Men's Friendships Research Articles

The destabilising effect of feminist, queer-inclusion and therapeutic counter-discourse: A feminist poststructuralist account of change in men's friendships

Critically engaging with prevailing theories of change in masculinities, this article offers a feminist poststructuralist account of Australian men's increasingly intimate same-gender friendships. Per Beasley, feminist poststructuralists treat social change as a consequence of contestation between discourses. In line with this, I contend that the increasing influence of feminist, queer-inclusion and therapeutic counter-discourses in recent decades has destabilised (but not overridden) masculinist discourse in the context of men's friendships, offering men an alternative subject position that allows care, expressiveness and intimacy. Here, I define each of these counter-discourses, demonstrate how they challenge the discursive components of masculinism and use snippets of data from an intergenerational study of Australian men's friendships to illustrate how this shapes men's homosocial practices. Ultimately, I argue that by applying a feminist poststructuralist lens, scholars can examine how men navigate new and contentious discursive terrain, and better account for the complexity of social change in masculinities.

A factor analytic examination of women's and men's friendship preferences

Friendships are valuable relationships that can bestow many benefits. How can humans ensure they receive the maximum benefits with minimal potential costs? One possible solution is to have preferences for traits, expectations, and rules in friendship. This could, for example, help people pursue beneficial friendships and jettison costly friendships. Previous research robustly documented that such preferences for traits, expectations, and rules exist, though they are often combined, and indicates that these preferences may be sex-specific. Across two studies (N = 853), our factor analyses documented that preferences for desired traits in friendship are organized into two broad categories with women rating intrinsic traits as more important in their friendship compared to men's ratings. Similarly, factor analyses showed that preferences for rules in friendship are organized into four broad categories with women rating all rule categories as more important in their friendships compared to men's ratings.

Sex (similarities and) differences in friendship jealousy

Friendships provide material benefits, bolster health, and may help solve adaptive challenges. However, a recurrent obstacle to sustaining those friendships—and thus enjoying many friendship-mediated fitness benefits—is interference from other people. Friendship jealousy may be well-designed for helping both men and women meet the recurrent, adaptive challenge of retaining friends in the face of such third-party interference. Although we thus expect several sex similarities in the general cognitive architecture of friendship jealousy (e.g., it is attuned to friend value), there are also sex differences in friendship structures and historical functions, which might influence the inputs of friendship jealousy (e.g., the value of any one friendship). If so, we should also expect some sex differences in friendship jealousy. Findings from a reanalysis of previously-published data and a new experiment, including both U.S. student and adult community participants (N = 993), provide initial support for three predicted sex differences: women (versus men) report greater friendship jealousy at the prospective loss of best friends to others, men (versus women) report greater friendship jealousy at the prospective loss of acquaintances to others, and men's (but not women's) friendship jealousy is enhanced in the context of intergroup contests.

Ingres, Painter of Men

This essay makes a case for the historical importance and cultural and psychic complexity of Jean‐Auguste‐Dominique Ingres's representations of men, which have tended to be neglected in favour of the painter's much more celebrated and more thoroughly scrutinized representations of women. It focuses on an unfinished portrait of the artist's oldest and dearest friend, Jean‐Pierre‐François Gilibert. I argue that Ingres foregrounded the physical allure and fashionability of his friend in this portrait, thereby overtly specularizing and covertly eroticizing him. The portrait is read as an artefact of an early ‘romantic’ phase of the two men's friendship, one that had to be disavowed in order for them to achieve heterosexual adulthood in accordance with the period's growing dichotomization of homosocial and homoerotic bonds between men. I trace the processes through which Ingres initially disavowed Gilibert – and ultimately, retrospectively re‐embraced him – via the complex role that the latter's portrait played in the decades‐long evolutionary saga of its erstwhile pendant, Ingres's celebrated Self‐Portrait at the Age of Twenty‐Four.

