Male Identity Research Articles

The “Real Man” and National Security

This article explores the relationship between masculinity and national security. There may be a reluctance to view the values, attitudes, and beliefs associated with a particular version of masculinity as a driver for violence. Yet, the “real man” version of masculinity is consistently correlated with those who in engage in mass violence, mobilized violence, and violent extremism—which present a threat to national security. The “real man” identity is also correlated with significant gender disparities in quality of life including income, health, happiness, and mortality for men. Such grievances represent yet another driver of discontent and violence. National security requires that we recognize and understand potential threats and subsequently work to mitigate those threats. Men in the US military have traditionally been viewed as prototypical of masculine identity and its associated values, attitudes, and beliefs. As such, this version of masculinity represents a unique institutional context to examine the “real man” version of masculinity, and to advance gender equality and overcome the harms that rigid gender roles present to national security.

"Arrest me, DeleGata!" - gender performativities in the construction of beauty as an aesthetic and discursive weapon of power among female Civil Police chiefs.

This article discusses the performative gender constructions of female police chiefs working in Rio de Janeiro state. Using cartography as a research method, we follow the paths, connections, and construction of femininities, activated and performed by our respondents to establish a place of respect and prominence within and outside the Institution, using beauty as an aesthetic and discursive power tool based on the DeleGata performative class. Cartographic interviews were conducted with nine female police chiefs in Rio de Janeiro state aged 30 to 59. Although the police have historically valued recognized masculine ideals, such as strength and virility, the gender performativities operated by female police chiefs allow for police feminization. The figure/enunciation of DeleGata, who builds an image of the female police chief, implying a unity, signifies producing political subjects, ideas, and values that reach a communicative and performative standard, making visible some woman who adorns - with her beauty - and simultaneously surprises - with her intelligence. The DeleGata thus brings into play apparently antagonistic extremes: beauty-intelligence, sensuality-power, femininity-strength, producing a social and symbolic regimen for the production of bodies and femininities.

“Me prende, DeleGata!” - performatividades de gênero na construção da beleza como uma arma estética e discursiva de poder entre delegadas da Polícia Civil

Abstract This article discusses the performative gender constructions of female police chiefs working in Rio de Janeiro state. Using cartography as a research method, we follow the paths, connections, and construction of femininities, activated and performed by our respondents to establish a place of respect and prominence within and outside the Institution, using beauty as an aesthetic and discursive power tool based on the DeleGata performative class. Cartographic interviews were conducted with nine female police chiefs in Rio de Janeiro state aged 30 to 59. Although the police have historically valued recognized masculine ideals, such as strength and virility, the gender performativities operated by female police chiefs allow for police feminization. The figure/enunciation of DeleGata, who builds an image of the female police chief, implying a unity, signifies producing political subjects, ideas, and values that reach a communicative and performative standard, making visible some woman who adorns - with her beauty - and simultaneously surprises - with her intelligence. The DeleGata thus brings into play apparently antagonistic extremes: beauty-intelligence, sensuality-power, femininity-strength, producing a social and symbolic regimen for the production of bodies and femininities.

