Gender Roles and Expectations
“The bourgeois identity included a shared belief in property, hard work, competition, achievement, and the rewards and recognition that were expected to flow from them; in rationality, the rule of law, and the importance of living life by the rules. Correct table manners, sartorial codes, and emphasis placed on cleanliness, hygiene, the importance attached to timetables, whether in the school, on the railway or at mealtimes - all are instances of the way in which these bourgeois values informed everyday life.” (Blackbourn 212)
While adulthood is definitely a separate and distinct phase of life from childhood, one force strongly affected both age groups in Germany, and that is the power of discipline. In fact, at least within the world of Spring Awakening, the adults adhere to the rules more precisely than the children do. This is not because “Germans were innately docile, but they lived increasingly in a world of institutions that sought to discipline them” (Blackbourn 374). In fact, some historians go so far as to suggest that the extreme
authoritarianism in Germany was one of the aspects of Germany society
that allowed Nazism to take hold of the country. It is crazy to think
that simply following the rules may have helped pave the way to the Holocaust, but it also allows us to see how the problems that our characters
deal with are very real and the affects of their struggles can still be seen today.
Expectations and of German citizens include:
Division of Roles
When examining the specific roles men and women played in nineteenth-century Germany, there appears a distinction between those whom act and those whom are acted upon; “man acts, woman is acted upon," or another way of stating this is that “Men are agents, women are objects” (Boa 177, 180). This begins between sexes before marriage has even been agreed upon, as “boys are expected to be active, to choose a partner and to be admired for social and physical achievement. Girls are expected to be passive, to be chosen and to attract beauty by dress.” (Boa 41).
*See the page on Family Life for more about men and women's roles within the family structure.
Men
Women
Albisetti, James C. Schooling German Girls and Women. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1988. Print.
Blackbourn, David. The Long Nineteenth Century: A History of Germany, 1780 - 1918. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998. Print.
Boa, Elizabeth. The Sexual Circus: Wedekind's Theatre of Subversion. New York: Basil Blackwell Inc, 1987. Print.
McClelland, Charles E. "Young Germans, Not Young Greeks and Romans": Art, Culture, and Educational Reform in Wilhelmine Germany." Imaging Modern German Culture: 1889 - 1910. Ed. Françoise Forster-Hahn. Hanover: University Press of New England, 1996. 36-49. Print.
Expectations and of German citizens include:
- "'Modern' citizens of Germany were expected to be unquestioningly loyal subjects and future-oriented masters of destiny who were also burdened with staggering demands to respect historicity" (McClelland 37).
Division of Roles
When examining the specific roles men and women played in nineteenth-century Germany, there appears a distinction between those whom act and those whom are acted upon; “man acts, woman is acted upon," or another way of stating this is that “Men are agents, women are objects” (Boa 177, 180). This begins between sexes before marriage has even been agreed upon, as “boys are expected to be active, to choose a partner and to be admired for social and physical achievement. Girls are expected to be passive, to be chosen and to attract beauty by dress.” (Boa 41).
*See the page on Family Life for more about men and women's roles within the family structure.
Men
- “The common will of nature and of human society that the man should be the protector and master of the woman" (Albisetti 6).
- Men were the agents through which discipline entered the family.
- Men should be able to accept and exercise leadership.
- Men should uphold honor and ethics.
Women
- Women were to be “a spouse, mother, and housewife” (Albisetti 10).
- “Women are granted three roles: the first two, mother and sexual partner, are rooted in biology; the third, woman as the bearer of virtue, is religious in origin” (Boa 178).
- “Femininity made women ‘particularly practical, but in no way speculative,’ and thus destined them for the home” (Albisetti 5).
- Goethe said, “We love in a young woman things entirely different from her intelligence” (Albisetti 3).
- “The loyal, thankful, and obedient companion and helpmate of [her husband's] life” (Albisetti 6).
Albisetti, James C. Schooling German Girls and Women. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1988. Print.
Blackbourn, David. The Long Nineteenth Century: A History of Germany, 1780 - 1918. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998. Print.
Boa, Elizabeth. The Sexual Circus: Wedekind's Theatre of Subversion. New York: Basil Blackwell Inc, 1987. Print.
McClelland, Charles E. "Young Germans, Not Young Greeks and Romans": Art, Culture, and Educational Reform in Wilhelmine Germany." Imaging Modern German Culture: 1889 - 1910. Ed. Françoise Forster-Hahn. Hanover: University Press of New England, 1996. 36-49. Print.