Masculine Pattern Research Articles

Homens adolescentes e vida sexual: heterogeneidades nas motivações que cercam a iniciação sexual

This article describes male adolescents' affective history and reasons for initiating or postponing sexual activity, using interviews with 184 males ages 15 to 19 and residing in the city of São Paulo, Brazil, in 2002. Factors for sexual debut included physical attraction, curiosity, and the desire to lose their virginity, suggesting a profile similar to the male social role. Most of the virgin adolescent males justified their choice based on issues of a romantic order, such as not having found the right person or because they preferred to remain virgin until marrying. The results showed a dual social pattern, valuing the feeling of love and deliverance to the loved one, simultaneously with the pressing physical and instinctive desire for sex. Traditional patterns of masculinity, like the dissociation between sex and love, appear to be transposed to sexual debut, revealing a diversity in the ways of experiencing sexuality during adolescence, related in turn to the sexual and reproductive health of men and their partners.

What's New in New Forms of Organizing? On the Construction of Gender in Project‐Based Work

abstract In several industries, projects are now the normal form of work for individuals. The consequences of project work have not so far been subject to critical inquiry, however. This implies inquiry not only on how people handle project work at work, it also means inquiring into how they live their lives when working by projects. In this paper, we study this from a constructionist gender perspective, in which project work is seen as an ongoing construction of patterns of femininity and masculinity in society. The aim of the paper is to contribute to an understanding of how project work is related to the ongoing construction of femininity and masculinity in the work and lives of human beings.From a narrative study of individuals in the same project team in an IT‐consultancy company, we discuss masculinization and femininization in project‐based work. It appears that current project work practices imply reproduction of masculinities such as rationality, efficiency, control, devotion to work etc, while femininization is instead found in the rhetoric of the organizational context and the expectations on newly recruited women. The organization was in the process of femininization through rhetoric on ‘family friendliness’, but everyday life for consultants was not spent at the organization but in project teams in the customers' offices. Projects are special in the sense that they are clearly delimited episodes of work in which it is possible to apply entirely different norms than ‘outside’ the project – which makes the tendency to reproduce traditional masculinities even stronger.

The vampire: Thwarted mythical ancestor and symbol of the thwarted male sexual potential

Ethnographic literature from the late eighteenth and during the course of nineteenth and twentieth century, presents us with a diverse but insufficiently conceptualized notions based on which vampire could be discussed in the context of aberrant life, untypical death, or inadequate burial practice. The structure of ancestral cult, containing among other things ideas of the "nature" of interrelationships between the living and the dead, is only one of the constructions imitating the ideological discourse of old-fashioned cultural pattern, certain relations in the society and structural order. Relations between the living and the dead are limited to ones on the male side, implying the reciprocal obligation: on one hand, respect of the burial rituals and mourning determine the "posthumous destiny", as well as the obligation of sacrificial offerings to godly ancestors, on the other the requirement of ancestors to protect and watch over their descendants in return. In order to be able to reproduce at all a community must mind the deceased’s soul, i.e. prevent the possible demonization by properly observing the rituals. In that sense, notions of vampires and the devil are emblematic warnings of the fact that each deceased, necessarily, is not an ancestor, and that the ideal model of generational hierarchy and of awe sustained by the proclaimed old-fashioned relations is actually relative, that is to say the notions of vampires and the devil point to the split in generations and to the governing relations in an old-fashioned society. Directly dependant on the male descendents, aberrant life as well as the aberrant "posthumous destiny" are mechanisms for excluding from the social relations with the dead the ones that can not be given the status of ancestors, so we can conceive them as thwarted mythical ancestors.
 In the second part of the paper, I endeavored to demonstrate that the conceptions of masculinity could also be deconstructed through analysis of mythical imagery, for mythological images of say vampires are based on contradictions between objectively different scripts – religious and secular ones. Images of vampires could as well be viewed as symbolic constructions of certain masculinity patterns, first of all church, non-Christian (pagan) and secular patterns that collide. The collision of different masculine scripts results in repression of those not belonging to public Orthodox discourse, so the latent processes of Christianization implicitly reproduced the notions of vampire as thwarted male sexual potential.

