New Forms Of Masculinity Research Articles

From Hegemonic to Hybrid and Back? The Context-Adaptive Masculinity of Polish Male Migrants

The article aims to address the complexity of the models of masculinity (re)produced in the transnational context and explain the role of religion in this process. It draws on qualitative research conducted among religiously committed Catholic male migrants from Poland who have settled in multicultural and secular societies: England, Belgium, and Sweden. The transnational context often makes it difficult for migrant men to practice hegemonic masculinity. Our analysis shows how the isomorphic mechanisms allow for (re)constructing new forms of masculinity that combine diverse and often contradictory meanings available in the transnational contexts (i.e., associated with subordinated masculinities or with femininity). Such hybridized version of masculinity not only helps to adapt to the new transnational context but also allows for rebuilding the privileges traditionally offered by hegemonic masculinity. We also discuss the role religion plays in this process by giving credibility to this hybrid masculinity by rooting it in the sacral order and thus legitimizing it.

The Defective Image of Man in Modern Drama: A Critical Study of August Strindberg's The Father

As a matter of fact, the "defective male" is a new form of masculinity that appeared in late 19th-century modern drama, while traditional ideals portrayed strong, heroic men driven by reason and duty. Strindberg's The Father introduced complex male characters who faced inner conflicts and social pressures. Captain Adolph struggles hard to establish a male-identity not only as a good father but also as a loyal, sincere husband, hard-working researcher and scholar and eventually a man with strong morality and convictions. His tragic victimization by his extremely dominant wife, Laura, the monstrous mother, and how her domination leads to the madness of the father. Strindberg challenges traditional notions of paternal authority, exposing the helplessness that lies beneath the surface of apparent strength. The purpose of this study is to highlight the negative effect of a mother's dominance over her children and others. It critically examines the portrayal of man and the father figure in The Father by August Strindberg, focusing on the portrayal of defective masculinity and the challenges to traditional gender roles. The play digs deeply into the complexities of human relationships, particularly the breakdown of the paternal figure and the psychological turmoil. The narrative reveals Captain Adolph, a once authoritative and confident father, conflicts with the loss of his identity and the destruction of his reality. It is nothing compared to a father's tormented suffering.

Masculinity and veganism: the effect of linking vegan dishes with masculinity on men's attitudes toward vegan food

IntroductionVegetarian or vegan diets are not yet popular with most men, though they are beneficial for both health and the environment. Men's low preference for such diets might stem from the prevalent association of meat with masculinity, and of veganism with femininity. Accordingly, linking vegan nutrition to masculinity might help to develop a favorable attitude toward plant-based diets in men. The present study examined the effects of a masculine framing of vegan dishes on men's attitudes toward vegan food and veganism, and explored whether adherence to traditional forms of masculinity might increase the effects of masculine framing.MethodsWe conducted an online experiment with a 2 (man vs. woman) x 2 (conventional vs. masculine framing) design, in which 593 adults participated. We measured participants' attitudes toward vegan dishes (dish ratings, hunger ratings) and veganism (veganism ratings, vegan scenarios ratings), the perceived suitability of the dishes for men and women as well as men's identification with new forms of masculinity.ResultsWe found that a masculine framing of vegan dishes influenced the gender association of the dishes, weakening the link to femininity. However, masculine framing did not influence men's or women's attitudes toward the presented vegan dishes or veganism in general. Although the extent to which men identified with new forms of masculinity correlated positively with favorable attitudes toward veganism, new masculinity identification did - with an exception for the rating of the presented dishes - not moderate the effect of the experimental condition.DiscussionOur findings suggest that the potency of a short-term intervention might not be sufficient to counterbalance the prevailing feminine connotations associated with veganism. Thus, we encourage further exploration of masculine framing to improve men's perception of vegan food and the vegan concept, but with stronger stimuli and/or longer intervention duration.

Masculinity and men’s resistance to meat reduction

This article conceptualizes meat reduction as a masculinity threat for men and presents strategies for making men more receptive to meat reduction. Meat consumption is stereotypically associated with traditional masculinity. Compared to women, men tend to eat more meat and to be more resistant to vegetarianism. Eschewing meat has potential to undermine feelings of and portrayals of manhood, whereas eating meat may provide men with a sense and image of traditional masculinity. Efforts to frame meat reduction as a masculine act may be useful for promoting behavior change among men. Three strategies are proposed for aligning meat reduction with masculinity, ripe for testing in future research. These strategies include emphasizing new forms of masculinity, masculine branding of meat reduction, and touting athletic/sexual performance benefits of meat reduction. Efforts that target beliefs about masculinity have promise for reducing meat consumption among men.

