Masculinities in Theory: An Introduction
Abstract
Masculinities in Theory is a clear, concise, and comprehensive introduction to the field of masculinity studies from a humanities perspective. Serves as a much-needed introduction to the field for students and scholars of cultural studies, literature, art, film, communication, history, and gender studies. Includes discussions of gay/queer, feminist, and gender studies in relation to masculinity. Covers the key theoretical approaches to the study of masculinity, and introduces new models. Explores the question? What is masculinity and how does it work? Looks at language, discourse, signification, power, cross-dressing, female, queer and transsexual masculinity, race and masculinity, nation and masculinity, interracial masculinities, and masculinities in history.
... However, Finnish and international research lacks an examination on how increasingly important work-related self-care is incorporated into these representations. Although the media produces and reproduces cultural repertoires used in everyday language to express attitudes to work ethics, its influence is usually underrated (Cotter, 2015;Fairclough, 1995;LaPointe & Heilmann, 2014;Reeser, 2010). Drawing on a discourse theoretical framework (Cotter, 2015;Fairclough, 1995), I analyze 30 texts published in the Finnish media in spring 2016 as representations that both repeat and shape cultural schemes, considering conventional ways of talking about men's health, their attitudes toward their workload and their work-related self-care. ...
... The workings of discourse, for instance media representations of men, are recognized as a meaningful subject of research only when they actively support and legitimize the oppressive power already possessed by the hegemonic group. Thus, I follow Reeser (2010) in that instead of focusing on how media representations support hegemonic masculinity I focus on how media produces idealized images of masculinity. ...
... Furthermore, media representations are also motivated by other things than the aim to influence: they are, for example, entertainment (ibid., 44-46). In addition, stylistic conventions in a particular genre (Cotter, 2015) as well as cultural assumptions of gendered behavior (Reeser, 2010) affect the contents of texts in the media. Thus, I was determined to carry out an analysis of how reality is represented in each individual text without aiming to expose a certain political agenda behind the data analyzed. ...
Individual responsibility for health at work has been a central point of interest in recent studies of working life. This article contributes to that discussion by considering the role of the media in gendering individual responsibility and the meanings of work-related health in Finnish society. It takes a critical look at media representations of men’s work-related self-care. The data comprises 30 texts collected from the Finnish media in spring 2016. The analysis reveals three discourses – Exemplariness, Expertise and Suspiciousness – and shows how they construct ideal ways of being a man in working life. They depict work as a necessary part of life for men. Self-care practices that aim to either maintain endurance or increase performance at work are presented in a favorable light. However, personal wellbeing is portrayed as secondary to productivity. The article concludes with a discussion on the broader implications of the persistent discursive interrelation of men and work for men’s social role.
... The ritual of circumcision facilitates culture in the swift transformation of the male body "into a kind of body that it may consider masculine (or not masculine, as the case may be)" (Reeser, 2010, p. 95). Todd Reeser (2010) in his book Masculinities in Theory: An Introduction notes how the ritual of circumcising the male body results in such ritualistic practices: ...
... This has been observed by Reeser when he discusses the discourse surrounding the penis with manhood. According to Reeser (2010), it is our preconceived notions about masculinity that shape our thoughts on the male body and male sex. Reeser notes that it is because culture attributes sexual virility to a man that "we attach great importance to penis" (p. ...
In gender studies, the distinction between biological sex and the social aspect of gender is of pivotal concern, and it needs to be examined not only from a feminist perspective but from masculinity studies as well. Undoubtedly, men have fared better within the patriarchal structure “in terms of the access to and the wielding of power, than have women” (Buchbinder, p. 68), but it is crucial to understand the implications of gender-based expectations on men to possess those privileges. The invisibility concerning masculinity as a gendered category has made it appear natural and coherent. In the context of masculinity as a gendered category, this paper will analyze the configuration of hegemonic masculinity or a raganimo in Nuruddin Farah’s (b. 1945) Maps. The study will reveal how the dominant masculinity insinuated by culture as natural is, in reality, a make-believe formulated by various discourses. The paper foregrounds that the shaping of masculinity in socially prescribed norms in Maps is a discursive practice instrumentalized by patriarchal Somali society to generate, circulate and exert power. The aim of this paper is not to promote the positioning of men as agents of power, but to understand the working of gender and the underpinning of power in masculinity.
... Due to issues of masculinity, male reproductive health service, and heavily relies on the description, conversation and the words men use (Reeser, 2010). Reproductive health among men widely deals with matters affecting the penis. ...
... The penis is the source of being a man and therefore masculinity begins there and the presence of this part of the body is a symbol of masculinity (Izugbara, 2005). Masculinity according to Reeser (2010) is a cultural concept that can be understood through the language used by men to talk about or describe masculinity. How do men describe a reproductive health problem to the doctor considering that it is the origin of their masculinity that is "under attack"? ...
The article is an exploration of masculinity and language in the reproductive health clinic. The authors ask the difficult questions before undertaking the field of the project. There seems to be a dark cloud over the methodology and the how possible the entire project is. The article provokes the readers' mind with questions hence building a curiosity of what could be answers to: Do men go to the hospital for reproductive health problems? What is the nature of this doctor-patient interaction?
... Due to issues of masculinity, male reproductive health service, and heavily relies on the description, conversation and the words men use (Reeser, 2010). Reproductive health among men widely deals with matters affecting the penis. ...
... The penis is the source of being a man and therefore masculinity begins there and the presence of this part of the body is a symbol of masculinity (Izugbara, 2005). Masculinity according to Reeser (2010) is a cultural concept that can be understood through the language used by men to talk about or describe masculinity. How do men describe a reproductive health problem to the doctor considering that it is the origin of their masculinity that is "under attack"? ...
