Tarzanism

English

Etymology

From Tarzan +‎ -ism.

Noun

Tarzanism (uncountable)

  1. Any behaviour reminiscent of the fictional character Tarzan, especially displays of primitive and exaggerated masculinity or power.
    • 1920 October 27, Punch, London, page 340, column 1:
      Meanwhile the real nature of Tarzanism, whether some sinister possession or simply the age-long appetite for the monstrous, just now a little out of hand, remains as far from solution as ever.
    • 1930 January 31, The Nambour Chronicle and North Coast Advertiser, Qld, page 2, column 5:
      COMING ATTRACTIONS.— Doc. Paul B. Dowd in brand-new feats of super-strength! Aerial acrobatics! Tarzanism! Bone-crushing!
    • 1953 August 29, The Nation, New York, page 178, column 3:
      He does an ingenious job of acting a plain, slow-thinking individualist, but he is often working with an actor like Lancaster who does everything with a glib, showy, Tarzanism.
    • 1990 April 10, The Washington Post, page 23:
      From its beginning, and even in its most bleak and dangerous days, it was always a peculiar encounter with "victories" that were by nature merely provisional and inconclusive, leading only to the next encounter; proxy "warfare" conducted by means of technological Tarzanism (the chest-beating deployment and test-firing of monstrous weapons not meant to be used), and a continuing mixture of bluff and conciliation in a series of tactical skirmishes all over the world.
    • 1999 June 3, The Seattle Times, page 28:
      Images of Africa are too often negative, Smith said. "We see what I call the Tarzanism. We see the starving kids, the flies on the face, but there's not a lot of exposure of the richness of African culture, the beautiful natural resources."
    • 2021 June 15, The Canberra Times, page 37:
      How insightful her diagnosis of male tarzanism! How useful her words "tarzanist" and "tarzanism" and the concepts they embrace, for those of us who have to describe contemporary Australian political life. How commonplace our political leaders' overt displays of baboon-like "brute virility".
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