Hegemonic Forms Of Masculinity Research Articles

Jihad and Heroic Hypermasculinity – Recruitment Strategies, Battlefield Experiences, and Returning Home

There is a gap in knowledge when it comes to jihadism and how it is associated with notions of masculinity. Especially empirical studies on masculinity that are based on interviews with active or former jihadists are lacking. This study seeks to analyze the role that notions of masculinity have played in different phases of jihadiship among Swedish jihadist foreign fighters, from recruitment to traveling to the conflict zone, and then eventually returning to Sweden. With a focus on heroic jihadist hypermasculinity, which is a form of hegemonic masculinity that exaggerates male stereotypical behavior such as violence and aggression, the study identifies five themes: Recruitment strategies and masculinity; from masculine failure to protecting sisters in faith; jihad and street culture; the warrior ideal; jihad, patriarchy, and brotherhood; and returning home and preventing re-emasculation. The empirical material is based on interviews with six Swedish jihadists and a former jihadist recruiter.

The “African male literary tradition” and revisionist polemics in Isidore Okpewho’s writing

African literature has been very polemically, but usefully engaged, by feminists and other concerned gender stakeholders in the past three decades on the note that its foundational discursive platform of representation is patriarchal, largely representing the female body as ‘absent’ and ‘other’ in the imaginative landscape of canonical African(ist) expression. While these critical efforts have significantly succeeded in interrogating phallocentrism in African male writing, they have, however, failed to recognize several masculinist indicators in the latter that have purposively undermined the hegemonic/patriarchal frame of maleness. In this article I argue, through a reading of Isidore Okpewho’s first three novels, that certain representations of African male writing preceding those of the contemporary turn portray revisionist attitudes to patriarchy, or any form of hegemonic masculinity. In these, the African woman is made to gain visibility and she becomes active on her own social terms. I thus debunk popular feminist-oriented claims that the canonical African literary male tradition necessarily inscribes the African woman in the stereotypical narrative of being a ‘mother-nation/mother-Africa image’, ‘prostitute’, ‘witch’, or socio-cultural other. I suggest a more careful, distilled, and responsible approach toward the politics of agency and power involving gender and identity (re)formation in the African world, culture, and literature.

Technologies of (in)security: Masculinity and the complexity of neoliberalism

Although there is much feminist work that has examined the intersection of gender and neoliberalism, critical work on men and masculinities remains underdeveloped in this area. This article suggests that complexity theory is a crucial resource for a critical analysis of the ways in which masculinities contribute to the ongoing maintenance of neoliberal socio-economic systems. Critical work on neoliberalism and capitalist economics has recently been drawn to complex systems theory, as evidenced by the work of scholars such as Sylvia Walby, William Connolly and Brian Massumi. Their work produces important insights into neoliberalism, but does not develop a sustained reflection on the place of men and masculinities in this domain. In order to develop a critical account of the relation of masculinity to complexity, the article draws on the work of Judith Butler and Bonnie Mann. It suggests that Butler’s theorising on precariousness contains important resources for understanding how hegemonic masculinities are positioned in relation to the complexity of neoliberal systems, as illustrated in Mann’s concept of ‘sovereign masculinity’. Finally, drawing on two different examples of the enactment of masculinities in neoliberal contexts, the article argues that hegemonic forms of masculinity can be understood as technologies for the amelioration of the complexities and insecurities generated by neoliberal markets.

The “Barbaric”Dabke

AbstractThis essay analyzes how dance, gender, and state power function together as a significant node of critique in recent cultural production that addresses authoritarianism in Syria. Identifying the symbolic trope of dabke, a popular dance ubiquitous in Syrian life, selected films, literature, and choreography, this essay argues that the discussed works dislodge dabke from its feminized association with authenticity, folk culture, and nationhood to instead represent dabke as a form of hegemonic masculinity that perpetuates sovereignty, patriarchy, and autocracy. Through the rendering of embodied acts of dabke performance, hegemonic and resilient modes of masculinity are equated with spectacles of violence attached to the state, repressive tactics by the police state, and performative complicity with the regime. This essay argues that sovereign and autocratic forms of power are not universal abstractions but are embedded in the gendered structures of the society in which such power is performed.