Background: Language is the most powerful diagnostic tool available to any doctor. Language provides the doctor with the information needed for appropriate diagnosis hence successful health care service delivery. Culture influences the choice of language in various context such as the hospital. Little is known on the language used by men seeking reproductive health services at the clinic despite so many researches having focused on doctor-patient communication. The focus of this work is the language used by men to describe their reproductive health problems to the doctor. Methods: Participant observation and interview are the data collection tools. Conclusion: Key features of mens conversaton include silence, interruptions, use of swear words and taboo language. They use discursive strategies such as self reliance and independence when seeking health services while they use teasing humor when talking about sexual and reprodcutive health.
... Therefore, he argues that it is possible for men to behave differently if they understand that these ideas can be challenged and changed. Todd Reeser (2010) argues that a person's conception and understanding of masculinity is bound to change when he moves from one place to another. This is because the values and interpretations of masculinity are not universal. ...
This paper explores masculinity and migration, analyzing the complex processes of sustaining manhood in a differentenvironment in Amma Darko’s Beyond the Horizon. The paper argues that the fraught nature of the migrant experiencecontributes to the creation of toxic masculinities and the perpetuation of gender-based exploitation of the female. Migration then creates new opportunities for male exploitative behaviour which is detrimental to the male himself.
... Rather than through an agentic move, white masculinities are pushed into sight, exposed to the critical public gaze. White masculinities' former invisibility produced the privilege of speaking and acting from a position of universality, a hegemonic position of power that white men only leave reluctantly (Connell, 2005;Dyer, 1997;Garner, 2007;Reeser, 2010). ...
Radical democratic theory conceptualizes public visibility as empowering. In particular, feminist democratic theorists propose a politics of presence through identity politics, according to which it is the visibility of the marginalized body that in itself articulates a political claim for inclusion. Today, a new subject enters the space of appearance: the white, cisgender, heterosexual man claims recognition through embodied identity performances. Engaging in the men’s rights and Trump movements, the performance of white masculinities, however, does not appear as empowering, but as anxious, defensive and weak. Drawing on whiteness and masculinity studies, this article explains why public visibility may both empower and weaken. By combining the concept of visibility with voice, it maps four spaces of (dis)appearance and explores the mobility of identity groups between them. Whether entering the space of appearance is empowering depends on the point of departure. Instead of claiming equal recognition, as marginalized groups do, white men cling to their unearned privileges. The article observes a general migration towards the space of appearance, rendering it more contentious.
... In the same token, Scholar Reeser contends that: "women are able to approach masculinity through these gendered traits, but in the end are not given the chance to reach it fully. Physical traits like the penis turn into proof, or reassurance, that the woman is unable to profit from masculinity in its fullness or totality" (Reeser, 2010). As Reeser describes, the difficulty of transcending bodily traits constitutes a major hindrance for females to move beyond the confines of the masculine supremacy. ...
This paper seeks to investigate the possibility of regarding gendered spaces as dystopian chronotopes in Margaret Atwood’s The Year of the Flood (2009). The current research attempts to examine the process through which spaces are stratified into gendered ones, characterized by a masculine supremacy and feminine inferiority. Following a geocritical approach, the spatial landmarks and references in the novel are scrutinized in order to examine the process through which space is being categorized on a gender basis. The temporal indicators of the novel are studied interchangeably with their accompanying spatial presentations using Mikhail bakhtin’s views on the literary chronotope. The present research concludes that gendered spaces presented in Atwood’s novel constitute dystopian chronotopes because they epitomize one of the manifestations of dystopia.
... Importantly, there are, at any given point in time, various masculinities, some of which are considered 'superior' or hegemonic, over the rest . These masculinities change and evolve over time such that, what may have been considered hegemonic in 17th century England certainly would not be so today (Reeser, 2010). The point is that, although not all men enact hegemonic forms of masculinity -indeed they are unable to given the inherent hierarchy embedded into hegemonic masculinity -all men nonetheless benefit from the social and economic system created by it . ...
“Sustainable Masculinities and Degrowth: Pathways to Feminist Post-Growth Societies” views the climate crisis through a degrowth lens, but centers the role (hegemonic) masculinity has played in creating and sustaining the growth paradigm. Though much has already been said about the origins of economic growth, and much written about the oppressive nature of patriarchal systems with respect to women and the environment, efforts to integrate the two with the study of masculinities and the effects these processes have had on men are few and far between. This paper breaks new ground and extends an invitation to degrowth to challenge (its own) hegemonic masculinity.
... Enfim, discutir gênero e não teoria. 103 Mas, e se direcionássemos o olhar "crítico" do observador a "si mesmo" -dando um passo atrás -, desestabilizando as nossas próprias "essências" e "verdades", e considerando que há, desde cedo, e em nós mesmos, uma "construção"; de que o "sexo" está para o "gênero", assim como o "observado" está para o "observador" ou a "evidência" para o "investigador"? ...
