Hierarchy Of Masculinities Research Articles

Masculinist Actionism: Gender and Strategic Change in US Cyber Strategy

How do gender hierarchies inform processes of strategic change? Drawing upon feminist institutionalism and security studies, we argue that gender hierarchies form the boundaries of acceptability for strategic change. We conduct a qualitative feminist analysis of cyber strategy policy documents and expert commentary around a 2018 shift in US cyber strategy. We identify two ideal-typical modes of masculinity—military and “tech”—as influential in conditioning US cyber strategy. The interaction of these masculinities facilitated the emergence of “defending forward” and “persistent engagement” as proactive, dynamic, and suitably masculine new strategic concepts. The previously preferred strategic concept, deterrence, conversely, was constructed in line with feminized tropes as weak, passive, and reactive. Strategic change is facilitated by a change in the meaning of a specific gender norm—masculinized action—while still constrained by the continuation of a broader gender hierarchy of masculinities over femininities, and the associated valorization of action over passivity and dependence.

Virtually Masculine: Queer Men’s Experiences With Harassment in Online Video Games

Video games are an understudied sport featuring social interactions both similar and dissimilar to those in offline sports. While anonymity in online video games could create a space where minoritized groups experience more equitable treatment, offline social inequalities are translated into online video game interactions. Drawing on 20 semistructured interviews and 2,694 survey responses from self-identified queer men, I build a framework for understanding gender, sexuality, and racial/ethnic harassment in online video games. I argue that nerd masculinity is a protest masculinity that uses symbolic harassment to reframe masculine hierarchy online and enforce hegemonic nerd masculinity. With this study, I illustrate the prevalence of symbolic harassment and the channels it may follow to become direct harassment.

“Now I Must Go”: Uncovering the Relationship Between Masculinity and Structural Vulnerability in Young African Men's Stories of Forced Migration

Drawing on personal narratives collected from Sub-Saharan African international protection holders and seekers in Sicily, this article aims to advance understanding of the gender-specific processes prompting young men to migrate toward Europe. Focusing on the diverse experiences of (or threat of) violence that prompted participants to migrate, I argue that masculinity can be seen as a mediating factor between the individual and structural levels, producing a set of structural vulnerabilities to male-on-male violence both in the public sphere and in private spaces like the familial context. Here, vulnerability should be understood as positionality, indicating participants’ placement within context-specific masculine hierarchies along the lines of age, migration status, and race. Accordingly, this article interprets the Central Mediterranean migration route as a highly masculinized migration arena, where the social reproduction of vulnerable male mobilities stemming from the hierarchical organization of masculinities is located on a continuum across different migration phases.

Men Who Brew: Masculinity and the Production of Drink in Medieval Icelandic Literature

Men Who Brew: Masculinity and the Production of Drink in Medieval Icelandic Literature

The Provincial Forms of Masculinity: Male Power Relations, Strategies and Collaborations in Van

Male gender identities are constructed in different forms depending on variables such as age, sexuality, class and ethnicity. This research focusing on male gender identities in the city of Van aims to discuss masculinity through factors such as tribe, sexuality, power relations between men and local dynamics. Masculinities considered through these variables that occurred based on sociocultural expectations are planned to discuss within the framework of theories of male domination, hegemonic masculinity and structured action theory. Having examined the discourses of heterosexual and gay men through qualitative methods, the practices of control, exclusion, and solidarity which are performed among men during the construction of male gender identities is examined. In addition, male power relations that men perform to be positioned in the hierarchy of masculinities or to settle in a higher position against other men will also be discussed in relatin to power dynamics.

The Rules of Attraction: An Empirical Critique of Pseudoscientific Theories about Sex in the Manosphere

Academic research is dedicating growing attention to the phenomenon known as the manosphere, where genders and (hetero)sexual relations are explained according to the so-called Red Pill philosophy and LMS theory. In this article, we critically analyze these theories and their pseudoscientific assumptions using a Bourdieusian framework, and we analyze the empirical effects they have in the Incel and Red Pill Italian communities through the example of the “Aranzulla case”. By exploring the “Redpiller” blog and two Incel forums (“Forum of the uglies” and “Forum of the Incel”), we found that, on one hand, the Red Pill and LMS theories are strongly contradictory in themselves because, even if they combine socio-economic and biological theories to explain sexual relations, they assume a fixed vision of gender based on (supposedly) natural inclinations. On the other hand, our results show that these theories promote misogynistic content blaming women for men’s unsatisfaction, but they actually unveil intragender dynamics. Indeed, they produce tensions inside the manosphere, by creating hierarchies of masculinities, and around the possibility of escaping the biological destiny linked to the Incel condition.

