{"title":"The hegemony tax: Performing masculinities and femininities by Egypt's Mubarak and Mrs. Mubarak","authors":"Mustafa Menshawy","doi":"10.1016/j.wsif.2024.102866","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Hegemonic femininity has previously been defined as a static entity describing the behaviour of <em>some</em> women as they oppress other women for the sake of reinforcing hegemonic masculinity. In return, those women are paid limited and marginal benefits, alongside heavy “taxes” (<span>Hamilton et al., 2019</span>), including entrenching the subordination of all women as a group to men. This article makes a number of arguments. First, the benefits, or, “premiums” paid to women are proportional to their value to hegemonic masculinity. Second, hegemonic masculinity and hegemonic femininity are linked not only by dominance but also by resistance. There is the possibility for women to maximise their premiums, meaning the interests of hegemonic masculinity and hegemonic femininity may not always align. Third, we need to consider both the delivery and receptiveness of hegemonic masculinity and hegemonic femininity, that is, how people perceive them by accepting, rejecting or falsifying the payment system. Through the example of Egypt's first lady, Mrs. Suzanne Mubarak, the article applies what I introduce as the “hegemony tax” approach to contend that there is a tax on the benefits of hegemonic femininity for both the woman and her male partner.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":47940,"journal":{"name":"Womens Studies International Forum","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.5000,"publicationDate":"2024-02-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277539524000049/pdfft?md5=5a17a6c34d7c45fbffd7b94e4b7e6243&pid=1-s2.0-S0277539524000049-main.pdf","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Womens Studies International Forum","FirstCategoryId":"90","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277539524000049","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"WOMENS STUDIES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Hegemonic femininity has previously been defined as a static entity describing the behaviour of some women as they oppress other women for the sake of reinforcing hegemonic masculinity. In return, those women are paid limited and marginal benefits, alongside heavy “taxes” (Hamilton et al., 2019), including entrenching the subordination of all women as a group to men. This article makes a number of arguments. First, the benefits, or, “premiums” paid to women are proportional to their value to hegemonic masculinity. Second, hegemonic masculinity and hegemonic femininity are linked not only by dominance but also by resistance. There is the possibility for women to maximise their premiums, meaning the interests of hegemonic masculinity and hegemonic femininity may not always align. Third, we need to consider both the delivery and receptiveness of hegemonic masculinity and hegemonic femininity, that is, how people perceive them by accepting, rejecting or falsifying the payment system. Through the example of Egypt's first lady, Mrs. Suzanne Mubarak, the article applies what I introduce as the “hegemony tax” approach to contend that there is a tax on the benefits of hegemonic femininity for both the woman and her male partner.
期刊介绍:
Women"s Studies International Forum (formerly Women"s Studies International Quarterly, established in 1978) is a bimonthly journal to aid the distribution and exchange of feminist research in the multidisciplinary, international area of women"s studies and in feminist research in other disciplines. The policy of the journal is to establish a feminist forum for discussion and debate. The journal seeks to critique and reconceptualize existing knowledge, to examine and re-evaluate the manner in which knowledge is produced and distributed, and to assess the implications this has for women"s lives.