Negotiation Of Masculinity Research Articles

A Negotiating K-Pop Fanboy Micro-Celebrity Masculinity on Instagram

This study explores the methods used by micro-celebrity K-pop fanboys to negotiate their masculinity as male K-pop fans on Instagram. K-pop fanboy micro-celebrity is a term used to refer to K-pop fanboys who had transformed into micro-celebrities. The existence of K-pop fanboys wa often associated with non-hetrosexual streotypes and stigmas such as 'sissy' and 'faggot,' which placed them was in an unfair social order. Therefore, K-pop fanboys, especially those who had become micro-celebrities, it felt the necessaries to negotiate their masculinity as male K-pop fans. The netnography method was used by observing of this study the Instagram accounts of K-pop micro-celebrity fanboys to understand the ways and strategies they used in negotiating their masculinity. Based on the results of the study, it was found the finding that the negotiation of masculinity carried out by K-pop micro-celebrity fanboys was done by adjusting themselves to the existing hegemonic masculinity values. This study observation was done through the formation of an 'ideal' body, showing their heterosexual relationships, and displaying various preferred activities other than K-pop. By aligning themselves with the values of masculinity developed in society, K-pop fanboys tried to show that as male K-pop fans, they could express their enthusiasm without having to sacrifice their masculine image.

Representation and Negotiation of Masculinities in South Asian English Fiction: Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis

This study traces the representation and negotiation of masculinities in Shamsie’s Home Fire. The analysis and discussion are based, on the one hand, on the deconstruction of Connell’s (1995) models of hegemonic masculinities in the novel and, on the other hand, on the exploration of alternative reshaping and more dialogical models of masculinities as stated in the theory of performativity by Judith Butler (1990, 1999) and represented in the selected fiction. For the data analysis, theoretical insights were taken from the feminist critical discourse analysis. The findings of the study reveal that individuals acknowledge themselves either as masculine or feminine referring to their gender identity. Sociologists intend to refer to gender as an essential status because it is widely recognized as a significant factor in determining identity, involvement in institutions, socialization, and opportunities in life. The negotiation of masculinities is suggested to make society more humane and balanced where individuals express their potential and personality according to their own choices.

Edible Bodies? Conspicuous Consumption, Women’s Bodies and Postcolonial Masculinities in Fast-Food Advertisements in Zimbabwe

ABSTRACT While existing scholarship has primarily focused on examining how women are often objectified and sexualised in fast-food marketing advertisements, this article shifts the focus to demonstrate how such advertisements reveal the construction, performance and negotiation of precarious masculinities. By concentrating on advertisements from a Zimbabwean fast-food chain, Mambo’s Chicken, this article argues that advertisements framing women as edible items offer insights into how precarious masculinities are constructed, performed and negotiated within the postcolonial context of Zimbabwe. Specifically, it examines the use of sexual humour, banter and innuendo in advertisements from Mambo’s Chicken, considering the complex issues inherent in conspicuous consumption and how they illuminate multifaceted insecurities that men navigate as they attempt to assert their dominance. This negotiation of masculinity occurs within a paradoxical context characterised by excessive consumerism and precarious economic conditions.

Measures of Success: Competing Masculinities in Cobra Kai

Netflix’s reboot series Cobra Kai (2018–present) depicts an intergenerational negotiation of masculinities as the men from the original Karate Kid mentor Gen Z students. Reagan-era masculine norms and measures of manhood are tested by the teens as they face twenty-first-century challenges. Static performances of masculinity fail to meet the demands of new situations; thus, the mentors and the teens alike seek flexibility instead of a winner-takes-all approach.

“Be a man”: boys’ talk about gender in families

ABSTRACT This paper draws from an ethnographic study of 8–9-year-old primary school boys’ construction of masculinities. We focus on a group of Indian and black school boys situated in a working class setting in South Africa. In their narratives, the family emerged as one of the central organising sites for the social production and reproduction of masculinity. While masculinities are produced within a broader social and cultural context, this paper gives significance to family dynamics in shaping and reinforcing young masculinities. We show that while boys address family in relation to the reification of gender binaries and hegemonic patterns related to gender roles, sexuality and violence, their performances of masculinities were not entirely reiterative of these norms. Instead, boys actively challenged, negotiated and resisted dominant norms hence destabilising homogenous conceptualisations of children as passive recipients of received knowledge and oppressed power. We foreground young boys’ agency in their negotiation of masculinities and further demonstrate how the broader historical and social forces of race, class and culture intersect with dominant gender discourses within the context of families to enable plural versions of masculinities.