Drinking game participation, gender performance and normalization of intoxication among Nigerian university students

BackgroundMost research on drinking games (DGs) and the associated risks focuses on Western countries. In the Nigerian context, DGs activity has not attracted scholarly attention but growing media reports indicate that Nigerian youths play DGs, and that a number of gamers have died during or immediately after game-playing. MethodsDrawing on gender performance scripts, we explored the performance of gender through DGs practices and the factors that motivate DGs participation. Thirty-one in-depth interviews were conducted with male and female college students (aged 19–23years) at a university in south-eastern Nigeria. ResultsThe participants discussed the popularity of the DGs that students play on this campus, identifying the spaces where each game is played and the motivations for game-playing. Collective, contextual constructions of gender identities through ‘Fastest-Drinker’ DG were identified, and the participants also performed gender through ‘Truth-or-Dare’ and ‘Endurance’ DGs. Men dominated ‘First-to-Finish’ DGs, which are played at parties and bars, and consumed beer or stout, while women, who mainly played Truth-or-Dare games, drank spirits or sweetened alcoholic beverages. Boredom and fun seeking provoked game-playing among women while adherence to masculinity norms, which engendered the public performance of masculinity and gambling activities, motivated men to play DGs. To avoid ‘collective shame’, men's friendship groups provided support/care for inebriated game-playing members, but the immediacy of this support/care varied according to DGs type. ConclusionDGs appear to normalize heavy drinking and the culture of intoxication on this campus. Measures to monitor alcohol sales outlets around campuses and interventions that target students' leisure spaces should be developed.

Comigrants and friends: informal networks and the transmission of traditional ecological knowledge among seminomadic pastoralists of Gujarat, India

Previous research has shown that social organization may affect the distribution of traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) within local communities of natural resource users in multiple ways. However, in this line of research the potential role of informal relationships has mostly been overlooked. In this article, we contribute toward filling this research gap by studying how two types of informal relationships, namely migration partnership and friendship, affect the distribution of TEK within a community of seminomadic pastoralists from the Kutch area, Gujarat, India. Using social network analysis, we map three networks, migration, men friendship, and women friendship, and compare with similarity-based quantitative approaches the clusters extracted from these networks in relation to four domains of TEK: knowledge about soils, about ethnoveterinary practices, about sheep breeds, and in ethnobotany. Our results show that (1) migration clusters are associated to significant variations in three TEK domains, while (2) friendship clusters are associated to minor variations. We relate these results to the importance of common practical experiences involved by joint migration. Moreover, kin relations are shown to strongly underlie friendship and migration relations, and as such appear as a potential driver of the dynamics of the local TEK system. We conclude by advocating for a better inclusion of such informal relationships in future research on local TEK dynamics, following recent developments in studies on natural resource governance.

“I Think It's a Communal Thing”: Men's Friendships in Later Life

Men's friendships have traditionally been described as being activity-based but little research has examined older men's friendships. The current study aimed to explore meanings of friendship with older men who belonged to formal men's groups or not. A thematic analysis of focus group data identified three manifest themes ( constructing friendship: friends, mates or acquaintances; the dynamic nature of friendship; and the importance or beneficence of friendship) and one latent theme ( community of men). Friendship was constructed as a multifaceted concept contingent on context. The importance of maintaining friendships were discussed as either self-driven or the responsibility of the other. Talking to like-minded men, regardless of group membership, was valued not just for doing activities but for the emotional support it provided.

Friends and money: Balancing affection and reciprocity among young men in urban Ethiopia

ABSTRACTIn Jimma, Ethiopia, young men's friendships involve affection and reciprocal exchange of material goods, and in many cases the balance between the two creates conflicts. I examine tensions concerning exchange and friendship in relation to literature on love and transactional sex in Africa to argue for a conception of friendship that does not assume that calculation and self‐interest conflict with affection. For friends in urban Ethiopia, affection and material interest are inextricable, and this often generates feelings of jealousy and mistrust. Similarities in the ways lovers and friends struggle to balance affection and exchange indicate that sex and romantic love may not be the primary sources of tension within relationships. I argue that friendship is often a particularly flexible and ambiguous relationship, and in comparison to relations between lovers, this flexibility reduces conflicts between those involved.