A partir de diálogos estabelecidos com os estudos queer, tenho como objetivo refletir sobre um conhecido estatuto atribuído ao material biográfico pelo sociólogo Pierre Bourdieu em meados da década de 1980. Na forma de uma advertência, a chamada “ilusão biográfica” é uma noção dirigida aos intelectuais das humanidades, em que destaco o meu segmento, a historiografia, que pretendem fazer uso das histórias de vida em seus trabalhos. Por outro lado, busca assegurar um caráter “ficcional” ao discurso biográfico, interditando essa forma de representação do vivido. Nesse sentido, ao considerar que esse último aspecto não é de menor importância na hora de se apropriar desta ideia para operar, e se relacionar, com o “biográfico”, acarretando distintos “efeitos de poder”, segundo Michel Foucault, construo uma análise em dois momentos. Primeiro, examino o argumento de Bourdieu em seu ensaio, bem como em escritos posteriores e entre alguns de seus interlocutores, diante das oscilações e dos espaços ocupados pelas histórias de vida dentro e fora dos estudos humanísticos. Em seguida, sugiro algumas possibilidades de leitura a partir da filósofa Judith Butler, além de alguns de seus intérpretes, expoentes dos estudos queer; baseado em sua noção de “materialização”, com vistas a demonstrar a hipótese de que a “ilusão”, acarreta uma operação diferencial, (re)produz efeitos de poder e pode criar “desilusões”, como a ausência do “eu” na análise e na escrita biográfica
... It is recognized that across time and geographic locations, masculinities are transformed and translated into distinct forms, depending on the location and various other existing tensions in the society (Connell & Messerschmidt, 2005;Reeser, 2010). The potential of a new form of masculinity, at any moment, to be culturally exalted over the other preexisting hegemonic forms (Connell, 2001) makes the scenario even more delicate. ...
Based on an ethnographic study conducted between 2016 and 2020, this article discusses the performance of toxic masculinity within social spaces related to the card game Magic: The Gathering. It suggests a relationship between the observed behaviors and the reinforcement of conservative values within the Magic community during the game experience, to further understand the social dynamics of gamer culture. Such observation stems from the assumption that the community of players formed during the game results from the articulation of two particular sociotechnical contexts: nerd culture and the mechanics inscribed in the design and experience of the game itself.
... É reconhecido que, ao longo das linhas temporais e geográficas, as masculinidades se transformam e são traduzidas de distintas formas, dependendo do local e de diversas outras tensões existentes na sociedade (Connell & Messerschmidt, 2005;Reeser, 2010). O potencial de uma nova forma de masculinidade, a qualquer instante, ser exaltada culturalmente sobre outras formas hegemônicas preexistentes (Connell, 2001) torna o cenário ainda mais delicado. ...
A partir de um esforço etnográfico empreendido entre os anos de 2016 e 2020, este artigo problematiza a encenação de uma masculinidade tóxica dentro de espaços de convívio relacionados ao card game Magic: The Gathering. O objetivo é sugerir uma relação entre os comportamentos observados e o reforço de valores conservadores na comunidade formada a partir da experiência deste jogo, avançando na compreensão das dinâmicas sociais da cultura gamer. Essa observação parte do pressuposto de que a comunidade de jogadores formada a partir da experiência desse jogo é o resultado da articulação de dois contextos sociotécnicos particulares: a cultura nerd e as mecânicas inscritas no design e na experiência do jogo em si.
... Masculinity ascribes properties like muscular, hard, strong, brave, and control. On the contrary, femininity characteristics are a list of adjectives that are not ascribed to masculinity, such as weak, emotional, and soft (Reeser, 2010). ...
Hijra, a category often considered to be beyond the woman/man binary, has been officially recognized as a separate gender in Bangladesh since 2013. However, there has been little research exploring the lived experiences of hijra. This Ph.D. explores what it means to identify as hijra. To do this, I adopted a postmodern framework and conducted 12 months of ethnographic fieldwork. During this year, I got to know twenty hijra who lived in Dhaka. I also conducted two focus groups among NGO workers and undertook four in-depth interviews with government officials. Such an exploration allowed insight into the complexity of hijra categorization, sexuality, gender, and government perceptions of hijra. To assist in the analysis of this primary data, I drew on Foucault's concept of sexuality as discourse and Butler's idea of gender performativity.
Based on field data, this Ph.D. has four key findings. First, I found that hijra in Bangladesh are not a homogenous category. Instead, understanding the complexity of hijra identity needs an intersectionality lens. Second, I found that hijra sexual acts and practices can be fluid and, in some ways, are less regulative than heterosexuality. Here I trouble the popular understanding of hijra as 'sexually disabled' or 'asexual' or as having sexual desire only for men. I found that hijra can enjoy a variety of sexual partners and that this does not preclude them from identifying as hijra. Third, I found that for many hijra in Bangladesh, gender is performative, as Butler suggests. Further, gender can involve fun and play and a variety of code-switching from performing as a man to hijra, then hijra to woman, and as hijra to a man depending on what is most strategic for accessing certain rights, and as the situation, context, and circumstance demand. Fourth, I found that hijra is dehumanized in contemporary Bangladesh society and that this dehumanization is, in part, an outcome of the lack of understating of hijra, which has antecedents in Bangladesh's colonial past.
... Sexuality has always been central to the construction of hegemonic masculinity (Orbach 2009;Reeser 2011;Gill 2008). Yet, Thanks for Sharing seems to suggest that sexuality is a dangerous aspect of manhood, and that happiness can only be attained through the formation of a masculinity that centers on self-management and complete control. ...
Thanks for Sharing (2012) and Don Jon (2013), share similarities in their representation of the lives of unmarried men who are all approaching midlife, and who are all struggling to build meaningful, monogamous, long term attachments with women. In Thanks for Sharing, Adam (Mark Ruffalo) is addicted to brief encounters with numerous partners in contexts devoid of emotional intimacy, while a fellow member of his sex addicts support group, Neil (Josh Gad), struggles with a compulsion to touching strangers in public locations. In counterpoint, Don Jon charts the protagonist’s insatiable consumption of online pornography, since Jon believes that the virtual domain provides a far superior sexual experience than anything, he could find in real life encounters with women. This article is concerned with the relationship between sex addiction and masculinity, and how neoliberalism is imbued in the characters’ embodiment of masculinity regardless of their divergent social backgrounds.