Reflections on Patterns of Masculinity in School Settings

This article is based on an ethnographic exploration into the construction of masculinities among ten-and eleven-year-old boys in three schools in the United Kingdom between 1998 and 1999. The research found that there were different patterns of masculinity both between and within each setting that drew on the resources and storylines available. The author discusses the way the research was theorized, particularly in relation to the concept of hegemonic masculinity and its link with the body. He interrogates the use of typologies and outlines the reasons why he found them unsatisfactory. Although the terms “hegemonic,” “complicit,” and “subordinate” masculinity are borrowed from Connell, the author found it necessary to propose another form of masculinity, which he calls “personalized.” This was made up from boys who appeared content to pursue their own types of identity, and did not aspire to, or imitate, the leading form. Finally, the author briefly discusses the implications of this research for schools.

Sex differences in juvenile rhesus macaque (Macaca mulatta) agonistic screams: Life history differences and effects of prenatal androgens

This study investigated sex differences in juvenile rhesus macaque (Macaca mulatta) vocal behavior during agonistic contexts, and the effects of prenatal androgens on these differences. A total of 59 subjects (5-8 per treatment group) received exogenous androgen (testosterone enanthate), an anti-androgen (flutamide) or vehicle injections (DMSO) for 30 or 35 days during the second (early) or third (late) trimester of pregnancy. An additional 19 unmanipulated controls were included in the analysis. Screams by juvenile males and females between the ages of 1 and 3 years were compared to the screams of adult female exemplars using a discriminant function analysis. Juvenile females produced more adult-female like screams than did juvenile males. Females exposed to androgen treatment late in gestation produced a more masculine pattern of screams. Flutamide treatment in males either early or late in gestation did not significantly affect scream production. Flutamide treatments in females late in gestation, however, masculinized scream production. Androgen treatments administered late in gestation hyper-masculinized male scream production. No sex differences in the contextual usage of screams emerged. These findings suggest that both life history differences and the early hormone environment contribute to sex differences in juvenile rhesus macaque vocal production.

Second-to-fourth digit ratio related to Verbal and Numerical Intelligence and the Big Five

Androgens influence individual differences in a predictable way: they “masculinise” people. The ratio of index finger length to ring finger length (2D:4D) is an index of prenatal androgen exposure. We related 2D:4D to Verbal Intelligence, Numerical Intelligence and the Big Five personality dimensions in a Dutch sample of 44 men and 37 women. We found a relation between right-hand 2D:4D and Verbal and Numerical Intelligence as well as Agreeableness ( R 2’s around .22), in a typical masculine pattern (low 2D:4D, low verbal intelligence, high numerical intelligence, and low agreeableness). We conclude 2D:4D is a valuable tool in the study of the determinants of individual differences.

The Patterns of Masculinity in Prison

A prison culture of masculinity shapes the prison macho – boys don’t cry. The prison macho is a real man who always hides his feelings and performs like a tough guy. These characteristics are much different from what happens in everyday life in the social spheres, where human being needs to be loved, need concerns and compassion from others and express these to others as well. In the current study, there is a recognition of a multiplicity of masculinities and an emphasis on how subjects are continually constituting and constructing their identity. Based on qualitative research, this study analyzes the patterns of masculinity embedded in the daily code of conduct used by prison staff to deal with prisoners and by prisoners to interact with other inmates and constitute their subculture. The investigation of prison sociology in the constitution of masculinity discourses in Tainan Prison contributes to both gender studies and to the literature exploring differences between western and eastern perspectives and policies related to incarceration.

Is there an effect of prenatal testosterone on aggression and other behavioral traits? A study comparing same-sex and opposite-sex twin girls

Men and women differ in temperament and personality traits, such as aggression and sensation seeking. The sex hormone testosterone could play a role in the origin of these differences, but it remains unclear how and when testosterone could have these effects. One way to investigate the prenatal exposure effect of testosterone is to compare opposite-sex (OS) and same-sex (SS) female twins. It has been suggested that OS twin girls are exposed prenatally to elevated testosterone levels and that this may result in some masculinization of their personality and behavior. We measured sexually dimorphic traits and circulating testosterone levels in 13-year-old OS ( n = 74) and SS ( n = 55) twins. Testosterone levels showed a clear circadian rhythm, with higher levels in the morning than in the afternoon. Testosterone was higher in boys than girls, but similar in OS and SS twin girls. Testosterone was not in any way systematically related to the different personality traits. However, a sex difference in aggression proneness was observed, and OS girls showed a more masculine pattern of aggression proneness than the SS girls. It is argued that it is unlikely that this difference is due to social factors, such as a gender-specific upbringing.

