Masculine Role Research Articles

Imprisoned Sex Offenders’ Chronic Denial and their Childhood Family Environment

Statistics in South Africa shows that sex offences are among the crimes that invoke the most public concern as anywhere else in the world. The number of sentenced sex offenders is increasing and denial by the sex offender is regarded as a risk factor for re-offending. Sex offenders who chronically deny their offenses are not only perceived as having a greater likelihood of recidivism, but additional questions about their childhood experiences and their experiences in their families of origin are also raised. This study described the family environment of non-admitting sex offenders and explored whether any family characteristics influenced their denial of the sexual offence. Qualitative research was applied and ten (10) incarcerated, non-admitting sex offenders were purposively selected from a Correctional Facility in the Western Cape. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with the participants and Social Learning Theory was used as a lens to understand the dynamics. The findings of this study highlighted that most participants were raised in single-parent households with absent father figures, which had implications for their masculine identities and roles. These families were characterized by challenges such as domestic violence, substance abuse, unsatisfactory support and compromised parenting styles.

Drug Sales, Gender, and Risk: Notions of Risk From the Perspective of Gang-Involved Young Adults

We examine gender and meanings of risk in interviews (2007–2010) with gang-involved young men and women (n = 253) engaged in illicit drug sales in San Francisco, California. The in-depth interviews from this NIDA-funded study were coded using the software NVivo to identify patterns and themes. We examine their interpretations of the risks of drug-selling and their narratives about gender differences in these risks. We find distinct discourses regarding the role of femininities and masculinities and male and female bodies in shaping risk as well as the nexus between gender, family, and risk for female drug sellers.

The impact of masculinity on safety oversights, safety priority and safety violations in two male-dominated occupations

BackgroundAlthough men have a higher risk of occupational injuries than women the role of masculinity for organizational safety outcomes has only rarely been the object of research. AimThe current study investigated the association between masculinity and safety oversights, safety priority and safety violations in two male-dominated occupations using both a trait-based and a norm-based approach to masculinity. MethodsQuestionnaires covering trait-based (Bem Sex Role Inventory, BSRI) and norm-based (Male Role Norms Inventory – Revised, MRNI-R) measures of masculinity, three safety-related context factors (safety leadership, commitment of the safety representative, and safety involvement) and three safety-related outcome factors (safety violations, safety oversights and safety priority) were administered twice 12months apart to Danish ambulance workers (n=1157) and slaughterhouse workers (n=920). ResultsAlthough the level of masculinity differed, the same general pattern of associations was identified across the two study populations. A high score on the MRNI was associated with a higher level of safety violations and a reduced propensity to report safety oversights to supervisors. A high score on the BSRI masculinity scale was associated with a higher propensity to report safety oversights, while BSRI femininity was not associated with any of the safety measures. ConclusionNorm-based aspects of masculinity are suitable for analysing the association between masculinity and safety outcomes, whereas trait-based theories do not show strong associations with safety outcomes. ImplicationsThe association between norm-based masculinity and safety measures might be used in tailoring and developing new preventive measures that specifically address masculinity and male role norms.

Coffee, Cookies and Cards: The Use of Visuals and Materiality to Reproduce and Transform Masculinity in Dutch Social Work Interventions

In what way do gender -specific interventions aimed at marginalised men reproduce and transform masculinities, and what kind of masculinity do social professionals, who carry out these projects, work with? This paper analyses how visual materials, spaces and artefacts enable professionals to deal with masculinity and gender -equality issues when working with men whom they assume hold traditional views on masculinity and gender roles. A three -year study of semi -public interventions that worked on individual empowerment, participation and gender equality with marginalised men in the Netherlands revealed that the professionals found it difficult to raise gender -equality issues. In contrast to the other project goals of individual empowerment and participation, gender -equality issues created a discomfort. The authors also discovered that gender equality in most cases was dealt with in more subtle ways than the issues of individual empowerment and participation. In this context, professionals worked with an ideal version of what the ‘new’ masculinity of the participants would look like, which we labelled ‘pacified masculinity’. The paper empirically shows how social professionals benefit from the use of space, images and artefacts to break down rigid gender roles and potentially enable men to construct other versions of masculine identity. Moreover, we argue that visuals and materiality create room for a reflection on the role of men in women’s emancipation.

Treating marriage as "the sick entity": Gender, emotional life, and the psychology of marriage improvement in postwar Britain.