Research on body image among men who have sex with men (MSM) has predominantly been approached with the assumption that all MSM conform to a culturally preferred body, and have a high risk of body image concerns leading to risky behaviors and negative health outcomes. Scholars have called for a more nuanced understanding of how MSM engage with their body images. In response, we conducted 30 semi-structured interviews with Vietnamese MSM to explore their perceptions and feelings of their bodies, including their current body, idealized body, and sexually desired body. Inductive thematic analysis was utilized. The findings highlight the diversity and complexity in Vietnamese MSM’s perceptions and feelings about their bodies, which Western measurements of body image and body dissatisfaction might not fully capture. The participants also acknowledge the pressure of physical appearance; however, they do not always conform to the dominant body ideals and have a high risk of body dissatisfaction. We conclude with a call for reframing the approach to gay and bisexual men’s body image to understand better how they navigate complex pressures and make sense of their body image instead of assuming they are at risk of body dissatisfaction.
The media’s proliferation of masculine notions makes it a binding site for research on masculinities. Historical associations of Indian masculinities transcended cinema in the form of a new-age man post-independence, followed by the ‘Angry Young Man’ in the 1970s, and in the 2000s, the metrosexual male. Comics and advertisements have also been analyzed for their gender appeals targeting men and masculinities. Television discourse continually negotiates our knowledge of social and cultural perceptions, playing a remarkable role in people’s lives. However, the trajectories and personalities of the Indian males on television have not been studied closely or understood across their spectrum. Since research establishes a distinct link between men’s portrayal in the domestic drama genre and the image of men in the larger population, this article suggests a (re)visiting of masculinities on Indian television. It relooks at the lack of studies on male characters in soap operas through a lens of themes such as bodily signification and homosocial bonds, which helps make a more extensive statement on how such shows create and represent ideas on masculinities. A systematic literature review approach highlights the absence of reflections on male characters and makes a case for future explorations of masculinities in Indian television.
Contemporary children’s literature is vividly engaged in the construction, negotiation, and deconstruction of (notions of) masculinity. Literary urban settings and their often clearly gendered spaces thereby prove an especially fertile environment in which conflicting positions about (the meanings of) masculinity are (re-)formed and contested: Strategies to naturalize rigid gender boundaries and traditional concepts of an innate core of ‘wild’, independent masculinity that cannot be domesticated by (‘feminized’) cultural impositions clash with approaches that explore and challenge the spaces and practices in and through which (hegemonic) masculinity is built up and stabilized. This article explores negotiations of masculinity within four current novels for young readers regarding the semantics of urban spaces and the gendered practices that constitute very different masculinities.
Masculinity theory, which has been executing its studies as a distinct branch of interest since 1980s, primarily aims to draw attention to the multiplicity of masculinities to undermine the misconception that there is a single, universal, and everlasting concept of masculinity (Sancar, 2009, p. 26), and it also tries to exhibit the fact that masculine identities are always subject to change in relation to surrounding factors such as ideology and historical elements. Similarly, literary masculinity studies aim to foreground the presence of this multiplicity and variety in literary texts, as well as depicting and pointing out the portrayal of non-hegemonic masculine identities who have the potential of constituting alternatives to the hegemonic ones. In accordance with this target, this study aims to investigate Oscar Wilde’s 1890 novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, by concentrating on the fluid identity of its male protagonist with the purpose of exhibiting the fact that even the hegemonic masculinities are subject to change in different contexts. Embodying an alternative masculine identity which is in great contrast with the expectations of hegemonic gender ideology concerning masculinity ideals on one hand, Dorian becomes a hegemonic masculinity model in his own context on the other, which demonstrates the fact that there is not a single and universal type of masculinity, but rather “masculinities” even in the same time interval, culture, and society, and that identities are context-bounded, continuously taking new shapes in relation to surrounding factors.
In this chapter, we focus upon transnational left-wing extremism—and phenomena American military strategists categorize as the fourth and fifth generations of modern warfare—in relation to the work of the arch-left-wing French poststructuralist philosopher Gilles Deleuze, a key theorist of extremist strategic concepts. His magnum opus, A Thousand Plateaus, circles relentlessly around men as revolutionary agents against the State, a key target of left-wing extremism. We pursue and interrogate the Deleuzean extremist, asking how such a man functions as a revolutionary and how he navigates the evolution from communist and anticolonial guerrilla warfare to global cognitive warfare—the changing demands revolutionary warfare make upon men.KeywordsStrategic studiesTransnational extremismGuerrilla warfareCognitive warfareMasculinity
Masculinity is trait that exist in both male and female. However, masculinity values develop into social constructs affecting various aspects of life, one of which is mental health. It is important to understand how individuals internalize the construct that contributes to their psychological dynamics. This study aims to determine the impact of masculinity construct and the role of mental health literacy on mental health through a literature review. The results show that some aspects in the construct of masculinity, such as self-reliance, dominance, and emotional restraint, inhibit people's mental health behavior, such as decreasing help-seeking behavior and self-disclosure, and increasing maladaptive coping. However, another study reports that the masculinity construct also affects women as well as men and the related studies remain very limited. It is imperative to improve mental health awareness that is sensitive to the influence of gender roles and its impacts on mental health.
Coates (2015:63), a Black father raising his son in New York City, whose words from Between the World and Me have been cited throughout this volume, remembers growing up in Baltimore, watching television as a young Black boy, and asking himself, “What did the people whose images were once beamed into my living room have that I did not?”. Representations are powerful: what we see on television or on the big screen shapes our worlds, our minds, our realities; it shows us what is possible, what we can dream about, and who we can become.
