Hard Man Research Articles

‘You got to be a hard man’: performing and negotiating normative masculinities among Ghanaian young adults

There have been growing concerns among feminists and masculinity theorists on how particular constructions of masculinities may tend to limit options available for men to explore. Drawing on qualitative in-depth interviews conducted with fifteen men aged 30-35, findings revealed that young men are active agents who do not only passively embrace particular normative gender norms and practices, but that young men also have the capacity to deconstruct and challenge what is normatively presented to them. It is particularly essential to note the ways in which problematic constructions of gender were not only enacted and reproduced, but how particular constructions of masculinity were challenged simultaneously. We argue that such contestations should be read within the broader historical and sociocultural contexts in which young men make sense of their masculine identities in relations to prevailing gender discourses. This is an important finding as it highlights the complex and contradictory processes through which young men may situationally make sense of their normative gender identities in order to merit acceptance and status validity among their peers. Findings from this study have important implications for how gender equitable subjectivities can be nurtured and promoted among young men.

Becoming Italian

Becoming Italian

ГЕНДЕРНЫЕ АЛЛЕГОРИИ ШОТЛАНДСКОЙ НАЦИИ В ТВОРЧЕСТВЕ А. ГРЕЯ

Being an ardent patriot and Scottish nationalist Alasdair Gray has created a whole gallery of national allegories in his fiction. Until recently, researchers’ attention (K. Stirling, I. Platt, C. Blomeley) has been mainly focused on female national figures. Nevertheless, one of the basic categories of Scottish cultural identity has always been masculinity rather than femininity. Consequently, the key cultural trope of national literature is considered the “hard man”. The aim of this research is to provide a comprehensive analysis of male characters in A. Gray’s fiction based on J. Homberg-Schramm’s classification of national masculinity types: traditional man, compensatory man, and the man in transition. In his novels, traditional masculinity is associated with the generation of “fathers”, and is hugely criticized as a relic of the past. Toxic masculinity is embodied in the figures of “justified sinners” (misfits, and men suffering from mental disorders) whose viciousness results from colonial trauma. In order to fight degrading national stereotypes A. Gray has produced a number of positive images of male characters who, interestingly enough, serve as an illustration of writer’s changing views on Scottish masculinity. The given article may be of special interest to scholars whose expertise lies in the area of contemporary British fiction as well as Postcolonial and Gender Studies.

“I don’t know what the world is coming to. Bloody perverts…”: Masculinity and Displacement in Pre-Ceasefire Derry Girls (2018–19)

Although widely applauded for its female centrality, Derry Girls (2018-19) also problematises the displacement of masculine subjectivities in a period when the peace process and the effects of globalisation permeated the renegotiation of the discursive notions of masculinity in Northern Ireland. Intergenerational relations are key to understanding this displacement of male characters like Granda Joe (the hard man), Da Gerry (the new man), or James. With an emphasis on the carnivalesque, liminality, space, and emasculation, this article will investigate the extent to which male characters, who are caught amidst the rapid cultural changes caused by the spatial and cultural negotiations of the ceasefire, represent the collapsing structural dimensions of the social constitution of gender in pre-ceasefire Northern Ireland.

In toxic hating masculinity: MMA hard men and media representation

ABSTRACT This article begins by focusing on the presumed relation between the toughness fostered by mixed martial arts (MMA) and the maintenance of traditional ‘hard man’ forms of toxic masculinity. However, it adds an extra dimension to this discussion. It argues that (first) the UFC and (thereafter) MMA as a whole were in very tangible ways invented within and thanks to reality TV. As such, it contends that MMA's often debated relation to ‘real’ fighting needs to be approached in full awareness to the implications of its indebtedness to media representation. Because of this debt, it argues that media representation itself ought to be understood as playing an active role in the invention, maintenance or modification of gendered representation. Finally, it proposes that if a kind of ‘MMA toxic masculinity’ is regarded as being a problem, then the solution may not simply be to ‘change MMA’. Rather, both the problem and the solution may more precisely be located in the kinds of media representations that circulate about MMA subjects and subjectivities.