Crafting masculinities: embodying, recuperating and redistributing care in young lives

ABSTRACT Research on geographies of care identifies care work as a low-paid, menial and ultimately feminized activity. Much of the work in the field, unsurprisingly, has focused upon the plight of women and how the division of labour produces and sustains gender inequalities. We are interested in how new generations understand gender, work and care and the possibilities for generating heterogeneous, caring masculinities. Using creative methods, we engage young people in a series of critical masculinities workshops through which participants are asked to reflect upon what it means to be a man and materialize these ideas through arts and craft. Our school-based discussions with young people and their artworks reveal how participants place an acute emphasis on the felt, affective and emotional register of caring masculinities. We explore their creative endeavours to critically interrogate care as a gendered concept, interpret its ‘troubled’ relationship to masculinity, and analyse possibilities for future change. Our findings suggest masculine care practices have the potential to challenge and redistribute power across the gender order. However, we further found that hegemonic forms of masculinity could become consolidated and recuperated through caring acts, meaning gender power relations are not easily disrupted simply by men becoming caring.

Straightjackets of Male Domination in Senior Positions: Revisiting Acker's ‘Ideal Worker’ and the Construction of the ‘Ideal Executive’

AbstractThis paper contributes to the on‐going debate on men's overrepresentation in executive positions. Drawing on semi‐structured interviews with male senior managers in two Australian organizations, this paper aims to problematize men's privilege in senior positions by uncovering the different forms of hegemonic masculinity that legitimize men as the ideal candidates for executive positions. Using Joan Acker's concept of the ‘ideal worker’ as a starting point, this paper aggregates these criteria to develop a new concept of the ‘ideal executive’. The model of the ‘ideal executive’ reveals how decision‐makers (mostly male) control executive position allocation, construct the barriers to entry and define the criteria for an ideal candidate for such a position. Candidates who desire to be considered for an executive position need to conform to this ‘ideal’, which has been influenced and shaped by male executives. Patriarchal power structures, particularly careerism and entrepreneurialism, are investigated with a focus on the ways in which they contribute to the construction of the ideal executive and consequently inhibit women's career progression into senior positions. We conclude that masculinities are now more sophisticated and encompass newer forms that account for changes in societal norms.

The Film Kids 25 Years On: A Qualitative Study of Rape Culture and Representations of Sexual Violence in Skateboarding

This article examines the 1995 fictional feature film Kids, which locates its story in skateboarding culture. The film reached its 25th anniversary in 2020; it is directed by Larry Clark and written by Harmony Korine, both recognizable figures in skateboarding, and it featured a cast of youth from the New York skateboarding scene. The research analyses narrative content that depicts sexual coercion and rape. Contemporary social and feminist theories of sexual violence, rape culture and media on the film inform the analysis. The discussion points to how the characters that the boys play embody forms of hegemonic masculinity, pointing to the social and cultural dimensions of male power and how sexual violence can be an element of that. The article also presents an occasion to reflect on such issues in skateboarding culture more widely, with emerging insights that can be useful to studies of other male-dominated youth cultures, lifestyle sports and subcultures.

He said he said: boysplaining in a primary classroom

ABSTRACT The past two decades has seen widespread academic and public concern about boys’ academic achievement and the emergence of discourses that identify girls as academic ‘winners’ in the primary classroom; however, this article aims to problematise these trends. Drawing on ethnographic research carried out in a primary school classroom in London, this article draws attention to ‘boysplaining,’ a set of behaviours carried out by certain boys which constituted a form of hegemonic masculinity in this classroom. Boysplaining, a younger version of mansplaining, manifested both verbally and physically, and appears to affect how girls navigate the classroom. This research indicates how boysplaining disadvantages girls, raising questions about the extent to which girls are ‘winning’ in primary school classrooms today. The article calls for further research on boysplaining in other classrooms, in particular to examine the academic, social and emotional consequences of these behaviours on girls and non-hegemonic boys.