Bruno Schulz, the Man

The paper is an attempt to shed light on Bruno Schulz as a man seen in a specific social and historical context. It is a kind of reconstruction of his (un)manliness. A starting point was an intuitive supposition that for Schulz being a (“real”) man might have been a genuine ordeal and that few people actually perceived him as one. The reconstruction is based on testimonies, letters, and individual observations of the writer’s colleagues and friends. They questioned those elements of Schulz’s male identity which did not fit the accepted social model. The picture that has been revealed by a number of memories, distorting or exaggerating his actual features and attitudes under the influence of the stereotypes of the times, consists of at least six elements: (1) Schulz was an ugly weakling; (2) a sickly mamma’s boy always in depression; (3) a sexual impotent, maniac, and pervert; (4) a sluggard and a schlemiel; (5) a parasite depending on his clever, socially prominent, and wealthy elder brother; and (6) a burden to the family that he should have supported. The author opposes that stereotype which, even though impressive in literary terms and well rooted in Schulz’s biographical myth, significantly simplifies his picture and biography by reducing him to a caricature of a great but socially castrated artist. Paradoxically, what made Schulz an artist: his talent, sensitivity or perhaps even hypersensitivity, gentleness, shyness, a unique (maybe pretended?) sense of separation from reality, as well as deep insight in it somehow deprived him of manliness as defined by society and made him unmanly. On the other hand though, all those traits contributed to an explanation, a shield, and an alibi of the stereotypical unmanliness. Thus, sometimes some people were able to forgive him his weakness since after all he was an artist. But what if had been a shoemaker or, for that matter, a dealer in textile fabrics?

The Costs of Grooming: Bodily Scrutiny and White-collar Masculinities in Japan

This article explores the everyday policing processes surrounding men’s bodily grooming and white-collar masculinities in Japan. Amidst increasing scrutiny of men’s bodies, research has highlighted how men understand their grooming in relation to masculinities privileged by class, race, and sexuality. Less is understood, however, about men’s experiences of everyday policing processes surrounding grooming. Japanese white-collar cultures where good grooming stands for professionalism provide fruitful contexts to address these gaps. Interviews with 33 socially privileged white-collar men in Tokyo demonstrate how participants understand grooming vis-à-vis masculine ideals of professional competency. Participants are particularly conscious of scrutiny from superiors, colleagues, and subordinates. While past scholarship has often overlooked the vulnerability of privileged men’s positions, for white-collar men in Japan, being subject to often cruel policing processes threatens their place on gendered hierarchies. Thus, I argue that even for privileged men, policing of their grooming presents real costs to their hegemonic status.

Challenges to Hegemonic Constructions of Militarized Masculinities in the Neoliberal Era: The Case of South Korea

In South Korea, military conscription lies at the core of the construction of notions of manhood and gender order as a whole. In a divided country, the hegemonic meaning of military service as a crucial marker of adult manhood remained unquestioned. However, since the implementation of full-blown neoliberalism, there has been a shift in societal gender norms and this in turn has changed the way in which militarized masculinities are constructed and enacted at the individual level. Drawn from qualitative interviews with South Korean former conscripts, this article examines the tension between militarized and neoliberal masculine ideals and how hegemonic constructions of militarized masculinities are challenged in it.

The problem of anti-feminist ‘manfluencer’ Andrew Tate in Australian schools: women teachers’ experiences of resurgent male supremacy

ABSTRACT There is growing visibility of online ‘manfluencers’ who espouse extreme masculine ideals and share them with their audiences of boys and young men. Taking this phenomenon as a launch-pad, we join the tradition of research that exposes sexism in schools and theorizes girls and women’s experiences of working within and against masculine hegemony. Drawing on qualitative interviews with 30 women teachers in Australia, we suggest the sexism identified in early research endures in schools today, resurrected in part by the ubiquity and influence of one specific misogynist ‘manfluencer’, Andrew Tate. Employing Connell’s hegemonic masculinity, we suggest boys’ sexist practices towards their teachers and girl peers forms part of a strategy of gender inequality legitimization, stabilizing and reinvigorating a regressive ‘male supremacy’. These behaviours represent a backlash from boys and men who perceive a loss of gendered power in the post-#metoo era and have implications for girls and women in schools.

Transnational Labour Migration and the Renegotiation of Masculinity by Left-Behind Men in Kerala

This article explores an understudied aspect of women’s transnational labour migration, namely how left-behind men negotiate the changes in their status in the domestic and public spheres when their daughters or wives migrate for work and become primary earners in the family. A case study of Syrian Christians in a village in Central Kerala with a long history of women’s transnational labour migration demonstrates how left-behind men refashion their masculine identities by reasserting their role as family protectors when they lose their traditional role as family providers. The article illustrates how left-behind men employ diverse social and discursive practices in domestic and community spheres to reconstruct their gendered sense of self and resist the social stigma of failed masculinity. It also demonstrates how the Church, which continues to be a dominant institution influencing the personal and political lives of Syrian Christians, has become an arena for left-behind men to reassert their patriarchal status at home and in the community.