A SHIFTING STANDARDS PERSPECTIVE OF MASCULINITY IN AVOSKIN YOURSKINBAE SHIELD OF SUN ADVERTISEMENT

Advertisements nowadays have become increasingly gender-neutral in recent years rather than targeting a single gender. The Calvin Klein perfume in 1994 was the first time the product was targeted at both a guy and a lady in the tagline. As well as cosmetics and skin products that are transitioning toward more gender-neutral items in unisex packages, there is also starting to be a shift in transgender people to their market and public advertising. It helps to improve cosmetics manufacturing and encourages certain people to express themselves regardless of gender. It also influences how masculinity and femininity change from the stereotype. In this case, we will use the Avoskin YourSkinBae Shield of Sun advertisement that shows the shifting of masculinity using John Fiske’s semiotic analysis of television code, which has three levels: reality, representation, and ideology. The result shows how the Avoskin YourSkinBae Shield of Sun advertisement wants to represent the new forms of masculinity that appear in the realm of popular representation.

The East African Urban City Space as a Sight of Dislocation of Masculinities : A Study of Peter Kimani’s before the Rooster Crows

This paper interrogates the fluidity of masculinities in Post-colonial urban Kenya. The paper examines urban masculinity in Kenya through the experiences of the Muriuki, the protagonist in Peter Kimani’s Before the Rooster Crows .Muriuki transits from the village to the City encountering experiences that baptizes him to a new form of masculinity in comparison to his rural masculinity. Carton (2001) and Everett, (2000) aver that urban masculinity compared with rural masculinity is not strictly governed by traditional norms. They argue that there are new urbanite youths who strive to create a new status of manhood and masculinity by defining themselves violently against their fathers and authority. There is an outright rejection of family and fathers. The paper seeks to examine Carton and Everett’s assertion. The paper examines this new form of urban masculinity through the life of the main protagonist, Muriuki’s life in the city. The paper contends that masculinity is not static but fluid. Keywords: Urban Masculinity,,Emasculated, Hegemony, Subordinate DOI: 10.7176/JLLL/91-01 Publication date: August 31 st 2022

Constructions of Masculinity in the Middle East and North Africa: Literature, Film, and National Discourse

Constructions of Masculinity in the Middle East and North Africa: Literature, Film, and National Discourse

New forms of masculinity in Western films: The end of the Marlboro Man?

Westerns are one of the most masculine and stereotypical of film genres. In a social and film context where gender equality is increasingly important, it is worth looking at the evolution of the genre in recent years. Especially because, as André Bazin said, the Western is “cinema par excellence” (1966) and its analysis allows a reflection on cinema itself. Taking the figure of the Marlboro Man as a prototype, this study carries out an analysis of three selected case studies: Brokeback Mountain, Jane Got a Gun and Godless, two films and a miniseries with main characters that do not follow heteronormative masculinity. Ang Lee’s work broke new ground not only in Westerns but also in industrial cinema by making homosexuality visible, while Gavin O’Connor’s showed the possibility of a woman playing the leading role in a classic Western. The miniseries produced by Netflix combines both by giving leading roles to female characters, some of them gay, while reflecting on homosexuality. It was noted that the portrayal of masculinity in Western films remains valid in all three cases, but it allows women and homosexuals to access leading roles, often by acquiring typically masculine attributes.

Meat and masculinities. Can differences in masculinity predict meat consumption, intentions to reduce meat and attitudes towards vegetarians?

“Real men eat meat.” While this idea is on the one hand widespread throughout time and cultures, it has also been criticized as being too stereotypical, not applicable to all men alike, and being dependent on group level cultural beliefs about gender norms. Increasingly some men question male norms and male privileges, and value authenticity, domesticity and holistic self-awareness. They identify themselves with ‘new’ forms of masculinity. This study investigates on an individual level if attachment to these newer forms of masculinity can predict differences in meat consumption, willingness to reduce meat, and attitudes towards vegetarians among men. A total of N = 309 male meat-eating participants were surveyed about their self-identification with new forms of masculinity, their attachment to meat, willingness to reduce their meat intake, and attitudes towards vegetarians. Results show that, as was predicted, men who identify more strongly with new forms of masculinity consume less meat, have a weaker attachment to meat, have a greater tendency to reduce their meat intake, and have more positive attitudes towards vegetarians. In sum this study carefully suggests to not only take biological sex differences, but socially and culturally determined gender differences into account when studying or promoting the (non-)consumption of meat.