Territory, sovereignty and entitlement: Diplomatic discourses in the United Nations Security Council

This paper builds upon feminist approaches within political science, international relations and geography that study how bodies haunt global politics, by exploring how entitlement to power connects through the scale of the body to that of the state. In a context of rising populism and political bluster, as well as post-#metoo discussions of personal entitlement displayed by well-known political figures, there is a need to take seriously how discourses of statehood within security crises are gendered in specific ways. This paper argues that the concept of entitlement offers potential for geographic enquiry by opening up new perspectives on masculinist framings of territory and state in critical geopolitics and in critical international relations. It considers specifically how diplomatic discourses ground and naturalize claims to territory by showing how states’ entitlement to territory and masculinist forms of personal entitlement are connected. Drawing upon feminist approaches to language, discourse and power, this paper studies diplomatic interventions at the United Nations Security Council in New York in 2014–2017 on the crisis in Ukraine. Methodologically, it analyses diplomatic speeches through the concept of entitlement to show how territorial claims are naturalized through rhetorical devices grounded in hegemonic forms of masculinity. It argues that a clearer understanding of the connections between discourses of personal entitlement and state territorial sovereignty can further our understanding of territory.

Popular postcolonial masculinities: gangsters and soldiers in Maghrebi-French cinema

This article explores the relationship between popular Hollywood and postcolonial masculinities, through the Maghrebi-French films Days of Glory (2006) and Outside the Law (2010). I focus on how the films foreground the place of Maghrebi-French men in France and French history, at the expense of women, by mimicking more popular and universally familiar versions of masculinity: namely, the gangster and the soldier. What does it mean when Fanon’s ‘new Algerian man’ meets Saving Private Ryan (1998) and The Godfather (1972)? This question is answered through readings of the films that take into account the films’ specific (anti)colonial histories and postcolonial presents, and their cultural intermediation between seemingly disparate gender and race paradigms. By exploring the ways in which these films reimagine French colonial histories of World War Two and the Algerian War of Independence, this article raises questions about the synchronistic appropriation of film genre that allows for subordinated and racialised masculinities to be both empowered by, and disruptive of, hegemonic forms of masculinity. Popular, in relation to cinema, is understood as commercial and accessible, and thought of as a kind of ‘taste’ that appeals to broader publics with the cultural capital to engage with it, whilst the postcolonial, normally circulated in cinema networks associated with ‘art’ and the ‘auteur’, is characterized by financial and artistic independence, experimentation and niche audience markets. This article, through reading these films’ construction and contestation of masculinities, analyses the productive tensions that emerge between popularly entertaining men and postcolonial political men, and asks how bringing them together might challenge dominant masculine forms, and disrupt boundaries between popular culture and the postcolonial more broadly.

Exploring identities and practices of Taiwanese men working in family day care: a tentative typology

ABSTRACT This study analyses male Taiwanese childcare workers’ approach to an understanding of masculinity. This analysis considers the sociocultural expectations of manhood in Taiwan and the economic and familial circumstances of each childminder. A typology of male childminders is proposed along two axes: the contribution to family income and the experience of childcare compared to their wives. Four types resulted from these criteria: 1) certified grandpa, 2) childminder as a pedagogue, 3) childcare as a business and 4) childminder’s helper. Drawing on 20 in-depth interviews with men who work with their spouses in a family day care, the analysis shows that the interplay of economic power and familial relations shapes the masculine construction of each archetype in a different way. Each type of childminder applies divergent discourses and practices that maintain the hegemonic form of masculinity on one hand and develops alternatives on the other. The analisis also identifies the conditions for the development of a gender-neutral conception of child care sevice with participation of men.

