COLLUDING WITH OR CHALLENGING HEGEMONIC MASCULINITY?

Research about masculinities in schools often focuses on hegemonic masculinity. This can have the effect of reinforcing the privilege associated with hegemonic masculinity, as well as overlooking differences amongst boys and the plural practices individual boys engage in. Drawing on empirical research in two South Australian primary schools with students aged 6–7 and 11–13, this article examines the complex ways in which boys engaged in plural gender practices. Practices differing from a discourse of (local) hegemonic masculinity related to three key themes: displaying ‘intelligence’ and being studious; involvement in traditionally ‘feminine’ activities; and being caring, loving family and friends, and engaging in cross-gender friendships. This article utilises these themes to argue that practices could work alongside or present challenges to practices relating to a discourse of hegemonic masculinity. An examination of how age and masculinities interweave suggests that a divide between hegemonic and other masculinities and practices is not as distinct as has often been theorised.     

Managing visibility and differentiating in recruitment of women as leaders in the armed forces

Recruitment is one of the Swedish Armed Forces’ (SAF) main challenges today. Recruiting more women into the organization is one of the organization’s aims, as well as providing them with more opportunities for career development. The purpose of this article is to gain a deeper understanding of how female military officers perceive barriers and advantages on their way to higher leadership positions. A total of 10 women from a variety of backgrounds and positions in the armed forces were interviewed. Their ranks ranged from Captain to Colonel and they represented army, naval units and air force. The interviews were analysed using a Grounded Theory approach. The qualitative analysis resulted in two main themes: Supporting visibility of women as leaders and differentiation of women as leaders. The former concerns positive strategies on an individual and organizational level that support an increase in the number of female leaders in the SAF, and is a way of responding to political incitements and the SAF’s fundamental values. The second concerns ways how women are portrayed as different and divergent from the male standard. The suggested model may be valuable in recruitment, educational settings and leader development of high-level military officers from a gender perspective.     

Considering the role of men in gender agenda setting: conceptual and policy issues

The international gender equality agenda evolved into one of mainstreaming a gender perspective into all policies and programmes. Within this process, the role of men gained increasing attention in the debates on gender equality. This resulted in the inclusion of ‘men's role’ as one of the themes of the agenda of the Commission on the Status of Women for the year 2004. While this is another step forward in the global efforts for achieving equality between women and men, its potential risks should not be overlooked. Therefore, it is necessary to revisit the concept of gender and carefully assess and monitor how the role of men is included in the agenda. This article starts with the premise that gender inequalities are the product of historically determined gender order in which the differentially assigned male female attributes are unequally structured in layers of privileged and subordinate positions of masculinities and femininities. The concept of patriarchy is brought back into the analysis to capture the interlinkages between the various status hierarchies that lead to shifts in hegemonic forms of masculinity that reproduces itself under diverse and changing conditions. Thus, while the article attempts to account for the generic and universal characteristics of gender inequality, at the same time, it draws attention to its specific socio-cultural manifestations. Finally, policy guidelines are offered for the consideration of the role of men in gender agenda setting. Accordingly, it is suggested that men's initiatives for alternative masculinities are acknowledged and that the questions regarding which men, in what kinds of alliances and for which end are reflected upon in formulating policies.     

Feminism,masculinity and male rape: bringing male rape ‘out of the closet’

Feminist research has played a pivotal role in uncovering the extent and nature of male violence against women and suggests that the main motivations for rape are the need for power, control and domination. This paper argues that, although feminist explanations of rape are robust and comprehensive, male victims of rape have largely been excluded from this field of research. While feminism has enabled the victimisation of women to be recognised, further understanding of the victimisation of men is required. Some feminist writers (such as hooks, 2000) have argued that men's emancipation is an essential part of feminism since men are equally harmed by gender role expectations and sexism. This paper makes a contribution to current knowledge through evaluating the social constructions, stigma and phenomenological realities associated with male rape (by both men and women), arguing that there has been neglect in this area that functions to support, maintain and reinforce patriarchal power relations and hegemonic masculinities.     

