Performance Of Masculinity Research Articles

‘Your Analysis Is as Useless as Your Ovaries’: Women Football Fans’ Experiences on Social Media

This article provides an original contribution to the field of sports fandom by investigating the experiences of women football supporters on X (formerly Twitter). Drawing on data from an online survey of 1624 women supporters of UK-based men’s football teams, the study examines their digital interactions, gendered challenges, and subsequent coping strategies. Significantly, this study is the first to apply and extend Pope et al.’s (2022) Model of Men’s Performances of Masculinities, offering a new theoretical perspective and refinement of the original model. Through a thematic analysis, the results reveal the gendered dynamics that shape this specific sporting environment, highlighting the crucial role of social media in facilitating football-related discussions and promoting fan communities. At the same time, the study exposes the gender-based stereotypes, abuse, and discrimination that women face when expressing their identities and opinions within male-dominated football spaces. These insights not only advance understanding of gendered interactions in sports fandom but also call for enhanced measures to ensure safer online environments for women football fans.

Class, migration and masculinity among Syrian and Turkish youths in working-class neighborhoods of Istanbul

ABSTRACT This article describes the masculinity narratives of working-class Syrian and Turkish youths in Istanbul on their lived experiences of socio-economic inequalities, everyday violence, and discrimination. Based on qualitative fieldwork conducted in 2020 and 2021 with male youths in two districts, it emphasizes the common experiences of Syrian and Turkish male youths shaped by their working-class predicaments, but also demonstrates that certain forms of masculinity performances emerge as strategies to tackle the difficulties in their lives. Turkish youths’ masculinity narratives display nationalism and anti-migrant discourses, whereas Syrian youths seek to affirm their dignity against racism through performances of masculinity.

Rethinking ‘Healthy Masculinity’ Training From a Queer Boys+ Perspective

ABSTRACT Contemporary discourses on feminism’s role in Australian boys’ lives focus on how feminism might guide strategies that train boys to resist negative or ‘toxic’ performances of masculinity and instead encourage them to strive for a ‘healthy’ or ‘positive’ masculinity. In this article, I question whether training young people to attach themselves to a particular masculinity is aligned with a commitment to queer politics or serves the interests of boys, particularly queer boys or gender-diverse young people. I begin by tracing unsettled contests over masculinity's ontological foundations, including the roles of biology, identification, ‘gendered’ traits, and affective attachments. Through the method of autoethnography, I then explore issues that arise in the logic and implementation of common desires to train boys into ‘healthy’ men. I argue that, drawing on a queer liberation tradition, feminism can be an invitation to solidarity and freedom as well as a ‘way out’ or ‘refuge’ from the regulatory policing of gender norms associated with boyhood. I suggest a detachment or disaffection with masculinity does not have to lead to an identity crisis and can instead be part of a feminist killjoy survival kit [Ahmed, Sara. 2017. Living a Feminist Life. Durham: Duke University Press].

The challenges and opportunities of researching masculinities during peace processes

ABSTRACT This article introduces a special issue in Peacebuilding on researching masculinities during peace processes. It collates insights from feminist peace research, and research on gender and masculinities, to highlight how peace processes are necessarily also processes of gender re-negotiation and transformation. We argue that researching masculinities entails accounting for their plural circulation, complex and contradictory dynamics, and multiple effects. Researching masculinities additionally generates methodological dilemmas that require researchers’ reflexive engagement. The articles in the special issue address critical themes and topics pertaining to masculinities and peace across a wide range of participant experience in diverse contexts (including Bosnia, Indonesia, Liberia, Timor-Leste, Uganda, and the UK). We summarise authors’ critical and empirical contributions and chart their methodological innovations and strategies. We see plural masculine performances and identities not as obstacles to be overcome in/through research but as opportunities to generate discussion with research participants about the operability and impacts of gender.

“The 70s Are the New 50s. Nothing Is, However, for Free” – The Affective Biopolitics of Andropause and Testosterone on Danish Websites

ABSTRACT Andropause, the notion that men’s aging is affected by a declining testosterone production, has until recently been a somewhat unknown phenomenon in the Danish context. However, as a growing number of Danish websites are disseminating information about ‘the male climacteric’, a new hormone centered health discourse about the male body is emerging. In this article, we analyze a corpus of 50 Danish websites consisting of both online media articles and websites marketing products for ‘andropausal’ men. We show how men’s health and performances of masculinity in mid- and later life is entangled in biomedical discourses of risk and self-surveillance, as well as (biopolitical) affects centering aging men’s sexual capacities. We base our analysis in new materialist thinking which outlines affect, biopolitics and complexity as entry points to embodied dimensions of masculinity. We argue that the growing attention to andropause promote new norms for aging in which the aging body is designated as unhealthy and the individual is required to remain vital and capable throughout life. Finally, drawing on Steve Garlick, we show how online available testosterone home-testing kits can be read as illustrative of the theory of masculinity as a technology of embodiment which rests upon the control over nature.