The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the Wende (turning point), marks a major juncture in recent history: locally, nationally, and globally. This chapter focusses on a writer whose work is often read in the context of post-Wende literature: Clemens Meyer. My reading of Meyer’s novels Als wir träumten (2006, When We Were Dreaming) and Im Stein (2013; Bricks and Mortar, 2017) highlights discourses of masculinity that, by being rooted in the characters’ homosocial worlds, shed a revealing light on the interrelation between the local and the global. While Als wir träumten centres on delinquent adolescent masculinity in Leipzig in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the polyphonic novel Im Stein explores organized prostitution in post-1989 East Germany. Meyer’s characters are largely situated at the socio-economic margins of the newly unified German society, a position which highlights their local masculinity in the “world gender order” (Connell). It also allows them to recognize both the tensions between hegemonic and marginalized forms of masculinity and the changeability of those concepts. My analysis concludes that the characters’ homosociality gives them local security in a transnational, and fundamentally uncertain, world.
This chapter considers religious and ethnic difference, as manifested by Islam in Germany, in relation to hegemonic masculinity. It first focuses on its marketing in Navid Kermani’s novel Kurzmitteilung (2007; Short Message). Kurzmitteilung examines the influence of the West on the ethnically non-German protagonist’s self-perception, his struggle to come to terms with his imposed difference, but also his opportunities to market it, both commercially and interpersonally, and thus to challenge the German hegemonic mainstream that consumes difference. The relationship between Islam and the West is treated more subtly in Kermani’s novel Große Liebe (2014; Great Love). The narrator, a Kermani-like figure, remembers how, as a teenager, he fell in love with an older German girl. The novel connects the now-adult narrator’s reflections on his self with those on Islamic mysticism. Thus the challenging of hegemonic masculinity is more nuanced here than in Kurzmitteilung: difference plays a crucial role on the narrator’s younger self’s journey of discovering new emotions via Islamic mysticism in an environment seemingly not susceptible to this kind of love. Both novels reveal in distinct ways how religious and/or ethnic differences can be used to appropriate, challenge, and/or negotiate hegemonic forms of masculinity.
The complex nexus between masculinity and national identity has long troubled, but also fascinated, the German cultural imagination. This has become apparent again since the historical junctures of 1989/90 and 2000 when transnational developments, which have also increased interactions between the “native mainstream” and its others, have noticeably shaped Germany’s self-perception as a nation. This book examines those interactions with reference to current discourses of masculinity in novels by five contemporary male German-language authors. It analyses the processes that the authors manipulate in order to play with patterns of masculinity, nationality, ethnicity, and otherness and assesses the new masculinities that result from this. The new processes are illuminated by specific theoretical frameworks: homosociality and marginalization; hypermasculinity vs. “effeminized” masculinity; a re-assessment of hegemonic masculinity; a rethinking of (literary) models of masculinity; and a reconsideration of the notion of “crisis of masculinity” under ethical considerations. As the book progresses, each chapter’s thematic and methodological focus reveals how local, specific discourses of masculinity are part of transnational contexts, thus moving considerations of masculinity from a “native” to a transnational sphere.
Time and again, research has shown that men are less accepting of homosexuality than women. Studies on such attitudinal sex differences have been overwhelmingly conducted in Western democracies, however, with a special focus on the U.S. Whether the sex difference in attitudes towards homosexuality is a worldwide phenomenon has not yet been investigated. Using data from the seventh wave of the World Values Survey (2017–2021), this article provides evidence that the sex difference is not universal, but limited almost exclusively to Europe and the Americas, indicating the need to replicate studies conducted in these societies in global cross-country comparisons. Contrary to predictions of the social role theory or biosocial construction theory, but in line with predictions from evolutionary psychology and a growing number of empirical studies in this field, the sex difference in attitudes towards homosexuality widens with rising gender equality and development, especially when the two coincide.
Toplumsal cinsiyet çalışmaları daha çok kadın çalışmalarıyla eş tutulmuş ve bu yüzden alana yönelik incelemeler sınırlı kalmıştır. Fakat ilerleyen dönemlerde erkeğin toplum içerisindeki iktidarını ve konumunu anlamlandırmak/anlamak için erkeklik çalışmaları gelişmeye başlamıştır. Erkeklik çalışmaları, erkek üzerindeki toplumsal baskıyı görünür kılabilmekte ve farklı erkeklik kimliklerinin mümkün olabileceğini ortaya çıkarmaktadır. Toplumsal olandan etkilenen sinema filmlerinde ise erkek karakterler güçlü ve tahakkümcü özellikleriyle değil, aksine güçsüz ve edilgen olarak yansıtılmakta ve bu durum erkeklik krizi kavramıyla açıklanmaktadır. Bu çalışmada, erkeklik krizi kavramının Türk sinemasına yansıması incelenmektedir. Türk sinemasında hegemonik erkekliği yansıtan filmlerin 1970’ten günümüze kadar devam edegelen süreçte nasıl şekillenip eril krize dönüştüğü, incelenen filmler üzerinden değerlendirilmiştir. Erkek karakterlerin yaşadığı eril kriz film analizinde kullanılan başlıklandırma yöntemiyle ortaya çıkarılmış ve erkeklik kimliğinin geçirmiş olduğu değişim, filmlerin karşılaştırılmasıyla anlaşılır kılınmaya çalışılmıştır. Filmlerin incelenmesinde ise tarihsel çözümleme yöntemi kullanılmıştır. İncelenen filmler doğrultusunda hegemonik erkeklik olarak kabul edilen özelliklerin dönemsel olarak değiştiği ve böylece yeni bir erkeklik mitinin inşa edildiği; diğer yandan erkeklik krizi kavramının egemen erkeklik modellerindeki dönüşüme işaret ettiği söylenebilir.
