MEN AND

MASCULINITIES
 DEFINITION OF TERMS
 MASCULINITIES—a social, cultural, and historical construction of men
dependent on and related to other factors such as class, ethnicity, sexuality, age,
and disability
 HEGEMONIC MASCULINITY—form of masculinity which is culturally
dominant in a given setting.
 PROTEST MASCULINITY—form of masculinity which is culturally
dominant in marginalized setting.
 CARING MASCULINITY—proposes that men are able to adopt what is
viewed as traditionally feminine characteristics.
 INTRODUCTION
Since 1970s, studies on different aspects of manhood (from men in
the labor market to men in the family and violent men, etc.) were made. By the
20th century, the number of these studies increased dramatically.
A growing body of literature theorizing men and masculinities
focuses on a variety of topics including men’s violence, fatherhood, pornography,
men’s crimes, female masculinity, male femininity, etc. these studied arose despite
the clear dominance of men over global economic and political power. Men make
up a large majority of corporate executives, top professionals, and holders of
public office. Worldwide, men held 93% of cabinet-level posts in 1996 and most
top positions in international agencies (Glercyz 1999).
 Essentialist views of gender are still popular and are constantly
reinforced in the media. However, they are increasingly under challenge, not only
in biology (Fausto-Sterling 1992), but also in everyday life. The rise of the
women’s liberation movement, and many feminisms that have followed on from
it, produced a massive disturbance in the gender system and people’s assumptions
about gender.
Large numbers of men now acknowledge that their position is
under challenge, that what they once took for granted about must be re-thought,
making men’s studies and masculinity became popular.
 MEN’S RIGHTS LOBBY
One of the main founding texts of this lobby is by Warren Farell, in
his work, The Myth of Male Power. Why are Men the Disposable Sex? (1994).
According to him:
“Men are now the gender victims as a result of feminism having gone too far, with
men having increased responsibilities but few rights around issues of marriage,
divorce, child custody, and access to children.”
Modern legislation is seen to be overprotective of women’s
interests, resulting in discrimination against men at a time when they are under
increasing threat within a rapidly changing society.
Still some researchers argue that these pro-male movements were
only a reaction to feminism—an attempt to accuse women and feminists for
creating problems that men encounter in society.
 MASCULINITY THEMES
Masculinity is a social, cultural, and historical construction
of men dependent on and related to other factors such as class, ethnicity,
sexuality, age, and disability. Researcher’s on men’s studies and
masculinity established common themes which strengthened and
developed this evolving concepts.
 1. MULTIPLE MASCULINITY
Accordingly, there is no one pattern of masculinity that is found
everywhere. Different cultures and different periods of history, construct masculinity
differently. Some cultures make heroes of soldiers and regard violence as the ultimate test
of masculinity. Other cultures look at soldiering with disdain and regard violence as
contemptible. Some countries regard homosexual sex as incompatible with true
masculinity. Other countries think that no person can be a real man without having had
homosexual relationships.
The meaning of masculinity in working-class life is different from the
meaning in the middle-class life and same goes among the very rich and the very poor. It
is even possible that more than one kind of masculinity can be found within a given
cultural setting and within specific class.
This only shows that masculinities cannot be delimited to a sole definition
or description as various countries, culture, and levels in life view this concept differently.
 2. HIERARCHY AND HEGENOMY
Typically, some masculinities are more revered than others.
Others may be dishonored. (homosexual masculinities in modern
western culture. Others are even socially marginalized). Others are
even exemplary, taken as symbolizing admired traits (i.e. the
masculinities of sporting heroes).
The form of masculinity which is culturally dominant in a given
setting is called “hegenomic masculinity”. “Hegenomic” signifies a
position of cultural authority and leadership but not total dominance as
other forms of masculinity persists alongside.
 Hegemonic Masculinity embodies popular heroes, role models, and
fictional characters. According to Kimmel (1997), hegemonic masculinity:
“contains within it the image of the ‘man’ in power, a man with power and a
man of power. We adequate manhood with being strong, successful,
capable, reliable, in control. The very definitions of manhood we have
developed in our culture maintain the power that some men have power over
other men and that men have power over women.”
Hegemonic masculinity was understood as the patter of practice that
allowed men’s dominance over women to continue. Hegemonic masculinity
embodied the currently most honored way of being a man as it required all
other men to position themselves in relation to it and it ideologically
legitimated the global subordination of women to men.
 Men who received the benefits of patriarchy without enacting a strong
version of masculine dominance could be regarded as showing a complicit
masculinity. Hegemony did not mean violence, although it could be
supported by force; it meant ascendancy achieved through culture,
institutions, and persuasion.
Hegemonic masculinity in western society hinges on heterosexuality,
economic autonomy, being able to provide for one’s family, being rational,
being successful, keeping one’s emotions in check, and above all, not doing
anything considered feminine. Hegemonic male norms stress values such as
courage, aggression, autonomy, mastery, technological skill, adventure,
toughness in mind and body.
 Moreover, hegemonic masculinity is hegonomic not just in relation to
other masculinities, but in relation to the gender order as a whole. It is an
expression of the privilege men collectively have over women.
The hierarchy of masculinities is an expression of the unequal shares
in that privilege held by different groups of men. Thus, some masculinities
are deemed as higher than the others, as well as higher than other forms of
gender.
 3. COLLECTIVE MASCULINITIES

