Pub Date : 2021-09-20DOI: 10.1177/1097184X211044184
Susan Johnston
The masculinities of HBO’s Game of Thrones (2011–2019) are marked not just by violence and exploitation, but by contingency, fragility, and abjection. This article draws on theories of abjection to read the abject masculinity of Sandor Clegane, Samwell Tarly, and Theon Greyjoy in the context of theories of hegemonic and hypermasculinity, and, through Greyjoy in particular, tracks his movement from hypermasculinity, through abjection and torture, to a custodial and sacrificial and thus life-giving masculinity, which stands in profound opposition to the hegemonic masculinity of power and domination.
{"title":"Abjection, Masculinity, and Sacrifice: The Reek of Death in Game of Thrones","authors":"Susan Johnston","doi":"10.1177/1097184X211044184","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1097184X211044184","url":null,"abstract":"The masculinities of HBO’s Game of Thrones (2011–2019) are marked not just by violence and exploitation, but by contingency, fragility, and abjection. This article draws on theories of abjection to read the abject masculinity of Sandor Clegane, Samwell Tarly, and Theon Greyjoy in the context of theories of hegemonic and hypermasculinity, and, through Greyjoy in particular, tracks his movement from hypermasculinity, through abjection and torture, to a custodial and sacrificial and thus life-giving masculinity, which stands in profound opposition to the hegemonic masculinity of power and domination.","PeriodicalId":47750,"journal":{"name":"Men and Masculinities","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2021-09-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41806307","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-09-16DOI: 10.1177/1097184X211045726
L. Birger, Einat Peled
The complex intersection of migration and masculinity is a growing field of study. This research explores how married Eritrean refugee men in Israel negotiated masculinity-related challenges within the context of gender relations. A constructivist notion of masculinity informed an interpretive analysis of in-depths interviews with the Eritrean men. It depicted the men’s experiences of a loss of power within gender relations as a “crisis” of masculinity. We explore the intersecting contexts of migration, gender, and culture surrounding these masculinity experiences, as well as the impact of state power that is enacted upon the men via their legal status of “permanent temporariness” and in gendered encounters with state authorities. Finally, we describe and discuss three main strategies the men employed to negotiate masculinity in their relationships with women within these complex circumstances: ruling, migration as an opportunity, and temporary acceptance.
{"title":"Between Crisis and Opportunity: Eritrean Refugee Men in Israel Negotiating Masculinity","authors":"L. Birger, Einat Peled","doi":"10.1177/1097184X211045726","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1097184X211045726","url":null,"abstract":"The complex intersection of migration and masculinity is a growing field of study. This research explores how married Eritrean refugee men in Israel negotiated masculinity-related challenges within the context of gender relations. A constructivist notion of masculinity informed an interpretive analysis of in-depths interviews with the Eritrean men. It depicted the men’s experiences of a loss of power within gender relations as a “crisis” of masculinity. We explore the intersecting contexts of migration, gender, and culture surrounding these masculinity experiences, as well as the impact of state power that is enacted upon the men via their legal status of “permanent temporariness” and in gendered encounters with state authorities. Finally, we describe and discuss three main strategies the men employed to negotiate masculinity in their relationships with women within these complex circumstances: ruling, migration as an opportunity, and temporary acceptance.","PeriodicalId":47750,"journal":{"name":"Men and Masculinities","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2021-09-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"65450177","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-08-26DOI: 10.1177/1097184x211040854
S. Burrell
In this monograph, Maguire focuses on the role masculinity plays in the lives of 30 men he interviewed in prison in Hull. He highlights how modes of protest masculinity, learned on the streets, in schools and in residential care limit engagement at (failing) schools. This reduces the possibilities of the men gaining employment in an economy that has swerved to the service sector, with manufacturing jobs disappearing from Hull faster even than elsewhere. Charting these men’s journeys, Maguire skilfully weaves together the empirical data with his analysis and the literature to show the way masculinities are formed and entrenched, while also themselves entrenching the men in ever more marginalized positions, culminating for some in the prison’s Vulnerable Prisoner Unit (VPU).
