The Ideas about Masculinity and Femininity in Studying Empire and British Society - Essay Example

The ideas of the survival of the fittest were proclaimed by Herbert Spencer2 and they are relevant to the context of the British Empire development, where males were the privileged class. The most relevant features of masculinity were competition, athleticism, and militant domination. It was a new kind of masculinity, or a colonial masculinity. A Kshatriyan model of masculinity was dominant over Brahmanic masculinity. The British Empire substituted local rituals with colonial traditions in sub-Saharan Africa and India.

They intended to civilize Africans and Indians. In British India female madness was one of the most striking issues. Thomas August refers to the British Colonial woman as to a “male mad-person"3. The male population was privileged in India by the British Empire. Maccracken-Flesher talks about the greatest social contrast naming them as a "gentlemanly colonial power" to a "feminine Orient."4The colonial India faced with gender differences and the middle Bengalis' were portrayed by the Britons as effeminate and thus politically inacceptable figures.

As a result of these social changes introduced by the British Empire, there is no wonder that domestic and exotic issues went hand in hand. The ideas of family belonging and obedience in Indian society were undermined by the British social norms of development. The issues of sex and intimacy play the crucial role in comprehending the peculiarities of the nations’ development. Racial status and the role of the nation were often contrasted. The powers of the nation were challenged by retaining the powers of the national family, the exotic becomes more necessary and exciting than ever and the role of exotic males and females played a crucial role in the development of the British society.

Roy Anindio underlines that when the limits and influence of nations were questioned, fears of population movement occurred5. There were many marriages between the Britons and Hindu women, known as Anglo-Indians, or Eurasians. Nearly 90% of the British in India created such marriages. It is possible to claim that the British society in such a way expanded not only their territory, but also religion. In the end of the eighteenth century Anglo-Indians males were prohibited from military service and it was a great impact caused on the British Empire society.

Anglo-Indian community became endogamous and stabilized in 1835. British males in the new world were strong fighters and bachelor settlers. In the East the majority of British men found different opportunities for assimilation and adaptation to the alien societies. They were interested in the native language and native communities6. The wives played a role of companions for their husbands. Their husbands were fighting men and it was necessary to cope with difficulties and to accompany them in difficult trips in the East.

When British women had their seven years old children, they sent them to Britain, where education was better. They often separated themselves from their children in order to prevent their husbands’ romantic relations with the Indian women. In Africa British women lived under dreadful conditions. The British males very often had their black-skinned female lovers and it was a great shock for the British women. The life of the British women in Cape was less difficult. They were served by a large number of servants.

The women started playing different roles in the South African