Masculine Maneuvers: Male Baton Twirlers, Compensatory Manhood Acts, and Hybrid Masculinity

Abstract

Men in women-dominated or feminized spaces use masculinizing strategies to circumvent stigma, yet this scholarship largely ignores sports which limits insights into how masculinity operates across social contexts. Drawing parallels from men’s experiences in other women-dominated settings, I address this gap by investigating how and to what end men in baton twirling “maneuver” masculinities. Using 30 qualitative interviews, I show how men in twirling bolster lost status using compensatory manhood acts (CMA) by demonstrating skill mastery and being the best. Twirlers in this study borrow masculine characteristics they deem valuable while also buying into an unequal social order that emphasizes differences between winners (white, heterosexual men) and losers (men of color or gay men). Findings from this study extend theoretical insights concerning how men maneuver within and across a variety of social structures by using similar tools to create a “hybrid” masculinity that reinforces gender privilege and hierarchies of inequality.