What Makes a Modern Man? Masculinity, Morality, and Nationhood in Late-Monarchical Egypt

Abstract

A critical analysis of masculinities is essential for understanding how power is gendered and legitimised through male-coded social norms. While Egyptian nationalism and state-building process have been extensively studied through political and religious lenses, their gendered foundations remain less explored. The primary aim of this research is to analyse how masculinity was constructed, represented, and contested within the Egyptian effendiyya class between 1936 and 1952 – a period that witnessed key shifts in political radicalisation and ideological formation, laying the basis for the post-revolutionary ideal of manhood and nationhood. The effendiyya – students, civil servants, doctors, modern-educated elites – located between traditional aristocracy and popular classes. By the 1930s, a younger and more radical generation of effendiyya had emerged. Their militancy was fuelled by widespread unemployment, political stagnation, and deepening economic crises and directly translated to their image of the ideal citizen. The project draws on Critical Studies on Men and Masculinities (Connell 2005) and postcolonial theory (Stoler 2002) approaching masculinity as both a discursive construct and a lived practice. It combines discourse analysis with archival research to examine Arabic-language press, memoirs, and educational manuals – many of them rarely studied – to trace how ideals of manhood circulated across institutional and popular settings. The focus on print media reflects its central role in effendiyya identity formation. As editors, readers, and contributors, members of this class actively used the press to debate moral, national, and gender ideals. The study analyses three interconnected arenas: (1) tarbiya (upbringing) and formal education as spaces where civic and moral expectations for boys were codified; (2) the male body as a site of health, discipline, militarism, and desire; and (3) Islamic models of manhood reinterpreted within nationalist and modernist frameworks. The ongoing research examines how masculinity served both anti-colonial resistance and authoritarian state-building. It expands Critical Studies on Men and Masculinities by analysing hegemonic masculinity in a specific context, beyond the usual focus on masculinity crisis or violence.