Masculine Pattern Research Articles

Intentions, structures and intersections: theorising complicit masculinities as political masculinities

Despite it being not only central to the politics of critical studies on men and masculinities but also one of Connell’s four patterns of masculinity developed alongside the now-canonical ‘hegemonic masculinity’, the concept of ‘complicit masculinity’ has received little attention. This article suggests that complicit masculinities should be understood as political masculinities, in that they are from the beginning shaped by the existing politics and power relations that construct gender. This means acknowledging that masculinities are always at risk of complicity. Rather than this rendering the notion of ‘complicit masculinities’ redundant, I draw on a range of critical studies on men and masculinities to argue that identifying complicity as a feature of masculinities: first, allows us to identify three interrelated dimensions of complicity, which I label as ‘intentional’, ‘structural’ and ‘intersectional’ complicity; and, second, can serve as the starting point for a men’s profeminist politics.

Shift in Traditional Masculine Role Amid COVID-19: A Comprehensive Overview From Bangladesh

Gender has been an essential category of analysis that has been culturally and historically embedded in society since the 90s century (Scott, 1986). Gender is not a set of defined traits of masculine and feminine roles;instead, it is connected to social, economic, and psychological aspects. This research intends to examine the changing pattern of conventional conservative masculinity amid the COVID-19 epidemic,which instigates male dominance and supremacy and prescribes an fundamental and objective manner of men's roles. Covid-19, a worldwide pandemic, brought immense health as well as socioeconomic crisis for both men and women.As men and women experience the catastrophes differently,a gendered dimension of assessing their condition due to such a pandemic is necessary. Consequently, this paper aims to explore men's miscellaneous experiences, including their socioeconomic crisis, struggle, and coping mechanisms in that outbreak period. Connell's theory of hegemonic masculinity, Talcott Parsons' functionalist theory, and Judith Lorber'sgender role theory were used to assess findings and to comprehend traditional masculinity. According to findings, men face a massive change in their way of living due to the pandemic, which brought both positive changes in their behavior as well as creating an extra burden to bear socioeconomic turmoil. However, men's involvement in family care work, participation in parenting, contribution to creating flexible conjugal relations, and agreement in the deterioration of precarious masculinity indicate a shifting prototype of traditional masculinity. Similarly, masculinity is not just a linear, homogenous, or rigid construction; it has multiple overlapping variables that evaluate the pandemic from a gendered dimension.

Trajectories in and exits out for young men involved with violence on an inner-city housing estate

ABSTRACT This paper narrates an induction process about how adolescents and young men are drawn into living and practising a distinctive and often violent cultural form of street masculinity on an inner-city estate in London. The paper sets out to counteract dominant discourses which often portray young black men from working-class and impoverished backgrounds as ‘hypermasculine perpetrators of violence’. Developing the concepts of caring and personalized masculinities shows that, in the right conditions, young men exercise agency to perform different masculinities in different contexts and times, fashion more inclusive identities, and create new trajectories and lifestyles. The ethnographic fieldwork took place over nine months in 2019. It involved around 50 young men who were Black, Asian and minority ethnic. The paper focuses on two particular young men, aged 19 and 22, who appear as exemplars of ways of enacting different patterns of masculinity.

Pra lá de onde o gênero faz a curva: as mudanças no perfil do público leitor de mangás shoujo e shounen

It aims to discuss the intrinsic relations between gender and manga, in order to grasp the contemporary changes on the profile of shoujo and shounen manga readers. To that end, we explore the history of manga as a narrative, as well as a representation of feminine and masculine patterns; we discuss the characteristics of shoujo and shounen subgenres; as well as analyze the most popular manga among readers whose gender opposes the demographic of said work, while substantiating this study through Hans Robert Jauss’s Aesthetic of Reception Theory (1994 [1970]), as a means to problematize the contemporary turns in Japanese comics.

Exploring men's health in medium and high complexity care in Brazil: A deductive thematic analysis of social determinants.

Men's health is influenced by a complex interplay of social, economic, and cultural determinants. Understanding how these aspects affect the health of adult cisgender men in medium and high-complexity healthcare settings is essential for improving healthcare services and promoting better health outcomes. This study aimed to analyze the health status of adult cisgender men in medium and high-complexity healthcare settings based on social determinants and conditioners. This study employed a qualitative design involving 45 adult cisgender men receiving care in medium/high complexity services in Bahia, Brazil. Semi-structured interviews were conducted from July 2019 to February 2020, and data were interpreted based on Dahlgren and Whitehead's Model of Social Determinants of Health using deductive thematic analysis. Proximal determinants included biological aspects, preventive behaviors, lifestyle/social life, and aging processes. Intermediate factors included work conditions, access/utilization of healthcare services/medications, and psychosocial factors. Macro determinants involved income distribution, power dynamics, resource allocation, health inequalities/iniquities, morbidity, culture, political decisions, environmental factors, and structural elements. The health status of men in medium/high complexity care was profoundly influenced by structural social determinants. These determinants impacted healthcare attention, service organization, cultural influences, the reproduction of hegemonic masculinity patterns, lifestyle, social support, and socioeconomic conditions necessary to realize the right to health. Nursing practices should conduct comprehensive assessments that extend beyond physical health indicators.