This essay examines how marriage relationships came to be constituted as therapeutic objects after WWII and the impact that this had on British postwar understandings of the meaning of marriage. In contrast to prevailing concerns during the interwar decades about sexual dissatisfaction as the chief impediment to marital stability, post-WWII marriage counselors and therapists framed marital harmony as dependent upon spouses' psychological maturity. An inability to sustain a stable marriage was interpreted as a sign of arrested development, most often stemming from a dysfunctional relationship with one or both parents in childhood. This essay reveals that the equal-but-different gender roles that were the cornerstone of the modern "companionate" marriage were crucial to marital counselors and therapists' psychological understanding of marriage as an interpersonal relationship during the decades following WWII. Practitioners gauged therapeutic success not only in accordance with whether or not couples stayed married, but also in terms of the extent to which spouses enthusiastically accepted the adult masculine and feminine spousal roles that the male-breadwinning nuclear family required. Moreover, therapists' valuing of the emotional dimensions of marriage made "natural" feminine attributes-such as a presumed ease in establishing loving relationships-a centrally valued aspect of therapeutic work and intimate life more broadly. Far from having a potentially disruptive impact on the presumed naturalness of gender difference (which had been a focus of criticism of psychoanalysis during the interwar decades), the psychoanalytic techniques that were developed to treat marriage problems after WWII were profoundly normalizing.

Manliness and Exploration: The Discovery of the North Pole.

Americans crowded newsstands in early 1910 to read Robert Peary's firsthand account of his expedition to the North Pole. As they read "The Discovery of the North Pole," serialized exclusively in Hampton's Magazine, few knew that this harrowing, hypermasculine tale was really crafted by New York poet Elsa Barker. Barker's authorship of the North Pole story put her at the center of a large community of explorers, writers, patrons, and fans who were taken with Arctic exploration as much for its national symbolism as for its thrilling tales. The fact that Barker was a woman made her ascent into elite expeditionary circles remarkable. Yet this essay argues that it was also representative: women shaped the ideas and practices of manly exploration at home as well as in the field. Peary's dependence upon women writers, patrons, and audiences came at a time when explorers were breaking away from their traditional base of support: male scientific networks that had promoted their expeditions since the 1850s. Despite the "go-it-alone" ideals of their expedition accounts, explorers adopted masculine roles shaped by the world around them: by the growing influence of women writers, readers, and lecture-goers and, simultaneously, by the declining influence of traditional scientific peers and patrons. Barker and Peary's story, then, reveals a new fault line that opened up between scientists and explorers in the late nineteenth century over the issue of manliness, a fault line still largely uncharted in historical scholarship.

Gender and the long postwar: the United States and the two Germanys, 1945-1989

GENDER AND THE LONG POSTWAR: THE UNITED STATES AND THE TWO GERMANYS, 1945-1989 Karen Hagemann and Sonya Michel, Eds. Baltimore, md: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2014 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] authors provide a well-organized overview of postwar politics by using a transnational, comparative approach that includes not only the but the influence of the U.S. and Russia as well. This perspective lays bare the concerted Cold War effort on both sides to put the brakes on progress by returning to prewar sexual and social norms. Such binaries as the male breadwinner/female homemaker, East/West, black/white and the heteronormative/homosexual subject become complicated upon closer inspection. Hagemann and Michel's choice of essays do well to decouple and challenge peacetime anxieties, to use their term. They do this by organizing the book into sections that gender the aftermath of war, unpack the changing role of postwar masculinity, examine the new nuclear family under the watchful eye of the state, and finally explore new sexual identities. The defeated Germany that the victors encountered in spring 1945 wore a predominantly female face, begins Atina Grossmann, explaining how the gdr (German Democratic Republic) had the Red Army as a rapacious occupying force in the East, while the frg (Federal Republic of Germany) of the West softened their seduction into the slightly more acceptable American G.I. fraternization with the local populace and all of the ambivalent fears and desires inherent in sexual predation, coercion, and prostitution for protection. Several authors also discuss the figure of the Triimmerfrau, or rubble woman, upon whose shoulders the burden of reconstruction often rested in the absence of a male workforce. Women in the two Germanys also worked out of necessity, forced into low-paying and unskilled pink collar jobs when the war was over, their hard work seen as only a temporary stopgap effort, as Rebecca Boehling puts it. Laura McEnaney dismisses the simplistic view of factory girls running off to the comfort of the suburbs by labelling it the Rosie [the Riveter]-to-June [Cleaver] arc, arguing instead that womens military timelines are not tidy, for women do not march away and then home again, the usual demarcation between war and peace, as this collection shows. overriding theme of this book is the tension between women's struggle for equality and men's struggle to recast masculinity, as Hagemann and Michel explain in their introduction. …