Accusers of capitalism: masculinity and populism on the Scottish radical left in the late twentieth century

ABSTRACTScotland offers a valuable case study of the ways in which a combination of transnational and national structural changes can open up national articulations of ‘hegemonic masculinity’ to subaltern contestation. During the late twentieth century, the subjection of an imagined industrial community to both global capital flows and state planning priorities produced opportunities for the re-articulation of hegemonic masculinity as a means of securing subaltern agency within a counter-movement against neoliberalism. The defiant but respectable left-wing ‘hard man’ – a signifier of collective morality and populist counter-legitimacy against state and market – was mobilized by leaders espousing an often explicitly gendered vision of respectable militancy. This article identifies three such leaders: Jimmy Reid, Jim Sillars and Tommy Sheridan. Each leader advocated resistance to market forces and the state by personally embodying a traditional masculine authority rooted in the cultural imaginary of industrial working-class communities. This article examines the parameters of Scottish left-wing populism before analysing its decline in the late twentieth century. Under devolution this populism has been displaced by a more inclusive ‘civic’ nationalism less comfortable with gendered and militant rhetoric, as the social basis of masculine left populism has been eroded.

Life after release from prison: The experience of ex-offenders with intellectual disabilities.

In the UK, little is known about the experience of ex-prisoners with intellectual disabilities. A qualitative study was therefore conducted to investigate what life is like for ten men with intellectual disabilities who left prison at least 9months previously. Semi-structured interviews were employed to explore the men's views of post-prison life, including opportunities/challenges and support received from services. Through interpretative phenomenological analysis, four over-arching themes were constructed: the nature of support and services, the difficulty of staying out of trouble, the importance of family and the need to act the "tough guy". The participants reported being extremely under-supported. They were often hostile about staff who they felt were too focused on their previous crime. In general, men were very under-supported and the upheavals of post-prison lives appeared to be "normalized" by them. Better understanding of their lives within their social context would benefit their community re-entry.

Characters in Ma’mun Affany’s Novel 29 Juz Harga Wanita

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A Savage War: A Military History of the Civil War by Williamson Murray and Wayne Weisiang Hsieh

Reviewed by: A Savage War: A Military History of the Civil War by Williamson Murray and Wayne Weisiang Hsieh John M. Belohlavek A Savage War: A Military History of the Civil War. By Williamson Murray and Wayne Weisiang Hsieh. ( Princeton and Oxford, Eng.: Princeton University Press, 2016. Pp. xiv, 602. Paper, $19.95, ISBN 978–0-691–18109-8; cloth, $35.00, ISBN 978–0-691–16940-8.) For those wondering why we might need another lengthy military or political account of the Civil War, Williamson Murray and Wayne Weisiang Hsieh pull no punches in offering readers a candid appraisal of leadership, resources, strategy, and tactics. The authors summarily reject the primacy of technology in controlling events during the war and argue that it was one of many factors that determined historical changes in "military practice" during the conflict (p. 2). Secession and a war that lasted an unanticipated four years were, certainly in part, the product of failed leaders, including several abysmal U.S. presidents. Millard Fillmore was "a New York political hack," Franklin Pierce was "insipid [and] weak," and James Buchanan, not unlike his predecessors, was intellectually dishonest and politically inept (pp. 21, 24). The generals were worse. A "nasty, arrogant" Henry W. Halleck was basically "an over promoted clerk who simply did not understand the war" (pp. 138, 403). A "pusillanimous" and arrogant George B. McClellan appeared "hesitant, cautious, [and] fearful" (p. 247). Braxton Bragg was a "racist, vicious incompetent" who somehow has a prominent federal military installation named after him (p. 547). The authors contend, importantly, that the war's outcome was not a foregone conclusion. The Confederacy possessed a number of advantages that could have led to victory, especially in an abbreviated conflict where both sides were unprepared. Although the Union did possess the bulk of the tools for war, including manpower, transportation, and industry, Union leaders initially lacked the imagination and creativity to utilize those resources. The development and implementation of logistical systems of support and supply over great distances were critical to Yankee success. The South's river system, extended coastline, swamps, forests, and primitive roads posed a unique set of problems for invading forces. The road to victory in 1861 was potholed by massive untrained armies, inexperienced officers, and corruption. The result, as the authors pointedly state, was "amateur hour" (p. 8). By 1864, Abraham Lincoln's administration had the plans, resources, and proactive military leadership to launch a war-ending campaign. In 1862 and 1863, however, the casualties mounted on both sides as the conflict played out in the East, where the inspirational, risk-taking, and brilliant tactician and strategist Robert E. Lee repeatedly bested a series of reticent, outmatched opponents. The war was won, however, in the West, where an energetic Ulysses S. Grant hammered away at lackluster Confederate commanders. Critically, the authors contend, Grant inculcated an aggressive mind-set and culture in his western forces that he found lacking and difficult to duplicate when he assumed [End Page 180] command of the eastern armies in 1864. The culture of the Army of the Potomac and its leaden officers had been by 1862 molded in McClellan's inert image. Grant, the interloper, found it impossible to quickly change that culture, which negatively affected his ability to challenge Lee in the Overland campaign. Grant discovered that fine soldiers who were led by substandard officers were not a formula for victory. Political leadership was equally critical to success or failure. The authors' enthusiasm for Lincoln is given full measure. They portray him as "a hard man" who made mistakes but was always learning and could make tough decisions (p. 59). Lincoln finessed a fractious cabinet and Congress while trying to emancipate the slaves, endure political generals, find a winning commander, and unify a divided North. Jefferson Davis, in contrast, demonstrated none of his counterpart's positive personality traits. He was rigid and indecisive, his ego bruised easily, and his loyalty was too often misplaced. Critically, Davis failed to see the importance of the West to Confederate victory. At its core, this work is a first-rate analysis of command, command structure, and the behavior of officers and men in combat. Those interested...