{"title":"Book Review: Male, Failed, Jailed: Masculinities and “Revolving-Door” Imprisonment in the UK","authors":"S. Burrell","doi":"10.1177/1097184x211040854","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1097184x211040854","url":null,"abstract":"In this monograph, Maguire focuses on the role masculinity plays in the lives of 30 men he interviewed in prison in Hull. He highlights how modes of protest masculinity, learned on the streets, in schools and in residential care limit engagement at (failing) schools. This reduces the possibilities of the men gaining employment in an economy that has swerved to the service sector, with manufacturing jobs disappearing from Hull faster even than elsewhere. Charting these men’s journeys, Maguire skilfully weaves together the empirical data with his analysis and the literature to show the way masculinities are formed and entrenched, while also themselves entrenching the men in ever more marginalized positions, culminating for some in the prison’s Vulnerable Prisoner Unit (VPU).","PeriodicalId":47750,"journal":{"name":"Men and Masculinities","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2021-08-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48893134","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-08-26DOI: 10.1177/1097184x211040547
Alejandra Marks
For fifty years, first-trimester abortion has been steadily available, legal, safe, and cost-free in Cuba. But in the context of enduring gender disparity, societal attitudes surrounding the procedure vary widely. Women’s often-recurring use of abortion evokes sexual emancipation for some, while others see abortion as a wound that men inflict on women. Men and women express a variety of emotional and practical concerns that highlight the complexity and dynamic nature of the issue. Drawing on ethnographic research from 2016 to 2020, this article argues that men and women’s influences on one another are central to the ways in which abortion is “lived” and to the process of determining abortion’s intimate significance. Whether abortion is experienced as a normalized practice or viewed as something that could never be “normal,” a thorough consideration of men and women’s shared generation of this meaning is crucial to understanding the place of abortion in Cuban society.
{"title":"Gendered Wounds: On Abortion and Partnership in Cuba","authors":"Alejandra Marks","doi":"10.1177/1097184x211040547","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1097184x211040547","url":null,"abstract":"For fifty years, first-trimester abortion has been steadily available, legal, safe, and cost-free in Cuba. But in the context of enduring gender disparity, societal attitudes surrounding the procedure vary widely. Women’s often-recurring use of abortion evokes sexual emancipation for some, while others see abortion as a wound that men inflict on women. Men and women express a variety of emotional and practical concerns that highlight the complexity and dynamic nature of the issue. Drawing on ethnographic research from 2016 to 2020, this article argues that men and women’s influences on one another are central to the ways in which abortion is “lived” and to the process of determining abortion’s intimate significance. Whether abortion is experienced as a normalized practice or viewed as something that could never be “normal,” a thorough consideration of men and women’s shared generation of this meaning is crucial to understanding the place of abortion in Cuban society.","PeriodicalId":47750,"journal":{"name":"Men and Masculinities","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2021-08-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44008063","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-08-20DOI: 10.1177/1097184X211038998
K. Seymour, K. Natalier, Sarah Wendt
This article critically interrogates the ways in which men's talk about domestic and family violence (DFV) and change reproduce gender hierarchies which are themselves productive of violence. Drawing on interviews with men who have completed a perpetrator program and building on the work of Hearn (1998), we show that these men’s conceptualizations of change both reflect and contribute to the discursive construction of masculinity, responsibility, and violence. By reflecting on men’s representations of change—and of themselves as “changed” men—we argue that DFV perpetrator interventions constitute a key site for the performance of dominant masculinities, reproducing the gendered discourses underpinning and enabling men’s violence.
{"title":"Changed Men? Men Talking about Violence and Change in Domestic and Family Violence Perpetrator Intervention Programs","authors":"K. Seymour, K. Natalier, Sarah Wendt","doi":"10.1177/1097184X211038998","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1097184X211038998","url":null,"abstract":"This article critically interrogates the ways in which men's talk about domestic and family violence (DFV) and change reproduce gender hierarchies which are themselves productive of violence. Drawing on interviews with men who have completed a perpetrator program and building on the work of Hearn (1998), we show that these men’s conceptualizations of change both reflect and contribute to the discursive construction of masculinity, responsibility, and violence. By reflecting on men’s representations of change—and of themselves as “changed” men—we argue that DFV perpetrator interventions constitute a key site for the performance of dominant masculinities, reproducing the gendered discourses underpinning and enabling men’s violence.","PeriodicalId":47750,"journal":{"name":"Men and Masculinities","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2021-08-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44425442","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-08-19DOI: 10.1177/1097184X211039002
Quaylan Allen
This article presents data from a study of Black men and masculinities at a predominantly White university. I argue that the campus racial climate on predominantly White universities are important sites of boundary work where fear and sexualization of Black masculinities are normalized in ways that shape Black men’s social relations on college campuses. In doing so, I will share narrative data of how Black male college students perceive the campus racial climate, with a focus on how they are feared and sexualized in predominantly White spaces. I also analyze the ways in which they managed race, gender, and sexuality within school spaces, and situate their gendered performances within the context of the boundary work of the university. Attention will be given to their agency in how they respond to White fears and sexualization of Black men.