‘I bet you like looking at that asshole, dontcha?’: Jeff Stryker’s enigmatic sexuality

ABSTRACT Jeff Stryker, impossibly endowed, bulging with muscles, foul-mouthed, and unquestionably masculine, remains an enigmatic porn icon whose legend persists some 35 years after he first growled his way on screen. Stryker appeared primarily in gay male porn, where his level of stardom has never been surpassed. Yet, for all this, he is rarely discussed in connection with non-binary and bisexuality, his bi films are dismissed as gay or part of a failed fad, and he is typically regarded as the epitome of the ‘gay for pay’, non-reciprocal, emotionless porn star so ubiquitous in a post-HIV era infused with fear, shame, and self-loathing. This article aims to resituate Stryker as a trailblazer in the harnessing and subversion of porn categorization at a critical moment in US history, an important lens through which we might better understand porn stardom and the performance of masculinity and desire.

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.

Violence and the Performance of Masculinity in Dudu Busani Dube’s Hlomu the Wife and Sue Nyathi’s The Gold Diggers

Violence and the Performance of Masculinity in Dudu Busani Dube’s Hlomu the Wife and Sue Nyathi’s The Gold Diggers

Youth Masculinities in Eastern Nepal

Abstract The study of men and masculinity is receiving increased attention within South Asia generally, and Nepal specifically. Within this emerging empirical context, this article analyzes the findings of a study undertaken by the UK NGO Saferworld in collaboration with two Nepali NGOs in Eastern Nepal in 2014. This qualitative study used a range of methods, including the participatory learning and reflections approach involving young men aged 16–25 years. Alongside gendered opportunities through negotiating their (young) masculinities, our young male participants felt significant pressures, confusion, and even frustrations. Our article considers changing expectations and opportunities with regard to gender equality and in gender roles, contributing unique insights into the performance of youth masculinities in post-conflict (post 2006) Nepal.

Confronting Power: Bani Abidi and Performances of Masculinity

Abstract Contemporary Pakistani artist Bani Abidi explores the overlapping and multifaceted relationship between performance, nationalism, and machinations of power. This article focuses on a subset of her work that considers how masculinity relates to these ideas. Specifically, in the works discussed in this article, she interrogates the ways masculinity is produced and maintained, ultimately revealing the hollowness of such performances. Abidi’s own diasporic perspective centres South Asian culture and identities throughout her practice. She draws our attention to universal conditions that govern the world, but does so within a specifically South Asian context. Her work points to the fictive and limiting nature of gender roles, revealing how these performances of political masculinity are legacies of the colonial encounter. By examining how the performance of masculinity operates as a mechanism of power within Abidi’s work, this article uncovers how her work addresses displays of nationalism in Pakistan and India, particularly as it relates to the region’s post colonial history.

‘We’re respectful boys … we’re not misogynistic!’: analysing defensive, contradictory and changing performances of masculinity within young men’s in-person and digitally mediated homosocial spaces

ABSTRACT This paper critically examines and theorizes how digital technologies and forms of communication, such as men-only private chat groups, facilitate and mediate the forms of masculinity young heterosexual men in the UK co-construct, perform and negotiate in their homosocial interactions. Qualitative data is drawn from 8 focus groups and 17 one-to-one interviews with young men aged 18–25 years, who identify as cisgender and heterosexual (N = 40), which is analysed using critical masculinity theories, including the concept of homosociality. Key findings indicate that the characteristics of online communication, including 24/7 connectivity and the ability to rapidly share online content, such as texts in men-only private chat groups, via the infrastructure of digital platforms, technologies and devices, facilitate ‘digitally mediated homosociality’, which changes in response to gendered hierarchies, relational norms and interactional needs. While participants often use online communications to engage in non-hierarchical homosociality via practices that enhance camaraderie, solidarity and emotional intimacy with other men, they also use them for hierarchical homosociality to acquire masculine status via practices that include non-consensually sexting teenage girls and women’s ‘nudes’, though they defensively distanced themselves from misogyny. We conclude by outlining how these findings can inform educational interventions that tackle misogyny and promote non-hierarchical masculinities.

‘At the Right Hand of God was Their Soul’: An t-Óglách, the National Army, and Hegemonic Masculinity During the Irish Civil War, 1922–1923

Understandings of masculinities are neither developed in isolation nor are entirely culturally unique but are multifaceted, hierarchal, and adapted throughout history to fit the specific milieu in which they operated. In the context of the Irish Civil War, 1922–1923, the Irish National Army's journal, An t-Óglách, constructed its model of hegemonic masculinity into a complex dual dialectic of anti-colonialist rhetoric and British appropriation. Looking at militarism, linguistics, and athletics, this article argues that An t-Óglách underlined the National Army's engagement in physical force and cultural nationalism as a performance of hegemonic masculinity, with the intent to confer legitimacy onto the National Army as a military and cultural institution in the early years of the Irish Free State.

