Narratives Of Men Research Articles

Gender and stigma in antiretroviral treatment adherence in Mozambique: A qualitative study.

Both gender and HIV stigma are known to contribute to poor retention to antiretroviral therapy (ART), but little is known how they interact in decisions about adherence or default by people living with HIV (PLWH). This qualitative study explored HIV stigma and gender interaction in PLWH's care decisions in Mozambique. Transcribed data from semi-structured interviews of 68 men and 71 women living with HIV, were coded and analyzed for themes of HIV stigma, gender norms and treatment continuation and interruption pathways, using both deductive and inductive coding approaches. Stigma experiences were found to be influenced by gender roles. Anticipation of stigma was common across the narratives of PLWH, while women had more experiences of enacted stigma, particularly by their intimate partners. Women's treatment interruptions were influenced by fear of partner's negative reaction. Men's narratives showed internalized stigma and delayed treatment due to anticipated stigma and masculine norm of strength. Severe internalized stigma was found among single mothers, who without economic or moral support defaulted treatment. Women's pathway to adherence was facilitated by their caregiver role and support from partner or kin family. Men's adherence was facilitated by experience of severe symptoms, provider role and by support from their mother or partner. Results indicate that linkage of stigma to gender roles interact in treatment decisions in three main ways. First, HIV stigma and unequal gender norms can work jointly as a barrier to adherence. Secondly, those resisting restrictive gender norms found it easier to manage HIV stigma for the benefit of treatment adherence. Thirdly, some gender norms also facilitated adherence and stigma management. Programs targeted at HIV stigma reduction and improving ART adherence among heterosexual populations should be built on an understanding of the local gender norms and include socially and culturally relevant gender sensitive and transformative activities.

Exploring the Experiences of Living With the Post-COVID Syndrome: A Qualitative Study.

Many people experience persistent symptoms for more than 12 weeks following SARS-CoV-2 infection, which is known as post-COVID-19 condition (PCS) or Long COVID (LC). PCS can impair people's quality of life and daily functioning. However, there is a lack of in-depth research exploring the PCS patient journey, as well as gendered aspects of patients'experiences. Nineteen semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with people living with PCS in the United Kingdom (13 women, 6 men). Interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed inductively using reflexive thematic analysis. Five main themes were identified: 'Symptom dismissal','Lack of information and support', 'Life before and after Long COVID', 'Psychological impact'and 'Acceptance'. A shift overtime to self-management of symptoms was evident. These themes represent different stages of patients'PCS journey. Narratives indicated that women highlighted dismissal by healthcare professionals (HCPs), which was not as prominent in men's narratives. In addition, women went into more detail about the psychological impact of PCS compared to men. Women with PCS reported symptom dismissal by HCPs, which may have delayed their diagnosis and negatively affected their well-being. We were not able to explore the experiences of people from non-conforming gender groups. Raising awareness of these issues among HCPs, particularly general practitioners, could improve patient care in PCS. Patient and public involvement consisted of people who took part in the interviews and commented on the themes' interpretation and study conclusions.

Men's Narratives of Sexual Intimate Partner Violence in Urban Mwanza, Northwestern Tanzania.

Engaging men has been established as central in addressing intimate partner violence. Yet few studies on intimate partner violence explored men's perspectives on what constitutes sexual violence in relationships only. To explore how men conceptualize sexual violence, we engaged a qualitative approach to unpack men's narratives of sexual IPV. The study was conducted in Mwanza, Tanzania using in-depth interviews with 30 married men. Men shared a broad spectrum of unacceptable behaviors that clearly or potentially connote sexual violence. Some of the acts were deemed to constitute sexual violence when directed to both men and women, while some were perceived as sexual violence when directed to women or men only. Threatened manhood underpinned men's conceptualization of sexual violence against them by their partners. Although a large part of men's narratives of sexual violence towards women seemed to challenge the common sexual scripts existing in patriarchal societies, some of their accounts indicated the persistence of traditional presumptions of masculine sexual entitlement. Our findings uncover additional dimensions of sexual violence that go beyond what is included in the current global frameworks, underscoring the critical need of giving people a voice in their local contexts in defining what sexual intimate partner violence entails for them. This may increase the likelihood of interventions becoming more acceptable and effective when targeting sexual violence, thereby contributing to reduced levels of sexual intimate partner violence.

