AS205: Inbetween Peoples

Although Theodore Roosevelt’s use of historical publications was a brilliant manipulation of social discourse that allowed Roosevelt to gain the political power that he so desired, the theories and ideologies that lay behind the same books contained several contradictions and present day ironies.

The invocation of the Negro rapist discourse to create another culturally constructed figure, that of the savage primitive Indian rapist, provided Roosevelt with an issue to anchor his theory of the superiority of the manly white America race. This new robust race has the responsibility to conquer the lesser, savage race and civilize the land it occupied. It must do all this while at the same time being ever vigilant to avoid overcivilization. Yet, an underlining contradiction of the dangers of ‘overcivilized’ races, an interesting contradiction presented itself. If the manly white American race must continue to expand in order to retain their racial superiority, then constructing the American empire that Roosevelt pushed for in politics would actually move the race closer to eventual decay. While it may seen like an extreme idea, if the manly white American race were to continue to expand and build its empire to eventually encompass all unconquered land, then it would no longer be possible for further expansion. This would then cause the race to inevitably turn to leisure and eventually decay due to the lack of possible expansion.

Additionally, two main aspects of Roosevelt’s theories and ideology have faced major changes with the addition of time. First, in less than a century what Roosevelt prescribed as a solution to ward off the threat of overcivilization–“vigorous, manly out-of door sports”–has become what many Americans consider the very essence of leisure time. (Bederman, 186) While professional football players may themselves be the epitome of what Roosevelt had in mind when he advised the public to take up sports, the irony lies in the massive numbers of fans who spend hours every Sunday during football seasons sitting (possible eating junk food and drinking soda and beer) and watching the athletes perform.

Second, the very underlying ideology to all of Roosevelt’s publications can now be arguably seen as comparable to Nazi ideology. As an “advocate of manly imperialism” through his political actions, Roosevelt pushed for Americans to support the building of what can be seen as an American empire consisting of not only the mainland US and Hawaii but also Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippines. (Bederman, 184) Such an empire would not only allow the manly white American race to contiue towards their destiny as a race that encapsulated “racial superiority and virile manhood” but would also slowly eliminate all of the lesser, undesirable races along the way. (Bederman, 183)

Thus, although Roosevelt’s theories and ideology allowed him to gain political power through his public image as the “Cowboy of the Dakotas”, the contradictions and inconsistencies contained in them have not allowed them to stand the test of time. (Bederman, 176)

As Bederman describes Charlotte Perkins Gilman, she could almost be mistaken for a member of the clergy, albeit one of an alternative religion. Imbued from an early age with the doctrine that civilization was dependent upon the progression of the white race, Gilman took it upon herself to ensure that this advancement took place. Early on, however, she was distraught to find herself forced, as she saw it, to choose between fulfilling her role as a woman, and advancing her race. While she wanted to marry, she believed that “high-minded spinsterhood seemed the noblest option” (129). Although she eventually gave in to marriage, she later divorced, as she found matrimony to be ultimately unsatisfying (though this did not prevent her from marrying her cousin later in life).

This reluctance to marry, and serve an intimate few instead of a greater whole, is similar to the life of a celibate priest. In this way, Gilman can be seen as a sort of cleric. Furthermore, she often referred to her work and beliefs as her religion (127). If this is true, Gilman was performing another important role of a cleric, as she undertook an exegesis of sorts in explicating her theories, building off of an established body of knowledge, but reforming it in a way that suited her beliefs and the larger situation at the time.

As Gilman strove to develop an alternative theology of civilization, she also undertook the role of prophet, as she spoke out against what she perceived to be a social malaise: the overdevelopment of women’s sexually appealing qualities at the expense of those that could advance the race. She believed that this was a result of women being dependent on men economically (a relationship that she also believed to foster feminine qualities in men, further proof for her that maternal traits were the only way to advance the race). Gilman warned that “the path of history is strewn with fossils and faint relics of extinct races, – races which died of what the sociologist would call internal diseases rather than external causes” (137). Ideas such as this are similar to the theory of racial competition that Roosevelt would advocate in the years to come. Gilman further couched her ideas in religious terms when she took the step of composing a “Proem” that related the fall of humankind, though in her version it is the man that is responsible.

Throughout her work, Gilman referred continually to “the race.” It was abundantly clear that by this she meant the white race, which was the only one that was sufficiently civilized to be worth fighting for. Her feminist work was strictly for the white woman. “Until the Negro man was civilized, Gilman saw no point in demanding equality or economic independence for the Negro woman” (146). Even if she was a cleric of sorts, Gilman was only trying to convert those who, in her view, were worth the effort.

Gail Bederman’s elaboration on manliness and civilization in the early 20^th century continually circles around the theme of the “neurasthenic paradox”: that “Victorian manliness is both the hallmark of an advanced civilization and a threat to civilization’s future” (200). This paradox caused those who sought to advance the white, Anglo-Saxon civilization, such as Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Theodore Roosevelt, to knowingly contradict themselves in their arguments for racial and gender superiority. These contradictions were rendered obsolete, however, as such advocates ultimately achieved their true end: to cement white nativist superiority within American society, no matter how convoluted their justification for doing so.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman offered a particularly nuanced contribution to the concept of the “neurasthenic paradox” in that she was a woman arguing against traditional Victorian female roles and values. In her belief that “white women and white men shared a racial bond that made them partners in advancing civilization” (124), Gilman advocated not for women to adhere to their typical gender roles in order to advance white Anglo-Saxon civilization, but instead for women to abandon the limitations of their sex in pursuit of bettering their race. In other words, Gilman’s paradox was a question of identity—as to whether a Victorian woman should be a civilized mother and wife or an aggressive, contributing member of society, or perhaps whether she could even manage both.