Daddy, horse, fashion: Masculinity and self-performance in the work of Jeff Koons and Michael Zavros

Juxtaposing the work of artists Jeff Koons and Michael Zavros, this article examines the link between the performance of heterosexual masculinity and menswear. Notable early work of Zavros includes black and white, hyper-realistic duplicates of men’s fashion. Yet, in Zavros’s work, masculinity becomes unbound and absurd with a series of illustrations by Zavros in which the torsos of models wearing Burberry and Gucci are combined with the lower halves of horses. Koons, well-known for his fashion collages and subsequent lawsuits from fashion photographers, places himself at the centre of his Made in Heaven series, in which he is depicted having sex with his ex-wife, former porn star La Ciccolina, in a variety of graphic positions. Zavros, in turn, re-imagines himself as a mannequin in his series Dad, and poses with his family in settings both banal and exotic. Zavros uses his family within his work often, including his children in paintings as well as video works. When performing masculinity in art depicting oneself, how does fashion, family and fame come into play? This article will examine not only how Zavros continues the legacy of an artist like Koons, but also how this transformation effects the self-performance of the male artist.

Slippages in the Application of Hegemonic Masculinity: A Case Study of Incels

Although an important theoretical tool within the field of critical study of men and masculinities, mishandling of Connell’s theory of multiple masculinities and subsequent developments frequently overlooks the relational and legitimizing components central to the hegemonic masculine construct, producing conceptual ‘slippage’. This case study demonstrates such misapplication, examining four investigations within the emerging field of research concerning the antifeminist masculine performances and ideological constructs associated with involuntary celibates (incels). Each study lacks acknowledgement and demonstration of the political mechanics of relational legitimacy that define hegemonic masculinity, producing, instead, trait analyses of non-hegemonic dominant or dominating masculine behaviour resting on fixed, often toxic character types. As novel and emergent communities of men receive scholarly attention, it is important researchers heed repeated attempts to guide correct use of theory by engaging with the history and evolution of employed concepts.

The triple glass ceiling: FinTech gender inequalities

Abstract While FinTech gets promoted as an innovative and progressive solution to meeting financial needs globally, it is afflicted by pervasive gender inequalities, only recently noticed in research. To explore these gender inequalities at the core of FinTech, we use a mixed-methods approach, combining data on 100 leading FinTech firms and 15 interviews with FinTech professionals, collected in the latter half of 2021. We argue that women in FinTech face the ‘triple glass ceiling’ at the intersection of financial, technological, and entrepreneurial gender inequalities. Our sample shows that women account for only 7.69% of (co-)founders, 18.2% of executive committee members, and merely 4.04% of FinTech companies are led by a woman. Gendered stereotypes and a privileging of masculine performances produce significant barriers to women entering and progressing within FinTech. Discriminatory practices are overt and implicit, everyday and exceptional, micro and acute. Shattering the ‘triple glass ceiling’ in FinTech represents an immense challenge.

Bishakh Important Hoi (Trust Is Important)

Men have never been absent from the arena of food preparation, although their participation has been primarily in the public sphere rather than the private domestic space. Men have also been involved in the preparation of traditional sweets and snacks in sweet shops and street stalls. On the other hand, women’s association with food preparation, especially traditional food preparation inside the household, still dominates the popular imagination in regions like South Asia. In Assam (India), pithas are an emblematic food item in the “Assamese” cultural landscape that is popularly perceived to be prepared by women. However, my ethnographic experience suggests that pitha preparation and sale can be studied in relation to performance of masculinities when it comes to the public urban space of Guwahati (Assam). As men have entered the public spaces as pitha sellers and to a large extent prepare it themselves, it was observed that bishakh (trust) is a crucial part of the diverse performance of masculinities and “Assameseness.” The perceptions, negotiations, and enactment with the concept of trust is a pivotal aspect of men entering an otherwise popularly imagined feminized zone of pitha preparation. It is important to attract buyers, wherein the ideal image remains that of a woman preparing traditional food using her manual labor. Further, this article argues that bishakh, which is significant in infusing “Assameseness” in buying and selling pithas, can also be understood at the cusp of contemporary regional politics in Assam, class markers, caste hierarchy, and religious indicators along with gender performance.