Men's Friendships: Performances of Masculinity

A man's friendship is more than simply a product of being a man. It is a performance of masculinity that is influenced by gendered expectations. Using structural equation modeling to analyze 98 men's friendships, this study shows how two masculine expectations: one behavioral (stoic), the other attitudinal (anti-feminine) influence different forms of intimacy between friends (instrumental, expressive). Analyzing the relationship between these variables across two occupations, one male-traditional (military) and the other female-traditional (teacher), further display how friendship is part of a masculine performance, as the relationship between masculine expectations and interactions with friends are stronger for teachers than military personnel because teachers are counteracting their feminine performance as a result of their jobs. Overall, “doing friendship” is “doing gender.”

Of Friendship: Revisiting Friendships between Men in American Literature

Traditionally, scholarship on men and masculinities has promoted the association of masculinity with emotional repression and containment. Moreover, emotional expressivity by men, when acknowledged, has usually been considered either apolitical or even politically conservative. However, this article attempts to question such traditional (mis)conceptions by exposing not only the existence but also the subversive political potential of men's emotions in American culture and literature. In particular, the study posits that strong emotional attachments between men could contribute not only to enriching men's emotional lives but also, and above all, to erasing sexism, racism, and homophobia from our societies. It is argued, therefore, that men's friendships with other men might play a fundamental role in promoting greater social equality, as American literature illustrates.

Male Emotional Intimacy: How Therapeutic Men's Groups Can Enhance Couples Therapy

Men's difficulty with emotional intimacy is a problem that therapists regularly encounter in working with heterosexual couples in therapy. The first part of this article describes historical and cultural factors that contribute to this dilemma in men's marriages and same-sex friendships. Therapeutic men's groups can provide a corrective experience for men, helping them to develop emotional intimacy skills while augmenting their work in couples therapy. A model for such groups is presented, including guidelines for referral, screening, and collaboration with other therapists. Our therapeutic approach encourages relationship-based learning through direct emotional expression and supportive feedback. We emphasize the development of friendship skills, core attributes of friendship (connection, communication, commitment, and cooperation) that contribute to emotional intimacy in men's relationships. Case examples are included to illustrate how this model works in clinical practice, as well as specific suggestions for further study that could lead to a more evidence-based practice.

Extra-marital sexual partnerships and male friendships in rural Malawi

Extra-marital sexual partnerships (EMSPs) are a major route of HIV/AIDS transmission in sub-Saharan Africa. In this paper, we investigate the roles of two types of male friendships - best friends and friends with whom they talk about AIDS - in determining whether men have EMSPs. Using data from men in rural Malawi, we find that men's current extra-marital sexual behavior is most closely correlated with their best friends', but that the behaviors of both types of friends are associated with men's subsequent EMSPs. These findings suggest that men's friendships could be used to help combat the AIDS epidemic.

Gender Role Orientation and Relational Closeness: Self-Disclosive Behavior in Same-Sex Male Friendships

Although the nature of intimacy within same-sex male friendships exhibits a marked difference from that of same-sex female friends, the open sharing of the self (known as self-disclosure) does occur regularly among male friends, albeit to a varying degree. The present research looks at the relationship between gender role orientation and self-disclosive behavior, empirically confronting the cultural stereotype that the enactment of self-disclosure is gendered. Most significantly, the present research looks at the effects of various conceptualizations of self-disclosure on multiple measures of closeness within a relationship, with increasing self-disclosure consistently found to be positively correlated with measures of increasing closeness within men's same-sex friendships.