Men in online eating disorder recovery spaces: Gendered barriers, content moderation, and narrative experimentation

AbstractEating disorders (EDs), once considered solely a women's health problem, have increasingly affected men. Previous research on recovery from addiction has emphasized the importance of narratives, which help provide structure and make sense of events. While narratives are often important for an individual's recovery from hardship, hegemonic narratives can be invalidating and obstacles to wellbeing. The highly gendered nature of ED recovery narratives has posed a barrier to men adopting alternative, more successful narratives, particularly in female‐dominated spaces. This study examines how content moderation policies and enforcement on Tumblr, Reddit, and an ED recovery website shape men's participation in ED recovery support groups dominated by women. We find that high degrees of moderation and censorship limit men's platform participation and narrative experimentation. However, platform rules without active censorship face the same challenges. Instead, narrative experimentation and greater participation from men occur during moderate regulation because they can share their experiences while also being encouraged to find salient aspects of other, healthier narratives. We observed that men were able to break from unhelpful recovery narratives when they could masculinize the suggestions from women with more productive approaches. While past research has shown that men are particularly reliant on hegemonic masculinity when their gender is challenged, we find that phenomenon is part of a more fundamental process of reconciling ideas into one's self‐concept.

Barriers and Facilitators to Implementing a Digital Adherence Technology for Tuberculosis Treatment Supervision in Uganda: Qualitative Study.

Ensuring the completion of treatment for tuberculosis (TB) remains a key challenge in many high-burden countries. 99DOTS is a low-cost digital adherence technology that has emerged as a promising tool for monitoring and supporting TB treatment completion. We aimed to understand the feasibility and acceptability of 99DOTS, a mobile phone-based TB treatment support method, and characterize barriers and facilitators to its implementation during a pragmatic trial in Uganda. Between April 1 and August 31, 2021, we conducted in-depth interviews with people with TB and key informant interviews with health workers and district and regional TB officers involved in the implementation of 99DOTS at 18 health facilities in Uganda. Semistructured interview guides were informed by the capability, opportunity, motivation, and behavior (COM-B) model and explored perceptions of, and experiences with, 99DOTS, including barriers and facilitators to its use. Qualitative analysis was conducted using the framework approach. Interviews were conducted with 30 people with TB, 12 health workers, and 7 TB officers. All people with TB, health workers, and TB officers noted that 99DOTS supported and encouraged people with TB to take their anti-TB medication, facilitated treatment monitoring, and improved relationships between people with TB and health workers. Participants also liked that the platform was free, easy to use, and improved TB treatment outcomes. Barriers to 99DOTS implementation for some people with TB were related to limited literacy, including technology literacy; limited access to electricity to charge their mobile phone to make dosing confirmation calls; and poor network connection. Gender differences in 99DOTS uptake also emerged. Specifically, women with TB were described to be more concerned that 99DOTS use would expose them to TB stigma and to be more likely to have mobile phone-access issues than men with TB. By contrast, men with TB not only had access to mobile phones but also received substantial support from their female partners to take their anti-TB medication and make 99DOTS dosing confirmation calls. Finally, although women with TB were described to face more barriers to 99DOTS use than men with TB, the women's narratives centered on the ways the platform facilitated and improved their adherence, whereas the men's narratives did not. Overall, 99DOTS seems to be a feasible and acceptable strategy to support anti-TB medication adherence in Uganda. However, access to mobile phones, inability to charge mobile phones, and concerns about stigma should be considered and addressed as part of programmatic implementation to maximize uptake among all people with TB, particularly women and those with fewer financial resources.