Kiran Desai is one of the most outstanding writers of her time, having won the 2006 Man Booker Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction for her second novel The Inheritance of Loss. Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard is a cynically amusing and tragic story of life, love, and family that portrays both the colourful culture of the Indian subcontinent and the universal nuances of human experience. The paper explores spectrum of masculinities from Kiran Desai"s Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard. Gender stereotypes have profound roots in society's collective unconscious, where unwritten cultural rules and laws are established. Economic stability and employment are crucial factors in determining superior and inferior gender identities in communities where patriarchy rules and women are compelled to bear the brunt of social and household conflicts. Sandra Ben, an active American psychologist, used the term-gender polarisation‖ to describe the tendency of conventional culture to totally divide the concepts of femininity and masculinity into two extreme polar opposites. It asserts that the attributes and behaviours associated with men and the masculine community is not preferred to those associated with women, and vice versa. When innate sex differences are amplified in a cultural environment, gender polarisation occurs. Simone de Beauvoir, a brilliant thinker and political activist, stated in her book Second Sex that-one is not born, but rather becomes, a woman,‖ (280) and that her formulation distinguishes sex from gender and argues that gender is a component of identity that is acquired over time. The assumption that sex and gender have a casual or mimetic relationship is shattered. In the subject of gender analysis, psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan and feminists like Judith Butler offer supportive and opposing viewpoints on the topic in order to make it more acceptable and convenient for the readers. Gender identity, gender expression, and biological sex, according to Sam Killermann, are the three components that enable a gender notion in society. These three divides further fracture gender into discrete social, biological, and cultural constructs. The focus of these constructions is on how femininity and masculinity are flexible entities whose meaning can shift based on the restrictions that surround them. Gender studies examine all gender, sexual,
El Festival de Sanremo es, sin duda, uno de los mayores acontecimientos de la televisión italiana en términos de audiencia y prestigio. Se sitúa dentro de dinámicas socioculturales complejas y solo puede entenderse a través de una lente que se centre en la ecología de los medios de comunicación italianos y valore las canciones como objetos culturales (Tomatis, 2016). Los actos que tienen lugar en el escenario de Sanremo pueden adquirir un significado especial en términos de resonancia potencial (Facci et al., 2011) y el festival se ha utilizado a menudo para difundir mensajes políticos o concienciar sobre cuestiones sociales. En los últimos años, el festival ha acogido a cantantes cuyas actuaciones y carácter desafían y complican cada vez más las expresiones tradicionales de género, con recepciones dispares y a menudo polarizadas. Las elecciones artísticas de Amadeus (que acoge las ediciones de 2019 a 2024) y de los autores reflejan la tendencia de asimilación a la corriente dominante de los significados queer o que desafían el género en las producciones audiovisuales pop (Ferrante, 2019). Para explorar estos procesos, llamamos la atención sobre las representaciones de la masculinidad (Butler, 1990 y 2004; Connell, 2020; Feasey, 2008; Reeser, 2011) en el contexto de la edición de 2022 de Sanremo. Realizaremos un análisis visual (Aubrey, Frisby, 2011; Russmann, Svensson, 2016; Tiidenberg, Baym, 2017) de las actuaciones inaugurales de tres artistas masculinos, identificando tres formas diferentes de representar la masculinidad en escena: Rkomi, Achille Lauro y Michele Bravi.
This chapter focuses on the backstage regions of dance institutions, which are approached as spaces that facilitate informal interactions, day-to-day encounters, and less controlled performances of the self. It argues that backstage regions are settings of “gender trouble” where male dancers can, and to a large degree do, disrupt the “heterosexual matrix” (Butler, Gender Trouble. Feminism and the Subversion of Identity, Routledge, 1999). The latter is discussed as both an outcome of these men’s actions and a condition that makes male dancers’ transgressive acts possible. The chapter argues that in the backstage regions at least, homosexuality and bisexuality are experienced as a norm rather than the Other of heterosexuality, which leads to increased opportunities for greater self-reflection and self-questioning, and the reconsideration of gender and sexual norms. In the backstage regions male dancers can reconstruct dominant meanings of masculinity and can engage with femininity.
This chapter discusses the diverse ways through which male dancers negotiate the gendered and sexual connotations of their professional identity. It analyzes some common strategies that male dancers utilize to claim dance as a conventionally masculine activity, and themselves as dancers on the one hand but men on the other. It further discusses these strategies as contributing to the reproduction of gender binaries, and hierarchies between men and women and among men. Lastly, and while dealing with yet another paradox, this chapter analyzes dance as an activity and a profession that has many conventionally masculine qualities. Yet, at the same time it discusses some of the factors that lead to the perception of dance as an activity and a practice that remains widely associated with male effeminacy and homosexuality.
This paper examines how female Lālehzari performers of the 1950s–70s rejected conventional femininity through their performances of female masculinity in their music and in some of the song-and-dance scenes of the commercial cinema. It argues that by performing eshgh ast, a kind of camp, these artists lampooned the dominant culture’s binary gender system and their fans’ claims over masculinity, ultimately making gender more capacious and women’s performative possibilities more diverse in the Lālehzari music scene. Ultimately, the paper demonstrates that these gender outlaws and their audiences developed their own homegrown, urban modernity beyond state discourses of Westernization.