Managing masculinities: dynamics of offshore fishing labour in Vietnam

Vietnam’s offshore fishing industry remains a space dominated by men, with fish work being tied to notions of what it means to be a man. This paper uses interviews data and participant observation to assess the ways in which masculinities shape and are shaped by labour relations in offshore fishing in Southern Vietnam. Findings show that labour relations are maintained through an emphasis on the abilities of men to do difficult physical work, behavioural expectations associated with masculine norms, and a homosocial bonding culture at sea, in addition to a bonding culture on land that involves drinking and women as entertainment. Multiple masculinities are identified with varying degrees of fluidity as informed especially by class and with dynamics differing at sea versus on land. In a context of fish stock decline and international pressure for strict fisheries reform, efforts to sustain an offshore fishing workforce rely, in part, on the reproduction of a particular local hierarchy of masculinities.

“You are no longer cubs, you are now lions”: examining the constructed masculinities of Islamic State child executioners and their victims

ABSTRACT Integral to its military and state-building activities, the Islamic State (IS) terrorist organisation recruited and mobilised large numbers of children into its ranks. The group’s propaganda publications showcase the commitment and skills of its young male militants, with footage focused on training in weapons handling and hand-to-hand combat. Marketed as a potent weapon against IS’ enemies, a sub-set of propaganda videos foregrounds the role of boys in the ultra-violent executions of hostages. This article presents analysis of 20 official IS propaganda videos released between 1 January 2015 and 31 December 2018, in which 71 boys conducted on-camera executions on behalf of the group. Data presented include the setting and method of killing; the profile and “charge” of the victim; and the boy’s nationality, age group, and “justifications” for their acts. Highly staged, these violent displays frame and constitute the status of the young IS “cub” and the adult male hostage as symbols of their respective societies, values, and masculinities. The author examines the juxtaposition of the two figures and their constructed positions in IS’ ideological, military, and masculine hierarchy.

Maskuline Verschleierungstaktiken

Abstract Sexual violence against men is a neglected topic in the field of biblical studies. This article argues for a perspective informed by critical masculinity studies to understand sexual violence against men in an adequate way. It is used as a tool within masculine hierarchies to demean other men and their masculine performance. However, sexual violence against men is often hidden, in the texts as well as in their exegetical commentaries because sexual violence against men is almost unimaginable in common notions of successful masculinities. The article shows that sexual violence against men was used as a rhetorical tool in historical sources. Furthermore, it criticizes exegetical terminology about sexual violence against men (reversed rape, feminization) which conceal the impact of sexual violence on masculinities. The article closes with some considerations for further research.

Hate speech towards LGBT in Ukrainian online media

The article presents the results of a content-analytical study of 243 publications in online media of Ukraine during 2021 in comparison with the results of earlier monitorings of Ukrainian offline and online media. Analysis of both scientific literature shows that hate speech against minorities (in particular, LGBT) is an urgent issue that has a distinct practical dimension, because the spread of hate in the online environment can have the nature of an epidemic and be accompanied by an increase in violent acts. Although the results have a number of limitations (different ways of forming selective sets of media materials in the analyzed studies, lack of research consensus on the definition of hate speech, attribution of the collected data to the period before the beginning of the massive invasion of the Russian Federation troops on the territory of Ukraine and impossibility of reflecting the state of society in the war time), it showed that the number of news related to LGBT was decreasing, despite of media samples design. Publications containing hate speech were from 2 to 25%. Hate speech in these publications was usually quotes and does not express the position of the journalist. Hate speech arose in the context of both public and internal actions of the LGBT community and was accompanied by calls for violence or violence itself. Stronger hate speech was more typical for anonymous internet commentators, street hooligans (including those from organized right-wing gangs), and small local public figures. The collected materials are analyzed in the paradigm of R. Connell’s hierarchy of masculinities. Hate speech is characteristic primarily for the statements of athletes, military and politicians, that is, those who are associated in the public consciousness with the stereotypical image of a “real man”. In further studies, approaches to the formation of media samples should be standardized, as well as, the tools for automatic or semi-automatic content analysis should be developed. All this will facilitate the study of changes in hate speech in the public space.

