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The article aims to address the complexity of the models of masculinity (re)produced in the transnational context and explain the role of religion in this process. It draws on qualitative research conducted among religiously committed Catholic male migrants from Poland who have settled in multicultural and secular societies: England, Belgium, and Sweden. The transnational context often makes it difficult for migrant men to practice hegemonic masculinity. Our analysis shows how the isomorphic mechanisms allow for (re)constructing new forms of masculinity that combine diverse and often contradictory meanings available in the transnational contexts (i.e., associated with subordinated masculinities or with femininity). Such hybridized version of masculinity not only helps to adapt to the new transnational context but also allows for rebuilding the privileges traditionally offered by hegemonic masculinity. We also discuss the role religion plays in this process by giving credibility to this hybrid masculinity by rooting it in the sacral order and thus legitimizing it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The stigmatization of stay-at-home fathers (SAHFs) has been widely studied, but little research has examined how these experiences vary between rural and urban areas. In this qualitative study, 20 SAHFs in Islamabad, Pakistan were recruited through purposive sampling and interviewed using interview guide. Results show that most men did not choose to become SAHFs, and were involuntarily thrust into the role due to unemployment, lack of appropriate employment opportunities, or disability. These men faced stigmatization, social isolation, and labeling from their friends, family, and community, resulting in their increasing stress and anxiety. Additionally, the study found that rural and urban residential backgrounds played a significant role in the experiences of SAHFs. Examining the concept of caring masculinities, the study discovered that cultural differences, adherence to gendered norms, and severe stigmatization made it difficult for SAHFs in a non-Western culture context to depart from traditional masculine roles and embrace caring masculinities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite a growing body of research on fathers and fatherhood in South Africa, we know relatively little about un(der)employed Black fathers' experiences, perspectives, and patterns of involvement in their children's lives. This article uses Johnson-Hanks' concept of "vital conjunctures" to examine the divergent ways in which young Black men practice fatherhood under conditions of profound economic uncertainty. Three modes of father-child (dis)connections are presented to show how different patterns of paternal involvement are steered by men's economic conditions, the complex relational dynamics they occupy, as well as shifting cultural expectations and gender norms. The article shows how the quality of men's relationships with the mothers of their children plays an important role in differentiating fatherhood practices. Ultimately, this article argues that being a respectable father in conditions of economic uncertainty is a complex and convoluted endeavour involving intense negotiation and improvisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on prior research about other male-dominated leisure pursuits, we might expect game hunting to present a hostile climate for its women participants. However, our qualitative analysis of 293 threads posted between 2005 and 2019 on an online hunting message board suggests that women were welcomed within the pastime. While they did not overtly exclude women from their ranks, however, posters curated the boundary between masculinity and femininity, as well as staking out the territory of emphasized femininity. They accomplished this via benevolent sexism, hostile sexism, and sexual objectification. Our findings not only shed additional light on the gendered dynamics of this pastime but also enriched our knowledge of the ways that hegemonic masculinity and emphasized femininity can work in tandem—within male-dominated recreational activities, and more broadly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although normative constructions of masculinity in Palestine denote emotional suppression as an idealized attribute, extreme subjugation under the grinding realities of a colonial military occupation requires that this ideal is negotiated. This article explores Palestinian rap as a channel through which emotions related to individual and collective oppression are expressed within the (fluid) parameters of a particular emergent masculine performance. Through qualitative research with young Palestinian men living in a refugee camp, I argue that emotional expression within this musical culture both functions to reconfigure binary gendered dynamics, while simultaneously masculinizing emotionality through a dialogic performance of emotion, nationalism, resistance, and paternalism. In some ways, patriarchal gendered binaries are hence challenged in and through the performance of Palestinian rap, while in other ways these are reconfigured so that men's emotional expression can be subsumed within them. This article, therefore, examines the negotiation of "masculinity as emotional suppression" through rap, in a context in which internal patriarchal powers are routinely threatened by colonial patriarchal