Alternative Masculinities Research Articles

Beating the buzzer: The construction of ageing hockey masculinity

In spite of the fact that the media and the public often revere elite male hockey players as exemplars of masculinity, these same groups largely ignore these men when they become old. Moreover, there is very little scholarly research on old(er) hockey players. In contrast, this paper examines the gender expressions of the men who played for the Silver Skaters, an old-timers hockey league in a mid-sized central Canadian city. Although sometimes players met the standard of youthful hegemonic masculinity, they more often broke with it, expressing their own unique forms of ageing hockey masculinity focused on a censure of violence and aggression and an emphasis on an ethic of care and inclusion. In the wake of calls to change the culture of young men’s elite-level hockey, the gender performances of these late(r)-life men, shaped by the structure of their hockey league, demonstrates that alternative hockey masculinities are possible.

Alternative Friendships to Improve Men's Health Status. The Impact of the New Alternative Masculinities' Approach.

Background: Men who develop behaviors connected with the model of hegemonic masculinity present several health problems. Previous research has shown the types of problems that men commonly suffer in this regard such as chronic diseases, dietary disorders, and traffic accidents. To combat and overcome this situation, several campaigns, policies and recommendations have been undertaken, and consequently, their influence has been analyzed. However, there have been few investigations into the role of men’s friendship in the reduction of these physical health problems. The findings presented in this article are focused on this issue, illustrating the impact of male friendship on the shaping of healthy behaviors. Methods: Drawing upon a qualitative-based methodology articulated in a case study of the Men in Dialogue association, located in Spain, the study has followed the premises of the communicative approach, a total of 15 structured online open-ended questionnaires have been performed and analyzed. The median age of the participants is 37.5 years. Results: The findings show how men involved in Men in Dialogue are promoting a kind of masculine friendship that is improving men’s emotional well-being and, consequently, their physical health.

‘I never wanted my children to see their father the way I’ve seen mine’: caring masculinities and fathering on the Prairies

ABSTRACT In this article, we draw together literature on rural masculinities, fatherhood, and mental health to explore how men experiencing mental health problems understand fatherhood. Semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with 24 men who reside in rural southern Manitoba with a focus on mental health and wellness, perceptions of masculinity, support and living well. In this study, it became apparent that fatherhood was a theme that many of the participants reflected on in response to our questions about their mental health and wellness. It is notable that fatherhood emerged as a key theme related to mental health for those men who had children. This article examines how these men spoke about fatherhood and specifically, how they struggled to negotiate alternative masculinities when working with their fathers, their experiences of aggression, desires to be a better father that their father, and their reflections on changing practices. We argue that fathering can provide a transformative space and hopeful practice for rural men experiencing mental health and emotional distress. In doing so, our paper contributes to research on changing masculinities and the consequences for challenging normative masculinities in rural space.

What makes hegemonic masculinity so hegemonic? Japanese American men and masculine aspirations

ABSTRACT Research on ‘hegemonic masculinity’ needs to more specifically examine its hegemonic properties by analysing how masculine ideals embodied by white men have become pervasive and widely-accepted by men of colour through their voluntary compliance and consent. This paper analyses the influence of hegemonic masculinity on the lives of Japanese American men. Because they have adopted hegemonic masculinity as an idealised standard that they aspire to, but cannot attain, their subordinate masculinity is construed as inferior and effeminate, constraining their romantic power over women. Such negative assessments are shared by Japanese American women, who are also under the pervasive influence of hegemonic masculinity. In response, some Japanese American men attempt to appropriate the qualities of an idealised manliness in public performances, indicating how they continue to conceive of their masculinities in hegemonic terms. Although a few of them valorised Asian American manhood in order to challenge hegemonic conceptions, such alternative masculinities may eventually be appropriated by hegemonic masculine discourses to perpetuate pre-existing racial inequalities.

