Medicalized Masculinities ‐ By Rosenfeld, D. and Faircloth, C.A. (eds)

Abstract

Rosenfeld, D. and Faircloth, C.A. (eds) ( 2006 ) Medicalized Masculinities Philadelphia : Temple University Press . ISBN 1 59213 098 4 $24.95 263 + vii (pbk) The academic study of ‘masculinity’ has burgeoned over the last 25 years. During the same period, the sociological concept of ‘medicalisation’ has been developed and deployed to explore the role that medicine and the health professions play as agents of social control. Despite this, there has been very little work that has brought these two fields together. The developing field of ‘men's health’ has tended to focus its work on epidemiological, sex-difference data, men's experiences of chronic ill-health, and how societal demands construct men as ‘risk takers’ and the concomitant impact of this on health outcomes. With this context in mind, the explicit aims of this edited text are twofold: first, to account for the current gap in the literature on the medicalisation of masculinity and male bodies; second, to provide, through the use of empirical studies and historiographies, emerging work that begins to address this gap. The first of these aims is more than adequately fulfilled in the introductory chapter written by the editors. In reviewing the historical development of two major fields, work on ‘masculinities’ and work on the ‘sociology of the body’, they make a strong case for showing how the medicalisation of masculinity has fallen between; ‘Foucauldian surveillance and disciplining of bodies on the one hand, and the embodiment of daily life on the other’ (p. 18). In constructing this argument, the authors expose the current gap that the remaining eight chapters begin to address in order to meet the second aim. These chapters cover a range of topic areas in order to explore specific examples of how, when, and where, the medicalisation of masculinities can be elucidated. The first two of these are empirical chapters that focus on the development and marketing of medications used to ‘treat’ erectile dysfunction and show how masculine stereotypes are utilised and reproduced, but also challenged and reframed, within this process. Both chapters draw on empirical data (interviews with Viagra users and discourse analysis of marketing materials respectively) to suggest that corporate need has created a move toward framing male sexuality as a legitimate area for medical concern and, in doing so, sets new (higher) standards for what constitutes a successful, sexually functional, male body. Other empirical chapters include: an analysis of forensic and criminal textbooks, television shows, and websites for ‘infidelity kits’, to explore ‘Forensics and the construction of the male sexual suspect’; an observational study of a Veterans Affairs out-patient clinic that specialises in treating combat-related posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This latter study provides fascinating insights into the contradictory way that ‘masculinity’ is recognised and constructed as ‘a source of “troubles” and a resource to overcome them’ (p. 202) within the PTSD context. This resonates with other recent research that suggests an often complex and contradictory relationship with masculine configurations of practice creating both opportunity and barriers in health work with men (Emslie et al. 2006, O’Brien et al. 2005, Robertson 2006). The remaining chapters are historiographies that cover four areas. First, the medicalisation of ageing men's bodies using examples of the construction of an ‘andropause’ and the pathologising of ‘baldness’. Second, an exploration of gender bias in medical anatomy and the apparent contradiction when men's bodies have been used to represent the ‘norm’, yet this medicalisation of men's bodies has often been hidden under a ‘cloak of neutrality and dispassionate detachment’ (p. 131). Third, the way that male infant and child behaviour has become pathologised as ‘Attention Deficient Hyperactivity Disorder’ and the role that mothers and teachers (as well as health professions and pharmaceutical companies) play in this process. Finally, through considering the Tuskegee Syphilis experiment, an exploration of the historical sexualisation and medicalisation of black male bodies is provided. The work is well structured, well written, and fulfils its stated aims. The introductory chapter would make good core reading material for pre- and post-graduate modules relating to ‘gender and health’ and ‘the sociology of health and illness’. Other chapters are more likely to be selectively read either for their topic-specific content, their methodological approaches, or by those interested in the applied aspects of ‘medicalisation’ theory. The book would have benefited from a closing editorial chapter that pulled the varied contributions together.