Indonesian Fan Girls’ Perception towards Soft Masculinity as Represented By K-pop Male Idols

This article aimed to examine how fan girls perceive this new form of masculinity represented by K-pop male idols (termed as soft masculinity). This research used a mixed method in collecting the data from a questionnaire distributed via e-mail and Line to twenty fan girls from various fandoms in April 2016. The result shows that the respondents are aware that in the entertainment business, gender identity can be modified and presented as a part of marketing strategy. In addition, they only see the soft masculinity delivered by K-pop male idols as a form of performance.

Masculinity and aspiring consumption: A reception study of men’s lifestyle magazines in contemporary China

Abstract Men’s lifestyle magazines came to China at the turn of the twenty-first century as a result of the commercialization and globalization of the media. Existing investigations of these publications focus on a new form of masculinity that is associated with middle-class identity and the cult of cosmopolitanism that the magazines promote. However, the consumption of men’s lifestyle magazines remains an uncharted area, leaving unanswered such important questions as who the readers of these magazines are, why they read them, and whether there is any discrepancy between their target and actual readerships. Based on two online questionnaire surveys with magazine readers, this study fills this gap by comparing textual readings of Chinese men’s lifestyle magazines with the findings of reader reception studies. It argues that, on the one hand, men’s lifestyle magazines generate fantasies about and project a ‘cosmopolitan masculinity’, particularly among China’s younger generation, that invites fruitful interpretation in light of the concepts of cultural capital and ‘technology of the self’; on the other, however, there is tension between the ideal masculinity featured in these magazines and the real-life perceptions and situations of their readers, primarily owing to a lack of purchasing power. This tension indicates the limitations of the lifestyle magazine, despite its growing power of influence, in the construction of new identities in present-day China.

The action heroes of Bengali cinema: industrial, technological and aesthetic determinants of popular film culture, 1980s–1990s

ABSTRACT​In this article, I attempt to understand the emergence of a new form of masculinity, class character and gendered bodies of Bengali film heroes during the1980s and 1990s. The article reads the industrial, technological and aesthetic determinants of this figuration of action heroes in the 1980s–1990s and demonstrates how through this figuration, the representations of class in popular Bengali cinema attained a complex phase. A study of these figures reveals how the masculinity and gendered bodies of Bengali action heroes are indicative of broader changes in sociopolitical conditions of West Bengal and changes in the Bengali film industry. But since films like any other cultural texts are not overdetermined by history, the figuration of action heroes of Bengali cinema also accommodated the materiality of the filmic medium. Furthermore, several extra filmic texts and efforts brought newer imaginations of masculinity which functioned as important determinants in the constructs of film heroes. The article will demonstrate how the figuration of heroes in Bengali popular cinema during this period brought a new filmic language and formulated new film aesthetics.

Hegemonic masculinity versus a caring masculinity: Implications for understanding primary caregiving fathers

AbstractRecently, there has been a growing interest in what is positioned as a new form of masculinity arising from the increase in fathers as primary caregivers. This new form is referred to as a “caring masculinity” and is theorised as a radical shift away from traditional or hegemonic forms of masculinity. This paper critically examines the fathering literature, focusing specifically on how primary caregiving fathers navigate social norms with regard to masculinity. The paper concludes that there is a complex interplay between expectations of a traditional, provider father and a new and involved father. It is argued that ideas surrounding a caring masculinity are better understood as a broadening of hegemonic masculinity, rather than an entirely new or distinct form.

Performing Ogaranya: Kalu Ezelu Uwaoma, Male Slavery, and Freedom Politics in Southeastern Nigeria, c. 1860–1940

Abstract Kalu Uwaoma’s social mobility from slave to slaver, warrant chief, Presbyterian elder, and British knight between 1865 and 1940 provides a subaltern view of enslavement and the attainment of freedom in the Bight of Biafra. In securing freedom without legal manumission, Kalu harnessed the muscles of emerging colonialism, Western education, and Christian modernity as well as local configurations of power and masculinity. This study restores Kalu to historical memory by drawing attention to his autobiography, one of two known personal narratives of pre-twentieth- century Igbo-Africans. Kalu’s biography was an argument against re-enslavement, a social projection of his freedom, and a rebellious manipulation of a new form of masculinity known as ogaranya (wealth-power), which signaled the masculinization of wealth and the emergence of men as arbiters of more powerful political institutions.