Hysteria as Alternative Masculinity in the Gothic Discourse of the 19th Century: The Case of E.T.A. Hoffmann, Edgar Allan Poe and Guy De Maupassant

Abstract From its onset, the Gothic has attempted to challenge established norms and conventions, either for sensational effects or to question their homogenizing and reductive tendencies. The questioning or reinforcing of received notions of femininity in Gothic fiction has been much debated by critics, with the concept of masculinity coming second. The present paper discusses normative masculinity as it was perceived in the 19th century and how E.T.A. Hoffmann, Edgar Allan Poe and Guy de Maupassant challenge its validity by creating male characters who adopt a hysterical, almost feminine voice, contesting the belief that hysteria was a “female malady”. The characters expose their unconventional masculinity, which resists the model of the ‘ganzer Mann’ in Germany, ‘marketplace man’ in US and the ‘conjugal heterosexual’ in France.

Animality and Biblical Masculinities in Conflict: Moses and the Golden Calf (Exodus 32)

The purpose of this article is to analyze the masculinity of the biblical figure Moses in relation to the golden calf in Exodus 32. The prophet has been used as a model of biblical masculinity based on criteria such as violence, persuasive ability, his relationship to women, and physical disability. However, no gender construction derived from his interaction with the animal idol has been considered. In the context of the intersection of “animal studies” and “masculinity studies,” this article proposes the conceptualization of a biblical “zoomasculinity” linked to the prophet. Cohabitation with the theriomorphic statue allows Moses to embody diverse alternative masculinities that culminate in his animalization and identification with the golden calf.

What Do We Know About the Nexus Between Culture, Age, Gender and Health Literacy? Implications for Improving the Health and Well-being of Young Indigenous Males

Health literacy, although diversely defined, refers to the abilities, relationships and external environments required for people to successfully promote health. Existing research suggests that health literacy is related to health inequities, including individual and community capacity to navigate health. A diverse range of factors shape health literacy abilities and environments, especially culture, gender and age. However, the nexus between these variables and their cumulative impact on health literacy development remains largely unexplored. Commentary that explores these dynamics among young Indigenous males is particularly scant. In turn, strategies to bridge health equity gaps have been obscured. This article brings together disparate research on health literacy, masculinities, youth studies and men’s health in order to address this oversight. By outlining the collective conceptual contribution of these strands of scholarship, we show that young Indigenous males navigate health literacy through a complex cultural interface that balances both Western and Indigenous understandings of health. Alternative masculine identities, which simultaneously embrace and resist components of hegemonic masculinity, also shape this health literacy lens. We explain that the development of health literacy is important for young people, particularly young Indigenous males, and that this is negotiated in tandem with external support structures, including family and friends. By describing these intersections, we explore the implications for researchers, policymakers and practitioners seeking to achieve the dual goal of improving health literacy and reducing health inequities among this highly marginalised population.

Maskulina läspraktiker genom tid och rum

The interaction between the local place and reading practice is continuously emphasized in literacy research. Nevertheless, the significance of place has been neglected in research on working-class men’s relationship to reading. This study responds to this gap by examining working-class men from rural areas and their relationship to reading across a life span. Through life-story interviews with two working-class men in their 60s, living in the same rural woodland municipality, the article contributes to the understanding of the importance of reading in these men’s lives, and how their reader histories interact with distinctive features of the locality. The study shows that the men’s individual reader histories have been shaped by, and have shaped, the specific local and cultural contexts and surrounding discourses. Through their reading practices throughout their life courses, the men (re)construct rural working-class identities in which hunting, fishing, sports and cars constitute significant elements. However, other movements in the men’s reading practices related to place through which the men can pursue alternative masculine positions are also present. The study highlights the importance for educators to pay attention to place as a significant feature in understanding working-class males’ reading practices.