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words: Aging, Inclusive Masculinities, and Media Celebrity

In this essay, I want to engage critically the concept of “inclusive masculinities” to argue that it needs to account for the dimension of age. As part of a third phase of masculinity research that goes beyond the theoretical framework of “hegemonic masculinity” (Connell) to fathom the diversification of forms of masculinity, Eric Anderson deploys “inclusive masculinities” to theorize the proliferation of a plurality of non-vertical, non-hegemonic types of masculinity. These varied types allow for emotional intimacy with friends and physical tactility with other men, embracing activities and objects once coded feminine and, crucially, they eschew violence and bullying. As inclusive as this paradigm of changing masculinities is, it has largely overlooked the dimension of age. Aging men in film, media, and popular culture are typically depicted in a stay of decay and decline, while shifting patterns of masculinity seem to be limited to youth males. My case study for this cross-reading of inclusive masculinities with aging studies is an iconic photograph of two aging celebrity athletes. On September 23, 2022, freelance photographer Ella Ling captured an image of tennis superstars Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal holding hands while sobbing uncontrollably during the tribute paid to the former’s retirement from professional tennis. The photo went viral on social media, and journalists and fans were quick to embrace it as a corrective to what popular discourse refers to as “toxic masculinity.” I will analyze this photo as an iconic picture that captures the masculine zeitgeist of contemporary times. The image of the two male celebrities expressing affection and friendship is all the more significant given that failure in elite sports is usually tied to inability to manage emotions. This photo not only challenges prevailing norms around masculine behavior but also the way young athletes are socialized into sport (privileging hypermasculinity, dominance, and aggression). As a visual positive model of inclusive and of aging masculinities (compared to the infamous images of bravado of younger tennis stars such as Nick Kyrgios and Alexander Zverev), this photo also makes great strides in presenting a forward-looking picture of Iberian aging masculinities. This is particularly crucial for Rafael Nadal’s celebrity brand, which is associated with a traditional form of manhood (his brand logo is “the raging bull” connoting masculinity, strength, and power), and who has been involved in sound polemics regarding his backwards views on gender equality.

Воспроизводство социально-статусной системы российского общества в дискурсе глянцевых журналов: социологический анализ

The research aims to study the mechanism of gender differentiation in glossy magazines, which determines the motivational and value aspects of the life of men and women. It claims that glossy magazines are actively involved in the formation of gender stereotypes that correspond to the established gender system of society. Gender-oriented glossy magazines reproducing patterns of femininity and masculinity establish a gender regime, which guarantees the preservation of social order on the one hand and determines gender stratification on the other. The author focuses on the role of visual and verbal components of communication, which by means of the designation of statuses, roles and values of masculine and feminine behavior create gender inequality at the individual and institutional levels. As the sociological analysis showed, the representation of gender in women’s magazines indicates the complication of gender identification, the emergence of new property and features of modern femininity, which reflects the dynamic nature of society. But the shift of emphasis towards fashion and beauty, the popularization of lifestyle in the context of recreational activities with a predominance of hedonistic forms significantly limit the range of social female roles in Russian society. In men’s magazines, gender specificity is concentrated in the field of professional activity, which is responsible for the self-realization of a man that ideologically legitimizes masculine dominance. It can be argued that glossy magazines symbolically fix the gender display, focusing men and women on different life strategies, as well as ways to implement them. The gender asymmetry of modern Russian society is reproduced by using the mechanisms of social inequality (distancing, exclusion, hierarchy and exploitation) in the symbolic interpretation of femininity and masculinity. As a result, there is a differentiation of social positions of gender in various spheres of public and private life.