Young Men's Attitudes and Understanding of Menstruation

PurposeTo identify sources of information, perceptions, and potential misinformation about menstruation among college-aged men in the United States. MethodsThis is a mixed-methods cross-sectional survey study of students in the United States. Inclusion criteria included participants aged 17–29 years, male gender identity, enrolled as an undergraduate or graduate student, and no personal history of menstruation. ResultsThis study included 70 participants. Almost half of all participants (42.9%) first learned about menstruation from family members. More than two-thirds of respondents felt that menstrual education was essential or very important for all genders. The most common symptoms noted to be associated with periods included cramping (93.6%), mood changes (80.9%), and vague “hormonal” changes (36.2%). When asked how a menstrual period might affect someone's ability to perform daily activities, one-third reported debilitating or very burdensome symptoms, whereas one-fifth felt periods do not have much impact. DiscussionComprehensive education and accurate reproductive health knowledge are critical in combating gender bias and stigma. Most males surveyed agree that education on menstruation is important, yet the majority do not have or do not remember formal education on this topic, instead relying on family members and friends as learning tools and resources. Most participants identified negative symptoms associated with menstrual periods, especially mental health concerns including mood changes and irritability. This association with mood changes, as well as vague “hormonal fluctuations,” contributes to the societal bias against people who menstruate by marking them as prone to emotional instability, thereby exacerbating gender prejudices. It is therefore critical that accurate menstrual education be widely available for everyone, regardless of gender.

‘Well sorted and ordered’: sociable music-making and gentlemen’s recreation in the era of Byrd and Weelkes

Abstract Sociable music-making from notation had become a marker of status by the time of Byrd’s and Weelkes’s printed anthologies of part-songs. However, there was ambivalence about its suitability for gentlemen in a time when ideas of manhood were undergoing redefinition and when both gender and class were reinforced through display. Men of wealth and leisure were encouraged to balance musical recreation with more physically or intellectually demanding pursuits, not let it distract from necessary obligations nor be used for excessive devotion to women. Performing music among same-sex social equals in the context of other pastimes satisfied these conditions and reinforced friendship, collaboration, healthy competition and gamesmanship. Part-songs suggesting such strenuous cooperative ventures as warfare and hunting especially bridged the gentlemen’s domains of action and intellect. Single-sex performance also provided an opportunity to contest yet reinforce masculine ideals and to play a range of gender roles among social intimates, especially through compositions which encoded notions of manliness and effeminacy or which bridged the sensory domains of sight and sound.

Old Men’s Quests and Westering in John Steinbeck’s The Red Pony

Abstract In John Steinbeck’s The Red Pony, two elderly men, the paisano Gitano and Jody’s grandfather, experience marginalization in old age. Their different approaches to aging, which are respectively in accordance with “gerotranscendence” and “positive aging,” lead to their different end-of-life quests, which are both closely related to westering and pioneer values in American history. Grandfather tries, but fails, in his performance of the pioneers’ masculine ideals, and his behaviors and storytelling manifest strong signs of fascism. Gitano’s return to the valley and his proclamation, “I am Gitano, and I have come back,” show his sense of entitlement to and sense of belonging to the land and the surrounding ecological community. The different outcomes of the two men’s experiences show on the one hand Steinbeck’s critical reflection upon the pioneers and the westering in American history and on the other hand his advocacy for a renewed close bond between humans and land to replace land colonization for capital expansion.