Male Ballet Dancers and Their Performances of Heteromasculinity

Although previous research has investigated men in feminized sports, we took a different approach in this study and examined men in ballet. Because ballet is one of the most highly gender-codified sports, male ballet dancers must negotiate their identities as men while performing a dance form that is highly stigmatized as effeminate. We investigated how five self-identified heterosexual male college dance majors perceive and perform heteromasculinity within male ballet culture using qualitative data gathered from structured interviews. Results provide three unique contributions to the literature. First, we found that these men develop and contextualize their heteromasculinity in the context of a male ballet culture. Second, the results demonstrate three unique stigma-management techniques within male ballet culture. Third, men described a hegemonic heteromasculinity and the roles of masculinity and emotionality in male ballet performance as parts of male ballet culture. We hope this study will stimulate future research that can help personnel and faculty to better understand how college ballet programs can be informed by the ways masculinity may be institutionalized and reproduced within the context of dance programs, as well as the ways male ballet dancers can challenge heteromasculine hegemony in the sports world.

Gender Stereotypes and Attitudes Towards Information and Communication Technology Professionals in a Sample of Spanish Secondary Students

This study examined Spanish young people’s gender-stereotyped beliefs and attitudes about people working in the field of information and communications technology (ICT). For this purpose, their positive, negative, and neutral perceptions of the associated characteristics of these workers were also analyzed. Likewise, the use of masculine, feminine, or neutral expressions to describe these professionals was explored. The existence of gender differences in these aspects was also investigated. 900 students from Catalonia (51 % girls) enrolled in the last course of junior secondary education (mean of age=15 years old; S.D. = 1.73) participated in a survey with close and open-ended questions. Content analysis of responses to an open-ended question indicated that the boys and girls held several stereotypical beliefs about ICT professionals (a highly male-dominated field), but they also reported counter-stereotypical beliefs about them. As expected, these stereotypical beliefs described a masculine portrayal of ICT workers. Contrary to expectations, most of the students’ portrayals of people working in ICT were either positive or neutral, not negative. Likewise and opposite to predictions, young males did not show more positive attitudes towards ICT professionals than girls. In fact, both girls and boys evaluated more positively than negatively the different descriptive aspects associated with ICT professionals. In support of expectations, most boys and girls referred to masculine role models working in ICT. No gender differences were observed in the type of characteristics associated with ICT professionals. However, young females were more likely to offer feminine references about professions where ICT is the tool rather than the object of their work. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings within the context of Spain are discussed.

‘The Front Line’: Firefighting in British Culture, 1939–1945

This article examines cultural depictions of firemen during the Second World War in film, radio and the press. It focuses on the masculine identities ascribed to those unable to fulfil the idealised masculine role of being in the armed forces. The article argues that firemen's role in the defence of Britain gave them access to many, if not all, of the ideal attributes more commonly associated with the venerated image of the armed forces hero. However, such an image was temporally specific and only prominent during the months of the Blitz. As such, this article imparts important knowledge about men and masculinity in this period.

‘They think it's all up to the girls’: gender, risk and responsibility for contraception

Much research suggests that attitudes towards responsibility for use of contraception amongst young people are strongly gendered. However, decision making, if ‘decisions’ happen at all, is bound up with notions of hegemonic masculine and feminine roles as well as factors concerning relationship status. Data from two earlier qualitative studies were re-analysed with an emphasis on findings related to gender and responsibility for use of contraception. The first study investigated unintended conceptions amongst 16–20-year-old women. Interviews focused on knowledge and views about contraception, sex education and sexual health services. The second study involved focus groups with two groups of 14–18-year-old men to explore their views on sex education, sexual health and contraception. Almost all the young women said that young men viewed contraception as ‘not their job’. In contrast, the young men thought that responsibility should be shared. The key issue, however, related to relationship status, with decision-making being shared in long-term relationships. There are some gender differences in accounting for decisions about use of contraception, however the key issue revolves around relationship status.

Heterosexual gender relations and masculinity in fathers who smoke.

The purpose of this research was to explore the role of masculinity and heterosexual gender relations in new and expectant fathers’ explanations of their continued smoking. We conducted a secondary analysis of in-depth interviews with 20 fathers. Two themes were identified: (1) reconciling with partners to maintain a smoke-free family home; and (2) smoking to self-regulate emotions and maintain relationships. Fathers’ decisions to smoke and changes in smoking behavior were shaped by ideals of masculinity and by partner relationships and family and social contexts, including division of domestic duties and childcare. Recognizing the influence of both masculinity and gender relations could provide new directions for supporting men’s smoking cessation efforts during early parenthood. © 2014 The Authors. Research in Nursing & Health Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Relevance of gender roles in life satisfaction in adult people

The aim of this study was to investigate the relevance of self-identification in traditional gender roles of masculinity and femininity in women’s and men’s life satisfaction. Participants consisted of 1233 women and 1233 men from the Spanish general population aged between 20 and 60years. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses showed that although in both genders the most important predictors of life satisfaction were self-esteem and social support, both masculinity and femininity were associated with higher life satisfaction in women and men. Besides, in the prediction of life satisfaction, femininity interacted with social support in women, and masculinity with self-esteem in men, and it was found that the association between femininity and life satisfaction only occurred in women with high social support, and self-esteem was associated with life satisfaction only in men with low masculinity. These results provide information concerning the significance of adherence to gender roles in life satisfaction.

