“Sir Nigel Sustains Englands Honor”
Tuesday
Now that the wicked witch has been defeated, at least in the electoral college, will America be made great again by returning to 1950s-style, Mad Men masculinity? Guys who long for those days might like to know that things weren’t exactly great back then, as an Adrienne Rich poem from the era testifies.
I thought of “The Knight” when reading a recent Washington Post article claiming that “Sexist men have psychological problems.” According to Sarah Kaplan,
Psychologists looking at 10 years of data from nearly 20,000 men found that those who value having power over women and endorse playboy behavior and other traditional notions of masculinity are more likely to suffer from psychological problems — and less likely to seek out help.
The researchers identified 11 “traditionally masculine” norms in their study: desire to win, need for emotional control, risk-taking, violence, dominance, sexual promiscuity or playboy behavior, self-reliance, primacy of work, power over women, disdain for homosexuality and pursuit of status. They discovered that
the men who stuck more strongly to these norms were more likely to experience problems such as depression, stress, body image issues, substance abuse and negative social functioning. They were also less likely to turn to counseling to help deal with those problems. The effect was particularly strong for men who emphasized playboy behavior, power over women and self-reliance.
According to lead author Y. Joel Wong of Indiana University, the results were in line with previous studies: “It’s something that’s been demonstrated over 20 years of research.”
Rich knew this 60 years ago. In her poem she observes that the pressure on men to live up to a hard exteriors took a terrific inner toil. Behind the “metal mask” she detects “rags and tatters.” The “walls of iron” wear the nerves to ribbons.
It’s a good reminder that feminism didn’t only free women. It also freed men from having to be knights in shining armor.
Rich wonders what it will take to free the knight from “the emblems crushing his chest with their weight.” Will they come crashing down and evolve gently? Men and women have made progress since the 1950s and now Trump wants to take us back to fight the old battles all over again.
The Knight
By Adrienne Rich
A knight rides into the noon,
and his helmet points to the sun,
and a thousand splintered suns
are the gaiety of his mail.
The soles of his feet glitter
and his palms flash in reply,
and under his crackling banner
he rides like a ship in sail.
A knight rides into the noon,
and only his eye is living,
a lump of bitter jelly
set in a metal mask,
betraying rags and tatters
that cling to the flesh beneath
and wear his nerves to ribbons
under the radiant casque.
Who will unhorse the rider
and free him from between
the walls of iron, the emblems
crushing his chest with their weight?
Will they defeat him gently,
or leave him hurled on the green,
his rags and wounds still hidden
under the great breastplate?