Down Eros, Up Mars! Postmęskość w filmach Williama Wylera

The article speaks to the deconstruction of men’s images in William Wyler’s films. One may observe a different paradigm of what is male in the said director’s pacifist trilogy. The alternative masculinity utopias constructed therein are quite awe-inducing due to their emancipatory scope. Friendly Persuasion (1956), The Big Country, and Ben-Hur (1959) are films depicting not only the fight against patriarchal stereotype, but also reaching beyond the restrictions of heteronormativity. The libidal coordinates of the narratives are in sync with biopolitical status of modernity. Surprisingly enough, at the heart of Hollywood some brave cinematic post-masculine projects were developed.

The New Metal Men: Exploring Model of Flexible Masculinity in the Bandung Metal Scene

The global metal scene has long provided narratives and methods for solving issues of masculinities since in their particular environment in the music industry, and they are generally considered masculine. This article explores the stereotypical construction of masculinities in the Bandung metal music scene. This analysis based on in-depth interviews with Bandung professional metal male musicians who are aged 39-44 years old and are married. This investigation examines how these metal musicians negotiate alternative masculinities in various contexts, taking into account the predominantly Muslim culture in Indonesia. Using an ethnographic approach and borrowing from Millett's concepts of temperament, role, and status, this paper argues that metal music, which is generally considered hypermasculine, does not display the same construction in their performing their functions in the family. Through their roles as breadwinner, musicians maintain normative Indonesian masculinity, as well as fulfilling their responsibility to their family. However, they negotiate equity in the private space, which regards household labor division, childcare, and sharing of income. This paper argues that to some extent, musicians in the metal music scene in Bandung provide a role model of masculinity that is more gender-sensitive and egalitarian.

Remapping Country Music in the Pacific

Studies that introduced country musicians outside the US have expanded our views on the creators of American country music. They have, however, reinforced our notion that non-US country musicians merely imitate the American “original.” More recent studies have advanced the field by asking how non-US actors use country music to manipulate the borders between their countries and the US by playing country music. Yet they emphasize that non-US actors exclusively encounter US culture through country music. This paper pushes the field forward to mapping country music onto post-war Japan, locating it within a Japanese domestic context, and showing how non-US actors used country to control the ideological context created there. By doing so, it rejects the common perception that the Japanese merely imitated the “authentic” American country music. Japanese men enjoyed American country music not simply because it was American, but precisely because they could make it their own. This paper examines why certain male musicians played country music as they recovered from defeat in World War II between 1945 and the mid-1950s. To do so, it illustrates how men—country musicians and their critics alike—performed and discussed country music during this period. Ultimately, this paper argues that country musicians played country to embody an alternative masculinity that could serve as both a deviation and critique of the expectations and direction of mainstream Japanese society.

Freeter, Arafo, House Husband: Shifting Values of Hegemonic Masculinity and Emphasized Femininity in Four Japanese Television Dramas

This study examines the shifting values of masculinity and femininity in four Japanese television dramas: At Home Dad (2004), Around 40 (2008), Freeter, Buy a House (2010), and Wonderful Single Life (2012). These corpus data are analyzed using Connell’s concepts of hegemonic masculinity and emphasized femininity. The findings of this study focus on the following: 1. Characters in the four television dramas challenge the dominant discourses of masculinity and femininity by living as freeters, house husbands, and arafos. 2. To criticize hegemonic masculinity and emphasized femininity, these dramas depict the negative aspects of living a rigid lifestyle encompassed by traditional gender roles and feature main characters who show alternative lifestyles of masculinity and femininity. 3. Hegemonic masculinity and emphasized femininity values shadow the emergence of alternative masculinity and femininity in contemporary Japanese society.

'Dudes Are Meant to be Tough as Nails': The Complex Nexus Between Masculinities, Culture and Health Literacy From the Perspective of Young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Males - Implications for Policy and Practice.

