Making Sense of Increasing Physical Touch in Australian Men’s Friendships

Abstract

The increasing incidence of platonic hugging and kissing among men has sparked considerable debate in scholarly literature, particularly surrounding Eric Anderson’s articulation of inclusive masculinity theory (IMT). Aiming to move productively beyond Anderson’s critics, we propose a feminist poststructuralist reframing of IMT that emphasizes the discursive dynamics underpinning men’s uptake of “feminized” practices. Drawing on data from interviews with 14 pairs of fathers and sons living in Australia, we conceptualize their increasing engagement in platonic physical intimacy with other men as an assertion of queer-inclusion discourse and contestation of masculinist discourse that is neither linear nor necessarily consistent. Ultimately, we argue this approach allows scholars to retain some of Anderson’s key theoretical contentions, while better accounting for change, continuity, and contradiction in men’s gender practice.