Masculinities in “Safe” and “Embattled” Organizations

While research shows that there are familiar forms of doing masculinity involving distancing from femininity/women or from subordinated/marginalized masculinities/men, there is less emphasis on the fact that the content of these masculine performances varies depending on the specific cultural norms and ideologies present in an organization. The author relies on a comparative case study using in-depth interviews and participant observation in the accounting departments at a heterosexual men’s pornographic magazine and at a feminist magazine to examine how organizational culture shapes the ways that men (and women)do masculinity at work. Both accounting departments support a general pattern of doing masculinity referred to as the business professional attitude, but men also utilize unique strategies of doing masculinity depending on the degree to which masculinity is “safe” or “embattled” at their workplace. The author concludes by discussing the consequences of these strategies for men’s and women’s work relationships.

DDT increases hepatic testosterone metabolism in rats.

DDT and its metabolites are considered as endocrine disruptors able to promote hormone-dependent pathologies. We studied the effects of technical-grade DDT on hepatic testosterone metabolism and testosterone hydroxylase activity ratios in the rat. Male and female Wistar rats were treated by gavage with a single dose of technical-grade DDT (0, 0.1, 1, 10, and 100 mg/kg body weight) and killed 24 h later. Hepatic microsomes were incubated with [4-14C]-testosterone and the metabolites were separated by thin-layer chromatography and quantified by radio scanning. DDT increased testosterone biotransformation and modified the profile of metabolites produced in a sex-dependent manner. Males treated with a representative dose (10 mg/kg) produced relatively less androstenedione (AD), 2alpha-hydroxytestosterone (OHT), and 16alpha-OHT but higher 6beta-OHT whereas treated females produced less 7alpha-OHT and AD but higher 6beta-OHT and 6alpha-OHT than their respective controls. In both sexes DDT decreased the relative proportion of AD and increased that of 6beta-OHT suggesting that the androgen-saving pathway was affected. The testosterone 6alpha-/15alpha-OHT ratio, a proposed indicator of demasculinization, was increased in treated males. This effect was in agreement with the demasculinizing ability proposed for DDT. The effects on 6alpha-/16alpha-OHT and 6-dehydrotestosterone/16alpha-OHT ratios followed a similar tendency, with the ratio 6alpha-/16alpha-OHT being the most sensitive marker. Interestingly, these ratios were reduced in treated females suggesting that technical-grade DDT shifted testosterone hydroxylations toward a more masculine pattern. Thus, technical-grade DDT altered the hepatic sexual dimorphism in testosterone metabolism and decreased the metabolic differences between male and female rats.

Sexually transmitted diseases and gender: a cross-sectional study with adolescents in Rio de Janeiro

Sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) are frequent in adolescence and contribute to the increase in the number of AIDS cases. Early sexual initiation, multiple sex partners, and lack of condom use are considered risk factors and are influenced by a male-dominated gender system. We interviewed 356 adolescent patients at the Adolescent Health Research Center in Rio de Janeiro State University to identify possible STD risk factors in adolescence. Young men reported more partners and early sexual initiation. Females used condoms less frequently and were more subject to sexual abuse. The results confirm a model sustained by traditional gender values that demarcate the male and female spheres, with male supremacy. We conclude that to achieve more effective STD control, it is necessary to expand the discussion on culturally constructed patterns of masculinity and femininity.

Prenatal exposure to testosterone and functional cerebral lateralization: a study in same-sex and opposite-sex twin girls

In animals it has been shown that exposure to sex hormones is influenced by intrauterine position. Thus fetuses located between two male fetuses are exposed to higher levels of testosterone (T) than fetuses situated between two female fetuses or one female and one male fetus. In a group of opposite-sex (OS) twin girls and same-sex (SS) twin girls a potential effect of prenatal exposure to testosterone (T) on functional cerebral lateralization was investigated. We hypothesized that prenatal exposure to T would result in a more masculine, i.e. a more lateralized pattern of cerebral lateralization in OS twin girls than in SS twin girls. An auditory–verbal dichotic listening task (DLT) was used as an indirect method to study hemispheric specialization. Firstly, we established a sex difference on the DLT. Compared with SS girls, OS twin boys showed a more lateralized pattern of processing verbal stimuli. Secondly, as predicted OS girls had a more masculine pattern of cerebral lateralization, than SS girls. These findings support the notion of an influence of prenatal T on early brain organization in girls.

