Wilson Chacko Jacob in "Geneology" analyzes how effendi masculinity was formed as a subject of Egypt and how this thinking formed a "universal masculine subjectivity" that has contributed to the formation of a discourse on Egypt as a nation and Egyptian modernity (45). He examines how effendi masculinity was used in national representations.
The term "effendi" was first used in the precolonial period to distinguish the "religious-scribal class" (high status) from the military class. Jacob states that as the occupation of Britain in Egypt continued, there was a push to reform effendis with a different power relation that was obedient "but not servile" (47). Under the colonial gaze, effendi masculinity was supposed to represent a new Egypt but not a totally emancipated Egypt. This required a change of educational system to reflect a movement away from the "old effendi type" to a new "modern manly spirit" (48).
Jacob continues to analyze how the urban professional male (effendi) and the rural gentleman were set as binary opposites. The rural gentlemen was privileged because they represented a more passive, less engaged, cooperative stance with the state. Obviously, these colonial discourses that aim to "modernize" (such as some Western feminists, as another example) tend to erase indigenous resistance and seek to actually keep the oppressed powerless. Later in the article, Farid continues the narrative of passive yet intelligent masculinity when he states a great man was a nationalist who did not attempt to free or conquer his nation but wanted to "form a nation." Additionally a great man according to the ideal masculinity must have characteristics that make him powerful, self-reliant, honest, courageous, striving for the common good, have a quick judgement, intelligent, "a clear and effective use of language" among others (52). In order to make these criticisms, the British used family metaphors to make these ideas seem authentic and natural to the nation of Eygpt.
British occupation aimed to mesh Egypt into a bourgeois nationalist discourse by urging that it follow modernization and "Egyptianization" with a new masculinity. As Jacob states, "There was a very clear calculus behind this derivation of dominant masculinity, in which race and empire were fundamental factors, and all three were considered mutually constitutive" (58). The representations of race, empire and new masculinity is seen on the image on page 57. Additionally, nationalism and masculinity were constitutive of each other.
I must admit I re-read this text a couple of times and I still feel like I could read it more to fully understand it. The notes I wrote about are what I understood.
I found this text challenging as well and was also interested at how several factors including masculinity, nationalism, and race helped culminate in a burgeoning modernity in Egypt. It was interesting to read how through the restructuring and emphasis on areas of focus such as education and the school/home life relationship as well as to create a new, "modern" effendi that was at once "a part of but separate from the Egyptian family" bears similitude to content discussed during class, such as the binary relationship between dominated and oppressed. In this case, it was interesting to read how this nationalistic masculinity was an "effect of gender being produced to resist colonialism and necessary to creation of a national identity".
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