Inclusivity, Horizontal Homosociality and Controlled Participation of “The Others”: Negotiations of Masculinity and Ageing in Two Older Men’s Communities

ABSTRACT Theories of inclusive masculinity and horizontal homosociality describe how previously marginalized forms of masculinity are becoming socially acceptable. Studies within these theoretical frameworks have largely focused on privileged groups of men and men’s changing attitudes towards homosexuality. This raises questions about the extent to which the theories apply to marginalized groups of men and other inequalities between men. In this article, we analyse ethnographic data from two Finnish older men’s communities that emphasize equality between men as an essential part of their ethos, and ask how inclusive practices and horizontal homosociality operate in these communities. Our intersectional analysis shows that older men’s communities may involve varying levels of inclusive practices that do not necessarily relate to sexuality but, instead, to other aspects of inequality. Future studies should consider the contextuality of men’s practices and the intersectional differences between men that are the subjects of these inclusive or exclusionary practices.

Good men need to be you dandang: negotiating masculinity in intimate relationships in contemporary China

This article examines Chinese young men’s negotiation of masculinity and male roles in intimate relationships. It addresses how masculine ideals are interpreted and lived out in young men’s experiences of relationships and marriage. Based on data generated through in-depth interviews, it argues that you dandang – being willing to shoulder responsibilities and capable of fulfilling male roles – is the key criterion of masculinity in the intimate sphere. This sentiment captures the complexity and nuances of intimate relationships in the Chinese context, which are imbued with traditional Confucian ethics but also subject to contemporary renegotiation. In order to align themselves with this masculine ideal, Chinese young men deploy different strategies in a reflexive and relational manner, embedded within their personal networks and wider social realities. While there are moments when the patriarchal gender order is questioned and challenged, Chinese men’s intimate experiences often reinstate traditional gender scripts and reinforce male authority.

The aspiration for moral manhood: Christianity, class and migrant workers’ negotiation of masculinities in Shenzhen, China

While geographies of masculinities have recognised the intersectionality and multi-dimensional relations of masculine subjectivities, there is relatively less consideration of how religion, particularly Christianity, shapes the constitution of masculinities. This article examines the formation of Christian and moral masculinity by focusing on the intersection of religion, class and gender among rural migrant workers in Shenzhen, China. It explores how Christian migrant workers tactically deploy religious discourses to construct their masculine moral subjectivity in rural churches, the urban workplace and the family and thus transform and come to terms with (and sometimes reinforce) different hegemonic masculinities normalised by hierarchical labour regime, traditional patriarchal culture, and secular values. I suggest that migrant workers’ performance of moral manhood is itself hegemonic as it is conditioned by a set of normative religious moralities and conduct. Nevertheless, it serves as a tactical alternative for migrant workers to reframe their marginal experiences and to claim a meaningful way of being men that may psychologically empower them. This article aims to bring the critical geographies of masculinity into dialogue with the literature on geographies of Christianity.

The negotiation of masculinity and identity through clothing choices among Russian speakers in Canada

Using information interviews conducted with Russian-speaking men living in Toronto and vicinity this article interrogates the understanding of fashion among immigrants from former Soviet Union and Russia. Using a hypothesis that Russian-speaking men conceptualize their male identity differently from both their Canadian counterparts and Russian men living in Russia this article investigates how fashion choices affect negotiation of identity of these men in Canada. Using art historical methodologies, historical analysis and qualitative research I look at the interviewee’s contributions as a reflection of masculinity in transitions assuming that the forming of masculine identity is a constantly changing process. In each society the hegemonic model of masculinity categorizes groups of men in relation to each other through ‘normalizing’ the definition of masculinity and defining its standards and proper manifestations. This is particularly true of societies where the military culture has an increased presence and an important role to play. Contemporary Russia epitomizes the commanding and rigid nature of the masculinist regime where hegemonic masculinity is firmly established and thoroughly institutionalized.

Representing Father–Son Relationships among African-American Muslim Men in Film and Television

ABSTRACTAfrican-American Muslims are well-known for their prison reform ministries and initiatives aimed at assisting disenfranchised men and women in inner city communities. In media discourse, the redemption narratives of young African-American Muslim men in these environments have often been stimulated by African-American Muslim leaders who function as highly influential fatherly figures that usually stress an importance of fatherhood in ameliorating juvenile delinquency and hopelessness. While fatherhood is a cherished institution among Muslim families, this analysis focuses on depictions of father-son relationships among African-American Muslim men in film and television. This study examines relationships between Muslim sons and non-Muslim fathers, Muslim fathers and non-Muslim sons, and fathers and sons who both embrace Islam throughout these visual narratives. In exploring these relationships, the article examines the impact of African-American Muslim fathers on their sons’ faith and spiritual development, negotiation of masculinity, management of racism, confrontation of Islamophobia, and maintenance of discipline, social mobility, and life skills.