Health literacy is generally conceptualized as skills related to successfully navigating health – ultimately linked to well-being and improved health outcomes. Culture, gender and age are considered to be influential determinants of health literacy. The nexus between these determinants, and their collective relationship with health literacy, remains understudied, especially with respect to Indigenous people globally. This article presents findings from a recent study that examined the intersections between masculinities, culture, age and health literacy among young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander males, aged 14–25 years in the Northern Territory, Australia. A mixed-methods approach was utilized to engage young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander males. The qualitative components included Yarning Sessions and Photovoice using Facebook, which are used in this article. Thematic Analysis and Framework Analysis were used to group and analyse the data. Ethics approval was granted by Charles Darwin University Human Research Ethics Committee (H18043). This cohort constructs a complex interface comprising Western and Aboriginal cultural paradigms, through which they navigate health. Alternative Indigenous masculinities, which embrace and resist hegemonic masculine norms simultaneously shaped this interface. External support structures – including family, friends and community engagement programs – were critical in fostering health literacy abilities among this cohort. Young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander males possess health literacy abilities that enable them to support the well-being of themselves and others. Health policymakers, researchers and practitioners can help strengthen and expand existing support structures for this population by listening more attentively to their unique perspectives.

Hegemonic masculinity in outdoor education

ABSTRACT Increasing attention is being paid to gender in outdoor education, with scholars and practitioners sharing experiences of sexism and heterosexism and explicitly calling for an examination of hegemonic masculinity in the field. The purpose of this paper is to respond to that call by: summarizing scholarship on hegemonic and alternative masculinities; reviewing research on masculinities in education that is particularly relevant to outdoor education; pointing to existing work in outdoor education that lays a foundation for examining masculinity, including promising recent research; and offering suggestions for disrupting hegemonic masculinity and creating conditions for more diverse gender performances. Since there has been so little research on masculinities in outdoor education thus far, there remain significant unanswered questions. It is past time for focused examination of hegemonic masculinity in the field as one strategy for addressing gender inequity.

Mathematics Makes you Feel Attractive. Empowering New Alternative Masculinities in the Context of Mathematics Classrooms

This article studies the relationship between masculinity construction in school and mathematics learning in boys. In this article, we introduce the variables of social interaction and the differentiation between the language of ethics and the language of desire to analyze the aspects related to mathematics learning in schoolboys. The methodology used is a literature review, paying particular attention to the techniques used in the literature and using categorization that emerged during the review to select and analyze the texts. We found several issues that seem to condition mathematics learning in boys that have to do with gender and specific identity construction, namely the dominant traditional masculinities. Moreover, this process is enhanced by the social attraction towards violence processes. However, the literature also contains elements that respond to a different model of masculinity that can be successful in mathematics learning and attractive at the same time, which is related to the New Alternative Masculinities model. We conclude with some recommendations to support this new and attractive model and to rethink research in mathematics achievement in children in the future.

Doing Masculinities: Exploring Gender and Age in Professionalizing Family Day Care in Taiwan

This study analyzes how male childminders in different life stages conduct their work and how they approach masculinities in this profession. We interviewed 16 males from three cities in Taiwan. Data analysis identified different masculinity construction mechanisms for men younger than 50 and those older than 60. These men understand childminding differently: While the younger ones embrace professionalization to create a childminding profession that is different from traditional female work, the older ones refuse to recognize child care as an occupation and strive to blur home/work boundaries to define child care services as a family duty or housework. The research suggests that hegemonic masculinity attributes are being introduced to this female-dominated profession, along with age-related sociocultural norms that provide the context for individuals to reconstruct alternative masculinities.

The Graphic Lives of Fathers: Memory, Representation, and Fatherhood in North American Autobiographical Comics by Mihaela Precup

