CONTENT WARNING: Spoilers up to the end of Act Three. Also the usual death and murder discussions.
I imagine it's probably fairly easy for some people to start to read Divided and assume that the men will play little part in the story, or that the men will fulfill all of the 'bad' roles whilst the women fulfill all of the 'good' roles given it takes place during witch-hunts and in a historical context. Of course, it'd likely make for a boring and one-dimensional story if I went down that route. Especially when men were also targets of the witch-hunts in real life. Much like in the International Women's Day Special where I spoke in detail about gender and expectation and such, I'll be trying to do the same for the guys too. International Men's Day is on November 19th. I won't be able to say as much this time since I don't have that personal experience, but it'll make for interesting discussion.
As with the Women's Day Special, everyone gets a fun new portrait, with the same 4 pose packs I always use and the same GShade preset. Yipee!
Daniel
One of Gideon's sons, Dan is a pretty interesting character and I think quite a stark contrast to a lot of the other characters. He's nineteen, so he's still pretty young- and even in this historical period, times are changing, and at the time he's introduced he's more interested in trying to enjoy himself and have some fun before committing himself to a gruelling life of long working days. He and Eli are quite the contrast to the older overworked characters such as Reynold, Owen, and probably Julian comes under that as well. Though to even get that far, you need to have jobs first- and there aren't many around Henford other than, well, witchfinding.
For the expectations of the time period in-story, Dan isn't particularly in-line with the expectations of men. Whilst his father trained him in the art of swordfighting, but he doesn't enjoy violence (at least, not after his father gave up being a witchfinder), and he isn't interested in working forever or marrying or anything of the sort. Volpe saw him as weak until Micah lied about him killing witches, which he never laid a finger on a witch. His sort of 'coming-into' masculinity in Volpe's eyes was attacking Oskar, a formidable soldier- but for Dan, it isn't a moment he's particularly proud of. It took an act of violence towards someone who could very easily kill him to get Volpe to see him as a man. Thankfully, Gideon is happy to let his son do what's best for him without expecting too much of him, and in his own way, Gideon is there for him. Though he is free from it now, there's every chance that his time amongst witchfinders might begin to warp his perception of the world of magic subconsciously if he's not careful.
Like many young men throughout history, Dan is at a very malleable age whether he knows it or not, and old, rich, manipulative men with dark intentions like to do whatever they can to get young men like Dan on their side. If they aren't already angry, they'll find a way to taunt them into anger so they can use them for their own gain. (Only in this time period they do it moreso through books and pamphlets instead of YouTube.) And if they fail, well, there's always the subconscious route... it's easier to reel someone in when they don't realise you're doing it. Much like the women aren't always on each other's side (Juniper, anyone?) the same goes for the men in this story.
Gideon
Gideon has had a rough time bringing up his twin sons. His partner, Ruth, who he cherished dearly, died whilst giving birth to them. He's always wanted the best for Daniel and Josiah, but trying to find steady work was a problem, and he had to ask the neighbours to assist them with reading so they could have a better chance of finding work when they were older. Much like in real life, not everyone is literate in this period. Most of the characters who are, are either witches who were taught to read spellbooks and scrolls, the filthy-rich, or members of either of the religious factions who read or were taught to read from scripture.
Gideon is the representation of a more positive outlook on single fatherhood, though it might not seem it at a glance. I sometimes get bored of portrayals of single fathers portrayed as incompetent or uncaring for their children, and fathers from marginalised communities have even more negative stereotypes placed upon them. Gideon is a single father that loves his kids more than anything, to the point where he's willing to do awful things to ensure they have a future. He's also the embodiment of something common with a lot of fathers, how far they will go for their children or family, and that morals will sometimes go out of the window if it means the kids getting a good future. Whilst Gideon did genuinely want to rid the world of witches to protect his sons, the cash was the main reason, and as far as witchfinders go, he wasn't the worst of them, not going after any witch without solid proof of their craft where many would happily pull out their swords on a hunch. Whilst he is over his years as a witchfinder, it's safe to say that his stint in that work was what kept the entire family going.
When he finds out Dan has become a witchfinder, he's at least relieved to know that he doesn't want to be there and hasn't killed anyone- but again, he shows how far he's willing to do to save his son by once again dealing with Volpe, as well as dealing with one of the most dangerous characters in the story otherwise - and killing someone who, deep down, he doesn't want to kill. Thankfully, Gideon did not need to kill Oskar, and Gideon is glad of this- but he's disheartened by Oskar's death, and although he didn't trust Eli, to know a father died and left his son behind? That haunts him. Trouble is, nothing and no-one scares Gideon. Daniel and Josiah come first- always.
Julian
You have the young and more naive men, the older but still-working-it-out men, and then you have Julian, the man who's nearing the end of his life. Julian is very much a representation of someone who's grown up raised with far different values than the present, strangely enough he comes across like this more than Oskar does despite not being born as long ago. Julian has had a lot of un-learning to do- mainly about women in his youth, and about witches in his elder years. As the Eye of Jacob, Julian was one of the only higher powers within the Jacoban community in the entirety of Henford to have a woman in a position of power. He could've come around to realising the value of women much quicker than he did, but he got there. Even before his pro-witch speeches, his opinion on including women more in terms of the higher powers alone caused controversy.