Rivalrous Masculinities: New Directions in Medieval Gender Studies

Rivalrous Masculinities: New Directions in Medieval Gender Studies

(Mis)Understanding Same-Sex Sexual Violence Amongst Boys: A Perspective on Recent Rape Incidents in South Africa

Incidents of male–male sexual violence amongst young boys in South Africa have been brought into sharp focus by the media and, to a lesser extent, research, yet there continues to be very little research into this phenomenon in South Africa. In this perspective, evidence is presented of how the dearth of research has led to a limited appreciation of the associated risk factors and the socioeconomic circumstances under which male–male sexual violence amongst young boys occurs. It is possible to theorise that this neglect results from a gendered discourse which frames males and females as perpetrators and victims respectively, and disregards males as victims. Moreover, drawing on critical men and masculinities scholarship, the contention is made that this neglect also results from limited recognition that boys are gendered, that there are a multiplicity and hierarchy of masculinities amongst boys, with dominant masculinities sometimes employing physical and sexual violence to suppress and control subordinate and alternative masculinities. More research is urgently needed on boy–boy sexual violence in resource-poor communities in South Africa. Such work should be grounded in the critical men and masculinities framework. The findings from such research could inform the development of context-specific gender-transformative interventions for young adolescent boys, to prevent their construction of violent masculinities and the use of violence.

Hierarchies of Masculinities: An Analysis of the Characters in the Indian Web Series, Paatal Lok

Media and society are interdependent entities that are suspended seamlessly in a state of blissful co-existence where one feeds the other and vice versa. More so, when it comes to gender issues, wherein, media’s narrative is shaped by societal norms and society imbibes a large part of its gender conversations from media. Media’s representation of the masculine has largely been dictated by inherent patriarchal norms and the classic hegemonic patterns dominant in media narratives. However, as R.W. Connell recognised, there exists a diverse range of masculinities and its own hierarchical structure which is also represented through media content. Over-the-top (OTT) platforms are gaining ground in India’s crowded media scene because of factors like accessibility, affordability and variety of content. Indian content on OTT platforms are targeted at the young, urban, upwardly-mobile Indian middle class and are largely slick productions with hard-hitting, original storylines and closer-to-reality characterizations. Paatal Lok is one such very popular crime drama that has a primarily masculine narrative. This study uses R.W. Connell’s three structures of gender relations: labour, power and cathexis to understand the representation of masculinities in Indian OTT media across class structures by identifying the hierarchies of masculinities in the Indian web series, Paatal Lok. The study uses qualitative techniques in the form of discourse analysis to gain further insight into the representation of different gradations of masculinities in contemporary Indian media.

‘He must be a man'. Uncovering the gendered vulnerabilities of young Sub-Saharan African men in their journeys to and in Libya

ABSTRACT Based on personal narratives collected in Sicily with refugees and asylum seekers, this article aims at uncovering the gendered vulnerabilities of young Sub-Saharan African men transiting to and through Libya. Overall, participants’ narratives construct the journey to Libya as a landscape of gendered opportunities to perform competent manhood. This suggests the existence of a common masculine discourse regulating the interactions among travellers and with smugglers in this arena. Here, the illegal dimension of crossing is presented as a site where participants must prove their ‘value’ as ‘men’. This discourse offers legitimation to dangerous smuggling practices and violence enacted by the illegality industry. Within this rigid understanding of masculinity, migrant men’s vulnerability in Libya can be understood as the product of situated masculine and racial hierarchies; between migrants and smugglers/armed groups and among migrants. These gendered vulnerabilities are exacerbated by conditions of fractured mobility, the situation of travelling alone, the proliferation of weapons associated with the post-Gaddafi scenario and gendered/racialised patterns of incorporation in the Libyan illegal economy. Ultimately, due to this continuum of gendered violence, participants are ‘forced’ to embark on the sea crossing towards European shores.

Ottoman Diplomacy and Hegemonic Masculinity during the Great Eastern Crisis of 1875-78

This article will examine Ottoman and British diplomatic correspondence and the satirical press and argue that during the Eastern Crisis of 1875-78, representatives of the Great Powers conceived of a hierarchy of masculinities that became a major part of their diplomatic rhetoric. At the top of this order was the masculinity that European statesmen saw in themselves and legitimized their imperialist projects; they particularly emphasized honor, and a logic-based intelligence which enabled them to order their governments, economies, and households so that noble, white, Christian men controlled the people of presumed lesser classes, races, religions, and genders. Until the end of this crisis, Ottoman officials sought to convince their European counterparts that they should accept them as, if not equals, at least junior partners. Therefore, Ottomans did not challenge the European belief in a hierarchy of masculinities but sought instead to prove that the new Ottoman statesman was a modern and rational man both capable and in possession of the moral imperative to rule over the lesser peoples of the Ottoman Empire. In particular, Ottoman officials depicted Christian separatists as cruel, savage, and too ignorant for independence, mirroring the arguments that anti-Ottoman Europeans made about the Ottomans.