Reviewed by: The Graphic Lives of Fathers: Memory, Representation, and Fatherhood in North American Autobiographical Comics by Mihaela Precup Carolyn Kyler (bio) The Graphic Lives of Fathers: Memory, Representation, and Fatherhood in North American Autobiographical Comics Mihaela Precup Palgrave Macmillan, 2020, xvi + 244 pp. ISBN 9783030362171, $84.99 hardcover. In The Graphic Lives of Fathers, Mihaela Precup examines eight North American autobiographical comics that “explicitly attempt to define good paternal conduct” (2), four by women writing about their fathers and four by men writing about their experience of fatherhood. She carefully explains the boundaries of her study, noting that she focuses on North America to compare works in a common cultural context. She uses the term “autobiographical comics,” rather than autography or graphic memoir, in order to encompass short forms and diary-style comics as well as book-length narratives. And while families, including fathers, are featured in many autobiographical comics, Precup focuses on those where fatherhood is central, those that present a “coherent narrative about fatherhood” (6). Her objective appears to be twofold: to analyze the representation of questions about fatherhood in autobiographical comics and to use those comics as evidence of how fatherhood has changed over the last several decades. To pursue these aims, Precup employs scholarship about life writing and graphic narrative as well as feminism and historical studies. She deftly incorporates key ideas relevant to autobiographical comics, notably postmemory—the concept first developed by Marianne Hirsch in her work on Maus—and the unique construction of the “I” in comics. Citing several scholars including Sidonie Smith and Julia Watson, Jared Gardner, and Charles Hatfield, she discusses how comics create a clear separation between the “I” who tells the story and the “I” who is the subject of the story. Here Precup explores the difference between photography and [End Page 843] drawing and the ways that authors use photographs as a kind of evidence in autobiographical comics. Precup places her study in the context of “filiation narrative,” an integration of autobiography and biography, and throughout the book, she foregrounds questions of ethics in autobiography. Who owns a life story? Is it ethical to write about a family member without consent? Precup also evaluates the works through a feminist lens: “This book asks questions about the contribution made by the vocabulary of graphic narration to the representation of fatherhood, the manner in which hegemonic masculinities influence paternal conduct and often exist in the same space as alternative masculinities, as well as the gendered and generational dynamic of parenthood” (23). Her analysis of how both female and male authors are shaped by patriarchal forces contributes significantly to the growing body of scholarship on autobiographical comics. The four autobiographical comics by women discussed in chapters 2 through 5 are all published in the twenty-first century but describe events from decades earlier. Each narrative positions the daughter as an investigator, sifting through memories, photographs, and documents to try to understand a father who is mysterious or absent. In Soldier’s Heart (2015)—a one-volume revision of the three-volume You’ll Never Know (2009, 2010, 2012)—Carol Tyler tries to uncover the source of her father’s anger and reserve by solving the mystery of what happened to him during his World War II service. Precup argues that Tyler blames too much on war trauma, using it as an excuse to forgive her father, “but she also introduces enough material to undermine her own (ambivalent) argument” (53). Precup reads Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home (2006), the award-winning narrative of Bechdel’s own coming out in conjunction with discoveries about her father’s sexuality and his suicide, as a quest to discover what makes a good father. Bechdel’s work foregrounds the question of what she owes to her father, and Precup notes that she “uses multiple techniques of persuasion that allow the narrator to construct the convincing portrait of a difficult father while also building a case for his redemption” (76). In The Imposter’s Daughter (2009), Laurie Sandell literally becomes a detective, tracking down the many lies that her father used to construct his identity. Finally, in the short comic, “August, 1977” (2013), and the book Fatherland...

Being Subordinate Men: Paul’s Rhetoric of Gender and Power in 1 Corinthians by Brian J. Robinson