Harnessing progress: Gender, sexuality, and positive self-perceptions of aging in midlife

Drawing on interviews, this article analyzes how lesbians, gay men, straight women, and straight men construct positive views of aging during midlife, a life course period when negative perceptions of aging are salient. Interviewees engaged in harnessing progress—a process of crafting personal aging narratives that emphasize growth and improvement—which helped them to feel positively about their own aging. All interviewees shared these progress narratives, but reports differed across gender and sexuality groups. Men's narratives focused on the wisdom they gained and how that made them more relevant to older and younger generations. Regarding the latter, straight men viewed their children as beneficiaries of their progress and gay men viewed younger LGBTQ people as beneficiaries. Women's progress narratives focused on self-improvement. Whereas straight women described becoming more self-reliant with age, lesbians described learning to stand up for themselves. Overall, findings reveal how gender and sexual identities—and the lifelong benefits and burdens that accompany those identities—influence how people create positive perceptions of aging.

Body talk and resilience: Aging men's experiences with mastectomy and prostatectomy

Men's experiences with gendered cancers hinge on at least two axes – their masculinities and their age. This article offers a thematic synthesis of the qualitative research on men living with breast cancer or prostate cancer. This is a qualitative meta-analysis assessing how masculinities and aging may jointly affect men's narratives post-mastectomy or post-prostatectomy. Of particular interest was whether and how aging mediates the experience of these gendered cancers. Reviewed were all qualitative studies published between 2000 and 2020 addressing men's breast cancer and post-mastectomy experiences (N = 15) and men's lives after their prostatectomy (N = 28). The analysis followed the guidelines for thematic synthesis and grounded theory. Free codes of findings were organized into “descriptive” themes, which are then further interpreted to yield “analytical” themes. Seven descriptive themes were identified and these underlie two analytical themes – body talk and resilience. Collectively, men's illness narratives spoke about how cancer challenges their gendered identities and practices, and how they repair identities. The common experience was one of men coming to live with their post-surgical bodies by practicing ‘wider,’ hybrid forms of masculinities. The principal finding is that men with either type of cancer saw themselves as men and remained seen by others in terms of their gender, not their anatomically changed bodies. Unresolved was the full way aging complemented and mediated the cancer journey.

Making Sweet Tea

Making Sweet Tea

“We Made You Pay Attention”: Narratives of Men’s Advantage in Women’s College Basketball

“We Made You Pay Attention”: Narratives of Men’s Advantage in Women’s College Basketball

Cascading Disasters: Intersections with Climate Change in Men's Narratives of 2016 Kaikoura Earthquake in Aotearoa New Zealand

Cascading Disasters: Intersections with Climate Change in Men's Narratives of 2016 Kaikoura Earthquake in Aotearoa New Zealand

"If it didn't hurt so bad, I'd kill myself, but I'll let Ed Buck do it for now": #Justice4Gemmel and Black Queer Narratives in the Age and Afterlife of #MeToo

Abstract: Gemmel Moore, a gay Black man, was found dead in the West Hollywood home of Edward Buck, a gay white LGBT rights activist. Gemmel's death was originally classified as an accident until his family published his journal, which was used to ignite both a criminal investigation and a set of Twitter campaigns, #Justice4Gemmel and #StopEdBuck, that have intersected with the #MeToo movement. In this essay, I analyze how Black queer men narrate their experiences of sexual trauma in relation to Black women, and subsequently how Black women have carved space for Black queer survivors by providing a new language for conceptualizing the racialized gendering of sexual violence. In doing so, I examine how Black queer men's autobiographical narratives function not only as evidence of their sexual injury but also as modes of networked connectivity that position Black queer subjects as integral to anti-sexual violence work and #MeToo activism.