Gilman’s most important work, Women and Economics, pointed out that the “sexuo-economic” relation civilized women had with men in fact “distorted healthy human evolution and damaged civilization by making women develop sex traits at the expense of their race traits” (136). This danger at becoming oversexed, as opposed to overcivilized, required women to adopt what were seen as somewhat “uncivilized” traits (i.e. abandoning wife- and motherhood), in order to prevent the doom of civilization by remaining “domestic ‘squaws,’ in a state of savagery” (148). In other words, women had to become less civilized, and therefore more masculine (read: savage), in order to prevent themselves from becoming too savage. And for what? To establish white Anglo-Saxon women’s position as “members of a superior race” (168).

Theodore Roosevelt likewise, but perhaps more directly, attempted to strike a balance between savagery and civilization so as to advance the white race. While Gilman was solely one feminist in pursuit of changing the role of women in a very small class in society, Roosevelt had an entire nation at his disposal, and thus equated his advancement of white civilization to the dominance of other civilizations. In his Western books, Roosevelt toed the line between these two characteristics in that a rancher must have the “virtues of upright manliness”, such as bravery and self-reliance, but must also “share the savage’s primitive masculinity” in order to ensure his virility and power (176). In this way, Roosevelt sought to recall the ancestors of white Anglo-Saxon men, those who actually fought and toiled for what they had, in order to justify the violent and intrusive actions of his own privileged class.

Roosevelt’s “Big Stick” argument allowed him to further this mentality to the entire American nation, rather than white Victorian men alone. His justification for imperialism that “if a man continually blusters, if he lacks civility, a big stick will not save him from trouble; and neither will speaking softly avail, if back of the softness there does not lie strength” (188). This argument permitted the American “race” to both have their cake and eat it too—they could claim to be the most civilized in the world while also using their so-called “civilization” to act as savages towards other nations and peoples. Roosevelt’s desire for American men to “be the ultimate in human evolution, the world’s most powerful and civilized race” exemplifies just that—these men somehow found a way to be both powerful in brute strength and civilized in intellectual capacity. Thus Roosevelt, like Gilman, was able to bend the rules of Victorian society to meet his ends and those of his class and gender, effectively legitimizing behaviors that were actively condemned in other races and nations by arguing that they were inherently “American”, and therefore necessary.

As we have continued then with Bederman’s Manliness & Civilization, into the second half of the case studies that she presents, we begin to see a picture formed about how the idea of Civilization shapes the world view, especially of the scholars and socio-economic elites, in regard to race and gender relations in North America at the time. As we see with both Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Teddy Roosevelt, the white idea of Civilization, whose desired end was the advancement towards a more perfect level of being for the white, American race, shapes their beliefs about others and society as they try to continue to justify their own opinions about race, gender, and whiteness.

Gilman herself used the idea of the advancement of the white race towards a more perfect civilization as the end to justify her ideas that women should be able to play equal roles, economically and socially, as men in their society. To do this, she berated and criticized men as those with “excess masculinity” (153) which created overages in desire and combat among the gender as a whole. This, combined with the foil of the Negro rapist, allowed Gilman to justify woman’s equal footing in the struggle to continually perfect civilization and race in America. She used these feelings to create her own Biblical story about the fall of man, and how women indeed should be the ones who are looked at with societal purpose, not only as reproductive members for the advancement of civilization. In this way, she tried to use the manly power and strength against them as a counterpoint to advancement of society and civilization that was so desired by all.

Roosevelt, as well, used the idea of the advancement towards perfect as a catalyst for his rhetoric concerned whiteness and the continuation of the “white American race.” In his mind, men (white that is, since blacks and other types of males were not actually ‘men’) had the power and responsibility to continue to push civilization towards greater heights. He placed this duty firmly in the hands of white men as he urged them using competition to rise his own race past that of the other civilized races, like the Japanese. To him, racial advancement was a competition as opposed to a process, and things were relative in terms of perfection. However, he never hesitated to marginalize others in a way that made the Americans seem better. And as president, he was able to gain the respect that he needed to get his message across. Yet he still marginalized groups of humans on his way toward the advancement of the white race. Blacks were less than people, less than Negroes even. He jumped on these differences however to try to strengthen the white race, encouraging people to reproduce in order to be more manly and help strengthen the race itself. Roosevelt does acknowledge other countries providing for civilized people though, which makes me think that his idea was more American-centric rather than racially. He actually fears the Japanese because of their level of civilization, and thus chooses to discriminate against them even more, and calls for a greater level of manliness to stand up against them.

Both Gilman and Roosevelt use the argument for civilization to justify their means. Gilman wants women to be able to participate, like men, in society, and she used the idea of men’s manliness to show that women too, without such temperamental qualities, were fit for the workplace. Roosevelt used that sort of temper to his advantage and encouraged men to really be men, outdoorsmen, warriors: the image that he cultivated for himself. They both used the definition of civilization to create a niche of power for themselves and the people that they supported and agreed with. Obviously between these two, the means to civilization were different, but both created power for the group in question with the same end in mind. However, through manipulation of what civilization meant and the stomping on blacks, these two were able to gain and hold power, and in their minds continue to civilize the white race, for some time.