Marable Vs Espiritu: Blog Post #5

There is a saying that says: "Behind every great man there's a great woman". As far as I'm concerned behind every man there's a woman, and I think Marable and Espiritu understood that concept too. That might be the reason why their notion of masculinity was inseparable from women. I think, according to both of them, the construction of masculinity can't be achieved without the presence of a woman. But that's not all, not only is the presence of a woman required, but also she has to maintain her expected "lower status" in the couple, in order for the man to fully consider himself as a man. In both Marable's and Espiritu's reading that 'social equilibrium', where women are at disadvantage, is not maintained. That's a common point between the two reading, but the difference is, the way that unbalanced 'social equilibrium' shifted. In Marable's reading, that's the ascension of the Black women to the position of "Matriarch" that "stripped the Negro man of his masculinity" (Marable 20), whereas in Espiritu's reading that's the descent of the Asian men (or their "feminization"), that caused them "to be stripped of male privilege" (Espiritu 35).  But no matter how that social equilibrium shifted, the result is still the same in both cases: depression, anxiety, and domestic violence from the man deprived of his masculinity, which stress out the importance of women in the construction of male masculinity. Women have the power to construct, or inversely ruin the masculinity of a man. It's really not a surprise that both authors conclude their texts by mentioning women, (in Marable's case "The strongest ally Black men have in their battle.... is the Black woman"(23)), because men can be tall, strong , powerful, CEO of a big company and whatnot, but at the end when it comes to establish their masculinity, it always comes down to women.