Braxton Bragg: The Most Hated Man of the Confederacy by Earl J. Hess

Reviewed by: Braxton Bragg: The Most Hated Man of the Confederacy by Earl J. Hess David Powell (bio) Braxton Bragg: The Most Hated Man of the Confederacy. By Earl J. Hess. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2016. Pp. 341. $35.00 cloth) Confederate general Braxton Bragg is a hard man to figure. Arguably the second-most important Rebel army commander of the Civil War—right after Robert E. Lee—Bragg commanded the Confederacy’s most significant western theater force, the Army of Tennessee, for twenty months. By contrast, Joseph E. Johnston, the man who followed him, led it for only eight months. Under Bragg’s command, the army was trained, organized, marched thousands of miles, ranged across a half-dozen states, and fought the battles of Perryville, Stones River, Chickamauga, and Chattanooga. [End Page 293] Although not without his supporters, Bragg is perhaps also the most vilified figure of the American Civil War. As Earl J. Hess notes in his introduction, Bragg’s “contemporaries began the process of making him into a fool, a hero, a bloodthirsty disciplinarian, and an old-fashioned scapegoat.” Many historians have followed suit, so much so that today, notes Hess, “one need only mention his name at a Civil War round table meeting to bring a guffaw” (p. xi). In this new volume, Hess, the Stewart W. McClelland Chair in History at Lincoln Memorial University and the author of many previous works, attempts to strike a more accurate assessment of Bragg’s role. This work is not a full-fledged biography but rather an in-depth study of Bragg’s Civil War career, focusing both on his performance as a soldier and the personal stresses of those years. Of the sixteen chapters comprising Hess’s work, only two (the first and last) address his pre- and postwar life. Given that his work is meant to be a reassessment, Hess also exhibits a thorough grounding in the previous historiography. Bragg has been the subject of four previous biographies, figures prominently in the two major histories of the Army of Tennessee, and receives extensive coverage in various battle monographs. Hess combines a deft narrative of Bragg’s wartime experience with a judicious examination of how he has been treated by those historians. By and large (and perhaps surprisingly), Bragg has been treated well by his biographers, sometimes to the point of hagiography, but has been excoriated in both the army histories and most of the battle narratives. Surely there is a balance to be struck here. And Hess strikes it. He fully documents Bragg’s successes. Bragg’s 1862 invasion of Kentucky reversed six months of steadily declining Confederate fortunes in the west, buying the beleaguered South at least an extension of its survival. Hess also credits Bragg’s battlefield successes and addresses the many myths that have sprung up concerning the general’s supposed failings. Bragg’s reputation as a grim disciplinarian is cast in a new light; Bragg had fewer of his own men executed than either the Army of Northern Virginia under Lee or than did Johnston when he replaced Bragg in 1864. [End Page 294] However, Hess makes no apologies for Bragg’s very real leadership failings. As his army fell ever more into dissension and back-biting, Bragg proved unable to smooth over such rifts, indulging instead in personal grudges that only ratcheted up the army’s internal animosities. If 1861–1862 saw Bragg at his best as a soldier, 1863–1865 saw him at his worst, and the Confederacy suffered for it. This work is a significant addition to our understanding of the Civil War. It offers a thoughtful counterpoint to much of the existing literature, as well as an important corrective to the overly zealous of Bragg’s (admittedly few) partisans. Any scholar of the war should consider it mandatory reading. David Powell DAVID POWELL is an independent scholar and author. A scholar of the Chickamauga Campaign, he has authored five books on that subject to date: The Maps of Chickamauga (2009), Failure in the Saddle (2010), and the three-volume The Chickamauga Campaign (2014–2016). He lives and works in Chicago. Copyright © 2017 Kentucky Historical Society