forces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using qualitative interviews with trans men across the Southeastern United States, this article examines how regional constructions of masculinities and manhood shape how trans men understand and do gender in this region of the country. This analysis is situated at the intersections of three areas of study—southern studies, masculinities studies, and trans studies—and demonstrates how trans masculinities in the South broaden the conversations occurring in each. The key finding in this study is that trans men, despite not being assigned male-bodied at birth and despite not being socialized as boys/men through childhood, understand and do masculinities and manhood in similar ways to their southern cis counterparts. Through three primary mechanisms, southern trans men uphold southern gender ideology and performances of masculinities. These mechanisms include (a) understanding gender as binary and essential; (b) performing stereotypical versions of southern manhood; and, (c) maintaining mastery, honor, and independence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines representations of fathers and fatherhood in the advertising campaigns of Singaporean government agencies. The introduction of paternity leave and encouragement for fathers to play a bigger role in childcare and child-raising suggest that the government is sympathetic to the pursuit of gender equality, but I argue that state advocacy of active fatherhood serves to reinforce patriarchal tendencies in Singapore. Current scholarship on the problematization of women in state discourses has highlighted the power and privilege of a particular social group in Singapore: heterosexual men. However, there has been a developing body of theoretical and empirical research that looks more critically at the discursive constructions of masculinities, particularly along the dimensions of class, race, and sexuality. This article takes up this issue of different masculinities and the implications this diversity has for understanding patriarchal culture and its intersecting hierarchies. I propose the concept of Confucian masculinity to explain how the depiction of active fatherhood reinforces the ubiquitous "normal family" that upholds patriarchal ideology and perpetuates patriarchal power, thereby obscuring the contradictions of class, race, and sexuality that exist in Singapore. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inspired by Marcia Inhorn's work on Arab masculinities, this article looks at changes in masculine ideals and practices among Egyptian middle-class Copts. Based on fieldwork among Copts in the city of Alexandria, Egypt, this article argues that young Coptic men embrace ideals of manhood that highlights conjugal connectivity and involved fatherhood at the expense of other social commitments; that in doing so, they define themselves in opposition to Muslim men of lower socioeconomic status, widely construed as their "masculine others"; and finally that these men ascribe to forms of masculinity that do not seem to reinforce patriarchal power relations, nor lend themselves to hierarchical placement in relation to otherwise dominant forms of masculinity within a predominantly Muslim society. As such, they constitute forms of masculinity that are parallel, but not subordinate to a "hegemonic masculinity," challenging some of the central premises on which the concept of hegemonic masculinity is commonly based. The case of middle-class Coptic men point to the concept of "emergent masculinities" as a promising starting point for analyzing masculinity in diverse Arab societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the social representation of black masculinities as violent in the globally publicized case of the murder by Oscar Pistorius of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp. This murder and the subsequent media interest it generated highlighted the manner in which fear of crime in South Africa, particularly amongst certain sectors of the population such as white, male gun owners and gun lobbyists, (including Pistorius and his family members) contributed to assertions about their right to own guns to defend their families and possessions against this perceived threat. Such claims were made despite statistical evidence showing that black South Africans are more likely to be victims of violent crime than white South Africans. Drawing upon media coverage of the trial, this article critically discusses the intersection between masculinity and racial identity with a particular focus on gun ownership as a symbol of hegemonic white manhood, and the parallel construction of black masculinities as violent and dangerous. The Oscar Pistorius trial offers rich material for this analysis: his entire defence was based on the view that the intruder he feared was almost certainly a black man who, as a legitimate target for the use of lethal force in self-defence, deserved to die from the four bullets fired through a closed door. It is argued that in his absence, the black man was ever-present at the Oscar Pistorius trial as a threatening figure whose calling into being was revealing of how black masculinities continue to be represented, relayed and received in particular ways in post-apartheid South Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, representations of culinary masculinities are analyzed. Through a textual analysis of two sets of twenty-first-century cookbooks—those targeted