Ha ketten csinálják ugyanazt, nem ugyanaz – a segítés női és férfi mintázatai

If Two Do the Same Thing, It Is Not the Same Thing – Male and Female Patterns of Helping. It is assumed that a professional’ gender has a decisive influence on the need for help, the way of providing help, and the helping relationship. Our aim is to sensitize pastoral care workers and other helping professionals to this perception and conscious recognition. In connection with our topic, we will make some points that we recommend to be mindful of. We will take into account what the theory of science points out: in the studies and theses of the social sciences and humanities, the researcher and the object of research are “structurally identical”. We will discuss the deforming effects of masculine dominance and some of its implications for the history of science, theology, and the practice theory of helping. Then we discuss the reality of the correlative determination of identity. We will point out that the far-reaching disregard of feminine and masculine patterns of helping is not unique to pastoral care. A similar omission can be observed in the fields of medicine and psychotherapy training. Finally, attention is drawn to practical aspects relevant to pastoral care. Keywords: pastoral care, helping, theology, psychotherapy, gender, masculine dominance, correlative identity

Popular boys, the ideal schoolboy, and blended patterns of masculinity for 10‐ to 11‐year‐olds in two London schools

AbstractGenerating data from small group interviews with 41 boys aged 10–11 years from two London schools in 2022, this paper contributes to the field of gender by introducing a new form of non‐hegemonic and positive masculinity, which I am calling ‘blended’ masculinity, and which was the most common formation in each school. Although its features differed a little in each setting, this blended formulation broadly consisted of orthodox qualities of masculinity (e.g. athleticism, assertiveness, confidence, independence), combined with feminine‐associated traits (e.g. kindness, caring, sociability, emotional literacy). I argue that this blended form is different from previous conceptualisations of hybrid masculinity in the gender literature and is more akin to recent conceptions of hybrid femininity. There were no dominant forms of masculinity with hierarchical connotations of superiority, and no hegemony that legitimated unequal relations, with obvious subordination of other masculinities or femininities. Boys and girls generally got on well with each other and there was also no evidence of homophobia or misogyny. The paper also explores notions of peer‐group popularity, which was based on a series of resources, and delineates the characteristics of a fictional, ‘ideal’, schoolboy, whose features and attributes were connected to the different versions of masculinity on show.

Experiences of Health Professionals regarding Youth Suicide Attempts: A Study on the Context of Gender and Hegemonic Masculinity in Turkey

In preventing youth suicides, health professionals’ evaluations and experiences regarding youth suicide attempts are important. This study was aimed at discovering the evaluations and experiences of health professionals regarding youth suicide attempts in the context of gender and hegemonic masculinity. Within the scope of the study, the qualitative research method and phenomenological design were used and 12 health professionals in Ankara Turkey. The data collected using the semi-structured interview form were analyzed with the MAXQDA. The following two main themes emerged in the study: (a) gender and hegemonic masculinity as factors leading to oppression on young people (b) caring for young people who have attempted suicide; experiences. Consequently, health professionals stated that gender, and hegemonic masculinity patterns were effective in youth suicide attempts, that they were faced with ethical dilemmas while intervening with young people, that young people were exposed to violence perpetrated by their relatives, and that young people experienced such emotions as pain, compassion, empathy, and stress during all these processes. Studies in the future should include prevention studies on the evaluations and experiences of health and social service professionals regarding youth suicide attempts in different social contexts, their coping styles and social services.

Bourgeois Accessories

Abstract In spite of middle-class men’s presumed absence from consumer culture during the nineteenth century, the role of consumerism in the articulation of patterns of masculinity is especially evident in the case of Catalonia. In industrial and metropolitan Barcelona, products often framed or thought of as “feminine”—such as clothing and fashion accessories—were also central to entrepreneurial masculinity and bourgeois men’s social mobility during the late nineteenth century. It is therefore unsurprising that the commercialization of menswear and masculine accessories was notable in the Catalan context, given what that region’s rapid urbanization owed to the manufacture, sale, and display of fashionable commodities ranging from jackets and shirts to walking sticks and home and office décor in small shops and department stores, particularly during the second half of the nineteenth century. By examining commercial ephemera produced and distributed in Barcelona, alongside theories of male homosociality and empire, this essay demonstrates how Spanish men—specifically Catalans—commercialized fantasies of bourgeois masculinity, thus contributing to the consolidation of cultures of consumption during the final decades of the nineteenth century. Visual representations of masculine accessories in department store catalogs, advertisements, and newspaper illustrations are analyzed to argue that bourgeois men, through their shared affective interactions with material accessories, branded Spain as a capitalist nation and, with their consumption of tobacco-related paraphernalia in particular, as an imperial power, even as that power was waning.