This study aims to contribute to the development of literary masculinity studies by investigating the construction of alternative masculinities in George Gissing’s New Grub Street, which was written in Victorian fin de siècle, during which British society witnessed great transformations in its social structure and gender order. In fin de siècle Britain, because of the societal pressures, men who found it difficult to fit into pre-determined hegemonic masculine roles either suffered from male anxiety, or they created their alternative masculine identities themselves. Tracing the reflection of these two occasions by applying the tenets of masculinist theory to the novel, and focusing on male protagonist Edwin Reardon, the study demonstrates that the novel can be classified as an early example of masculinist texts, in its portrayal of alternative masculinities and exhibition of the devastating effects of hegemonic gender idealizations on male individuals which resulted in the formation of male-specific anxiety.
The field of masculinity studies is a recent branch of research, which seeks answers to questions concerning the construction of masculinities and examines how the construction process differs in different societal, cultural, and historical contexts. Primarily aiming at investigating how male individuals respond to hegemonic masculinity norms either through their rejection or internalisation, the field emphasizes that the close analysis of the concept of masculinity is of great importance since it is impossible to find solutions to problems regarding to gender issues without understanding masculinities. Literary masculinity studies empower this close analysis by foregrounding the construction of masculinities in literary texts. George Meredith’s One of Our Conquerors, which was written in 1891, at the beginning of the nineteenth century fin de siècle, is a successful example of literary texts which present a kind of critique of the prevailing patriarchal ideologies and of the damaging effects of hegemonic masculinity norms on psychologies of male individuals. Through its portrayal of a male protagonist who experiences a striking failure in conforming to the hegemonic masculinity expectations, the novel demonstrates the severe consequences of hegemonic gender expectations on non-hegemonic or alternative masculinities. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the role of hegemonic, ethical, and religious norms in the construction of masculine identities as well as in the occurrence of male anxiety through analysing masculinity portrayals in the novel.
The article examines the representation of disability in Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns and Leila Aboulela’s Lyrics Alley with a view to illustrating the intersections of disability and masculinity in the lives of the two young protagonists, Tariq and Nur. A careful examination of the representation of disabled experience in both Sudan and Afghanistan shows that vulnerability and sexual potency are the two most crucial elements that put masculinity to the test. While Hosseini masculinizes disability by allowing his protagonist to function entirely normally, he fails to offer a thorough realistic representation of the complications of disabled experience. Aboulela on the other hand narrates Nur’s story from his own point of view, which provides a more realistic representation of the complications of total disability for men in the global South. Overall, the article shows that both Hosseini and Aboulela provide empowering and positive representations of disability that might be seen as a metaphor for the possibility of postcolonial nations to rise up and show their true potential, regardless of the disabling aspects of politics, economy, race, and religion.
With this timely intervention, Jonathan Allan expands the existing scholarship on the male hero in the genre of the popular romance novel, an inherently gendered genre, by focusing on the intersections between masculinity and disability in two contemporary US-American popular romance novels: A Man Like Mac (2000) by Fay Robinson and A Hero in the Making (2012) by Kay Stockham. Drawing on disability studies and crip theory, Allan shows how the novels construct the disabled hero’s desirability and uses his reading for a theoretical reflection, elaborating on the pitfalls of an exclusive embrace of a reparative perspective that would construe the popular romance novel as a potential site for ‘recovering’ the disabled body. He poignantly outlines possible limits of this reader-oriented approach and argues for complementing it with a paranoid position.
This paper argues that the emergence of social media as a new public sphere has shaped masculine identity in the cyber platform. Such masculinity in Assamese society (the Assamese-speaking community), based on the images of the ideal Assamese man is linked with a form of Assamese nationalistic masculinity that gathered momentum during the Assam Movement (1979–1985). Politics of identity in Assam is basically trapped in the world of appearances, fighting real and imaginary enemies, and drawing strength from prejudices and misconceptions of groups, about themselves and others. This process of identity creation also shaped the identity of the “ideal” Assamese man in the recent socio-political history of Assam. This article is an attempt to define how masculinity works in the cyber world by focusing attention on Assamese nationalistic masculinity which is based on the image of the “RealAssamese Man.” The “Real Assamese Man,” in turn, draws inspiration from a socio-cultural context which started with the creation of Assamese iconographies of masculinity which were later transformed and appropriated to serve the purpose of identity-politics.
تدور الورقة حول شخصية الام النرجسية في
رواية عتمة الذاكرة لأثير عبدالله النشمي. و أثر هذه الشخصية على شخصية البطل.
The 21st century adult male learner lives a multidimensional life with multiple identities impacted by their notion of masculinity and manhood. Traditional notions of masculinity offer consequential stakes for college men which can impact student success and retention. This chapter presents a study designed to examine experiences of diverse undergraduate male learners as they explore the ways of knowing and make meaning of their own notions of how they experience their masculinity regulated and how their perception of other men's notion of masculinity shape their relationship with other men. Utilizing Queer Theory as a framework, educators can reimagine how masculinity impacts lives and boldly reimagine what an affirming and inclusive identity looks like for college men. This chapter will help stakeholders serve as an anchor for men willing to contest dominant ideologies surrounding masculinity while offering strategies to support male student retention through culturally inclusive practices.
Postwar science fiction frequently urged to reconsider many norms considered natural in society and introduced a diversity of taken-for-granted norms, particularly gender norms. In this regard, cyberpunk, for instance, offers a valuable resource in defining and analyzing diverse sexualities in the tradition of speculative fiction. In this context, this article aims to exemplify the posthuman experiences of men and masculinities by focusing on Ian McEwan's novel Machines Like Me to examine cyborgs the queer and fluid sexualities and explore posthuman sexualities from critical studies of masculinities perspective. The heteronormative society in which diverse and non-conforming sexualities are perceived as queer necessarily regards cyborgs (and embodied artificial intelligence) as queer and problematizes the fluidity of cyborg sexuality, and Ian McEwan's cyborg in Machines Like Me provokes the fear of losing masculinity in such a society. In this context, this article aims to exemplify the posthuman experiences of men and masculinities by focusing on Ian McEwan's novel Machines Like Me to examine cyborgs the queer and fluid sexualities and explore posthuman sexualities from critical studies of masculinities perspective.