Buddy system: understanding male friendships

PART I. UNDERSTANDING MEN'S FRIENDSHIPS 1. How Do We Understand Men's Friendships? 2. What Do Friendship and Friend Mean? 3. So How Do Friendships Actually Work? 4. What Do Men Learn From their Fathers About Friendships? PART II. UNDERSTANDING WOMEN'S FRIENDSHIPS 5. Do Women Influence Men's Friendships? 6. Do Women Feel the Same Way About Friends As Do Men? PART III. MEN'S FRIENDSHIPS ACROSS THE DECADES 7. Marty in His 20s: Needing Friends and Family 8. Zach in His 30s: Balancing Family, Friends, and Work 9. Al in His 40s: Continuing the Balancing Act 10. Mick in His 50s: Needing Friends More Than Ever 11. Michael in His 60s: Friendships Shaped by Early Experiences 12. Donald in His 70s: Going Strong 13. Tom in His 80s: Realizing All His Friends Are Gone 14. Fred in His 90s: Thinking Maybe It's in the Genes PART IV. MAKING AND MAINTAINING FRIENDSHIPS 15. Men's Fellowship at a Saturday Morning Church Group 16. Improving Your Friendships Appendix A Methodology Appendix B Questions for Men's Groups and Classroom Discussion References

Gender Comparisons of Factors Associated with Drug Treatment Utilization among Puerto Rican Drug Users

Objective: This study examined gender-specific effects of social bonds, network characteristics, and other factors on drug treatment enrollment among Puerto Rican drug users. Method: Participants (425 women; 1,374 men) were recruited in New York and Puerto Rico in 1998–2003. Results: Gender differences were found: education (< high school/GED) and having a sex partner who is an injection drug user (IDU) were significantly related to current enrollment in drug treatment (EDT) for women; for men, having an IDU friend (negatively) had a main effect on EDT, and having an IDU friend also had a significant interaction effect with their own injection drug use on EDT. For both women and men, recruitment site (New York), having health insurance, and prior methadone treatment were significant predictors of EDT. Conclusion: The findings may be useful in developing gender-differentiated drug counseling and treatment efforts that engage women's sex partners and men's friendship networks to build support for drug treatment.

`Neo-mateship' in the 21st century

This article argues that `traditional mateship', as the everyday practice of men's same-sex friendships, is a dying mode of relating in Australian culture. Using Goffman's dramaturgical model, the views of three generations of men are used to qualitatively explore three proposed sites of transformation in men's same-sex friendships. First, the shift from unquestioning group loyalty to individualistic, transient and contingent relationship choice; second, the move from guarded levels of disclosure to open expressiveness and willingness to display vulnerability; and finally the evolution from expecting and giving only practical support to providing both practical and emotional support. The narratives of the middle-aged cohort are used to illustrate the various role-distance strategies that were used to resist and rework gender scripts. The article concludes that, although the parameters of acceptable gendered behaviours in Australian men's friendships are expanding, they have not yet reached the breadth and depth found in `pure' friendships, but could be described as a new type of mateship: neo-mateship.

Analysing men's written friendship narratives

People make sense of their lives through their narratives, which provide a set of culturally shared plots that give their lives meaning and represent belonging. A range of personal and cultural experiences is made available through analysing these narratives. Here, analysis of men's personal narratives is considered as a valuable means by which the culture of men's friendship can be explored and defined. We present a method for generating narratives, where respondents were asked in an online survey to describe a deep connection or fall-out with a friend. One of these written narratives is analysed here by adapting Labov's framework for analysing narrative in conversation and supplementing it with insights from discursive work.