Uniform-undone: A study in the repurposing of military attire through history and in experimental practice

This article reports on a practice-led research project focusing on military attire as both a subject and an agent of change. An historical account situates the origins of modern military attire within the emergent modern state during the nineteenth century, and then examines its subsequent role as part of the project to create a ‘new man’ in Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany. This is followed by a critical discussion of the decoupling of military attire from its associations with the institutions of state and warfare during the Vietnam War – where fatigues entered the popular atmosphere as casual attire that was variously subversive, countercultural and aesthetic in nature. Employing the MA-1 bomber jacket and camouflage as illustrative examples, the article then highlights the continued repurposing of military attire and its concomitant commoditization. The practice-led research employs object-based research, speculative artistic methodologies and various garment-making techniques in the production of a novel ‘military’ garment that explores the symbolism of military uniforms and critiques their traditional concept as utilitarian combat wear. The material outcomes interrogate linkages between military attire and notions of masculinity, class and gender identity. The research project further attempts to speculate on how military attire may be repurposed within the atmosphere of the twenty-first century – one that contemplates new forms of identity and other challenges that are responsive to contemporary circumstances.

Health-Related Stigma and Challenges Faced by Men Living with Celiac Disease: A Qualitative Analysis

BackgroundCeliac disease (CD) is an autoimmune condition managed by strict adherence to a gluten-free diet. Dietary choice has gendered connotations, and men with CD may face judgment from others when following a gluten-free diet. However, little is known about health-related stigma in men with CD. ObjectivesThe study aim was to explore the health-related stigma and challenges faced by men with CD, and the influence of CD on their lives. MethodsQualitative semistructured online interviews were conducted with men living with CD. ParticipantsTwenty adults (aged 18 years or older) identifying as men living in the United Kingdom, with self-reported CD, were recruited using social media and opportunistic sampling. Statistical analysesParticipants provided rich, detailed discussions about aspects of their experience of living with CD. Reflexive thematic analysis was used, with a critical-realist lens that enabled researchers to connect men’s experiences within wider sociocultural constructs such as masculinity and social identity. ResultsThree themes were identified: CD threatens social inclusion; others’ assumptions about CD and microaggressions have a psychological influence, and masculine norms, health-related stigma, and power dynamics influence men’s health behaviors and everyday experience. Health-related stigma was found to be interconnected with these men’s gendered social environment, suggesting thatmay be an important social and structural determinant of dietary, health-related, and health support-seeking behaviors in men diagnosed with CD. ConclusionsContrary to prior assumptions, health-related stigma influences men with CD of all ages, particularly in social settings. The study unveils the complex interplay of individual beliefs, social norms, and power dynamics, in particular with other men, that influence individual beliefs and emphasize the performative aspect of food consumption. Internalized stigma and microaggressions influence men’s well-being. To better support men with CD, health providers, charitable organizations, and the food industry should address the social influence of adherence to a gluten-free diet, in particular perceived threats to social status and inclusion, which may cause concern, influence food choice, and influence dietary adherence.

Imagining a Man “More Exactly what He Ought to Be”: Jane Austen’s Revolutionary Masculinities

Jane Austen’s canon has been expertly combed through for its moral implications, whether radically feminist or extremely conservative. Writing during the Napoleonic Wars, Austen was no stranger to politics, the military, or the implications both had on her life and her role in society. In the paper that follows, I posit that Austen channeled many of her opinions on England’s state of affairs through her male characters, who were the acting socio-political agents of the day. Through various caricatures of masculinity, Austen portrays masculine ideals and failures, both of which were rapidly evolving during her time. This research focuses on Austen’s portrayal of the “self-made man,” a form of masculinity which emerged following the American and French Revolutions, and grew to prominence in England following the Napoleonic Wars. These men quickly made places for themselves in society, particularly through the British Navy. They grew to rank and status through their own merit and skills, instead of high birth and landed title. Their increasing prominence threatened the very foundations of British society as Austen knew it. However, as this paper explores, Austen took care to present these men - and the changes they brought - in a positive light, showcasing the value in their revolutionary social movement. In the following essay, I demonstrate how, in doing so, Austen’s later novels, Mansfield Park and Persuasion, act as political tools which reveal how Austen’s opinions about England’s fragile state were revolutionary.