Gender structures of a society define particular patterns of conduct of

individuals as either “masculine” or “feminine”. At one level, these patterns
characterize individuals. Thus we say that a particular man (or woman) is
masculine, or behaves in a masculine way. These patterns also exist at the
collective level-in institutions, such as corporations, armies, governments and
even schools. Masculinities are also defined collectively in the workplace and in
informal groups like street gangs.
 Masculinity also exists impersonally in culture. Video games, for
example, circulate stereotyped images of violent masculinity. They require
the player to enact this masculinity (symbolically) in order to play the game
at all. Cinema and TV shows portray stereotypes of masculinity such as
abandoning father, disgruntled student, abusive partner and the drug convict.
In sports, an aggressive kind of masculinity is created organizationally
by its structure, pattern of competition, system of training and hierarchy of
levels and rewards
 MASCULINITIES AND WELL-BEING

Men are unlikely to talk about their worries and more likely to
drink and engage in other destructive behaviors when stressed. These
findings echo the evidence in the literature that conforming to stoic
and rigid notions of masculinity contributes to suicidal behavior and
depression.
Culturally dominant forms of masculinity, which often urge men
to practice strict emotional control, serve as barriers to health and help-
seeking behavior or encourage some men to engage in practices
detrimental to their own health and that of their families
 Evidence confirms that death and disability rates related to
alcohol and substance abuse are considerably higher for men than
for women, making substance abuse and addiction predominantly
male phenomena worldwide (Pyne et al. 2002;WHO 2004).
 FAMILY FORMATION, FATHERING, CAREGIVING, AND
DOMESTIC ROLES
Domestic roles are closely associated with women as carrying them out
can involve a loss of face for men. Great deal was heard about increases in
women’s labor force participation in recent decades but less about men’s
caregiving and domestic roles.
Research, however, shows that men, on average, not greatly increase their
role in household work and unpaid care. Lest do they know, men are missing out
in not engaging more in their domestic and family roles. It has been shown that
being involved in the lives of their children brings psychological and health
benefits to men. However, it was said that men may contribute to the “domestic
enterprise” in other important ways, including through providing financial
support, accompanying children to activities outside of school or home.
 MASCULINITIES AND ALCOHOL AND DRUG USE

Studies show that men were more likely to drink than women, drank
alcohol in greater quantity and more frequently than women and were more
likely to face alcohol-related health and social problems than women. In
many settings, men’s drinking encourages solidarity and stimulates courage.
It is a key peer group ritual as well as being a recreational activity. When
men become drunk, fight and homicides are rationalized, and women are
encouraged to tolerate men’s drunkenness as a natural part of their being
men.
 PROTEST MASCULINITY
Protest masculinity is a form of marginalized masculinity which picks
up themes of hegemonic masculinity in the society at large but reworks
them in a context of poverty. In other words, it is skin to hegemonic
masculinity but in socially-deprived context. Protest masculinity refers to
describe instances of extreme forms of sex-typed behavior on the part of
some males. Key to the concept of protest masculinity are high levels of
physical aggression. The protest masculinity profile is also proposed as
including destructiveness, low tolerance for delay of gratification, crime,
drinking and similar dispositions. It is often a product of narcissism built
from deep feelings of powerlessness and insecurity.
 CARING MASCULINITY
The emergence of caring masculinities in many parts of the world has
been assessed in several reports since the early 2000s, all of them
highlighting the virtuous impact of this reshape in male identities and
practices for gender equality improvements in societies. After decades of
women demanding equal rights and opportunities and for the end of male
domination and its harmful costs in their lives, caring masculinities arise as
a strong ally against hegemonic masculinity
 The concept of a caring masculinity proposes that men are able to
adopt what is viewed as traditionally feminine characteristics without
departing from or rejecting masculinity.
Caring masculinities can be seen as masculine identities that
exclude domination and embrace the affective, relational, emotional and
interdependent qualities of care- a critical form of men’s engagement in
gender equality because doing care work requires men to resist
hegemonic masculinity and to adopt values and characteristics of care that
are antithetical to hegemonic masculinity
So, besides the commitment to care work and gender equality, caring
masculinities entail a mindful refusal of hegemonic masculinity and
inherent prerogatives, as well as of the plural manifestations of
“complicit masculinity” that it assumes.

Men who approximate this form of masculinity are viewed as a

form “new man”.
THANK YOU!