Masculinity on ice: masculinity, friendships, and sporting relationships in midlife and older adulthood

ABSTRACT While researchers have established that young men’s sporting friendships are often structured by violence, minimal intimacy, competition, and the degradation of all things feminine (Messner, 1992b), we know relatively little about sporting relationships between older men. Drawing on interviews with and ethnographic research of older male hockey players in two Canadian cities, this article finds that while those in late midlife (ages 54–71) continue to enact patterns of male relationships associated with younger men, those in later life (ages 71–82) break with these masculine patterns. Instead, their team relationships involve joking about themselves in the locker room (instead of mocking others) and an ethic of care. Many defined true or close friendships as those which extended beyond sport. These findings suggest that men’s alignment with the dominant sporting masculinity of the young is not static over the life course and may wane in certain arenas as men reach later life.

Gendered mourning: A perspective of Akan death culture in Ghana

Death is the commonest, incomprehensible, and inescapable reality confronting humanity in all nations and cultures. However, cultures vary in their conceptions of death, grieving and mourning rituals. Among the Akan of Ghana, mourning and funeral obsequies are essential cultural and spiritual practices. In this article, we draw insights from our reflective lived experiences and critical literature review to explore mourning and death rituals among the Akan as a stratified cultural system that reflects and reproduces broader gender patterns of masculinity and femininity in Ghana. We discuss the concept and cultural significance of mourning and bereavement practices, and further examine how socio-cultural notions of gender shape mourning and death rituals in Ghana. We argue that, as in many social and economic spaces in Ghana, funeral obsequies and bereavement practices represent sites for enacting and reproducing masculinity and femininity. The deleterious health and psychological consequences for men and women are further discussed.

The maze: Reflections on navigating intersectional identities in the workplace

AbstractMyriam's story is the story of a woman who has faced several intersectional barriers throughout her life and career journey, leading her into a “maze” of dead‐ends that has jointly prevented her motion. The telling of this story breaks the conventional masculine patterns of academic writing of recent years and represents a turning point in organizational thought. This piece contributes to the growing body of literature in organizational studies on “writing differently,” which advocates for alternative modes of writing and doing research, particularly feminist writing that incorporates storytelling, composite character, and arts‐based research. The approach taken is informed by the use of metaphor, which provides an additional means to convey nuanced understandings and insights that may not be easily expressed through conventional academic writing. The account illuminates the way social identities operate in tandem with power dynamics, social and national context, patriarchy, and relationality to shape individuals' experiences of oppression and privilege. The discourse emphasizes how these factors interrelate and reinforce one another, giving rise to multiple forms of inequality that have significant impacts on women's professional experiences and careers. It uses inventiveness and creativity to provide an immediate emotional and embodied connection between the reader and the lived experiences of Myriam. By offering an in‐depth written and visual representation that moves beyond “linguistic imperialism,” this paper intends to create a critically reflexive and inclusive space that makes the invisible embedded and insidious experience of oppression visible to a wider and more diverse audience.

Smoking, swearing and strong muscles: Becoming boys in the primary school

In the context of gender and sexual violence in South Africa, there are growing efforts in the country to engage with and transform harmful patterns of masculinity. Whilst efforts to promote gender equitable versions of masculinity are ongoing and highlight the role of male culpability, questions about the experiences of younger boys are rarely the focus of attention. Given the value of problematising masculinity in boyhood, this article focuses on the ways in which 8–9-year-old boys construct their masculinity in a low-income South African primary school. Adopting a feminist poststructural lens to understanding children's agency, the article shows how a group of Indian and black boys established masculine status through the identification with adult male smoking practices, verbal abuse and swearing, and the idealisation of strong muscles. These strategies and practices were performed in relation to the understanding the boys had of status, bodily strength, heterosexual domination and the disparagement of femininity. Taken together, smoking, swearing and muscularity were mobilised to produce a competitive and stylised performance of young masculinity and demonstrates the pressures that boys face to uphold hegemonic and dominant masculinities. Through paying close attention to the specific manifestation of gendered practices and performances of young boys in the primary school, the findings foreground the need for educative practices to problematise and address harmful masculine practices at an early stage.

“A Cossack's Whole Life is War, there is no Fear in a Cossack's Heart!” or How They Become Cossacks Today

The work is devoted to the consideration of the modern Cossacks (on the example of the Kuban), in particular its collective identity through the prism of a complex of theoretical approaches: the theory of masculinity (in the dimensions of hegemony and militarization), as well as affective solidarity grounded on the theory of collective identity. Empirically, the collective identity of the Cossacks is considered through the narratives of the representatives of the Kuban Cossack army, where it is invoked and categorized. The results of the study were the categorization contour of the modern collective identity of the Cossacks. The center of the social identity of the modern Cossacks reveals a historical pattern of militarized masculinity, which is significantly saturated with affective experiences of informants when pronouncing certain categories. The presence of such an experience provides a more complete interiorization of the specific foundations of identity by the Cossacks.