Real and unreal masculinities: the celebrity image in anti-trafficking campaigns

Numerous scholars note the highly gendered nature of anti-trafficking responses. Much of the literature exploring anti-trafficking campaigns, however, focuses on the objectification of women and their placement as abject bodies, objects of violence, in pain and to be pitied. Nevertheless, few scholars explore how these campaigns portray men and shape masculinities. Using as example a highly publicised online anti-trafficking campaign, ‘Real Men Don't Buy Girls’, this article responds to this gap in the literature by exploring depictions of masculinities through this prominent anti-trafficking public service announcement. The article observes that this announcement serves not to reshape gender performance around trafficking, but instead further reproduces existing gender structures and power relations underpinning trafficking and child exploitation. It observes that the campaign re-instantiates hegemonic masculinities – framing men enacting this masculine form as ‘real men’ – while encouraging men to embody a virile, successful, consumerist, controlling, and patriarchal manliness. We observe that these characteristics are notably assigned to celebrity men. Meanwhile, it is noted that men who buy girls are set in binary opposition to these real men, being shaped as faceless, un-described, deviant, and ‘unreal’. The result is that the campaign not only patterns masculinities, but also objectifies the objectifier as well as women, recreating a gender ordering in which women and girls remain disempowered, and buyers of girls are ultimately denied subjecthood and thus the ability to change. This article, therefore, uses this one case study to call for anti-traffickers, researchers, and scholars to urgently consider, research, and reshape portrayals of masculinities in anti-trafficking literatures. It calls for greater diversity and fuller account for a broader spectrum of gender representations in the visual representations of those involved in, and responding to, human and child trafficking, in both our scholarly work and public action.     

‘If a girl’s photo gets sent around,that’s a way bigger deal than if a guy’s photo gets sent around’: gender,sexting, and the teenage years

Youth, particularly female teens, are encouraged to self-monitor and be responsible for their actions online in order to avoid harm from cyberbullying, ‘sexting,’ and other forms of cyber-risk. Highlighting findings from 35 focus groups with Canadian teens regarding sexting, we show the continued saliency of a gendered double standard applied to the online distribution of nudes. Our sample of male and female teens (n = 115) from urban and rural regions, aged 13–19, underscores the relatively lower ‘stakes’ involved with sexting for male teens. We explore this trend with specific reference to the salience of hegemonic masculinities and the gendered aspects of public and private spaces, both online and offline. Public exposure of nudes has potentially serious stigmatizing consequences for youth. We highlight teen experiences sending and receiving images of male penises (‘dick pics’), which is an under-researched aspect of sexting. We show the relative ubiquity of receiving ‘dick pics’ among female teens, exploring various reactions, and male motivations for doing so from male and female standpoints. Policy implications are discussed with specific reference to school-based cyber-safety programs, which our participants indicate remain highly gendered, neglecting epistemological questions around male experiences and responsibility.     

Learning masculinities and femininities: power/knowledge and legitimate peripheral participation

This paper takes up my previous work [Women's Stud. Int. Forum 26 (2003b) 69] considering how masculinities and femininities can be regarded as local communities of practice. In particular, I focus on how the legitimate participation of children in adult communities of masculinity and femininity takes place within gendered power/knowledge relations. My main concern in this paper is the process of legitimation of participation in communities of masculinity and femininity practice. I examine this through a number of examples, including the medical appropriation of the process of gender assignment of intersex babies.Masculinity and femininity are intimately connected with power/knowledge. One aspect of the hegemonic processes that establish sex differences as important is the naturalization of the development and awareness of differences between males and females as part of early child development. To sustain gendered power/knowledge relations, we require our boys and girls to behave differently from birth and consciously or unconsciously reward them for this. In this paper, I tease out the relationship between power/knowledge, legitimation, and the learning of masculine and feminine roles within communities of practice.     

Age and changing masculinities in gay–straight male workplace friendships

Abstract

Drawing on interview data gathered from 35 gay men in the UK, this article explores how age influences the negotiation of masculinity within gay–straight male workplace friendships. Study findings show that gay–straight workplace friendships between younger men appear to be framed in terms of equality, not homophobia. Older gay men also report similar experiences, some suggesting how these friendships were not possible in their youth. Gay and straight men of a similar age are also united in friendship by their experiences of ageing and its implications for carrying out work. Interview data also reveal how gay–straight male friendships are constrained at work, thus limiting the opportunities for emotional openness and physical tactility. Overall, the study reveals how younger and older gay men, and their straight male friends, variously align themselves to inclusive masculinities within friendship. This article contributes to inclusive masculinity theory by extending the types of contexts currently studied, both relational and work-related, and adding further emphasis to the contextually contingent nature of inclusive masculinities. It also advances the limited literature on gay–straight friendships by highlighting how they might challenge and reshape the heteronormative contours of work contexts.     

