stanley’ - Stella is economically dependent on Stanley and sees no way of living without him

• Women were expected to stay chaste - Blanche does not conform to expectations of chastity, but both women are ultimately constrained, condemned, and trapped

The Treatment of Blanche: Sexual Hypocrisy

• Blanche portrays herself as a chaste and delicately civilised schoolteachers but this contrasts with her actions: provocative dress habits and her attempt to seduce the Young Man by flirting with and kissing him

• Blanche’s ‘masculine energy’ in seducing the Young Man may have appeared irrational and disturbing to a contemporary audience

• Blanche attempts to regain her sexuality, despite being ashamed of her past - compulsive washing, aversion to light

• Blanche is condemned for her sexuality and is rejected by Mitch for her sexual history.

• Stanley’s sexual prowess is encouraged - ‘richly feathered male bird amongst hens’

Stella’s Subservience

• Williams exposes the extent of Stanley’s toxicity and manipulation when he physically assaults Stella whilst she is pregnant

• Stella excuses Stanley’s wrongdoings, and emphasises that ‘there are things that happen between a man and a women in the dark’ which ‘make everything else seem unimportant’

• Stella does not recognise (or cannot bear to leave Stanley) her subservience and entrapment

• Stella is Stanley’s complement and polar opposite

Stanley Kowalski and the New American Man

• sexual dominion and violence were the key characteristics of the ideal New American Man

• Stanley becomes embodiment of archetypal machismo and capitalistic greed which permeates this post-war landscape

• emblem of new America, where one can become whatever he wants to be regardless of background

• Stanley’s masculine power is rooted in two key aspects of his privilege:

  • his unapologetically sexual male gaze

  • his physicality through being the archetypal alpha male

Stanley’s Sexual Dominion: the Unapologetic Male Gaze

• one of the only unapologetically sexual characters

  • projects his sexuality freely in both his interior (Stella) and exterior (Blanche) spaces

• despite abusing Stella, she continues to stay with him and surrenders to his force and manipulation

• while Stella is giving birth in the hospital Stanley rapes Blanche: culmination of sexual act with Stella coincides with culmination of destined ‘date’ with Blanche

• in male-dominated domains, anxieties over masculine power and position are defined and expressed through physical, and often sexualised, acts of violence

Alpha Male Masculinity and Hegemonic Masculinity

• Stanley does not conform to the hegemonic masculinity defined by Connell - usually applicable to heterosexual, white, and middle-class men.

  • Eastern European immigrants to America were often discriminated against and denied housing, meaning that Stanley would not have had many of the privileges white American men had.

    • Blanche repeatedly refers to Stanley as a ‘Polack’

      • ‘In bed with your - Polack!’ - Blanche does not want to admit her sister is having sex with a man of Polish origins, therefore pausing before forcing the word out

      • Stanley asserts that he is ‘one hundred percent American’, but many would have snubbed him, meaning that Stanley would not have the same power in the world as he does in his household - compensating?

  • Stanley is not middle-class, he is a blue-collar worker, as signalled by his ‘blue denim’

    • meat Stanley carries is roughly wrapped and soaked in blood - none of the delicacies afforded to the upper classes

    • Stanley takes pride in working class activities - ‘rough humour’ and ‘drink and food and games’

    • Stanley would have been aware he belonged to a subordinate class - explanation for his demanding of power within his house?

• when Stanley is reminded of his ‘other’ status, he lashes out

• Stanley’s alpha male personality compensates for the fact he does not possess hegemonic masculinity

Non-Hegemonic or Subordinate Masculinity

Allan Gray

• symbol of Blanche’s traumatised past

• many psychologists and psychiatrists believed homosexuality was a mental illness or sociopathic personality disturbance in the 1940s

• Stella refers to Allan as a ‘degenerate’ - homosexuality views as an unnatural aberration and perversion of morality

• Allan kills himself after being found with another man by Blanche - brutal rejection by somebody he had loved, internalised homophobia, and fear of being exposed drive Allan to suicide

• victim of hegemonic masculinity- based on machismo and heterosexuality

• ‘Gray’ separates Allan from other male characters - contrasts with Stanley and his friend’s lurid colours, and also his need to camouflage himself and his homosexuality

• Williams was gay (meaning he embodied subordinate masculinity), allowing him to critique alpha male/hegemonic masculinity from the sidelines, seeing and identifying with its many casualties

• Allan and Blanch are victims of hegemonic masculinity, and are linked to each other through language and symbols

  • ‘Blanche’ is French for white - archaic noun for turning something white

    • shadowy tone allied with grey - neither are real colours, allying each other together in comparison to Stanley’s bold and bright colours