to "men" and those targeted to "dads"—I show that two contrasting hybridizations of hegemonic masculinity are represented. The men's cookbooks present a patriarchal masculinity that supports men's structural dominance over women by framing men's cooking as distinct from routine care work. This is achieved by portraying men's cooking as an instrumental strategy for gaining sexual or romantic access to women, as a way of elevating the esteem in which others (usually nonfamily members) hold the male cook, and as an irregular activity that is performed on special occasions or due to special circumstances. The dads' cookbooks present a progressive masculinity that challenges men's dominance by framing men's cooking as a form of routine care work. This is achieved by portraying men's cooking as a daily endeavor, as an activity that is attentive to the nutritional and emotional needs of children, and as an aspect of a larger parenting project that encompasses household management and children's social development. This analysis contributes to the debate over whether hybridizations of hegemonic masculinity perpetuate or challenge men's dominance by suggesting that the multiplicity of hybrid masculinities provides for the dual possibility of a movement toward gender equality or a retrenchment of patriarchal power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article seeks to explore how poststructural theory can be applied to therapeutic spaces to evoke conversations around masculinity and identity. By breaking down complicated language and creating accessibility of ideas, poststructural theory has a variety of uses at the practical level. This article provides an entry point for how frontline workers can begin to apply poststructural language to begin exploring complicated themes of identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the side effects of India's rapid socioeconomic transition has been a growing demographic masculinization with millions of "missing" women. Modern technologies have enabled couples to determine and select the fetal sex. Since the 1990s, political efforts to control sex selection have met with little success. This article assesses policy effectiveness and the role of political masculinities in India's fight against sex selection. This qualitative analysis draws from policy files and forty-seven in-depth semistructured expert interviews conducted in Delhi, Punjab, and Haryana in 2014–2015. Interview participants included national policy makers, state and district implementers, and representatives from nongovernmental and international organizations. This article finds that state action against sex selection frequently follows the logic of "protecting," "tracking," and "emancipating" females—analogue to roles of a family patriarch toward his kin and thus reproducing gender biases and undermining policy efforts against sex selection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay proposes that terrorism manifests itself in a relation that encompasses masculinity as well as the media. The origin of this relationship is the joint performativity of gender and acts of terror. This makes terrorism an instrument of social and political change. But in order to legitimize themselves, terrorism as well as masculinity require authorization by a phantasmagorical power. Drawing on the dominance of males among terrorists, this essay will look at an early depiction of terrorism in Conrad's The Secret Agent, a contemporary representation in Sahota's novel Ours Are the Streets and terrorism's real manifestation in the Paris carnage of November 2015. It will show that in the desire to satisfy an imagined "higher authority" and thereby assert an individual as well as political identity, masculinity and terrorism share a performative root. This also suggests a possible way of exposing and exploding terrorism and masculinity from within, by feeding into the mediated stream of its representations images and ideas of inferiority, ridicule, and failure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although it has come under multiple attacks and pressures over the past decades, patriarchy has proven itself to be highly resilient and adaptive. However, new ways of "being men" have started to emerge over the past years that at least seemingly question dominant masculinities. I examine here four "new" forms of political masculinities: violently fratriarchal masculinities, "softer" militarized masculinities of peacekeepers, the less violent masculinities promoted by global antidomestic violence campaigns, and lastly what I term the "He4She" masculinities of international political actors. These four manifestations of political masculinities underscore on the transitional and temporal nature of gender roles and identities. All have arisen out of political and social transitions in which previously dominant notions of masculinity have been challenged. These changes, however, do not necessarily mean an end to patriarchy. Indeed, the new somewhat more egalitarian masculinities may serve to shore up and stabilize patriarchy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using interviews with twenty-five male Beijingers in their final year of upper secondary school, this article shows that their construction of masculinities in all cases revolves around the importance of chenggong (outstanding accomplishment). They perceived chenggong as a prerequisite for the "the good life," "the good person," and "the good man." But striving for chenggong entails much personal cost. Chenggong's strong assertion by all these young men, notwithstanding intragroup differences, may indicate its contemporary hegemonic status. Suggested explanations are: the general importance of exemplary norms in China, the influence of neoliberalism and consumerism (and the attendant individualism) in post-Mao China, and their being "only children" from urban and mostly middle-class background; in particular, there is the competitive advantage which men derive from their prospective chenggong in a marriage market where a strong hypergamy norm for women is combined with a discourse of "natural sex differences" and notorious sex ratio imbalances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using an interactionist framework, we analyze publicly available data from Twitter to track real-time reactions to the widely publicized celebrity nude photo hacking of 2014 (“The Fappening”). We ask: “Related to The Fappening, what manhood acts are employed in virtual social space?” Using search terms for “fappening” or “#thefappening,” we collected 100 tweets per hour from August 31 to October 1, 2014 (Average: 1,700/day). Coding and qualitative analyses of a subsample of tweets (N = 9,750) reveal four virtual manhood acts commonly employed to claim elevated status in the heterosexist hierarchy and reproduce gendered inequality. These acts include (1) creation of homosocial, heterosexist space; (2) sexualization of women; (3) signaling possession of a heterosexual, male body; and (4) humor as a tool of oppression. This article introduces the concept of “virtual manhood acts” and contributes to growing understandings of the reproduction of manhood and the oppression of women in online social spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focusing on Bosnia, Croatia, and Serbia, this article examines film and music that emerged in the region since the end of the Yugoslav Wars of Succession. We analyze how the uncertainties of the postwar era facilitated a dynamic field of cultural contestation in which the music and film industries simultaneously challenge and affirm normative masculine sociocultural roles. Although traditional norms have not lost their primacy in public life, we emphasize the fact that attitudes toward masculinity have, in general, become increasingly ambiguous and multivalent. While local sociological studies accurately observe that violence and intolerance constitute central traits for the majority of men in the West Balkans, our research reflects on how popular culture complicates the idea that postwar West Balkan masculinities have remained uniform, static, and defined exclusively by aggression. We thus focus on the most popular musical and cinematic productions that embody the tension inherent in the contemporary representations of West Balkan masculinity. From our examples, it becomes clear that generalized instability attending new market economies and postwar political turmoil have indeed created a context within which national gender norms have entered a state of flux. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

News coverage of the shootings in Orlando highlighted a tension between the two frames broadcasters used in their reporting. Was this a homophobic hate crime or was this terrorism? Many elided the difficulty by calling it homophobic terrorism, but this could not resolve the tension. This article contends that because terrorism is closely equated with radicalized Muslims, the tension was sublimated into an existing orientalist frame where homophobia became a marker of fundamentalist Islamic culture. Instead, this article argues, these two frames should not be taken as cause and effect but as problems that share a common ailment: the presence of toxic masculinities. Beginning from a position that sees masculinity as constituted through violence in patriarchal culture, this article works through the idea that when there is a disillusionment with violence, masculinity under patriarchy turns toxic. What emerges then is not merely violence but “rage” as the praxis of toxic masculinities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, the author discusses the benefits of using psychodynamic theory in researching black masculinities of adolescent boys in Alexandra Township, South Africa. Both individual interviews and focus groups were conducted with thirty-two adolescent boys, aged thirteen to eighteen years. These boys were provided with disposable cameras to take twenty-seven photos under the theme “my life as a boy” in the new South Africa. Arrangements were made for photos to be collected and processed. In the individual interviews, the participants were asked to give a description of each photo and why and how they had decided to take that photo to represent aspects of their masculine identities. Group interviews were also conducted in which the participants were asked to select five photos that best described their masculinities. Follow-up interviews were also conducted with four boys who were conforming and another four boys who were rejecting traditional notions of masculinity. In analyzing the data, the researcher used Frosh and Emerson’s (2005) psychodynamic-informed discursive interpretive framework to analyze feelings of ambivalence, hesitations, and contradictions revealed in the spoken texts about hegemonic and non-hegemonic masculinities. In addition, the attention in the analysis