Black fathers' personal histories, worldviews, and fathering behaviors

AbstractObjectiveWe examined links between boyhood and fatherhood in a thematic analysis of Black men's narratives about their childhood histories, connection of these experiences to their views about fathering, and descriptions of their fathering relationships and behaviors.BackgroundThere remains a critical need to understand how Black men father in a sociohistorical context that defines them as absent or deficient.MethodWe conducted in‐depth, semistructured qualitative interviews with 30 Black fathers with children in 4‐year‐old kindergarten through grade 12 education. We used life course theory and an integrative model of child development as conceptual frameworks to guide a mixed deductive–inductive analysis.ResultsWe identified three categories and seven themes within the categories: Personal History (Intergenerational Relationships, Negotiating Race and Racism, Turning Points), Fathering Worldview (Being a Father: The Nurturer, The Educator; Fathering Black Children), and Fathering Relationships and Behaviors (Father–Child Interaction, Racial Armoring). We also identified fathers' explicit connections of their Personal Histories to their Fathering Worldviews and, thereby, their Fathering Relationships and Behaviors.ConclusionThis article addresses ways that Black men make sense of their personal histories and connect these histories to how they raise their children.ImplicationsThis discussion of intergenerational linking of lives and turning points has significant implications for understanding Black family development in the racialized context of the United States and highlights the need for comprehensive mental health support for Black men and their families that focuses on racial trauma along with conceptual and empirical focus on impacts of anti‐Blackness on individual and family well‐being.

Injured black men's perceptions of the recovery environment

BackgroundBlack men are disproportionately impacted by injuries in the United States. This disparity is glaring given that injury is one of the top ten causes of death. Injured Black men from disadvantaged neighborhoods experience higher injury mortality, years of life-expectancy loss, and psychological symptoms that persist after initial wounds have been treated. These injured men are typically transported to a hospital where they are medically stabilized and soon after are returned to the community. Black men are less likely to be discharged to comprehensive rehabilitation facilities, magnifying disparities in recovery from injury. While much research has examined individual characteristics that predict poor recovery from injury, fewer studies have focused on social and physical features of the environment and how they may impact the recovery of injury survivors. PurposeThe purpose of this study was to describe Black men's perceptions of how characteristics of their environment affect their recovery following serious injury. MethodsThis was a secondary analysis of an existing data set consisting of semi-structured, qualitative interviews of 43 injured Black men in a northeastern city. The interviews were conducted three months following discharge from a large urban trauma center, and were audiotaped, transcribed verbatim, and de-identified. Thematic analysis consistent with the qualitative paradigm was used to identify themes. ResultsFour themes were identified in injured men's narratives: challenges to recovery, feeling unsafe, efforts to increase safety, and resources for recovery. ConclusionsOur findings emphasize the importance of the role of community resources that can support injured men's recovery within their neighborhoods. Additional resources should be directed to survivors who return to disadvantaged communities after injury in order to minimize adverse emotional experiences that detract from recovery.

Identifying places that foster mental health and well-being among rural men.

Drawing together research on therapeutic landscapes and rural men's mental health, this article explores where men living with mental health challenges feel well. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 24 men experiencing mental health challenges to collect in-depth information about their experiences in rural places. Study participants identified strategies to promote their well-being, including using everyday places for relief, relaxation, and to escape judgement; finding spaces for social connection; and helping others. Despite facing some challenges accessing everyday therapeutic landscapes, men's narratives highlight hidden rural amenities, countering deficit framings of rural places and revealing place-based strategies for supporting rural men.

Men Talking, Writing, and Imaging Violence against Women: (Dis)continuities Offline and Online

Abstract: How to represent violence—that is, talk about, write about, and image violence—without reproducing violence/violation is a challenge. Violence can be presented, re-presented, and represented in many ways, and through diverse narratives. In this article we analyze the narratives of those using violence, either when subsequently talking about the violence or in doing violation itself. Thus, we write on violence and violation, and we explore how men's violence and violation are talked of, written, and imaged by men, even while they may well not be aware that they are enacting violence/violation. We attend to some of the continuities and discontinuities in men's narratives between those talking about their use of immediate, direct physical violence/violation, especially against women, and those doing various forms of digital violence/violation through writing violence/violation. In the latter case, two examples are foregrounded: first, what is popularly known as "revenge pornography," that is, nonconsensual sharing and distribution of sexual images and texts; and second, "upskirting," that is, nonconsensual taking of photographs and videos of (usually) women's bodies and clothing. We draw on or analyze these practices through understandings of men, masculinities, and variable masculinist narratives. The final part of the article compares the three examples and considers their implications, the overlaps and blurrings between offline physical violence and digital violence/violation, and future challenges.