Macho men in a girls’ game: masculinities and the Otago men’s netball team

This article examines the experiences of seven men who play for the Otago men’s netball team (in Dunedin, New Zealand). Despite playing a sport that was initially invented as women’s basketball and in an association that has historically had a strong gay and trans* presence, they subscribe to rather hegemonic definitions of masculinity. All the players are both heterosexual and consider homosexuality incompatible with hegemonic masculinity. However, they also characterize homophobia as vulnerability and therefore a failure of masculine power. This suggests that there may be some shifts in definitions of hegemonic masculinity within this context. The traditional southern ‘hard man’ is therefore relegated to second-tier status: it is the man who tells his rugby mates that he likes netball that must ‘have a bit of bloody strength’.

From Pinter toPimp: Danny Dyer, Class, Cultism and the Critics

Danny Dyer is one of Britain's most prolific stars, with a career spanning both critically acclaimed and critically derided material, the latter exemplified by his work in exploitation movies. This article investigates Dyer's film stardom, considering some of the central debates surrounding his status as an actor. Central to the discussion is the significance of Dyer within the contemporary cultural landscapes of gender and class, and the various complexities and contradictions that circulate around his persona. The article analyses Dyer's stardom in the wake of his role in the cult exploitation movie that consolidated his subsequent ‘hard man’ typecasting, The Football Factory (2004), and considers how the marketing of the majority of his subsequent films has been instrumental in perpetuating a particular construction of his stardom which, in turn, informs his reception by the critics. The article traces connections between Dyer's popularity and recurrent critical derision aimed at him as an actor lacking artistic integrity and genuine talent. It contends that the politics of both Dyer's star construction and his critical reception are linked to the renewed legitimacy of class hatred in British society, represented by media discourses surrounding the ‘chav’, which appositely reflects his ‘low’ cultural status as a ‘straight-to-DVD’ actor.

Editorial: The Coming of Age of the Max Weber-Gesamtausgabe

[MWS 12.1 (2012) 7-12] ISSN 1470-8078 Editorial The Coming of Age of the Max Weber-Gesamtausgabe Sam Whimster How do we know when something has arrived? This is a peculiar question to pose for the Max Weber-Gesamtausgabe (Complete Works of Max Weber) whose output to date measures almost two metres of shelf space. Section 1—the Writings and Speeches—has 18 volumes published. Section 2—the Letters—will shortly have pub lished all the letters from 1906 through to 1920. Section 3 has pub lished five of a projected eight volumes of Weber's lecture courses. For subscribers to the Max Weber-Gesamtausgabe (MWG) one can scarcely not be aware of its arrival. But now MWG has its own his tory and this signals its official coming of age. Edith Hanke, Gangolf Hübinger and Wolfgang Schwentker, all volume editors, provide the first thorough and documented account of how the Max Weber-Gesamtausgabe came into being. It is a colourful story. Horst Baier was the moving spirit in the 1970s and was motivated to combat the political and expressive Marxism in German universities and at Frankfurt am Main where he was professor in sociology. The legendary hard man of the right (and little known classical philologist), Franz Josef Strauss, was a politi cal sponsor of the project, before it was taken up by the Bavarian Academy of Sciences. Strauss was just one intermediary. Niklas Luhmann helped to gain support for the project from the Reimers Foundation, which funded six meetings of a foundation committee. Horst Baier wrote the report, which outlined the principles and purposes of the edition and this was widely canvassed. The soci ologist Helmut Schelsky working on the policy commission of the CSU opened the way to the eventual support of the Bavarian Acad emy of Sciences. And in 1976, under the managership of M. Rainer Lepsius, a contract was reached between the Bavarian Academy, the Max Weber-Gesamtausgabe and the publisher Mohr Siebeck. The editorial rules of the edition had to be hammered out: on a© Max Weber Studies 2012, Clifton House, 17 Malvern Road, London, E8 3LP. 8 Max Weber Studies historical-critical basis (see Max Weber Studies 2000:104-14), and the institutional structure of research centres established from where the individual volumes were produced. In 1982 Munich became the central research centre, and many international scholars have made the pilgrimage to Marstallplatz to benefit from the Winckelmann library and the warm hospitality of the redactors—first Karl-Ludwig Ay and now Edith Hanke. A bibliography was produced by Martin Riesebrodt in 1976 that revealed some 300 Weber titles which then had to be allocated to volumes. The founder editors had their battles not only getting the project off the ground but sometimes with each other. Johannes Winckelmann, who was the editorial heir to Mari anne Weber, threatened at one point to blockade the use of his indis pensable Weber archive and library to the new editorial project. Wolfgang J. Mommsen and Winckelmann were at daggers drawn over, respectively, the access to letter material and the interpretation of Weber's politics. No less important were the many editors of the separate volumes who were allowed a degree of independence in presenting their scholarly researches, though within the bounds of the rules of the edition. Was the MWG in inception an anti-Marx project? Certainly the Marx-Engel-Gesamtausgabe was sprouting behind the East German dividing wall, and the case for an edition of superior scholarship could be made. But it always remains a mistake to use Weber as a stick with which to beat Marx. Weber's methodology, for instance, can be used to critique materialist conceptions of all sorts as well as the numerous epistemological marxisms of the twentieth century. But Weber's methodology is hardly a blunt instrument. It is through Weber's methodological structures that we are instructed how to combine both material and ideal elements in the determination of history. Friedrich Tenbruck, whose deep grasp of Weber's writings could certainly have qualified him for a place on the editorial board of the MWG, always thought that the scholarly exposition of the methodology would be the...