was paid to the researcher’s countertransference reactions to understand emotional concerns and tensions of being an adolescent black boy living in a township context. In conclusion, it is recommended that safe spaces should be created for adolescent boys to reflect on the subjective meanings, feelings, and emotions of what it means to be a boy in the new South Africa. It is argued in this article that psychodynamic theory has an important value in informing such community-based interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine both gay and straight men’s constructions of masculinity using 358 self-descriptive dating profiles from Match.com of “men seeking men” and “men seeking women” in eight southern US metropolitan areas. In addition to the men’s specific references to gender and gendered performances, we discuss three broad topics of the men’s self-descriptions including personality, leisure, and work. This analysis reveals the ideal characteristics these men used to construct their own masculine identities and masculinity in relation to femininity. Although examples of conformity and nonconformity existed across both gay and straight men, we found that gay men constructed their own identities in keeping with the codes of historically heteronormative masculinities as fluently, and sometimes more so, than straight men. We explore the most prominent nuances between gay and straight men’s paths to claiming “masculine capital,” straight men’s greater leeway to temporarily distance themselves from masculine dominance, and the influence of hierarchies within masculinity on straight and gay men’s constructions of femininity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we examine gender representations in secular and religious media. Based on comparative content analysis of six secular and religious magazines, we analyze how both types of media represented manhood in ways that facilitate the elevation of men at the expense of women. Specifically, we demonstrate how religious and secular magazines represented fatherly and spousal manhood by emphasizing inherent gender differences, male leadership, protection and control, and reasons to excuse men for failing to live up to familial and marital expectations. In conclusion, we draw out implications for understanding the importance of comparative analyses of secular and religious media, the insights that such analyses provide for the study of contemporary secular and religious dynamics, and the reproduction of gender inequalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As knowledge about the biological foundation of the modern patriarchal gender order is increasingly challenged within late-modern social worlds enclaves persist in which men and women can attempt to recreate understandings of the “natural” basis of sex difference. Within “Power Gym,” male boxers were able to symbolize their bodies and behaviors in such a manner. The language and logic of popular scientific discourses authored and authorized notions of an “innate” manhood. The ability to instrumentally deploy one’s manliness in symbolically legitimate ways could then be represented and emotionally experienced as a man’s biological right and obligation. Through scripted performances of “mimetic” violence and self-bullying, the boxers were able to experience this discursive naturalness and carve out a masculinity-validating social enclave. As such, they accessed a “patriarchal dividend” by securing a local pastiche hegemony in which discourses surrounding men’s natural place as physically and psychologically dominant remained largely uncontested. Through the reflexive appropriation of “science,” within appropriate subcultural codes, these men could negotiate taboos and restrictions that are characteristic of late-modern social worlds. When considered in this way, the power of “scientific” truth claims to explain and justify a certain level of violence, aggression, and behaviors coded as masculine, comes to the fore. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We explore the paths related to college men’s involvement in all-male antirape prevention groups using in-depth interviews conducted with twenty-five male college students who are active members of such groups from eleven campuses located on the East Coast of the United States. Major themes deriving from analysis of the interviews were all related to the engagement of the participants with the programs on four different levels. These themes, which are developmentally related, are (1) a disclosure which makes sexual assault a personal issue at the same time that it reveals a lack of knowledge and skills on the part of the respondents, (2) the evaluation of the approach of individual programs, (3) the evaluation of the relative effectiveness of the approacher, and (4) the creation of a social context which the engagement facilitates. Overall, we find that when the men in our study were approached in a nonconfrontational, alliance-building fashion by other men, they reported that their knowledge related to sexual assault, their empathy toward sexual assault survivors, and their motivation to actively engage in the prevention of sexual violence all increased. Thus, we see evidence of a pathway to behavioral change represented by the recruitment and participation of men to these programs. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article considers questions of patriarchy, masculinity, and male servants in Kolkata's culture of servitude. Through narratives of men servants and women servants, the "failure of patriarchy" is analyzed, set against hegemonic patriarchal ideologies and hierarchies. Contextualization for these narratives was provided by extensive ethnographic fieldwork in Kolkata, including a survey of 500 middle-class households. When women servants narrate their lives, it is inevitably the failure of patriarchs--fathers, husbands, and brothers--to perform their prescribed familial and social functions and duties that has led to their unfortunate circumstances. Thus, women servants end up taking on "patriarchal" responsibilities of supporting their households. Simultaneously, men servants express with resignation their own as well as their fathers', and often their sons', inability to properly make a living. Indeed, male servants think of themselves as failed patriarchs, dependent on stigmatized work to make a living, and feel doubly diminished. Finally, we examine how some male servants have reconfigured the patriarchy of servants through a reevaluation of the terms of work, status, and dependency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article documents the authors' efforts to listen to Nicaraguan men and to explore with them the foundations of their sexual behavior and masculinities. In 1999 and 2000, the authors conducted focus groups involving ninety men from the Pacific side of Nicaragua. From analysis of the text of these interviews, five discourses were identified: a traditional patriarchal discourse (machismo), a Catholic discourse, a Western progressive (liberal feminist) discourse, a pro-feminist discourse, and a medical discourse. The authors argue that these discourses construct a series of tensions within Nicaraguan masculinities that greatly affect Nicaraguan men's ability to play a role in change and suggest strategies through which the men may be helped to resolve these tensions and therefore play an active role in the social and political changes that are profoundly affecting the positions of both women and men in Nicaraguan society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article addresses the link between manhood and nationhood in postconflict Kosova. Albanian Kosovars, like many "traditionally" patriarchal societies, have constructed identities of the patriotic man and the exalted childbearing woman as icons of national survival. These designated identities often negate the realities of war-affected communities. The gendered places of man and woman in political reality are marred by the traumatic events of conflict and postconflict life. By thinking about the masculine microcultures of nation building (daily life), especially the construction of over-sexed and under-sexed individuals (i.e., the soldier) and the promiscuous enemies within (i.e., the female rape victim), there develops a connection between monoracial and heterosexual preserves and the need for this society to hold onto the traditional vision of man, at least until there is the political union of nation and state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To investigate how some Japanese graduate students understand their masculine identity and negotiate sexual encounters and condom use, the authors interviewed sixty twenty-four-year-old to twenty-six-year-old heterosexual men during the summer of 1997. They used a set of three interviews covering three areas: home, school and/or job, and sexual life. In talking about sexual encounters and decision making about contraception, they found that male's responsibility and protection are considered the main reasons for keeping decisions under their control. Allusions to sexuality as an act closely related to reproduction make condoms to be regarded as a barrier, which negates the pleasure of sex and interferes with arousal. The authors did not find any reference to "safer sex" Inaccurate information and ignorance about methods of contraception seemed to be constant. The association of condoms with contraception seemed to deny the possibilities of condoms as protection against sexually transmitted infections (STIs). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents an analysis of the novel 'The Sound and the Fury,' by William Faulkner. Patriarchal social organization in the novel; Disequilibrium between expectation and disinheritance; Role of patriarchy in the glorification of men and silencing of women.

How did the American founders reconcile their revolutionary rhetoric of liberty and equality to ongoing patriarchy? Scholars generally argue that the founders perceived men and women to be different in ways that justified female subordination. The founders equated manhood to independence, reason, and virtue; associated womanhood with dependence, desire, and vice; and defined republican citizenship as the rule of sober males over impassioned females. This article suggests that the founders also perceived men and women to be similar in ways that perpetuated patriarchy. They saw both men and women as disorderly creatures with a capacity for chaos and a potential for procreativity. They defined the primary challenge of politics as controlling male disorders by tapping male procreativity while relying on patriarchal laws and customs to subdue disorderly women. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Presents an article about a profeminism. Characteristics of a traditional male; Criticisms on profeminist Harry Brod; Discussion of patriarchy.