Cared for masculinities in nursing homes - A material perspective on the intersectionality of institutional, spacial, gendered and corporal materiality

This paper takes the co-construction of age and gender over the course of a life as a starting point and expands this perspective by looking at the intersectional interplay of institutional, spatial, and bodily materiality in the setting of a nursing home. Nursing homes are often perceived as a female space, both socially and physically. Moreover, they are institutional spaces that are primarily oriented towards the deficits of aging and bodies in need of care so that age and aging are reproduced in a narrative of decline, and gender hardly has space to be constructed. This interweaving of institutional spaces, bodies in need of care, and gender poses the question: How are age and gender produced through the space(s) of the nursing home and its materiality, and vice versa? On this basis, the influence on the construction of masculinities in the context of materialism is discussed.This paper draws on two case studies, Walter Probst (age 93) and Günther Schiffke (age 78), based on biographical interviews, to focus on the perspective of very old men in need of care and work out the interplay between the material nature of the institutional space and the body in need of care. It will be shown how closely the performance of age, gender, and masculinities is determined by spatial materiality in the nursing home and the increasing dependence of bodies in need of care, as well as how these bodies produce the spaces in turn. On the basis of the case studies, three aspects of materiality of care home spaces are highlighted. The first aspect of this materiality shows how the body can be increasingly perceived and treated as a material object. The second aspect is defined by the body situated in space, and its relationship to objects and aids. As a third aspect, the possibilities of interacting in communal and private spaces of the nursing home are explored. The article thus contributes to linking the (re-) construction of biographic narratives more strongly to spatial materiality and to embedding the construction and performance of age and gender in spatial and institutional structures, thus demonstrating that spaces and environments shape age, gender, and masculinities in a reciprocal way.

TikTok and Researcher Positionality: Considering the Methodological and Ethical Implications of an Experimental Digital Ethnography

In this article I examine the opportunities and challenges arising from an experimental digital ethnography I conducted as a digital content creator in response to social restrictions during COVID-19. To explore the perceptions and performances of masculinity among young Uzbek men in Uzbekistan, I created 50 TikTok videos between 2021 and 2022. These videos received more than 300,000 likes in total, not only significantly broadening the reach of my research recruitment but also serving as a substantial source of ethnographic data during the pandemic. Throughout the creation of these digital videos, I assumed a dual role as an agent in the research and an object of observation. This dual role underscores the agency of both researchers and the researched in navigating the digital platform, which allows for the challenging of conventional research gazes and relationships. This digital approach also unveils the complex spatial dynamics that underlie interactions in both online and offline realms, shedding light on how digital platforms can both enhance and constrain research efforts. Moreover, this article delves into the ethical implications of this experimental digital ethnography, which revolve around potential physical and mental risks to researchers, challenges related to the re-definition of research participation, and issues pertaining to obtaining informed consent. The findings provide insights and make contributions to problematising the conceptualisation of digital spaces, online communities/publics and digital ethnography. I conclude by offering insights for researchers who face restrictions in field access or are interested in studying youth culture on social media platforms, particularly in the role of a content creator, an area that has been relatively underexplored in previous research.

Are We Really That Inclusive? An Examination of the Performance of Masculinities in Rugby Union Clubs in England, Australia, and Aotearoa/New Zealand

Through qualitative interviews with rugby players and coaches from England, Australia, and Aotearoa/New Zealand, this study examined whether players were now performing a more caring and respectful form of masculinity, as inclusive masculinity theorists have proposed. Results illustrated that players gained pleasure from linking themselves to hypermasculine performances through celebration of violence, drunkenness, and overt displays of heteronormativity. Moreover, the players distanced themselves from homosexual desire and displayed sexist tendencies. Yet, findings also revealed a modest reduction in on-field violence and greater acceptance of female rugby players and diverse sexualities. These modest and seemingly incoherent shifts in the performance of masculinities were traced to the effect of multiple sociostructural changes, such as rule changes, rather than a broad rise of an inclusive “form” of masculinity.

"The Traits That a Woman Has, a Man Can Have, Too": How Collegiate Latino Men Navigate Masculinity Performance

Abstract: Latino men hold a contradictory position within patriarchal privilege that offers them advantages yet undermines their racial and cultural capital. Underpinned by Latino feminist masculinities, this phenomenological study explored how participants redefined characteristics of masculinity. This study provides critical insight into how 26 self-identified cisgender men of Latino or Hispanic descent made meaning of their masculinity performance. We offer three prominent findings that illustrate how Latino men deconstructed traditional masculinity and conceptualized an asset-based consciousness: (a) resisting traditional notions of machismo, (b) navigating racial and gendered expectations in academic settings, and (c) challenging cultural and gendered expectations at home. These findings illuminate the identity development process for Latino men as they negotiate their masculinities within different contexts. We provide recommendations for research and practice that encourage further exploration of the nuanced understanding of masculinity and its relation to structures that perpetuate cisheteronormativity, as well as opportunities to further deconstruct masculinity for Latino men.