The Gender Continuum: Analysing Constructions of Masculinity Across the Situational Contexts of Consumption and Leisure Practices

Abstract

This paper draws upon Foucauldian theory and considers Eric Anderson's (2009) more recent inclusive masculinity theory to explore how young Irish men construct their masculine identities and come to know themselves through their engagement with consumption and leisure practices. Locating the subject within influential discursive regimes allows for the consideration of identity construction as interconnected with one’s lived existence in the social world. This paper focuses on two practices: national sport and fashionable self-presentation. My findings show how new patterns of power relationships gradually develop, cultivating new constructions of masculinity. However, and challenging Anderson’s emancipatory tone of inclusive masculinities as a solution to the ‘constraining’ powers of orthodox masculinity, this study instead highlights the cyclical nature of power and resistance in the construction of gender identity projects.