The use of section 60 powers in Brent

The hard man attitude to stop and search is making a comeback in Brent. With the change in top rank officers comes a completely new (although some would say old and personal) view of how a communit...

Football's ‘Coming Out’: Soccer and Homophobia in England's Tabloid Press

This article examines the current contradictory discourses on homosexuality and soccer within the British (specifically English) newspaper media. While support ostensibly is given in the press to the eradication of homophobia in relation to soccer, the continuing promotion of traditional masculine football stereotypes, such as the ‘hard man’, imagines an ongoing heterosexual normativity. Furthermore, the media fascination with professional soccer players ‘coming out’, although expressed in supportive terms, may be decoded as an attempt to publicly reveal the deviant other. Such ambivalent representation is even evident in coverage of the Kick It Out anti-homophobia campaign. News releases from the campaign have been reinterpreted within media representation to fuel a perceived public interest in wanting to know which Premier League soccer players are gay. Accordingly, by employing a psychoanalytic and post-structuralist perspective on the instability of discursive constructions of heteronormative masculinity, the article considers soccer and its related media as a site of hegemonic contestation in which the dominant discourse of male heterosexuality is at once undergoing challenge and reinforcement.

‘Sons of the Empire’: Dance and the New Zealand Male

This article traces the journeys of dancing men from the stages of New Zealand to the stages of London during the twentieth century. The oft-repeated history of ‘the hard man’ of New Zealand who belonged to the ‘culture of imperial manliness’ is challenged by the stories of these men who, beginning in the 1920s with Jan Caryll, became professional dancers. I argue that within early twentieth-century New Zealand culture the opportunity existed for men and male bodies to be on display. The Maori haka, which featured men dancing in public exhibitions and ceremonies, had been seen by non-Maori (Pakeha) since first contact, while the emergence of body-building, beginning with the visit in 1902 of Eugen Sandow and a culture of sport, allowed men to be on show. Not least of all, tours to the antipodes of European dancers inspired young men to study ballet and contemporary dance. As a consequence, throughout the twentieth century New Zealand male dancers continued to arrive in London and contributed to both New Zealand and British dance histories.

“Acting the part of an illiterate savage”: James Kelman and the question of postcolonial masculinity

The ubiquitous hard man of 20th‐century Scottish culture is often constructed as a product of English colonialism, a reaction to the feminization and inferiorization of Scottish culture. This article investigates the appropriateness and implications of this approach to Scottishness in the context of James Kelman’s framing of his writing through a postcolonial vision of cultural resistance, with particular reference to his Booker Prize‐winning novel How Late it Was, How Late.

Hard man to surprise

A birthday treat.

Improving patient care

One thing that unites BMJ readers must surely be their desire to improve patient care, whether through research, education, health systems management, or direct clinical contact with patients. But what does this really mean? A couple of months ago Don Berwick, president of the Institute of Healthcare Improvement (IHI), asked us what the BMJ 's mission was. On hearing that is was, yes, to improve patient care (http://resources.bmj.com/bmj/sitemap/about-bmj/Our-vision-and-mission), he challenged us to get more concrete. What exactly did we want to improve and how? This got us thinking. Those of you who have heard Don Berwick speak will know that he is a hard man …

On the necessity of removing "cruelty" from the teaching of computing

In his famous article [1] Edsger Dijkstra reflected upon how cruel it would be truly to teach computer science. For some reason the CS community over the years have taken the sadistic element of his entreaties to heart. Why is this so? Does it have intuitive appeal to those CS educators who believe in the "hard man" school of computer science and the "real programmers don't eat quiche" model of education?