Virile Infertile Men, and Other Representations of In/Fertile Hegemonic Masculinity in Fiction Television Series

Marjolein Lotte De Boer

doi:10.1007/s10912-020-09647-1

Abstract

Fiction television series are one of the few cultural expressions in which men’s infertility experiences are represented. Through a content analysis of twenty fiction series, this article describes and analyzes such representations. By drawing on Connell’s concept of hegemonic masculinity and Ricoeur’s understanding of paradoxical power structuring, four character types of infertile men are identified: (1) the virile in/fertile man, (2) the secretly non-/vasectomized man, (3) the intellectual eunuch, (4) the enslaving post-apocalyptic man. While these various dramatis persona outline different ways of how infertile men relate to normative hegemonic masculinity, they all represent infertile men as diverging from shared masculine norms. This non-normativity initially excludes many represented men from hegemonic positions. Eventually, however, these men generally aspire to and succeed in reaffirming their hegemonic masculinity through coercive force towards women and other men, through instigating the precondition for any power structure – the shared will to live together as a community –, and/or by seeking and finding explicit recognition for their normativity and dominance. At the end of this paper, I will reflect on the potential harmful effect of these outlined representations of infertile men and make a plea for diversifying representations of infertile men in our culture.

Highlights

Male infertility is not an uncommon phenomenon
This study offers an analysis of ‘male infertility fiction series’ and the representations of men’s infertility experiences
Ricoeur’s thinking together with that of Connell serves as a fitting tool in invigorating ways of analyzing negotiations of masculine norms and hegemonic masculinity in representations of men dealing with their infertility in fiction television series

Summary

Introduction

Male infertility is not an uncommon phenomenon. Given the large number of men who experience and deal with infertility, it is surprising how sporadic representations of male infertility experiences are in our Western culture. While some media occasionally represent male infertility, these cultural expressions typically reduce the phenomenon to anthropomorphic portrayals of “unmotivated,” “feminizing” (Gannon, Glover, and Abel 2004, 1173), “non-romantic,” “slow,” “sad,” and even “loser” (Moore, 2003, 289290) sperm cells that are not able to fertilize an egg cell. One of the few contemporary cultural expressions that frequently represent actual men who deal with their infertility is fiction television series. This study offers an analysis of ‘male infertility fiction series’ and the representations of men’s infertility experiences. How are men’s infertility experiences represented in fiction television series? How are men’s infertility experiences represented in fiction television series? What do these representations reveal about the ways in which we perceive and deal with masculinity in our culture?

The significance of male infertility representations

Kyle Commander

The intellectual eunuch