Literature as a Matter of Policy

Literature as a Matter of Policy

Thinking differently about family violence: Shifting from a criminal justice response to a recovery orientation

AbstractAgainst a backdrop of increasing rates of family violence in Aotearoa New Zealand, opportunities exist to reflect upon, and critically evaluate, our conventional understanding and responses to family violence. In doing so, there is considerable potential to further develop and progress more efficacious orientations and approaches. The current study sought to explore alternative approaches from the perspectives of 35 men who have engaged in family violence; understanding the type of supports and interventions that have aided their desistance. Participants traced their desistance to family violence to communities of support, communities that have raised awareness of family violence while simultaneously engaging men who either use violence or were at risk of using violence, and the development of holistic, therapeutic, and supportive communities. Themes from these men's narratives highlight the benefits of a move away from a criminogenic response to a community‐embedded recovery orientation.

“Jethro, Who Saved Taunton”: An African Man's Captivity Narrative during King Philip's War

This article examines the experiences of Jethro, an enslaved African man who was captured by the Narragansetts during King Philip's War. While captive, Jethro used his bilingualism to gather information about the Narragansett's war plans and then escaped and relayed them to the English. Jethro was granted freedom for this wartime service and went on to purchase property in the North End of Boston. He was representative of the charter generation of enslaved persons who showed that attitudes about race in seventeenth-century Massachusetts were still being formed. This essay further demonstrates how Jethro's story was appropriated by colonial writers at the time for their own unique purposes. Analyzing Jethro's story provides an opportunity to foreground Africanness in American captivity narratives.

“It exists”: An exploratory study of treatment experiences in men with eating disorders

ObjectiveEating disorders (EDs) in men are often overlooked although they are associated with similar comorbidities and health issues as found in women. The present study is an in‐depth analysis of treatment experiences of eight men who had sought help, were diagnosed with an ED and received ED‐specific treatment.MethodData were generated from an open‐ended interview that explored men's narratives of their experiences of an ED, as well as questions that focused on their help‐seeking behaviours and treatment experiences. Interviews were transcribed and thematically analysed.ResultsThis analysis resulted in four themes. The first theme focused on how men ascribed meaning to the ED experience and how these negotiations shaped their help seeking behaviour. The second theme focused on some of the barriers and expectations of men that they encountered when negotiating treatment for an ED. The third theme encompassed the experiences of men when they received the ED‐specific treatment. The last theme included the positive outcomes of treatment and role of health professionals in treating EDs in men.ConclusionThe findings highlight the importance of person‐centred ED treatments for men. Also identified was a need for improved health literacy among health practitioners in the field of EDs, specifically an increased awareness of the development of tailored interventions for men.

Men, masculinities and diabetes: 'doing gender' in Italian men's narratives of chronic illness.

There has been a growing interest in the study of masculinity and its intersection with health. However, and despite epidemiological data showing men's general disadvantage in health, there are only a few empirical studies that explore men's experiences of chronic illness. Drawing on empirical data collected in qualitative research on masculinity and autoimmune diabetes, this article investigates the multiple ways in which gender may intersect with health, in an attempt to go beyond the widespread thesis that 'masculinity is bad for men's health'. In line with more recent critical perspectives on the study of men's health that have challenged this oversimplistic assumption, this work further problematises masculinity in relation to health and illness. In-depth interviews have been conducted with 40young/adult diabetic men from working/middle-class backgrounds. The findings show that gender might intersect health in complex ways and diabetic men can embody and re-signify health practices in order to fulfil or redefine dominant ideals of masculinity. From the analysis, three different 'diabetic masculinities' have been identified and will be discussed: the Diabetic Quantified Self, the Athlete and the Free Spirit.