Deconstructing gender and family norms in new Tunisian cinema: A queer reading of Ala Eddine Slim’s Tlamess/طلامس‎(2019)

This article seeks to problematize the concept of queer cinema and then to illuminate conceptual nuances through the analysis of a specific film. The Tunisian feature film Tlamess can be read as queer on two levels. First, its queerness relates to the protagonist, a deserter who undergoes a fundamental metamorphosis: he frees himself from the patterns of military masculinity and, far from the normative world, takes on a maternal role. Second, the dissolution of the traditional gender and family order is staged through cinematic processes that introduce the viewers to a pre-verbal world outside of established symbolic and social patterns. Expressive audio-visual techniques transfer the viewers into this alternative world and create an experience of difference, a kind of mind game. Thus, queer cinema should not only be understood in terms of political activism, as an examination of characters supposedly deviating from gender norms. Rather, and crucially, it emerges in a much broader sense out of the strategies of aesthetic mise en scène.

Studi Pemikiran Jamal Al Banna tentang Talak

In divorce, by the classical Jurist of fiqh, husbands may unilaterally divorce (talak) without making a dialogue with their wives first. Many contemporary thinkers, especially moslem feminists, assumed that is affected by gender inequality which is a cultural product not pure of Islamic values. Moreover, the fact that the classical Jurists of Fiqh are dominated by men, so the existing of fiqh are patriarchal and masculine pattern. One of the most contemporary moslem thinkers of Gender concerns is Jamal al-Banna, a moslem thinker from Egypt. Then, this article is written to describe Jamal al-Banna’s mindset about divorce. Based on his opinion, he stated that husband cannot say to divorce without the agreement (qabul) of his wife as marriage is a transparent relation symbolized by ijab- qabul contract and also testimonial (syahadah). Therefore, if the agreement is destroyed by divorce, all elements of marriage contract must know. Thus, one-sided divorce by husband is unacceptable. Divorce is acceptable if both of husband dan wife have the agreement. He formulated the rules of divorce, referring to Al-Baqarah verse 229 in which his interpretation is the equality between husband and wife about divorce. His educational background of trading school may influenced his mindset mostly. So, he assumed about the similarity of marriage contract and trading contract in which if a marriage will be destroyed by divorce, both of husband and wife must have the same agreement.

Sociohistorical Analysis of Normative Standards of Masculinity in the Pandemic of COVID-19: Impacts on Men’s Health/Mental Health

ObjectiveThis study aims to analyze sociohistorically how the normative patterns of hegemonic masculinity produced impacts on men’s health/mental health in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.MethodsA qualitative study from a socio-historical perspective was conducted with 50 men based on an online survey. A semistructured form was applied. The data were analyzed by the Collective Subject Discourse method, interpreted in the light of the context of epidemic disease and hegemonic masculinity.ResultsThe experience of the pandemic exposed the normative patterns of masculinities from the consummation of acts representative of the pandemic context, which incited men to deny the existence of COVID-19 disease and to delay the understanding and adoption of measures to protect and control COVID-19. As a repercussion, men presented conflicts in the regulation of emotions; presented emotional suppression; were more reactive; felt threatened regarding the loss of the role of family provider, virility; and revealed a sense of invulnerability, added to the weakening of self-care.ConclusionThe discourse revealed that the men’s behaviors are consistent with the characteristics of hegemonic masculinity, but express signs of recognition that this behavior causes harm to themselves and their health.

The characteristics of street codes and competing performances of masculinity on an inner-city housing estate

ABSTRACT With analysis occurring during a heightened concern with the Black Lives Matter movement and knife crime in the U.K., this paper aims to delineate the characteristics of a street code, constituting a specific dominant and often hegemonic form of ‘street masculinity’ found on an inner-city housing estate in London called Maxwell. The fieldwork ran over nine months in 2019, involving 48 Black, Asian, and minority ethnic men aged 18–22. Using an ethnographic methodology, the principal methods of data generation were observations, interviews and informal conversations. The main theories this study draws on to understand ‘street masculinity’ were Connell’s and Messerschmidt’s dominant, hegemonic, subordinate and complicit masculinity forms. Findings centre on data from two young men who exemplify different patterns of masculinity performing the street code. Findings are presented under a series of characteristics that make up the game of the ‘on-road’ street masculinity and include (1) authenticity, ‘swagger’ and not being ‘pussy’; (2) a preparedness for violence; (3) knife-carrying; (4) a presence on the digital street. Although this way of living drove a desire for respect and group status, there was also an underlying and pervasive sense of vulnerability derived from risk-taking and anticipation of danger.