Third Space Masculinities

Grounded in everyday life, the practice of male same-sex relations is neither uncommon nor a dominant trend but rather a renegotiated space for many young men in Turkey today. This unnamed practice creates a “third space” that forms and transforms young men’s alternative sexual subject positions. My conversations with young men revealed that in this third space the male body comes to terms with a new form of masculinity and male sexual pleasure that destabilizes both heteronormativity and homosexuality. I conducted fieldwork in Ankara, Turkey, between 2003 and 2005 to study the rhetorical uses of language in the context of virginity examinations. My study was based on participatory action research methods, and my field sites included a squatter settlement, a village, and an upper-class neighborhood. While there is a large literature on homosexuality and same-sex relations in Iran and the Arab world, this essay adds to the emerging scholarship that focuses on Turkey through its identification of a “third space” masculinity and its examination of not only urban but also rural and semiurban areas.Young men who engage in same-sex practices often seek release from the material conditions of social norms governing premarital sexuality and virginity. Men who have sex with men do not have a language to name the sexual activities they engage in. They neither use terms such as homosexual or gay nor conflate their sexual encounters with homoerotic desire similar to what Huseyin Tapinc’s (1992) research revealed in Turkey. Rather, they perform their sexualities in a ritualized manner to prove their maleness or abilities at penetrating. Hence rather than ascribing to a sexual orientation or gender identity, men who have sex with men build an alternative sexual space where they reconfigure masculine sexual behavior.In the newly configured third space of male same-sex practices, where affection and romance mostly do not reside, roles and meanings associated with masculinity, heterosexuality, and homosexuality blur. Contained in spaces reserved for young men, men who have sex with men do not depart from heterosexuality toward homosexuality. Rather, the third spaces they create are sites of response to social codes that prohibit sexual encounters between men and women. Hence men who have sex with men are dissidents renegotiating their sexualities and redrawing the boundaries of what may be possible in a culture of compulsory virginity. The third space is a way to reinscribe sexual behavior and build solidarity in the spaces reserved for men where opposite sex partner relationships are not available. However, this is not to say that male same-sex sexuality is always a direct consequence of norms regarding virginity and women’s seclusion. As Afsaneh Najmabadi (2006) points out, it can be reductive and totalizing to always attribute same-sex sexuality to societal practices such as gender segregation and veiling.The third space masculinity in the Turkish context illuminates modes of sexuality that lack a linguistic space. Situated in a context that legitimates only marital heteronormative sexual behavior and pleasure, men who have sex with men live in a culture of secrecy and silence. Yet, in spite of the lack of a language, this third space masculinity speaks in other ways. First, third space is liberating in its attempt to create a medium through which entry into a sexual subjectivity is sought without privileging a sexual identity or sexual orientation. Second, it is a space of critique and empowerment that makes a potential argument for sexual freedom a possibility. In this nondiscursive space silence seeks to break away from repressed sexualities. Although an everyday language to name it does not exist, this space is a means of coming to terms with societal norms and men’s relationships to each other. Without female participation, it is a space where patriarchal economies are reproduced; it is a male-defined marginal space structured around the male body and the phallus.The presence of this male domain points to the need to develop a new discourse to theorize the unnamed third space and its implications. As an alternative space partly created in response to societal constraints, third space masculinities provide an opportunity to rethink male sexuality and masculinity in the heteronormative order. Instead of totalizing men’s and women’s experiences with patriarchy, the third space masculinity in Turkey can broaden the possibilities of using a new nuanced language to contextualize and theorize how patriarchal patterns in society shape masculinities and male sexualities as well. Finally, third space masculinities in Turkey have the potential to contribute to the feminist agenda by addressing unnamed but lived sexualities, so that individuals’ experiences with sexuality are not totalized but grounded in everyday stories to capture nuanced sexual subjectivities that move beyond the heterosexual versus homosexual dualism.