Sexually dimorphic gene expression in mouse brain precedes gonadal differentiation

The classic view of brain sexual differentiation and behavior is that gonadal steroid hormones act directly to promote sex differences in neural and behavioral development. In particular, the actions of testosterone and its metabolites induce a masculine pattern of brain development, while inhibiting feminine neural and behavioral patterns of differentiation. However, recent evidence indicates that gonadal hormones may not solely be responsible for sex differences in brain development and behavior between males and females. Here we examine an alternative hypothesis that genes, by directly inducing sexually dimorphic patterns of neural development, can influence the sexual differences between male and female brains. Using microarrays and RT-PCR, we have detected over 50 candidate genes for differential sex expression, and confirmed at least seven murine genes which show differential expression between the developing brains of male and female mice at stage 10.5 days post coitum (dpc), before any gonadal hormone influence. The identification of genes differentially expressed between male and female brains prior to gonadal formation suggests that genetic factors may have roles in influencing brain sexual differentiation.

Masculinities, Change, and Conflict in Global Society: Thinking about the Future of Men's Studies

Contemporary men's studies arises from a history of debates about gender relations, men, and masculinities, yet represents a new departure based on social analysis of gender and close-focus empirical work. This approach is now becoming worldwide and has found important practical applications in areas such as education and health. Problems are increasingly recognized in the field, including dilemmas of research method and debates about ways of theorizing masculinities. New approaches emphasise discursive and situational analysis and demand a clearer recognition of global forces. Gender relations have a global dimension that shapes contemporary masculinities, for instance emerging patterns of business masculinity. The connection between violence and masculinity is a key contemporary issue. Recent research shows both institutional bases and situational triggers of gendered violence, which are important in understanding contemporary global conflict and developing strategies for peace.

Sex differences in interest in infants in juvenile rhesus monkeys: relationship to prenatal androgen

Yearling rhesus monkey females interact more with infants than do males. However, the continuity of this sex difference throughout the juvenile period is unknown. Human females display similar sexually differentiated interest in infants, and studies of girls with congenital adrenal hyperplasia suggest that this sex difference may be modulated by prenatal androgen exposure. We investigated infant interest in 1- to 3-year-old juvenile rhesus monkeys. Hormonal influences on this behavior were investigated by treating pregnant females with an androgen-receptor blocker (flutamide), testosterone enanthate, or vehicle, early or late in gestation. Subjects were reared in their well-established natal groups, composed of species-typical matrilineal social structures, including members of all ages. Yearling control females interacted with infants more than did yearling control males. At 2 and 3 years of age, the magnitude of the sex difference in interactions with infants increased markedly, producing effect sizes of more than 2.5 standard deviations. These effects are larger than those reported in humans. Androgen treatment did not affect male or female interactions with infants, but late gestation flutamide masculinized aspects of females’ interest in infants. Although early flutamide prevented complete masculinization of male genitalia, this treatment was not accompanied by any alterations in the masculine pattern of infant interest. We found no evidence that the robust juvenile sex difference in frequency of infant interactions results from socialization. However, it was largely unaffected by our hormone manipulations. Whether this reflects characteristics of our specific treatments or is evidence of nonhormonal influences on infant interest remains unanswered.

Leader Emergence And Gender Roles in All-Female Groups

Research suggests that gender role, rather than sex, is associated with the perception of individuals as leaders. This study tests the effect of gender role and intelligence on leadership emergence by using a pattern approach and manipulating task type. Two hundred female undergraduate participants, categorized by their pattern of masculinity, femininity, and intelligence, were placed in groups of 4 members. Groups were randomly assigned to an initiating-structure or consensus-building task condition. In the initiating-structure task condition, both masculine-intelligent and androgynous-intelligent individuals emerged more than feminine-intelligent or mixed-pattern individuals. In the consensus-building task condition, feminine-intelligent individuals did not emerge as leaders more than masculine-intelligent or mixed-pattern individuals. However, partial support was found for the emergence of androgynous-intelligent individuals.

Genders and Sexualities in Modern Thailand. Edited by Peter A. Jackson and Nerida M. Cook. Chiang Mai, Thailand: Silkworm Books, 1999. xi, 289 pp. $24.50 (paper).