Masculine pronouns are not only for boys: Japanese girls breaking traditional relationships between gender and language in a school context

Abstract Based on a longitudinal ethnography at a Japanese junior high school, this paper explores how ideologies of Japanese women’s language are subverted through girls’ everyday linguistic ideological work of breaking presumed linkages between female gender and language. Girls at Sakura Junior High School employed masculine and non-traditional first-person pronouns and created new sets of indexicalities. The ethnography tracks how the girls did this in three important ways: 1) They used the most masculine pronoun, ore, and attached positive metapragmatic meanings (such as “cool,” “powerful,” “independent,” and “assertive”) to their use of this pronoun. In doing so, they established a powerful ore register and persona for girl users. 2) They also interpreted their use of boku, a plain masculine pronoun, as gender-appropriate for girls, whereas they negatively regarded boy users of boku as weak mama’s boys. 3) They attached strongly negative metapragmatic meanings to feminine pronouns and created an unfavorable feminine register and persona for these pronouns from which they disaligned themselves. The girls’ persistence in aligning masculine and non-traditional registers did not point to any evidence of their desire to take on a male identity, but rather to their creation of positive indexicalities about masculine pronouns and to their engagement in the social capital of maleness that accompanies male speech. Consequently, girls’ ideological work contextually constructed new indexical fields where girls established their own space in which they severed the naturalized relationships between language, identities, and social categories.

Profiling Differences in Burnout Among Senior High School Teachers in Ghana Based on Their Demographic Characteristics

Globally, the issue of burnout persists among educators, giving rise to feelings of anxiety and depression. The implications of burnout on teachers' health are significant, posing a risk to both their physical and mental well-being. This study examined burnout among Senior High School (SHS) teachers in Ghana, with a specific focus on investigating the potential influence of gender, educational qualification, and teaching experience on burnout levels. The study adopted a descriptive cross-sectional survey design, employing the census method to involve all 520 teachers from the chosen public Senior High Schools in the Cape Coast Metropolis. The data collection instrument used in this study was an adapted version of the Maslach Burnout Inventory-Educators’ Survey. Inferential statistics, specifically, Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA), was used to analyse the research hypotheses. The study revealed that there were significant differences in burnout among teachers based on their gender, educational qualification, and teaching experience. In light of our findings, we recommend that Senior High Schools prioritise the enhancement of their counseling services. Specifically, we suggest organising gender-specific seminars and workshops to empower both male and female teachers. These initiatives should focus on promoting coping strategies that are attuned to gender-related nuances and reinforcing their individual masculine and feminine identities.

Disclosure as family practice: Changing family dynamics in Hong Kong after a gay son comes out

AbstractThis paper examines the family dynamics between parents and gay sons after the latter's disclosure of their sexual orientation. Situated in the “doing family” and life course literature, the paper offers a sociological account of coming out and family dynamics in Hong Kong that presents the narratives of both gay sons and their parents, examining the changing moral and emotional economies of family life across two generations. Thirty‐five in‐depth individual interviews were conducted with a purposive sample of gay sons (n = 15) and their mothers (n = 14) and/or fathers (n = 6). The findings revealed that heteronormative family life, as part of the moral economy of family life, is challenged after disclosure, with parents forced to admit or accept the queer component of their family. Yet, both parents and gay sons work hard to accomplish a “correct” version of sexual normativity that views homosexuality as inborn (sexual essentialism) and conforms to the “good homosexual” image. Sons' disclosure also shifts the burden of the closet, as part of the emotional economy of family life, to their parents, especially mothers, on whom that burden often takes an emotional toll. The paper concludes that disclosure is a contested site of negotiation of the meaning of male identity, parenthood, and homosexuality, as well as a key family practice that changes the moral and emotional economies of families, eventually leading to the formation of new family forms. By viewing disclosure as family practice in a culture where intergenerational closeness and family co‐residence are prominent, this paper rethinks coming out, arguing that in the Chinese context it should be understood not only as identity politics, as it often is in Western contexts, but also as relational politics, thus revitalizing the coming‐out debate across cultural contexts and offering new insights on the relationship between homosexuality and contemporary family life.