The Men We Loved: Male Friendship and Nationalism in Israeli Culture (review)

The Men We Loved: Male Friendship and Nationalism in Israeli Culture, by Danny Kaplan. New York: Berghahn Books, 2006.190 pp. $80.00 (c); $25.00 (p). Such classic stories as Jonathan and David in the Bible and Achilles and Patroklus in Homer's Iliad, along with contemporary images of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, or even Batman and Robin, reinforce the dominant view of between men as strong, inseparable, and intense. Yet they also suggest that men form these uniquely masculine friendships only in time of war or to fight together in combating evil. You don't quite get the vision of them sitting down for an intimate conversation about how they are feeling, as women allegedly in their friendships. Despite the legacy of these historic friendships, men today are seen as incapable of true and intimate friendships. Contemporary men's friendships are often viewed through a gendered lens by which women's friendships are seen asface-to-face and men's friendships as side-by-side. However, intimacy comes in many guises, and who is to say that sitting and talking about personal matters is really any deeper or more personal than sharing a life-threatening situation in battle or engaging in a common hobby or sport activity? We know that men do friendship in varying ways according to social forces (education, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, age, social class) and cultural norms and practices in different societies. This is one of the lessons learned from Danny Kaplan's scholarly monograph. The Men We Loved: Male Friendship and Nationalism in Israeli Culture. Unlike much psychologically oriented research on the voluntary nature of and how it meets individual needs, Kaplan explores the intersection of the micro and the macro, the interpersonal stories of in the context of Israeli nationalism. He begins by first detailing the more political and social theories related to in Western thought, such as Aristotle's formative ideas from the Nichomachean Ethics. And he uses Jacques Derrida's views to investigate the relationship between the political/ideological and the emotional in fraternal friendships. Kaplan then introduces us to some key concepts in Israeli Hebrew related to friendship, re'ut and haverut, whose meanings have evolved and signal various degrees of sociability, intimacy, shared destinies, and traditions. It's not an easy read to understand the subtleties of a language you don't speak and the historic and evolving meanings attached to words from a culture you don't live in, but Kaplan's point is clear: historical and current political circumstances that necessitate social cohesion shape the ideology of and the language used to talk about it. However, reader beware: this is an academic book steeped in the postmodern jargon of hegemonic masculinity studies and sociological research. …

“Bartók always called me Latin”: The Influence of Béla Bartók on László Lajtha's life and art

Abstract Bartók's influence on his outstanding Hungarian contemporary, László Lajtha (1892–1963) remains as yet largely unresearched. Lajtha studied with Bartók at the Royal Hungarian Academy of Music and went on to become a composer, folk music researcher, versatile teacher, international cultural ambassador, and member of the French Academy. The two men's friendship and mutual respect lasted throughout Bartók's life. Among the leading musicians of the time, it was Bartók who first expressed his high opinion of the younger composer's talent. Bartók's influence can be observed in almost every field of Lajtha's work. For example, it was Bartók who recommended that Lajtha choose Paris as the place to complete his studies, which fostered in turn Lajtha's orientation toward Latin culture. Following in Bartók's footsteps, Lajtha became one of the greatest folk music collectors and researchers in Hungary, and this music also exerted a significant effect on his compositional style. Bartók recommended that the director Georg Hoellering commission Lajtha to write film music, which became an important new genre for the latter. A large number of documents — especially the unpublished letters from László Lajtha to John S. Weissmann, one of his former students — offer proof that Bartók's inspiration and practical assistance were of paramount importance to the development of Lajtha's career, oeuvre, and aesthetics.

Girl Friend or Girlfriend?

SUMMARY Diamond (2000a, 2002) has demonstrated that young women have deep and intense same-sex “passionate friendships” while in adolescence. Young women's friendships are often more physically and emotionally intimate than young men's friendships and can result in feelings and behaviors that often resemble (heterosexual) romantic relationships (Diamond, 2002; Griffin, 2002; Reis, 1998). Additionally, recent shifts in popular culture have produced an increase in images of female same-sex desire in the media and sexual experimentation with female friends. In this paper, I address these bisexual images in the media and emotionally intense (and sometimes sexual) same-sex friendships as creating a context for the questioning process of some young women who may ultimately experience flexibility in their sexual identity.