Many foreign observers of the Land of Smiles are familiar with a narrow range of gender relations and sexual practices in Thailand, from the fanciful portrayal of 19th-century harem life in The King and I, to recent media coverage of sex tourism and AIDS. Yet serious study of patterns of sexuality, femininity, and masculinity in Thailand is relatively new. This book is a rare collection by scholars from around the world and across social disciplines who are tackling these issues. The essays urge the reader to look beyond fantasies of Thailand as an oriental sexual paradise or land of sexploitation to historical and contemporary forms of gender and eroticism. Studies of the changing opinions and practices among villagers and urbanites, the creative expressions of novelists and aristocrats, and the concerns of early women's magazines and recent AIDS-prevention campaigns, reveal the extraordinary diversity of debates about gender and sexual issues in 20th-century Thailand. Avoiding simplistic approaches to gender studies and sexuality research, the authors discuss how interpretations of gender roles, marriage, and intimate relationships differ between men and women; cultural regions; Thai and immigrant Chinese communities; and heterosexually and homosexually active groups-as well as between residents of Thailand and their foreign observers. By questioning accounts of Thailand as a place where gender is fluid and sexuality is free, the book unravels the complex processes by which Thai men and women understand themselves, appealing to both general readers and scholars of Thai society.

Alternative Masculinities in South AsiaAn Exploration through Films for Schools

Summaries Masculinity and its impact on gender relations and the institutionalisation of power exercised by men have been critically commented upon on by activists and academics working on issues related to gender relations. The failure of the early ‘developmentalist’ approach to population control programmes, the increase in violence against women, and the HIV/AIDS pandemic has pushed to the fore, amongst others issue, the question of male sexuality and male culture. The Save the Children (UK) South and Central Asia Regional Office and UNICEF Regional Office for South Asia is proposing to make a series of films on masculinities, which deconstructs and reconstructs patriarchy within South Asia. The film‐making project involves the production of films on masculinities by male film‐makers from India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan, within their own countries. This film‐making project, is intended to increase and extend the impact of SCF's and UNICEF's country programmes in tackling the problems of increasing violence against girls. The intent is to try and explore the broad patterns of masculinities without ignoring the particularities of each category of men (in terms of class, caste, sexual preference, etc.). The way men negotiate between duties and dreams, dominance and love, anxiety and pleasure, power and insecurity are the kernels around which the stories are to be constructed.

The Norwegian fishing quota system: Another patriarchal construction?

Since 1990, all cod fishing in northern Norway has been regulated by individual vessel quotas. I argue that this quota regulation formalizes and strengthens male control of and access to the fisheries. The present distribution of fishing rights between the sexes is extremely uneven. This article discusses how the regulation directly and indirectly discriminates against women, despite the official ideology of gender equality in society. The logic of the fisheries management system follows and privileges a masculine fishing pattern and thus can be characterized as a patriarchal construction. An issue to raise is whether a woman friendly management system frustrates the aim of sustainable resource management.

Sexual differentiation of the zebra finch song system: Positive evidence, negative evidence, null hypotheses, and a paradigm shift

Permanent sex differences in the brain are found in many vertebrates, and are thought to be induced by sex differences in secretion of gonadal steroid hormones during critical periods of early development. This theory has received support primarily from many experiments conducted on mammals, but also from studies on other vertebrate classes, including birds. The only avian neural dimorphism that has allowed extensive tests of this hypothesis is the neural circuit for song in passerine birds, which is much larger in males than in females. Experiments in zebra finches have yielded contradictory results. Although it is relatively easy to induce masculine patterns of development in genetic females with estrogen, it has not been possible to induce feminine patterns of development in males with any treatments, including antiestrogens and inhibitors of estrogen synthesis. Moreover, genetic females that develop with large amounts of functional testicular tissue but with virtually no ovarian tissue nevertheless have a feminine song circuit. The latter studies fail to support the idea of steroid induction of sexual differentiation. An alternative to the steroidal control hypothesis is that nonhormonal gene products expressed in the brain early in development trigger sexually dimorphic patterns of development. Although current evidence in several neural and nonneural systems indicates that sexual differentiation of some somatic phenotypes cannot be explained by the actions of gonadal steroids, the idea of direct genetic (nonhormonal) induction of sexual differentiation has yet to be proved.