Standing “Straight” Up to Homophobia: Straight Allies’ Involvement in GSAs

This qualitative study captures the experiences of four straight allies’ and one gay youth involvement in gay–straight alliances (GSAs) at their Ontario, Canada, high schools. Participants’ motivations for becoming GSA members and their roles as allies are examined. Queer theoretical perspectives, as espoused by Britzman (1995, 1998) and Linville (2009), underpin the study's purpose, design, and data analysis. Queer theory was employed to both problematize the heteronormative underpinnings of education and to critique the stand-alone nature of GSAs. Safety, support, education, and advocacy—to varying degrees—were identified as the roles of participants’ GSAs. Straight allies joined GSAs because they wanted to support lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer/questioning (LGBTQ) people and advocate for their human rights. They developed queer-positive attitudes through befriending and/or empathizing with LGBTQ people and from their experiences with being “Othered.” Findings suggest that allies felt undue pressure to address homophobic language and were compelled to combat LGBTQ-based inequities in school and society. Particular attention was also paid to exploring how two straight male allies were cultivating new forms of masculinity that refrain from denigrating LGBTQ people.

Domestic violence prevention through the Constructing Violence-free Masculinities programme: an experience from Peru

This paper examines work undertaken with male perpetrators of violence in the Construction of Violence-free Masculinities, a project run by the Centro Mujer Teresa de Jesús, a Women's Centre located in a poor peri-urban district of Lima, Perú, in conjunction with Oxfam-Quebec. Centre staff faced the challenge of how to work with men who are violent towards their intimate partners. They use a community education approach, to challenge powerful stereotypes about gender roles, to question men's assumed dominance over women, and support men to construct new forms of masculinity, without violence. Ultimately, the programme seeks to modify and change the beliefs, values, attitudes, and behaviours of men who are aggressors.

Men in the Remaking: Conversion Narratives and Born-Again Masculinity in Zambia

AbstractThe born-again discourse is a central characteristic of Pentecostal Christianity in Africa. In the study of African Christianities, this discourse and the way it (re)shapes people’s moral, religious, and social identities has received much attention. However, hardly any attention has been paid to its effects on men as gendered beings. In the study of men and masculinities in Africa, on the other hand, neither religion in general nor born-again Christianity in particular are taken into account as relevant factors in the construction of masculinities. On the basis of a detailed analysis of interviews with men who are members of a Pentecostal church in Lusaka, Zambia, this article investigates how men’s gender identities are reshaped by becoming and being born-again and how born-again conversion produces new forms of masculinity. The observed Pentecostal transformation of masculinity is interpreted in relation to men’s social vulnerability, particularly in the context of the HIV epidemic in Zambia.

Islamic piety and masculinity

Barbara Metcalf suggested some years ago that a well-known contemporary Islamic movement of pietist inclinations, the Tabligh-i Jama’at, acted in effect to produce a gentler, more feminised male Muslim identity among its adherents. Some other contemporary Islamic movements have similar tendencies. Ritual practices among the Hijaz Community, a mostly Pakistani organisation in the British Midlands, for example, are explicitly aimed to produce a gentler, less aggressive orientation among their followers. Can we see these new movements as part of the evolution of new forms of masculinity among Muslim men, both in Muslim-majority and diasporic populations? I explore this question through field research carried out as part of an ESRC-funded research project on young Muslims in the UK and Bangladesh.

Remaking traditional sociality, ephemeral friendships and enduring political alliances

This article explores histories of social separation, impermanent encounters, and lasting political alliances between Dalit (“untouchable”) Chamar male youth and members of the upper-caste Brahman community in a village in eastern Uttar Pradesh, North India. The entry of young Chamar people into educational institutions followed by political mobilization and, for some, the transition into employment, has led them to appropriate spaces often beyond the purview of previous generations. Against the backdrop of Chamar histories as agricultural laborers, powerless political subjects, and actors of religious marginality, new forms of masculinity, sociality, and class formation have come into being. The article focuses on young Chamar men’s involvement in village politics, particularly during the 2005 local elections. It is argued that village politics—rather than inter-caste friendships, which remain short-lived as a result of caste discrimination—has engendered an arena of sociality where caste-driven interest produce more durable social links between young low-caste men and members of the upper-caste community. As India’s political history illustrates, the episode of electoral politics analyzed in this article brings together differently situated communities within the nation, highlighting how the unresolved question of caste discrimination conflates with the compulsion to political power. If young Chamar men are the new protagonists in this history, their role is the outcome of broader changes in the consciousness around political participation and the opening up of democratic possibilities for minority populations in a postcolonial setting.