New Nordic men: cooking, masculinity and nordicness in René Redzepi’s Noma and Claus Meyer’s Almanak

ABSTRACTThis article analyses the constructions and negotiations of masculine identity in New Nordic Cuisine. It focuses on cookbooks by the leading figures, namely Claus Meyer and René Redzepi. The article argues that Meyer and Redzepi represent different negotiations of Nordic culinary masculinity played out in distinct culinary spaces: respectively the domestic and the professional kitchen. At the same time, both men make great effort to distance their culinary practices not only from a traditional understanding of women’s everyday cooking, but also from the food and gender practices of hypermasculine chefs. Meyer and Redzepi both strike a precarious balance: not becoming too close to “the feminine,” but simultaneously remaining distinct from traditional, culinary masculinity.

Young rural–urban migrant fathers in China: everyday ‘China Dream’ and the negotiation of masculinity

ABSTRACTDrawing upon a study on rural–urban migrant young men at a delivery company in a southern Chinese city, I examine how they make sense of their private life as fathers. Situated within the pervasive national discourse of the ‘China Dream’ in which individual aspiration for a better life is advocated in line with the prosperity of the nation marked by neoliberal modernization, the paper seeks to understand how the marginalized urban working-class young men make sense of their subjectivities through a gender lens. In particular, I investigate the process of masculine identification in the young migrant fathers’ narratives. It highlights the way the young men negotiate ordinary masculine ideals and familial practices of modern fatherhood, desiring a better future for the next generation. I explore how they navigate through the constraints of material inequalities (i.e. as urban working class) and the tension with their gender responsibilities/expectations within a wider familial context, in making sense of their gender subjectivities.

From Gaze to Witness: Masculinity and Loss in George Shaw’s Paintings of Tile Hill

This paper explores the gaze as witness in George Shaw’s painting of Tile Hill. Considering Shaw’s process of making in the series ‘Scenes of the Passion’ (1990-2017) the paper addresses the relationship of site, memory and gaze in a negotiation of masculinity and loss in these images.

"We Learn How to Become Good Men": Working with Male Allies to Prevent Violence against Women and Girls in Urban Informal Settlements in Mumbai, India.

Engaging men has now become part of established global efforts to prevent violence against women and girls (VAWG), with most interventions focusing on making men’s behaviors and attitudes more gender equitable. While scholarship on male allies has demonstrated the nature of their transformations and motivations, less attention has been paid to their negotiations of masculinity, privilege, the intersection between subjecthood and social contexts, and how these inform their engagements with women activists’ anti-violence work in their communities. We explore questions of men’s engagement in this article, which is based on a pilot ethnographic study with male allies in a VAWG prevention program in the informal settlements of Dharavi in Mumbai, India. We found that while men are able to acquire “knowledge” and “awareness” through the intervention, it produces an individuating effect wherein the structural nature of VAWG is obscured due to an emphasis on men’s individual traits. This further informs participants’ understanding of masculinity, which is marked by ambivalence as men negotiate multiple hegemonic masculinities and socioeconomic anxieties. One reason for this is that interventions with men are unable to destabilize public–private boundaries in informal settlements, which continue to treat VAWG as “private matters.” We discuss the implications for local and global responses to engender accountability among male allies.

The Discursive Construction of Modern Masculine Identities in Contemporary Malaysia

In recent years, the emphasis on studies of western masculinities has caused studies on local masculinities not only to be ignored but marginalised. The underrepresentation of studies relating to Asian masculinity, particularly on Malaysian men, has caused a significant gap in theorizing about Asian men in general and Malaysian men in particular. With globalization and the shift in societal expectations of gender roles, men are urged to redefine and reconstruct their contemporary identities in their personal and professional lives. Despite the growing interest in masculine studies, research concerning men, especially in the social transformation of masculinity within the contemporary society is largely absent. This study examined the perceptions and experiences of Malaysian men in their negotiation of masculinity. Drawing from in depth semi structured interviews and content analysis of survey questions, the study explores the discursive construction of new masculinity among 28 Malaysian men aged between 25-35. Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) was used for the analysis of interview transcripts. The study sought to investigate how new masculinity is constructed by analysing the interview discourse of the 28 respondents by paying close attention to the linguistic and lexical choices they used to describe masculine identities. This study examined whether the current notion of masculinity sustains or challenges the hegemonic concept. The findings of this study indicate that being seen as independent, competitive and a risk taker are among the important determinants of self-perceived masculinity. In some instances, traditional male identities which is linked with being dominant, muscular and being a provider are no longer considered as ultimate masculine identifications. The findings are of great importance to provide a refined and contextual understanding of how masculinity and complex male identities are constructed in contemporary society.