The Haunted Island: Medieval History and the Old English Elegies in Brenda Chamberlain’s Tide-race (1962)

Abstract This article explores the relationship between Tide-race, a 1962 memoir by the Welsh poet and artist Brenda Chamberlain, and medieval culture and literature on Ynys Enlli. Written in the decades after the Second World War when Chamberlain had left mainland Wales, Tide-race is a memoir of the artist’s time on Enlli living with its small community of fishermen and farmers. In contrast to other works of twentieth-century island literature, I argue, Chamberlain rejected dominant, medieval patriarchal histories of Enlli, refusing to read the island as a male monastic site, or as a Welsh nationalist or cultural space. Tide-race is a medieval modern text that is deeply ambivalent about what medieval culture means for modern conceptions of identity, specifically Welshness and womanhood. Chamberlain’s late modernist work has been neglected because of her status as a Welsh woman writer working outside of the centres of modernism, and she has never been considered in the context of Medievalism Studies. By bringing archival material from the Brenda Chamberlain papers at the National Library of Wales together with the published memoir, this article brings to light an unremarked upon interest in Old English literature and traces the development of Chamberlain’s medievalism in the post-war period. Although her use of the Old English elegies—The Wanderer, The Seafarer and The Wife’s Lament—has remained unnoticed by Chamberlain’s critics, these early medieval poems are translated and adapted in her prose in ways that allow her to exorcize old grudges and challenge masculine ideals.

‘Doff white shirts, don overalls’: Urbanophobia, Rural Enterprise and the Ideal of Masculine Citizenship in Post-Colonial Botswana

Historical studies of migration have largely ascribed the configuration of masculinities in Botswana to male labour migration. This discourse is beyond dispute. As a paradigm, however, it has obscured other histories of migration and their influence on cultural ideals of masculinity, where circular migratory patterns became central to the construction of national identity. In the first decade of independence, Botswana’s national policy and popular discourse centred around shaping a nation of farmers composed of masculine, rural citizens. Men were encouraged to go back to their lands to stem the tide of migration to urban areas, where they would purportedly become indolent and therefore wallow in poverty. This article analyses anti-urban rhetoric and valorisation of the virtues of farming as evidence of how rural enterprise was central to the construction of the ideal of masculine national identity in early post-colonial Botswana between the 1960s and 1970s. The attempt to construct national identity around manhood was a deliberate mechanism to sustain the patriarchy’s control over subordinated gendered categories, such as women, poor people and young men.

Masculine Ideals and Health in Older Men: Findings From the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study.

How do older men's masculine ideals affect their health? Are masculine activities involved in this relationship? Masculine identity upholds beliefs about masculine enactment. These beliefs can be detrimental to men and can lead to behaviors that can put undue stress on them. We examine how masculine ideals are associated with health and depressive symptomatology in older men. We used 2011 data from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (n = 2,594) to investigate how masculine ideals inform older men's health and how participation in masculine activities might shape these outcomes. Findings from this study illustrate that traditional masculine ideals are associated with worse self-rated health (SRH), greater chronic illness, and depressive symptomatology. For masculine activities, doing repairs and car maintenance was associated with less chronic illness and depression. Belonging to a senior men's group was associated with worse SRH, greater chronic illness, and greater depression. Therefore, older men's greater endorsement of traditional masculine ideals was generally associated with worse health, though certain masculine activities affected this relationship. We posit that more gender-equitable beliefs may be useful for improving the "men's health gap."