The New Alternative Masculinities and the Overcoming of Gender Violence

Abstract

Research about masculinities gathers different topics from diverse disciplinary perspectives. One of the topics has been the analysis of the perpetuation’s effect of the traditional heterosexual model of masculinity in the violence against women. Recent scientific evidences about the reproduction of this social problem have evidenced the existence of three different types of masculinities (in the sense of the weberian ideal types): dominant traditional masculinity (DTM), oppressed traditional masculinity (OTM), and new alternative masculinities (NAM). The first two types contribute to perpetuate gender violence, while the latter allows preventing it and, consequently, it leads to its overcoming. This article approach the existence of these three types of masculinities and analyzes both, theirs characteristics and their consequences for violence against women. It presents evidences that what makes NAM providing a preventive effect is its linkage between the language of ethics and the language of desire.