Masculinity,homosexuality and sport in an Islamic state of increasing homohysteria

Although a considerable degree of research has examined the intersection of masculinities, sexualities and sport in the West, this is the first article to address male homosexuality in sport within a Muslim context. To analyze the intersection of sport, masculinities and homosexuality we interview Ghazi, 20, a competitive male bodybuilder in Tunisia. We utilize his narrative to illustrate the similarities and differences between the construction of stigma in both the West and that of Muslim culture in Tunisia. Primarily, we highlight the profoundly negative representation of homosexuality in Tunisia, and the broader Islamic social world, and how it affects the construction and development of masculinity for this Muslim, gay athlete. We utilize Anderson’s notion of homohysteria to help situate the relationship between the expression of femininity and social perceptions of homosexuality in Tunisian culture, comparing it to the Western zeitgeist three decades earlier.     

Making Places of Intimacy—Ethnicity,Friendship, and Masculinities in Oslo

Through transnational migration, practices of gender, intimacy, and sexuality “travel” with people, get incorporated into new social and cultural contexts, and are negotiated and transformed in the encounter with other such practices. The discussion here will focus on the fluid boundaries between male–male emotional and physical intimacy, male–male sexual practice, and homosexual imagery, as they are culturally understood in Pakistan and incorporated into a minority context in Norway by migrants from Pakistan. While homosexuality in Norway is gradually gaining public and political support, it is regarded as unacceptable by Muslim authorities in the country, thus making the issue of homosexuality a vital marker separating the majority population from the Muslim minority. Against this scenario, which is much debated among politicians, activists and various spokespersons from the ethnic and religious communities, practices of friendship and intimacy among Pakistani men in Norway take place. The significance given to the heterosexual–homosexual divide, however, creates a more vulnerable situation for practices of intimacy among men that are not necessarily judged against the homosexual imagery in Pakistan. By using the concept of unmanliness, it is shown how the boundaries of manliness are differently positioned within dominant Norwegian and Pakistani masculinities respectively. This can cause tension on an individual level, as well as on a group level. Therefore, Pakistani men in Norway must create particular places of intimacy, within which culturally specific practices of gender, sexuality, and intimacy are maintained and transformed.     

Sexual Ethics,Masculinity and Mutual Vulnerability

Over the past two decades, significant work has been undertaken in masculinities scholarship to aid the development of efforts to prevent incidences of sexual violence against women. This has included Carmody's powerful contribution of grounding primary prevention strategies in Foucault's ethics of the care of the self and others. This paper expands on this approach by theorising how Judith Butler's ethics of non-violence built on the recognition of vulnerability can provide a conceptual mechanism or justification by which men will embrace sexual ethics of care. Using the contextual example of group sexual assault by team sportsplayers as well as recent efforts to address masculine violence in Australia, the paper argues that Butler's recent work contributes to ways in which that ethics can be better embraced by men as part of a broader project of cultural transformation of (hyper-)masculinity into a less-harmful event. The paper addresses ways in which to understand the failure of team sportsplayers capacity to recognise the vulnerability of women in group sexual assault cases by showing how the operation of normative frames prevent conceiving the hypermasculine self as anything but inviolable. In that context, some recent debates in Australian masculinities and anti-violence scholarship on whether or not changes to gender relations are best communicated as a benefit or loss of power to men are addressed. The aim of this paper is to make a small contribution to advancing theories and concepts of sexual ethics in the context of masculine sexual violence by investigating ways in which Butler's approach can operate as both a mechanism for inducing care of selves and others and an outcome of the cultural transformation of gender relations.     

