Men and masculinities: a continuing debate on change

Abstract

ABSTRACT One of the debates currently unfolding in the field of critical men and masculinities studies concerns whether and how men and masculinities are changing. Engaging in critical discussions with scholars working with theorizations of inclusive and hybrid masculinities, this article aims to move these discussions, and relevant research, forward. The article canvasses how scholars discuss ‘change’ towards inclusive and hybrid masculinities, the conditions that allegedly facilitate this, and their views regarding wider systems of inequality and hierarchies between men and women, and among men. The article suggests that to understand change in all its complexity, more attention should be placed on the underlying conditions that encourage change among some men. It further proposes a multi-layered intersectional analysis that takes into careful consideration how axes of social identity intersect and affect opportunities for engagement with more inclusive or hybrid masculinities, and highlights the important role that contextual, situational, and interactional conditions may play in affecting the repertoire of possible manifestations and configurations of masculinity.