Discourse Analysis of Hegemonic Masculinity on TV Advertisements

This research entitled “A Discourse Analysis of Hegemonic Masculinity on TV Advertisements” aims to identify cohesion, context and coherence when research the hegemonic masculinity on TV advertisement, identify representations of masculinity on TV advertisement, and analyze hegemonic masculinity realized on TV advertisement.This research uses discourse analysis approach. Where, the researcher used descriptive research method, which aims to create descriptions, as well as describe the data naturally from TV advertisement about hegemonic masculinity. And in collecting data researcher use techniques see, hear and record, then classified and analyzed.In this research found 5 of 5 categories by Halliday and Hasan (1976) are: reference, substitution, ellipsis, conjunction and lexical cohesion. Then 8 categories of context in advertisement according to Cook (1992) are: substance, music and picture, paralanguage, situation, a joint text, intertext, participants. Furthermore according to Reinhart (1980) that coherence is categorized into 3 categories namely: connectedness, consistency and relevant. Finally,the discovery of masculinity and hegemonic masculinity based on the concept of Connel (1995) on TV advertisement. Based on the results of this research, researcher concluded that the advertisement on TV, which where the advertisement of male products on TV contained full of messages in the form of hegemonic masculinity in it.

Soldiering as an obstacle to manhood? Masculinities and ex-combatants in Burundi

ABSTRACT The image of the warrior as the ultimate symbol of manhood is familiar across cultures and countries. There is a large quantity of research that demonstrates the connection between militarism and masculinity, and militarized masculinities have been argued to be the hegemonic form of masculinity, particularly in conflict-affected areas. Recently, however, there has been a call for the rethinking of the connection between masculinity and violence. In this article, I explore the construction of masculinities among ex-combatants in Burundi. Based on participant observation, 18 individual interviews and four focus-group discussions, I argue that having served in an armed group has not had a significant impact on the masculinity ideas of my interlocutors. There is a weak connection between ideas of what makes a good soldier on the one hand and manhood in civilian life on the other. Marriage, fatherhood, and being the provider are the most important factors in masculinity construction in Burundi. These all require economic capital. In addition, socio-economic status is important for the power and respect that it brings. The focus on socio-economic status as the locus of masculinity construction also applies to ex-combatants, but many of them are struggling to adhere to it. My interlocutors presented their time spent in the armed group as time wasted, that would otherwise have been used on education or starting a career – in other words, on the path to achieving manhood. The narrative given was thus one of soldiering being not an avenue but an obstacle to manhood.

“Soft, airy fairy stuff”? Re-evaluating ‘social impacts’ in gendered processes of natural resource extraction

Within the global extractive industry, emotions continue to the subject of regulation and erasure. In recent years, the dismissal of emotion within much of the extractive sector has been underpinned by particular hegemonic forms of masculinity which position emotions as ‘irrational’ and ‘irrelevant’. The ramifications for the way in which this form of masculinity dismisses and erases emotion have been critiqued primarily within the context of those working within the sector (Mayes and Pini 2010, 2014; Pini et al 2010). However, this intervention has yet to take place to the same extent for those outside the sector, who are navigating its consequences for their communities and places. This paper argues that dismissing emotion has particular implications for the ways in which ‘social impact assessments’ are conducted, and for what is counted or classified as a ‘social impact’ by the sector. Drawing on women's experiences of opposition to the development of extractive projects throughout the New South Wales (NSW) Hunter Valley, this paper uses emotional geographies to emphasise the ways in which the masculinist regulation and erasure of emotion within the extractive sector also facilitates the dismissal of the distinctly emotional consequences of resource extraction for people and place.

Hegemonic masculinity versus a caring masculinity: Implications for understanding primary caregiving fathers

AbstractRecently, there has been a growing interest in what is positioned as a new form of masculinity arising from the increase in fathers as primary caregivers. This new form is referred to as a “caring masculinity” and is theorised as a radical shift away from traditional or hegemonic forms of masculinity. This paper critically examines the fathering literature, focusing specifically on how primary caregiving fathers navigate social norms with regard to masculinity. The paper concludes that there is a complex interplay between expectations of a traditional, provider father and a new and involved father. It is argued that ideas surrounding a caring masculinity are better understood as a broadening of hegemonic masculinity, rather than an entirely new or distinct form.