Reviewed by: Being Subordinate Men: Paul’s Rhetoric of Gender and Power in 1 Corinthians by Brian J. Robinson Vien V. Nguyen brian j. robinson, Being Subordinate Men: Paul’s Rhetoric of Gender and Power in 1 Corinthians (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books/Fortress Academic, 2019). Pp. xii + 269. $110. This book is a revised dissertation submitted to Fuller Theological Seminary (2017), supervised by Love L. Sechrest. In the book, Brian J. Robinson analyzes Paul’s appropriation of feminine imagery in his self-presentation to deconstruct the conventional assumptions and expectations of the hegemonic masculinity model, which was inconsistent with the values of the Corinthian community and contributed to discord in the community. Thus, he argues, “Paul’s rhetoric in 1 Corinthians subverts masculine ideals and intentionally recasts the appropriate masculinity and status of the men in the community in order to promote unity in the face of increasing factionalism” (p. 4). Utilizing gender criticism, R. advances his argument in six chapters. In chap. 1, R. outlines the scope of his research, discusses the contemporary scholarship on the Corinthian correspondence relevant for the study, and provides an overview of the study. In chap. 2, R. traces the development and influence of gender studies and employs them as a methodological approach to examine discourses of masculinity and gender in Greek and Roman literature. He then presents common assumptions about masculinity and addresses the intersection between masculinity and power. In Greco-Roman patriarchal societies, a man must embody the socially constructed expectations of the idealized masculinity, that is, self-control/mastery and domination over others. He must maintain and defend his masculinity before his peers via the proper presentation of the male body. A failed masculinity would result in personal attacks and charges of femininity, which would lead to loss of social and legal standing in the community (p. 38). Chapter 3 focuses on alternative masculinities found in first- and second-century c.e. texts. R. discusses the categories of masculinity: hegemonic, complicit, and subordinate. Of specific attention are complicit and subordinate masculinities. Complicit masculinity refers to men who lack key aspects of hegemonic masculinity (i.e., lower-class freemen) but who could still participate in the patriarchal power structures. Subordinate masculinity refers to those who manifest feminine characteristics (i.e., eunuchs) and who would be excluded from the patriarchal power structures (p. 66). In his examination of the writings of Favorinus, Josephus, and Philo, R. demonstrates how these authors engage in hegemonic gendered discourses to reformulate perceptions of masculinity, transforming what was perceived as subordinate masculinity into complicit or hegemonic masculinity. In chaps. 4 and 5, R. deals with Paul’s call to imitate him by adopting subordinate masculinity. In chap. 4, R. analyzes Paul’s description of himself in 1 Corinthians 1–7 as a failed orator (1:17–18; 2:1–5), a wet nurse (3:1–3), a shameful father (4:14–15), and a celibate man (7:1–7). All these imageries, perceived as feminine and subordinate, would diminish his standing before other “manly” men and restrict his access to spheres of power and influence reserved for hegemonic and complicit men (p. 146). Moreover, Paul implores the Corinthians to imitate his subordinate persona to subvert destructive and oppressive forms of masculinity, to confront factionalism, and to protect the congregation’s unity. In chap. 5, R. elaborates on Paul’s call to “misperform” discourses of hegemonic masculinity to destabilize patriarchal structures that legitimize oppression. He examines the various commands in Paul’s paraenesis to the Corinthian believers: becoming fools (1:1–4:20), not bringing [End Page 523] each other to Roman courts (6:1–8), adopting the diets of the weak (8:1–11:1), husbands submitting to their wives and wives to their husbands (7:1–6), being subordinate men (16:13). In chap. 6, R. recapitulates his argument and attempts an interpretive test of Paul’s commands on head coverings (1 Cor 11:2–16) in light of Paul’s rhetoric of gender and power in 1 Corinthians. This summary does not do justice to R.’s comprehensive work. The thesis is carefully researched and cogently argued. The book contains a wealth of indispensable material, and...

Power, Control, and an Interplanetary Dialectic of Masculinities in Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Dispossessed

This paper explores the intersection of masculinities and feminist science fiction of the 1970s, specifically Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Dispossessed (1974). It argues that the work of Le Guin and other contemporary writers contains portrayals of alternative masculinities that stand in stark contrast to those of earlier science fiction. These renderings of more egalitarian conceptions of manhood, while often overlooked in favor of analyses of the female characters populating these novels, reveal important links connecting masculinities and the nation and augur the possibilities for science fiction to imagine new, healthier conceptions of maleness.

1990년대 미국영화에 나타난 대안적 남성성

1990년대 미국영화에 나타난 대안적 남성성