Julian is a semi-subversion of the usual trope of old men being prejudiced and never learning. It wouldn't have made for an interesting character if I went down that route. It takes him a long time to realise truly what he's been standing for, but he does, and when he does realise his wrongs, he sticks to his words no matter what- whether that's sticking to the pro-witch speech that partially got him kicked out, or defending to Jacobans everywhere why he is sticking to keeping Clementia as High Shepherd.
Reynold
With Reynold, a lot of my decisions with him at least in terms of design were all intentional. I wanted to do something different with the first main male character introduced, not someone who was skinny and muscular and with the typical 'chiseled' jawline - guys deserve body diversity and positivity in stories as well! But also it isn't necessarily just that, but also whenever a story has a fat character, they're very rarely main characters and are even more rarely portrayed as being considered attractive by the other characters unless it's some sort of in-universe aesop on acceptance of others. If everyone can lust over the skinny or muscular guy, then why not over the fat guy as well? And that's precisely why Reynold has a few admirers in this story, both in Áine and Susana, and probably a number of other characters who aren't saying anything : P
Most of the exploration of masculinity with Reynold ties in to his werewolf blood and his poor relationship with his father, Alistair. Whilst it seems close when Clem speaks about it at first, Alistair was still quite distant with Reynold, never really being proud of him, and not teaching him anything about being a werewolf, preferring he keep it buried in the hopes he never found out about it. Reynold has more or less been left to himself to discover what it takes to be a man in his day's society, and even if he may never quite work it out, working oneself to the bone probably isn't it. The lack of genuine male connection growing up has affected him badly. He's terrified that he risks repeating his own father's mistakes with his daughter. He's had Oskar to help him with some things, but even then...
In doing some research ages ago into male psychology and guides for them about dealing with stress as well as mental illness, one line on a psych website on an article stood out to me: 'His life becomes a joyless drive to get things done.' Honestly, my first thought was, yeah, I feel that, but I think Reynold risks going down this route, and I've always thought that since I created him. Whilst his father has taught him more about being a werewolf, there's a good chance he's still probably a little too late to the party. Reynold has a lot of trouble balancing both his sensitive side and his more pragmatic side, and as a fairly-young man under a considerable amount of pressure, it's impossible to know how to please your god, your other god, your partner, your daughter, and the people who rely upon you. Like a lot of men, Reynold has far too much on his plate, and doesn't really know how to, or whether to, ask for help. He thinks he can do it all himself, and that never goes well.
Oskar
Oh, you didn't think I've forgotten about him, did you? I haven't ;-;
Despite discovering he was more or less genderfluid, or bigender, or something along those lines, I think Oskar still ticks quite a lot of boxes in terms for male expectations at least during the earlier time he was alive. Though things were a bit stricter back one hundred and sixty-odd years before the story, he still had a positive upbringing and I think that's a lot of what has kept him afloat where others have lost it a bit. One of the rare Divided characters who doesn't have issues with his father.
A lot of Oskar's typically-masculine traits lie in his dutiful nature. After becoming a vampire, he's become incredibly protective. He sees it as his duty to do whatever it takes to protect his people, his friends, and his family. Part of that I think is also just the general idea of things during the entire story's time period. Unlike Reynold, however, Oskar has the time and energy to somehow balance everything, and he's rarely fatigued by all of the time he spends helping others out. Even when he's human again, he seems to just take it all in his stride.
For me, I like Oskar because there's a lot of self-exploration in terms of identity and expression with him, and it's something that people don't allow men or women alike. Men aren't allowed to even have a sliver of a feminine side without people being assholes about it, so to see him happily embracing his feminine nature as well as his masculine one, it's heartwarming, and even more so that almost everyone is on board with that. I wish men had more of the freedom to express femininity, or even just things that are more sterotypically associated with the feminine. And it seems every day people declare random new things as being 'too girly' for men to do or enjoy, some of the weirdest I've been being...sunsets? And going to the library? And whilst people might read into what I'm saying in a solely-trans context, it isn't. You can be cis and mess about with gender roles and expression and whatever you want as well!
Random other related notes
I guess the main take-away from all of this is the sense of unity I try to convey in this story (even if that contradicts the title : P). Overall, it's less 'men could never understand women and therefore can never relate to them on any level ever about anything, nobody has anything in common, no-one is allowed to have anything in common, yay progress I guess' and more about the crossover of experience. Whilst the witch-hunts generally affect women more, plenty of male witches are also risking their lives, and so both male and female witches are (for the most part) united in that struggle.
On top of that, every time period is going to have its handful of people of relative privilege who defy the prejudices of the time, so it's not a boring case of all the men in a historical story having a 4chan level of misogyny about them. The main thing I wanted to get across as well was, of course, good old (what we would call today) toxic masculinity. Most men do not like hearing that phrase, but what they don't realise is that is harms them as well, and this is what is evident across the entire story. It's a bit more difficult to deal with and defy in a time period which doesn't have a phrase for such a thing, and when the general attitude amongst men is to just get on with it no matter what- but there's not much more I can say about how that will go for everyone without spoiling.
Hope you enjoyed reading!