Masculine Hierarchy: One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest

Masculine Hierarchy maven Flew all over the Cuckoos Nest moral CastrationThe Masculine Hierarchy in Mental Wards as Seen in One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest sexual practice has authentic as a complaisant construct that dictates the expectations of a sexes actions. Men, for example, are anticipate to emulate a hegemonic masculine ideal that emphasizes positions of office, strength, and the accumulation of schoolbookile goods (Connell 1987).How incessantly, the physical composition of a masculine identity does not depend entirely on possessing these characteristics. Gender is also a performance of sorts. (Kessler and McKenna 1978 West and Zimmerman 1987) . Without certain signifiers, tribe could hand a hard time distinguishing a persons sex. Men and women pompousness familiar practice and obtain information intimately what is an appropriate display in different contexts. Ken Keseys novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest examines a pure balance between genders as well as t he emasculation of potent patients in spite of appearance a psychogenic ward, a social commentary instruction on Keseys concern of the gender driving of the world.Focusing on an emasculating egg-producing(prenominal) character and vulnerable, emasculated male characters, Kesey used the mental institution as a narrowed observation a smaller more manipulable look at the dynamic between people. The way men face their gender often depends on the resources they have available, in this case, these mens resources are intemperately expressage and monitored. An example of the effect of resources would be men coming from relatively privileged statuses can afford to take weekends off and construct an alternating(a) world out in the woods (Schwalbe 1996). The different and more limited resources available to less privileged can create a lawsuit of masculine hierarchy. Not only do the characters in Keseys novel survey from varying social backgrounds, merely they enter with differi ng levels of mental stability. These vulnerabilities coupled with oversee access to basic necessities could alter a mans masculinity and the office staff dynamic of a landscape, and effectively does.Nurse Ratched is described from the observant straits Bromdens picture of view. Ratched tends to get real put out if something keeps her outfit from running comparable a smooth, accurate, precision-made machine. The slightest thing messy or out of kilter or in the way ties her into a little white knot of tight-smiled fury. (Kesey 1959). Chief then describes her to have a doll-like exterior, but a dry and artful interior with very calculated expressions. This harsh, feminine character is juxtaposed by men with limited control over their mental abilities. Nurse Ratched-a distant, oppressive, and barren female influence who figuratively and psychologically castrates her male patients. This dynamic delineate the fear of a cold war era that would foster a feminine masculinity in America through a mood of conformity and fear. This culture of fear that permeated the cultural landscape of the fifties came with gender and homosexual connotations (Meloy 2009). Americans were warned that they were becoming pink basically a negative full term denoting this feminine masculinity. This was also related to homosexuality. Also within this decade was the circulation of theories process of monition Americans of their latent homosexuality, and Alfred Kinseys Sexual Behavior in the Human Male suggested that many a(prenominal) more men than what was traditionally known either thought about or performed homosexual acts. Kinseys hold out undermined traditional notions of what was considered normative sexuality, contributing to a relatively national compulsion with sexuality and more specifically, homosexuality. Sexual leader was placed at the forefront of Americas thoughts on masculinity and the relationships between genders. Kinseys theories were aid by masculine figures of the 1950s like David Riesman and Hugh Hefner, who, in their own way, neutered masculinity by participating in a cultural revolution in emptydom of sexuality and the materialism and pageantry of secual attraction. They legitimized a sexualized belief of masculinity that privileged virility, sexualperformance, and sexual aggresion as the defining criteria for manhood.Unlike the free sexual spirit these moguls portrayed, Cuckoos Nest showed restrictions set by government institutions within the novel and in actual mental wards can be material like doors. However others are ideological, like values or social norms. Some doors are locked, blocking access to staff rooms, the office from which Ms.Ratched observes the patients is described. in that location is also a lack of doors entrances to a room, restricting the privacy of the residents. A small meat of people within the facility have the authority and business office to uphold the interests of the institution, or what they bel ieve to be the interests of the institution. This limited amount of people creates a hierarchy of power. They were protecting interests that did not necessarily eudaemonia the residents. Interests of the residents were squashed because of this balance of power, creating social distance between those in positions of power and in positions of subordination. Staff in a mental institution well-nigh likely assume that residents are indeed insane this prognosis whitethorn or may not be agreed upon by the residents (Rosenhan 1973). unfortunately the residents are relatively powerless to achieve sanity. McMurphy in Cuckoos Nest does not see himself as insane, as he was admitted to serve time for rape, but he is being treated as if he is broken. He does not see himself in this way. Because of this disagreement there is already a dissimilarity between the staff and the patient.There is such a large amount of power held above the patients, and the power dynamic is so strictly enforced, tha t even the simplest of tasks must be complicated.The books portrayal of mental disorders and disabilities is impressive in its avoidance of stereotypes. It represent characters as individuals, as opposed to merely characterizing the symptoms of their disorders. Through the novels investment in these characters, however, it becomes clear that disability and emasculation are intrinsically linked, at least(prenominal) within this novel if not fundamentally. This created a patriarchal underscore to the text Nurse Ratcheds control is a direct result of her continual emasculation and her de-feminized domination of the all-male patients (Leach 2008). McMurphy is a stark contrast, a celebrated liberator in the eyeball of the emasculated despite his grim reality of being admitted for rape. Using a character committed cod to his execution of a sexual, it equates the rebellion headed by this sexual deviant have a sexual connotation. Ir about compares the rebellion to rape. This seems to be a product of the fear of this mental castration, and a suggestion that this masculine and forceful rebellion was the best way to pommel subordination and effectively regain patriarchal power. These portrayals of characters show that a matriarchate abolished is a satisfactory conclusion to the plot, and is seen as a cure for the patients mental illnesses, one of the most troubling messages of this book. Whether this conclusion is spawned from the authors fears, or feelings of hostility due to the fragile social landscape of mental wards, this division of gender is destructive. shade is linked with sexuality. Masculinity has become an industry itself. Perhaps more than ever before in American history, sexual behavior symbolizes ones identity. Symbols and signs encourage sexual expression.Magazines of the fifties, such as Playboy and Esquire, are now the grandparents to countless publications glamorizing sexuality. Keseys work exhibits masculinity that can possibly help us underst and the obsession with masculine virility and violence in our time, a new generation in which male sexuality and female sexuality alike have become products of conspicuous consumption.Works CitedKesey, Ken. One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest. 40th day of remembrance Edition.Meloy, Michael. Fixing Men Castration, Impotence, and Masculinity in Ken Keseys One Flewover the Cuckoos Nest. The Journal of Mens Studies. SAGE publications, 01 Oct. 2009. Web. 02 Feb. 2017Leach, Caroline. Disability and Gender in Ken Keseys One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest Leach Disability Studies Quarterly. Disability and Gender in Ken Keseys One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest Leach Disability Studies Quarterly. DSQ, 2008. Web. 03 Feb. 2017.Connell, R. W. 1987. Gender and power. Stanford, CA Stanford University Press.West, C., and D. H. Zimmerman. 1987. Doing gender. Gender Society 1125-151.Schwalbe, M. 1996. Unlocking the iron cage. Oxford, UK Oxford UniversityPress