emmanuel reynaud holy virility the social construction of masculinity

8
BETWEEN MEN
Relations between men centre around the struggle for power;
whether individually or in a group, they are permanent rivals in
the appropriation of women, wealth and glory. Friendship itself,
so often proclaimed a typically masculine sentiment, is more a
pact of non-aggression, a brief respite from the fight, than a
genuine pleasure in being together: it is no more than a delicate
balance between competition and being on the watch. The
slightest incident is enough to tip the scales. At the tiniest hope
of victory, the fragile truce is, as often as not, cheerfully broken.
It does not generally occur to man that he can establish
noncompetitive relationships; he constantly needs to measure
himself and place himself on a hierarchical ladder. Hierarchy is
not only his principle of organisation within patriarchy, but
simultaneously the means and the end of his struggle for power
―it is the framework for his relations and the ground on which
he fulfils himself. And so he gets involved in endless conflicts in
order to climb the rungs, which he experiences on an individual
level by a great variety of blows and knocks, and, socially, by
total shambles ―war, crisis, famine, pollution, plunder, murder,
robbery. And yet, in spite of the damage caused by these
battles, he still considers hierarchy necessary, and he usually
sees its absence ―anarchy― as a synonym for chaos.
The key relationship between men, the one that shapes and
symbolises all the others, is the father-son relationship: it is
both the crucible in which the hierarchical relationship is
forged, and the characteristic form adopted by relationships
between men. From birth, the son sees the father as the
representative of power, he who, among the human beings
around him, commands authority ―'Daddy knows everything,
daddy's the strongest.' He looks at him, eyes wide with
admiration; then his expression clouds over with apprehension
as he waits for approbation or reproof.