A pen that ‘looks like a CEO in a business suit’: gendering the fountain pen

This article investigates the gendering of the fountain pen as a product category mainly used in the office environment. It draws on hobbyists’ accounts and evaluations of fountain pen use from online forums. The accounts suggest that hobbyists perceive the fountain pen market to take executive men as its authentic user group, whereas pens that target women often reflect stereotypical femininities. At the office, this gendering process impacts users’ everyday experiences especially with reference to the managerial norms that govern the use of suits and accessories, since the fountain pen is considered by its users as part of an array of men’s status objects. The article contributes to the literature on the gendering of artifacts by describing a hegemonic manner in which artifacts are gendered, that is, as a range of products that target diverse masculinities and femininities in contradistinction to a single, masculine product type.     

Moving beyond ideas of laddism: conceptualising ‘mischievous masculinities’ as a new way of understanding everyday sexism and gender relations

Abstract

This article engages with current debates on ‘lad cultures’ by questioning how we understand the term in the specific context of everyday sexism and within groups of men varying in age. Further to this, using a feminist and critical masculinity studies perspective, the article will explore how men do not necessarily comprehend their behaviour within the framework of lad culture or within the continuum of sexual violence. Through discussion of ethnographic and interview data collected over a year at a site historically associated with lad cultures, that of a Rugby Union club in Northern England, an alternative way of conceptualising masculinity and everyday sexism, ‘mischievous masculinities’, is proposed. Men in the research practiced what I term mischievous masculinities, whereby they implemented ‘banter’ to aid in both the construction and de-construction of sexist ideas within the rugby space. Performing mischievous masculinity enabled men of all ages to both engage in and simultaneously challenge everyday sexism in ways they understood to be ‘innocent’. However, the continual framing of banter as ‘just a laugh’ demonstrated that this form of sexism can be construed as problematic, due, in part, to its subtlety, in relation to more overt and violent sexist practices. A key difference between the men in my research and previous theorising of ‘lad culture’ is the recurring theme amongst older participants that ‘I should know better’, demonstrating consciousness of the sexist and problematic connotations which could be drawn from this interaction. This notion of mischievous masculinities then, in the context of a life course perspective, can be seen to challenge more established notions of an unreflexive lad culture, thus affording a more nuanced understanding of everyday sexism amongst more diverse groups of men than currently exists, as well as allowing for men’s agency in a specific site.     

Manning the State: European Early-Nineteenth-Century Masculinities in the New Norway of 1814

Gender historians have identified the period around 1800 as a crucial time for transforming elite masculinities in Europe: there were shifts away from ideals of polite gentlemen towards more martial forms of manhood; and this was a transition period away from more fluid notions of masculinity and an emphasis on the mixing of male and female towards a period of upholding stricter binaries between male and female. This article contributes to scholarship on the intersection of masculinities and states by centring on the formation of a new, partially independent Norway around 1814, when the Norwegian constitution was crafted. I use the analysis of Norway as an entry to exploring broader European trends at that time. As this article will show, Norwegian ideals of masculinity suitable for state office are a good illustration of more general interpretations of elite manhood in northern Europe. Norwegian constructions did offer a twist, however, as they idealized the Norwegian elite male as rough, unsophisticated, and natural. In contrast with other forms of elite state-bearing European masculinity, which emphasized advancement and cultivation, Norwegian masculinity was celebrated for its lack of refinement.     

Is Everything Compatible? A Feminist Critique of Hearn’s Composite Approach to Men and Masculinity

ABSTRACT

Since its emergence in the late 1980s, research on men and masculinity has expanded considerably into an established area at the intersection of sociology, gender studies and related disciplines. There is now a wealth of empirical research but the theoretical debates have largely centred on Connell’s notion of hegemonic masculinity. This article focuses instead on the theoretical contribution of Jeff Hearn, arguably one of the central figures within critical studies on men and masculinities over the last few decades. The article identifies the main tenets of Hearn’s theoretical writing and tracks its development over time, and offers a critical discussion of Hearn’s theoretical position. The critique focuses on ambiguous treatments of central concepts and argues that tensions between perspectives such as materialist analysis, queer theory and intersectionality are not fully acknowledged in Hearn’s work.     

“He would know,but i just have a feeling”: gender and oral history1

Abstract

While feminist historians have long used oral history, and continue to revise the ways oral sources can be employed, historians of masculinities have been slow to embrace new approaches to oral history. Using interviews conducted with women and men for a community study, this article suggests that a gendered, relational reading of oral history is instructive, not just in showing how different men and women's experiences have been, but also how their memories have been shaped by prevailing ideas of gender-appropriate behaviour and values. This raises the issue of the form as well as the content of oral history being gendered.     