In the United States, gay, bisexual men, and men who have sex with men (MSM) represent 86% of new HIV infections among males. Approximately 1 in 7 men with HIV are unaware of their HIV status (CDC, 2017, 2019a, 2020a). To explore influences on MSM HIV risk behavior, the authors performed a systematic review of quantitative studies conducted in the U.S. assessing what is purported as masculinity. From 30 identified studies, significant findings were framed within the Social Ecological Model (SEM) levels (e.g., Individual, Relationship, Community). SEM level themes were applied to create the Masculinity 10, a preliminary 10-item assessment to explore the influence of masculinity on MSM HIV risk behavior. To increase MSM engagement in HIV prevention and treatment, the influences of masculinity (e.g., attitude toward sexual minorities, appearance, emotion, temperament, substance use, sexual activity, social support, intimate relationships, health care) on HIV risk behavior should be further explored.
This chapter analyses the written and spoken testimonies of some Japanese male writers in the aftermath of the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011. The author argues that their works reflect both gender-specific masculine anxieties and ideals that have been used to assuage those anxieties. The first ideal is a masculine virtue called akirame (resignation), which is about a disengagement of the masculine self and connected to mujō (impermanence). The other ideal is nostalgia: a longing for a remote past, a means of escaping from the here and now. Each ideal is different from the other, but both entail an attempt by the masculine self to escape from the crisis of the present. It will be argued that through this process, the writers studied manifest some aspects of ecological masculinities.
El texto analiza la relación entre nación y masculinidad en el mundo contemporáneo a partir del diálogo con una serie de debates teóricos recientes. En primer lugar, reflexiona sobre la conexión entre nación, masculinidad y “modernidad”. Seguidamente, se interroga sobre el concepto de “masculinidad nacional”. En tercer lugar, plantea la necesidad de rehuir una interpretación rígida de la relación entre ambas categorías. Finalmente, el texto concluye que para estudiar de forma compleja la relación que se establece en el mundo contemporáneo entre la nación y la masculinidad es necesario introducir la perspectiva histórica y atender a la acción de los sujetos históricos.
Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart narrates the contestations of performing masculinity in precolonial Nigeria. Employing ideas by Michael Slote and Judith Butler, I focus on Nwoye’s character to show how Achebe deploys him to undermine social norms. Nwoye refuses to be a man in the traditional sense, thus enacting an alternative subjectivity in conflict with the hegemonic masculinity projected by his father. I argue that Achebe has created a character whose openness defines his relations with others in order to deemphasize the value placed on gender. Nwoye’s embrace of receptivity positions him to reflect on the precariousness around him and identify with the marginalized in society, thus underscoring the perils of enacting and valorizing male hegemony. Achebe’s depiction of receptive masculinity provides a means to reimagine and reconfigure modes of being a man, while reaffirming individual selfhood. This paper contributes to the growing scholarship on men and masculinities in postcolonial and African gender studies.
AbstrakTujuan dari penelitian ini adalah untuk menggambarkan bentuk-bentuk maskulinitas Islam dalam novel Ayat-Ayat Cinta karya Habiburahman El Shirazy dan pertentangannya dengan paham feminis. Adapun masalah dalam penelitian ini adalah bagaimanakah bentuk-bentuk maskulinitas Islam dalam novel Ayat-Ayat Cinta karya Habiburahman El Shirazy dan pertentangannya dengan paham feminis. Penelitian ini menggunakan metode deskriptif kualitatif dengan teknik studi pustaka. Berdasarkan hasil analisis dapat diketahui bahwa maskulinitas Islam yang terdapat dalam novel berupa: 1) berpoligami; 2) saleh; 3) menghargai wanita; 4) humoris dan romantis; 5) pekerja keras dan mandiri; dan 6) teguh dalam memegang prinsip kebenaran. Selain itu pertentangan antara maskulinitas Islam dengan feminisme antara lain masalah poligami dan kesamaan peran. Kata kunci: Maskulinitas, Islam, Novel
Pedophile hunting – abetted by digital technologies – has spread rapidly, resulting in detrimental outcomes, including suicides of hunters’ targets. The scant research on these groups adopts a functionalist argument that they have emerged to fill a security deficit – to undertake work that police are incapable of due to resource and skill deficits in policing the cybersphere. This paper adopts a critical approach to argue that the expressive nature of such activities must be incorporated into explanations for their rapid spread across the globe. Specifically, pedophile hunting can be understood as embodying the performance of masculinities in the digital realm.
Contemporary obesity epidemic discourse galvanizes racism and classism under the veil of “care,” and is used to further stigmatize mostly poor people of color. I examine the intersection of fatness, race, and masculinity to show how in the case of black male bodies fatness is criminalized and used to legitimize excessive violence inflicted on those bodies. I discuss the oftentimes conflicting projections attached to fat black male bodies to analyze the mechanism that enable not just the criminalization of race and poverty, but also of fatness in the American culture of personal responsibility. I also discuss the unacknowledged racial and gender biases or fat studies, which partially impede the analysis of non-white non-female bodies.
This book charts the evolution, from the World War II period to the present day, of racial relationships and their repercussions in Hollywood films and examines a neglected sub-genre.