Laura’s post on men in BBC adaptations crystallized for me something that has flitted about in the back of my mind for a while now: there is no female character that men as a community are aware of and find as appealing as Mr. Darcy. This is true for most of Jane Austen’s male characters, but Mr. Darcy seems to occupy the top spot. Try as I might, I can’t think of a female character every man is likely to be aware of, much less find romantically appealing; in fact, I can’t think of any female characters universally appealing to men purely on the basis of mere physical or sexual attractiveness. I suspect this might explain the general bafflement that men often feel when women talk about how more men should be like Mr. Darcy or how many times they’ve seen the miniseries. That characters like Darcy exist, we understand. What we don’t understand is why he is what he is to women.
I have no explanation for this, and it bugs me. Darcy and all he represents are quite culturally powerful, and, being the sort of hack sociologist that I am, I wonder what the absence of a male equivalent means. I don’t think this absence is necessarily a problem, but it occasionally does give the nagging impression that in practice men simply end up attracted to women who settle for them instead of the kind of men they really want. That’s certainly the most pessimal interpretation, and I don’t think that’s how it really works. I know, too, that by some definitions there is no gap: goddess of the hearth, girl next door, and, in Japan’s case the yamato nadeshiko have all been put forward as stereotypical constructions of the ideal woman by somebody. I don’t think these are the same kind of thing, for all of these have been A) largely discredited, and B) mostly existed as “ideals” in the sense of “idealized concepts” rather than actual prototypes for femininity. Mr. Darcy and the other Austen heroes haven’t experienced a similar fall from grace, as far as I can tell.
One possible explanation: men have traditionally written and published more than women have (and have been allowed to), so they write more from a male perspective and consequently haven’t developed any female characters as universally appealing. One possible objection to this explanation: if men have dominated literature and publishing for so long, how come they haven’t made more progress creating an ideal female character? Like I said, I have no solution that really works, but I’m pretty sure I’ve found an interesting problem.
I don’t normally ask for comments, but I’d really appreciate any thoughts people have on this. What should we make of the Darcy gap?
Really interesting question, Mateo. A few thoughts:
First, the allure of Darcy carries extra weight because he’s a fictional character whom we have limited knowledge of. We women are able to idealize him in any number of ways, making him attractive to each of us. And not everyone loves all the character traits that are explicit. Tall, dark, handsome, inscrutable, proud, rich, reticent – I think women have different feelings about those traits. The “ideal” that is more universalized has to do with how Darcy treats people, especially Elizabeth: good master, doting brother, willing to sacrifice most anything (including pride) for those he loves, faithful, treats Lizzie as an intellectual equal, willing to bear with her faults and family for her sake, etc. So I don’t think Darcy is, as you put it, an ‘actual prototype’ but rather an ‘idealized concept’ of masculinity. I love Darcy even when I don’t love the man portraying him onscreen because it’s not about the physical man so much as his character. And it’s important to note, this character is the knight in shining armor, the Byronic hero, something that has been around for centuries.
I think the reason for the gender gap may actually be because women have fought against their traditional gender role in the last 40 years. Feminism says that women should not be pigeonholed into ‘domestic goddess’ or ‘girl next door’ — that women should be respected for their individuality rather than their uniformity. Our generation –men and women– have grown up with that way of thinking. So while men may still agree that an ideal woman would be beautiful, there is very little agreement on what other traits are desirable. Previous generations of men did have ideal women in literature, but now we women won’t let you keep them as ideals.
What do you think?
Comment by Beth — May 13, 2009 @ 12:23 pm
I agree with Beth about the attraction to Darcy being more about masculinity and the way he treats Elizabeth. However, I think that it’s just a great story that appeals to women. We like romance; we like the agony of whether or not they really will get together. What do I know, though? I’ve taken the quiz and out of all her characters, I’m Elizabeth. haha. so I’m gonna like Darcy.
Comment by Janet — May 13, 2009 @ 6:03 pm
Sorry for the major delay on commenting. This is probably way old news by now. But, I did have a thought.
I actually think it’s *more* problematic that women are identified by their affection for Mr. Darcy than it is that “men have no Darcy.”
This is way beyond my expertise, but I think that “womanhood” and “manhood” are relational terms. A man is a man in relationship to women. Likewise, a woman is a woman in relationship to men. The problem here is that we’ve defined women *only* by their sexual relationships to men (objects, wives, mothers), instead of as a totality of experience.
I think it’s problematic that women are more ‘identified’ with the love for Darcy then they are by their identification with Lizzie.
Anyway, that’s my random musings for today…
Comment by sarah — May 26, 2009 @ 10:54 am
Truly a romantic conundrum. May I offer only a few ramblings. In our discussion, I mentioned this poll:http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/austen/menofausten.html with over 99 thous votes. The results are number 1. Darcy 2. Wentworth & 3. Tilney. What is the draw for women? If Jane Austen characters were placed in a contemporary setting would they hold the same appeal? It could be argued that on a simplistic level, women like to be pursued. All Austen male characters even if aloof at times do finally pursue and in a sense rescue the female without offense. That may be the niche that Jane was able to extract and distill. The attraction of the chase allows for women to vicariously enjoy the twists and turns of the unique pursuits to find that amiable ending they to wish for in real life. Darcy may be the best known in current days, I’m wondering how he would have faired in the poll in days gone by. I’ve never met a woman who didn’t want to be pursued even by less than ideal men. Being chased is a measure of our appeal and a mirror to what type of appeal we have. Darcy as the observer who “chooses” whom to bestow his affections on “beneath his character” etc. is when Lizzy discovers his value, a great validator of her worth. The women are tend to be less than and not equal to in society (except for Emma) reinforcing the idea of being championed and loved for ones character, not status, birth, money etc. Women will marry someone less than the “ideal” you mentioned to get that type of connection. Remember those inner qualities are much more tantalizing and attractive to women than one may think. Apply that now to your posit and we must ask if men really have a list of attributes they find universally appealing.
Comment by Elizabeth — June 7, 2009 @ 3:53 pm
I think a large part of the confusion is that to men, the Austen men frequently come across as arrogant jerks.
The PBS poll was interesting to me for its huge response. I imagine most of those 99k respondents are women; at least, I’m not aware of the Austen men having much cultural impact as gay icons. I can’t think of a single character nor author universally familiar enough to men to get 99k of them to respond to a poll like this.
Comment by mkpalos — June 9, 2009 @ 11:31 am