In Defense of Democracy? Masculinist Reasoning, Homophobia, and the Impossibility of Gender Democracy in Thomas Mann’s Mario and the Magician

Thomas Mann’s Mario and the Magician is frequently deployed in political and literary education to teach the lesson of democracy in defense against fascism. Recent analyses focus on the themes of homoeroticism and homosexuality, and raise the question whether a homophobic murder is an appropriate defense of democracy. However, only a few scholars explore the political ideas inscribed in the discourse of the so-called “masculinists” Mann refers to. This article provides an interpretation of the novella from a political science perspective by elaborating on masculinists reasoning advocated by Hans Blüher, who supported pre-fascist male associations in the Weimar Republic. Masculinist reasoning challenges a simplistic notion of the public-private divide and puts (homo-) sexuality center stage in the discussion of the political. The analysis shows that Mario and the Magician tells the story of the defeat of Blüher’s vision of a homoerotic male association and of the re-erection of a patriarchal society characterized by homophobia and heteronormativity. However, this defeat does not affect antipluralistic, antisemitic, and antifeminist ideologies of ‘masculinist reasoning’. Therefore, the alleged defense of democracy promotes a hegemonic project of masculinity, which hinders any vision of social or gender democracy