Vulnerabilities, Exploitation, Exclusion, and Social Trauma of Half-Widows in Shafi Ahmad’s the Half Widow (2012)

Amidst the hierarchy of masculinities in society, the hegemonic masculinity is a pattern of practice that infers the variegated other masculinities (complicit, subordinated, and marginalized) infer...

Migration has Stripped Us of Our Manhood: Contradictions of Failed Masculinity Among South Asian Male Migrants in Greece

This article explores the contradictions of the failed masculine stature of South Asian male migrants in Greece. Transnational migration provides low-class rural Indian and Pakistani men an opportunity to socially re-inscribe their adult breadwinner stature. It discusses relational hierarchies of masculinities that shape these men’s encounters with Greek employers, compatriots in Greece, and transnationally located families. Discriminatory state migration and labor regimes intersect with discourses of racism, xenophobia, and Islamophobia to reinforce these racialized men’s sense of failed masculinity. Relative powerlessness to a range of local and co-ethnic men further emasculates them. Consequently, they adopt a series of compensatory strategies that include self-valorizing their masculinity relationally vis-à-vis co-ethnic males and Greek male workers. Strategically repositioning self as indispensable to the Greek nation and accentuating personal sacrifice for families notionally transforms them into mythic heroes. Notwithstanding, precarious migrant status in Greece renders hegemonic masculine stature elusive to them.

Negotiating positionality, reflexivity and power relations in research on men and masculinities in Ghana

The main objective of this article is to contribute to a more critical, African-situated understanding of the complexities, emotional vulnerability, and multidimensional positionality that a male researcher is likely to face in conducting fieldwork in a native country. Drawing on my own experiences in conducting fieldwork in northwestern Ghana, the article demonstrates how a male researcher conducting interviews with his fellow countrymen could be constructed within hierarchies of masculinities; where he is simultaneously positioned as a powerless native subject and a powerful researcher. I problematise how my negotiation of fieldwork as a Ghanaian male researcher and my ideological baggage as a gender scholar could be read within the larger politics of gender and geography, as well as feminist intersectional theories. Drawing on these theories as useful analytical guides to foreground my fieldwork experiences and how I interpret my data, allow for critical understanding on the range of cultural norms, taboos, gendered subjectivities, and contested meanings which perpetuate multiple masculinities in fieldwork. My reflection from a postcolonial context contributes to growing global concerns to rethink and decolonise how we approach fieldwork.

Different men – similar meanings. Rural Norwegian men’s constructions of meanings related to health, body and physical activity

This paper aims to provide an understanding of why a group of middle-aged and elderly rural Norwegian men with heterogeneous backgrounds largely express homogeneous meanings related to health, body and physical activity. Data was generated through 18 in-depth interviews with men of different age, varying ethnicity and with different levels of education. With Bourdieu’s theory of practice and Connell’s theory of hegemonic masculinity as theoretical framework, the discussion focuses on how the construction and expression of these understandings is formed by the context in which the men live their lives and by dominating masculine ideals. We argue that the men’s meanings related to health, body and physical activity are practices through which they accumulate and display several forms of capital – also masculine capital. Not only does the volume of masculine capital a man holds, position him in the social space, it also positions him in the local masculine hierarchy.

Towards a critical geography of physical activity: Emotions and the gendered boundary‐making of an everyday exercise environment

In this paper, we put forward a proposal for a critical geography of physical activity that attunes to experience while centring on the socio‐spatial processes and power structures enabling and constraining physical activity participation. Drawing on our research that explored women's and men's emotional geographies of an everyday exercise environment – the gym – in a Canadian city, we show how this approach can identify otherwise invisible environmental influences on physical activity participation. Our thematic analysis reveals that the gym environment is generative of three place‐based emotive processes of dislocation, evaluation, and sexualisation that collectively configure an unevenly gendered emotional architecture of place. Through this interstitial structure, the boundaries of localised hierarchies of masculinities and femininities become felt in ways that create tensions and anxieties, which in turn reinforce gendered boundaries on physical activity participation. Two additional themes reveal how gendered motivation and individual factors mediate negative emotional experiences. Our findings indicate that emotional geographies are one way in which gender disparities in physical activity are naturalised at the scale of the everyday exercise environment. Interventions for gender equity in physical activity would benefit from being empathetically attuned to the subtleties of place‐based experiences. More widely, bringing emotions into geographies of physical activity sheds light on the larger question of the role of place in (re)producing gendered health inequities, with implications for geographical research on health and social justice. Future critical geographical inquiry is necessary to ensure that public health interventions are grounded in the experiential realities of practising physical activity in particular places.