“I Kick It to Both, but not in the Street”

This article examines how behaviorally bisexual Latino men negotiate, modify, and perform their gender within distinct social spheres. An analysis was made of 148 sexual histories of Latino men aged eighteen to sixty, from a cross-sectional, multiyear study in New York City. A familial sphere of gender norm negotiation was sharply contrasted with conformity to elements of dominant or hegemonic forms of masculinity performed on streets of neighborhoods of residence. Rather than a strict dichotomy, our participants revealed a spectrum of masculine representations that worked to manage the risk of nonheterosexual stigma. Participants adopted variable configurations of masculinity to reconcile the plurality of their sexual practices, distinct social spaces, and socially sanctioned gender norms.

The differentiation of masculinity as a challenge for the concept of hegemonic masculinity

ABSTRACT‘Hegemonic masculinity’ is applied worldwide as the predominant concept in research on men and masculinities. The theoretical and empirical origins of the term can be traced back to the work of Raewyn Connell. Connell suggests that gender is a dynamic process and that gender orders emerge in and through everyday practices and relations. Even though the concept is well established in men and masculinity studies, explanations of the hierarchical relations between forms of masculinities still needs to be reconfigured. This includes questions about the relation between hegemonic forms of masculinity and non-hegemonic masculinity formations as well as about the relation between hegemonic masculinities, masculinity formations that support and strengthen hegemonic masculinity and those that resist and challenge hegemonic masculinity. We propose that the current focus on a vertical structuring of forms of masculinity with hegemonic masculinity at the top, inflates the hierarchical super- and subordination of forms of masculinity. Based on two empirical studies we explore to what extent the transformation of hegemonic masculinity is challenged by the appearance of new legitimate forms of masculinity, which emphasises the ever-changing negotiability of masculinity and a horizontal logic of masculinities.

Patriarchy, gender, infantilisation: A cultural account of police intelligence work in Scotland

Drawing upon qualitative research undertaken in Scotland, this paper provides new insights into police culture by exploring the interactions between sworn police officers and civilian intelligence analysts engaged in intelligence work. The claim is made that by exploring the cultural impact of intelligence analysis, it is possible to identify patriarchal dispositions within police culture and the emergence of a gender order in policing that subordinates femininity, youth and other masculinities that run counter to police culture's form of hegemonic masculinity. This gender order is interwoven with processes of infantilisation that inhibit the integration of intelligence analysts into police intelligence work. This article concludes by discussing the prospects for cultural change in policing from the inter-related perspectives of both social theory and professional practice.

From exclusion to inclusion

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the cultural aspect of policing, particularly as it relates to the role of gender, and proposes an alternative approach to addressing the culture of masculinity within policing. Design/methodology/approach – First, the author provides a brief overview of the nature of policing. This is followed by a review of the relevant literature on policing and gender and the implications for men, women, and police organizations of adhering to a militarized or hegemonic form of masculinity. Finally, the author discusses Ely and Myerson’s proposed theory for “undoing gender” and its relevance for policing. Findings – The findings of this paper suggest that the police culture continues to reinforce the masculine image of policing, thereby representing a significant barrier to the advancement of women. The findings also suggest that this barrier may be overcome through shared goals that advance collective well-being, definitions of competence linked to task requirements, and a learning orientation toward work. Originality/value – This paper makes an important contribution to the existing literature on gender and policing, as it specifically focusses on the cultural influences of masculinity and considers the structural, behavioral, and cultural changes required to create margins of safety for police officers to experiment with new behaviors.

Casted masculinities in the Punjabi Diaspora in Spain

ABSTRACTThis paper discusses how young, unmarried Indian men of Punjabi origin from an ex-untouchable caste negotiate masculinity in a first-generation migration context in Barcelona, Spain. Based on fieldwork carried out over a two-year period, the paper explores how men assert their masculinity through economics, moral leadership, caste pride and the exaltation of Indian gender norms. It discusses how the majority of young Punjabi men in Spain adhere ideologically to a breadwinning, hegemonic form of masculinity. It finds that Dalit men, in response to the devaluation of their masculinity by upper caste and Spanish men, respond by valuing their masculinity as superior and investing in upward mobility.