How did race, class and gender intersect in the imperial enterprise - Essay Example

Download file to see previous pages The trendy of masculinity based on professionalism, rhetoric of militarism, as well as elitism enhanced a set of attitudes and personalities to fit in the structure of imperial legitimacy in conjunction with racial dominance. Moralists at the fin-de-siecle hitherto supporters of a specific brand of inflexible gender concepts of manliness responsible for the perpetuation of a society that had a hierarchical framework. The spread of rigid gender ideologies worked to maintain power and privilege both abroad for instance in South Africa and at home. The socio-sexual framework during the Victorian Britain regime came of the intersection through race, gender, and class and in the process informed the outlined power structures that acted on behalf of the nexus of the bigger political enterprises. In the end, the rise of masculine culture in an inflated manner happened simultaneously with the exposure of the proverbial Achilles Heel for Britain. These were the vulnerabilities of the colonial mastery resulting from strong and brave claims for the power of the British. The British officers acted as competitive, aggressive, and powerful figures (Perry, 2001, p. 33). This is the reason various forums continue to debate on national identity and the imperial rule associated with two reinforcing ideologies acting in a mutually inclusive way. The concepts in the discourse are the Empire and dominant masculinity. Scholars explain the symbiotic relationship between race, gender, and class born out of fear concerning the decline of the British superior race. A series of movies, a huge quantity of literature, and a wide range of works of art often put into perspective colonization and the entire process of forming empires among them the British Imperial enterprises as male dominated adventure stories. The imperial enterprises entailed maleness (Stoddard, 2012, p. 89). However, according to the historians who studied gender, imperial maleness otherwise referred to as masculinity required regular and standardized substantiation and confirmation. Scholars who dwelt on the analysis of the empire found similar characteristics for the colonial rule that also constantly required confirmation and legitimization due to the permanent fear among the British white that subject in the colonial enterprises would undermine the racial as well as colonial privileges and prestige in addition to power and superiority of the colonial master. The forums of colonial discussions on gender appeared among the spaces of manifesting the instability and power structures of the empires were most visible. It is important to identify that competing interests of femininity and masculinity called maleness were significant to the normal order of the colonial master (Kent, 1987, p. 87). However, it is not possible to comprehend them in isolation. Any analysis of the two in addition to race and class requires an overall undertaking of their history put into their contextual perspectives. The society constructed gender, race, and class in interplay with other categories as well themselves. They include religion, ethnicity, as well as sexuality. The intersection resulted in creating racial, sexual, and national hierarchies that provided the challenge or stabilized the imperial rule during the nineteenth and twentieth century. They intersection also offers challenge to the scholars of history to think and study ...Download file to see next pagesRead More