{"title":"Campus Racial Climate, Boundary Work and the Fear and Sexualization of Black Masculinities on a Predominantly White University","authors":"Quaylan Allen","doi":"10.1177/1097184X211039002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1097184X211039002","url":null,"abstract":"This article presents data from a study of Black men and masculinities at a predominantly White university. I argue that the campus racial climate on predominantly White universities are important sites of boundary work where fear and sexualization of Black masculinities are normalized in ways that shape Black men’s social relations on college campuses. In doing so, I will share narrative data of how Black male college students perceive the campus racial climate, with a focus on how they are feared and sexualized in predominantly White spaces. I also analyze the ways in which they managed race, gender, and sexuality within school spaces, and situate their gendered performances within the context of the boundary work of the university. Attention will be given to their agency in how they respond to White fears and sexualization of Black men.","PeriodicalId":47750,"journal":{"name":"Men and Masculinities","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2021-08-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47924249","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-08-18DOI: 10.1177/1097184x211040552
Samuel Perry
{"title":"Book Review: Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation","authors":"Samuel Perry","doi":"10.1177/1097184x211040552","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1097184x211040552","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":47750,"journal":{"name":"Men and Masculinities","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2021-08-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45065861","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-08-17DOI: 10.1177/1097184X211038329
B. Cosson, Deborah Dempsey, Fiona Kelly
Historically, sperm donation was shrouded in secrecy to protect the normative family and the perceived vulnerability of infertile men. However, openness about donor conception is increasingly encouraged, in acknowledging that donor-conceived people may benefit from having access to information about their biogenetic origins. Since 2017 in the state of Victoria, Australia, donor-conceived people have been able to access previously anonymous donor records. Drawing on interviews with 17 donor-conceived adults who have come to know their donor through the new laws, this article explores the impact of finding out about the donor on relationships with mothers and fathers, and points to the persistent effects of stigma and shame about donor conception within families. Most of the donor-conceived participants were told about their donor conception in early adulthood. The age range for time of disclosure was mid-teens to early 40s. Most reported that their fathers did not want them to know. In some cases, mothers had disclosed, but sworn them to secrecy. Sensitivity to fathers’ feelings fostered a desire among participants to maintain secrecy about his infertility, especially in relation to wider family and friendship networks. Our findings revealed that secrecy about men’s infertility is heavily reliant on women’s emotional labor to protect ageing infertile fathers’ sense of manhood. Coupled with fathers’ overt resistance to openness, intergenerational secret keeping is perpetuated in families. Laws supporting openness potentially exacerbate the historical stigma associated with male factor infertility in a culture that continues to conflate virility, fertility, and masculinity.
{"title":"Secret Shame—Male Infertility and Donor Conception in the Wake of Retrospective Legislative Change","authors":"B. Cosson, Deborah Dempsey, Fiona Kelly","doi":"10.1177/1097184X211038329","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1097184X211038329","url":null,"abstract":"Historically, sperm donation was shrouded in secrecy to protect the normative family and the perceived vulnerability of infertile men. However, openness about donor conception is increasingly encouraged, in acknowledging that donor-conceived people may benefit from having access to information about their biogenetic origins. Since 2017 in the state of Victoria, Australia, donor-conceived people have been able to access previously anonymous donor records. Drawing on interviews with 17 donor-conceived adults who have come to know their donor through the new laws, this article explores the impact of finding out about the donor on relationships with mothers and fathers, and points to the persistent effects of stigma and shame about donor conception within families. Most of the donor-conceived participants were told about their donor conception in early adulthood. The age range for time of disclosure was mid-teens to early 40s. Most reported that their fathers did not want them to know. In some cases, mothers had disclosed, but sworn them to secrecy. Sensitivity to fathers’ feelings fostered a desire among participants to maintain secrecy about his infertility, especially in relation to wider family and friendship networks. Our findings revealed that secrecy about men’s infertility is heavily reliant on women’s emotional labor to protect ageing infertile fathers’ sense of manhood. Coupled with fathers’ overt resistance to openness, intergenerational secret keeping is perpetuated in families. Laws supporting openness potentially exacerbate the historical stigma associated with male factor infertility in a culture that continues to conflate virility, fertility, and masculinity.","PeriodicalId":47750,"journal":{"name":"Men and Masculinities","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2021-08-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42024553","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-08-11DOI: 10.1177/1097184X211038049
Gabriela Spector-Mersel, Ohad Gilbar
This study examines how Israeli men who are army veterans with combat-related post-traumatic stress and consequently participated in therapy engage “new masculinities” ideologies. Drawing from interview data with these veterans, we find changes in the men’s perceptions of masculinity and sense of themselves as men. They expressed this shift through criticisms of military masculinity and disassociating from the idea of man-as-fighter, disputing the sociocultural category of hegemonic masculinity, and performing practices identified as feminine. The men portrayed this movement, away from endorsing hegemonic military masculinity toward affirming “new masculinity” ideology rooted in therapeutic discourse, which emphasizes sensitivity, emotional disclosure, self-care, and seeking help, as intertwined with their mental recovery—and they attributed both to therapy. These findings suggest that new masculinity ideology embedded in therapeutic discourse, can offer men suffering from post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) a template to reaffirm their status as men—although men of a different kind—and indicate the possibilities for therapy in this endeavor. However, while the men adopted new masculinity ideologies, they also conformed to hegemonic masculinity, constructing hybrid masculinities. The study joins growing evidence that hybrid masculinities may have positive effects in enabling men to overcome the limitations of hegemonic masculinity, while also conforming to its expectations more broadly and maintaining men’s power.