Defining the Other to Masculinize Oneself: Syrian Men’s Negotiations of Masculinity during Displacement in Egypt

AbstractThis article discusses how Syrian men in Egypt renegotiate notions of masculinity during forced displacement. Based on fourteen months of ethnographic research in Egypt in 2014–15, the essa...

Sexual violence in serial form: Breaking Bad habits on TV

Walter White’s (Bryan Cranston) attempts to isolate, degrade, exploit, frighten, and control his wife Skyler (Anna Gunn) are tactics that are well-documented in studies focusing on abuse. Yet, despite the representation of both implicit and explicit forms of domestic abuse and sexual violence throughout Breaking Bad (2008–2013), there is an apparent disconnect between how this behaviour is perceived on screen and how it is ostensibly regarded in society. It is here, at the intersection of audience reception and sociological theory that I argue Breaking Bad represents abuse as part of a broader negotiation of masculinity, one that contributes to the ongoing marginalization of women’s voices in both visual media narratives and, by extension, society. In particular, I argue that despite the series’ long-form structure, the lack of emphasis placed on instances of coercive control by the writers and directors is partly responsible for contributing towards a culture of misogyny and victim-blaming fostered by fans towards Skyler evident in numerous online blog posts, fan forums, social media platforms, and Anna Gunn’s own treatise on the portrayal of her character in the New York Times.

Age and changing masculinities in gay–straight male workplace friendships

Drawing on interview data gathered from 35 gay men in the UK, this article explores how age influences the negotiation of masculinity within gay–straight male workplace friendships. Study findings show that gay–straight workplace friendships between younger men appear to be framed in terms of equality, not homophobia. Older gay men also report similar experiences, some suggesting how these friendships were not possible in their youth. Gay and straight men of a similar age are also united in friendship by their experiences of ageing and its implications for carrying out work. Interview data also reveal how gay–straight male friendships are constrained at work, thus limiting the opportunities for emotional openness and physical tactility. Overall, the study reveals how younger and older gay men, and their straight male friends, variously align themselves to inclusive masculinities within friendship. This article contributes to inclusive masculinity theory by extending the types of contexts currently studied, both relational and work-related, and adding further emphasis to the contextually contingent nature of inclusive masculinities. It also advances the limited literature on gay–straight friendships by highlighting how they might challenge and reshape the heteronormative contours of work contexts.

‘The sweet tang of rape’: Torture, survival and masculinity in Ian Fleming’s Bond novels

Little scholarly attention has been paid to the torture scenes in Ian Fleming’s canon of Bond novels and short stories (1953–1966), despite the fact that they represent some of the most potent sites of the negotiations of masculinity, nationhood, violence and the body for which Fleming’s texts are critically renowned. This article is an intersectional feminist reading of Fleming’s canon, which stresses the interpenetrations of homophobia, anticommunism and misogyny that are present in Fleming’s representation of torture. Drawing on close readings of Fleming’s novels and theoretical discussions of heteronormativity, homophobia and national identity, this article argues that Fleming’s representations of torture are sites of literary meaning in which the boundaries of hegemonic masculinity are policed and reinforced. This policing is achieved, this article argues, through the associations of the perpetration of torture with homosexuality and Communism, and the survival of torture with post-imperial British hegemonic masculinity. Fleming’s torture scenes frequently represent set pieces in which Bond must reject or endure the unsolicited intimacy of other men; he must resist their seductions and persuasions and remain ideologically undefiled. Bond’s survival of torture is a metonymy for Britain’s survival of post-Second World War social and political upheaval. Further, the horror of torture, for Fleming, is the horror of a hierarchy of hegemonic masculinity in disarray: Bond’s survival represents the regrounding of normative heterosexual masculinity through the rejection of homosexuality and Communism.

Migration, marginalization and metropolitaneity: negotiation of masculinities of Nepali drug users in Hong Kong

Many studies on men and masculinity have discussed how Asian male migrants who experience a ‘masculinity crisis’ negotiate their masculinity vis-à-vis dominant black and white masculinities in Western societies. Yet, few have discussed how they negotiate their masculinity in the Asian contexts. In this study, Nepalis have a tradition of transnational migration. Their transnational networks have facilitated the development of overseas Nepali communities. This research therefore aims to study the negotiation of masculinities of Nepali male heroin users, a marginalized group in Hong Kong. By using a qualitative mixed-methods approach, it is argued that their negotiation of masculinities is nuanced and relational; intersecting with race/ethnicity, social space, and generation. In the process, discursive resources in the cultural repertoire are utilized to construct alternative forms of masculinities in school, the workplace, and rehabilitation treatment. These masculinities are pluralistic and contingent, in relation to the transnational space and post-colonial situation of Hong Kong.