Masculinities and emotional expression in UK servicemen: ‘Big boys don’t cry’?

Dominant discourses of military servicemen position them as more prone to psychological damage than the general population, but as reluctant to seek psychological assistance, because of the military culture of ‘toughness’, a military masculinity, that values stoicism, emotional control and invulnerability and implicitly excludes ‘feminine’ characteristics like emotionality. This is seen as a barrier to military personnel seeking help, by implicitly discouraging emotional disclosure and expression. This article presents an analysis of semi-structured interviews with six male military and ex-military personnel, focused on their experience and understandings of emotion, emotional expression and ‘mental health’ in the military. The dominant construction of military masculinity certainly renders some forms of emotion inexpressible within certain contexts. However, we argue that the construct is more complex than a simple exclusion of the ‘feminine’ and the ‘emotional’. We explore how the highly masculine notions of military solidarity and ‘brotherhood’ create a ‘safe’ masculine space within which men could share their emotional experiences, but also highlight how this space for emotional expression is relatively constrained. We argue that these notions of solidarity and brotherhood open a space for emotional connection and expression that must be respected and worked with creatively, in therapeutic and other interventions.     

What role does gender have in shaping knowledge that underpins the practice of midwifery?

Midwifery is an ancient profession that continues to be practiced almost exclusively by women. This paper explores the role that millennia of gender exclusivity has had in shaping the knowledge that informs the profession. Prior to the Renaissance this knowledge was exclusively female, largely oral, tacit and intuitive whilst recognising childbearing as an important transformative period in a woman’s lifecycle. Male scientific enquiry in the seventeenth century into human anatomy extended to women’s bodies and childbirth and disrupted the female ways of knowing. Their positivist ontology focussing on the mechanics of childbirth created an opportunity for intervening in a normal process and receiving payment for it. The perceived structural superiority of a male obstetric ontology of childbirth has posed an existential threat to the midwifery profession. This paper concludes by discussing how 20^th century professional regulation of midwifery has encouraged midwives to use patriarchal structures and frameworks of knowledge to co-exist within the hegemonic biomedical model advocated by the majority of their obstetric colleagues.     

gendered representations in Hawai‘i’s anti-GMO activism

The aim of this article is to analyse some of the representations of intersectional gender that materialise in activism against genetically modified organisms (GMOs). It uses the case of Hawai‘i as a key node in global transgenic seed production and hotspot for food, land and farming controversies. Based on ethnographic work conducted since 2012, the article suggests some of the ways that gender is represented within movements against GMOs by analysing activist media representations. The article shows how gender, understood intersectionally, informs possibilities for movement-identification, exploring how themes of motherhood, warrior masculinities and sexualised femininities are represented within these movements. The article suggests that some activist representations of gender invoke what could be considered as normative framings of gender similar to those seen in other environmental, food and anti-GMO movements. It is suggested that these gendered representations may influence and limit how different subjects engage with Hawai'i anti-GMO movements. At the same time, contextual, intersectional readings demonstrate the complex histories behind what appear to be gender normative activist representations. Taken together, this emphasis on relative norms of femininities and masculinities may provide anti-GMO organising with familiar social frames that counterbalance otherwise threatening campaigns against (agri)business in the settler state. Understood within these histories, the work that gender does within anti-GMO organising may offer generative examples for thinking through the relationships between gendered representations and situated, indigenous-centred, food and land-based resistances.     

Catherine Breillat's Romance and Anatomy of Hell: Subjectivity and the Gendering of Sexuality

French filmmaker Catherine Breillat has consistently challenged viewers to consider the ways women negotiate sexual freedom in light of numerous forces of repression. This essay considers how Breillat's depiction of women's sexuality in Romance and Anatomy of Hell simultaneously evokes abjection and empowerment. Specifically, we consider Breillat's contrast between her female protagonists and male protagonists, her treatment of women and their bodies as infused with desire yet struggling towards sexual subjectivity, and the avenues available to women to define themselves outside of hegemonic masculinity. We argue that Breillat's provocative portrayals provoke consideration of the problems inherent in hegemonic female sexuality while also offering hopeful alternatives to sexual expression, sexual freedom, and changing definitions of power and pleasure.