{"title":"From Military Masculinity toward Hybrid Masculinities: Constructing a New Sense of Manhood among Veterans Treated for PTSS","authors":"Gabriela Spector-Mersel, Ohad Gilbar","doi":"10.1177/1097184X211038049","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1097184X211038049","url":null,"abstract":"This study examines how Israeli men who are army veterans with combat-related post-traumatic stress and consequently participated in therapy engage “new masculinities” ideologies. Drawing from interview data with these veterans, we find changes in the men’s perceptions of masculinity and sense of themselves as men. They expressed this shift through criticisms of military masculinity and disassociating from the idea of man-as-fighter, disputing the sociocultural category of hegemonic masculinity, and performing practices identified as feminine. The men portrayed this movement, away from endorsing hegemonic military masculinity toward affirming “new masculinity” ideology rooted in therapeutic discourse, which emphasizes sensitivity, emotional disclosure, self-care, and seeking help, as intertwined with their mental recovery—and they attributed both to therapy. These findings suggest that new masculinity ideology embedded in therapeutic discourse, can offer men suffering from post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) a template to reaffirm their status as men—although men of a different kind—and indicate the possibilities for therapy in this endeavor. However, while the men adopted new masculinity ideologies, they also conformed to hegemonic masculinity, constructing hybrid masculinities. The study joins growing evidence that hybrid masculinities may have positive effects in enabling men to overcome the limitations of hegemonic masculinity, while also conforming to its expectations more broadly and maintaining men’s power.","PeriodicalId":47750,"journal":{"name":"Men and Masculinities","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2021-08-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41318490","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-07-23DOI: 10.1177/1097184X211034549
C. Winer
In 2019, the #BoysDanceToo movement reacted in anger to controversial, misogynistic remarks made on the television program, Good Morning America. These reactions highlighted the challenges faced by men and boys in dance. Yet, previous studies have documented significant advantages for men in dance. In an analysis of the discourse used in online posts related to the #BoysDanceToo movement, I find that these broader structural gender inequalities are generally not examined. Responses also do not interrogate the antifemininity that fuels the stigma against boys and men who dance. Analysis suggests that this is due to an overreliance on the language of sex roles—which can mask the oppression of women (as a group) by men (as a group)—and the neglect of a relational understanding of gender. As a result, women are largely erased from a conversation about gender oppression.
{"title":"Sex Roles and the Erasure of Women from Conversations About Gender Oppression: The Case of #BoysDanceToo","authors":"C. Winer","doi":"10.1177/1097184X211034549","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1097184X211034549","url":null,"abstract":"In 2019, the #BoysDanceToo movement reacted in anger to controversial, misogynistic remarks made on the television program, Good Morning America. These reactions highlighted the challenges faced by men and boys in dance. Yet, previous studies have documented significant advantages for men in dance. In an analysis of the discourse used in online posts related to the #BoysDanceToo movement, I find that these broader structural gender inequalities are generally not examined. Responses also do not interrogate the antifemininity that fuels the stigma against boys and men who dance. Analysis suggests that this is due to an overreliance on the language of sex roles—which can mask the oppression of women (as a group) by men (as a group)—and the neglect of a relational understanding of gender. As a result, women are largely erased from a conversation about gender oppression.","PeriodicalId":47750,"journal":{"name":"Men and Masculinities","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2021-07-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/1097184X211034549","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42336663","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}