“I Mean It’s Awkward Anxiety”: Exploring the Role of Sociohistorical Context in Men’s Negotiation of Masculine Subjectivity

Abstract

In this article, the author explores the process of claiming masculine subjectivity through in-depth interviews conducted with two brothers who are adult children of a Vietnam Veteran. Drawn from a larger research project, these interviews serve as a case study that reveals the ways in which men navigate masculine subjectivity within a specific historical context. Drawing on Connell and Messerschmidt’s reformulation of hegemonic masculinity and Butler’s work on performativity, the author explores the dynamics of masculine subjectivity through the historical event of the Vietnam War. The author demonstrates how these men utilize both hegemonic masculinity and a subordinate form of masculinity found in the Vietnam Veteran as a way of negotiating their position as masculine subjects. The tension created by this negotiation ultimately produces a state of anxiety as they try to hold onto illusive idealized social narratives of masculine identity.