Individual differences in perceptions of gay men's sexual role preferences from facial cues.

Research has demonstrated that the sexual role preferences of gay men can be perceived with accuracies that exceed chance guessing from viewing photos of their faces. This research was conducted with only heterosexual perceivers making the categorizations. We therefore examined whether men who have sex with men (N = 121) were able to perceive sexual role preferences from faces and, critically, whether perceivers' masculinity, femininity, homonegativity, and own sexual role preference affected their categorizations of targets as "tops" or "bottoms." We found that men who have sex with men, like heterosexual perceivers in prior work, perceived gay men's sexual role preferences accurately. Furthermore, men who self-identified with a receptive (bottom) role were more accurate in their categorizations and male perceivers who self-reported higher levels of masculinity were more likely to categorize other men as bottoms. These findings suggest that men's masculinity could serve as a lens through which people perceive others and interact with the world.

Gender and texting: Masculinity, femininity, and gender role ideology

Texting, although one of the newer forms of computer-mediated communication, has become very popular, especially among teens. This research, using self-report measures, explored college students’ perceptions of texting, including texting’s leading to relationship conflict and interfering with classes, as well as how attitudes towards texting were related to masculinity, femininity, and gender-linked (traditional)/gender-transcendent (nontraditional) attitudes. Our participants (n=183) more frequently used emoticons than abbreviations, especially vulgar abbreviations. Over 70% reported at least minimal texting interference with classes/college preparation, and over 60% indicated that their own or their significant other’s texting contributed to relationship conflict. The only significant male–female difference was in sexually explicit messages received, but positive associations were found between more traditional gendered attitudes and texting interfering with studying/school, with relationship conflict, and, for men only, “sexting” and using vulgar abbreviations. Other findings included gender transcendence being negatively associated with the reported number of messages sent as well as being bothered by texting; femininity also predicted frequency of emoticon use. Our research suggests that individual differences in texting may be related to variables associated with gendered self-perceptions and traditional gender roles.

"We no longer live in the old days": a qualitative study on the role of masculinity and religion for men's views on violence within marriage in rural Java, Indonesia.

BackgroundPrevious studies on domestic violence in Indonesia have focused primarily on women’s experiences and little research has been undertaken to understand men’s views on domestic violence or their involvement in the prevention of domestic violence. This study aimed to explore men’s views on masculinity and the use of violence within marriage, in order to gain knowledge on how to involve men in prevention of domestic violence in rural Indonesia.MethodsFocus group discussions with six groups of local male community leaders in Purworejo were conducted. The discussions were transcribed and coded for the construction of a positional map on different masculinities and their relation to the level of acceptance of domestic violence.ResultsSocial and cultural changes have played a crucial role in transforming the relationship between men and women in Indonesian society. Three different positions of masculinity with certain beliefs on the gender order and acceptance of violence within marriage were identified: the traditionalist, the pragmatist, and the egalitarian. The traditionalist had the highest acceptance of violence as a tool to uphold the superior position of men within marriage, while the pragmatist viewed violence as undesirable but sometimes needed in order to correct the wife’s behavior. The egalitarian did not see any reason for violence because they believed that men and women are equal and complementary to each other.ConclusionsAdaptation to social and cultural changes combined with lack of exposures to contextual and progressive religious teachings has led to the formation of three different positions of masculinity among the population in this study. Each position has certain beliefs regarding the gender order and the use of violence within marriage. Religion is an extremely important aspect that must be included in every type of intervention with this population.

Feminist Activism as Interfaith Dialogue: A Lesson from Gangjeong Village of Jeju Island, Korea

How do the religious engage with one another in Gangjeong village, Jeju when faced with the perceived threat to peace and human security presented by the construction of a naval base in the village? How do their religious teachings and spiritual practices motivate them to actively participate in peace activism? Exploring women’s roles in peace activism at Gangjeong, this essay suggests the dialogue of peacemaking activism informed by feminist activism as a desirable model for interfaith dialogue in Korea. Feminist activism is understood as a way of constructing shared power relations in every part of human society. Considering Korea’s particular geopolitics (i.e. ideological division and excessive militarization of Asia Pacific), this essay argues that first, the Korean religious should pay attention to the role of patriarchal masculinity in militarism and interfaith dialogue; second that a Korean model of dialogue in peace activism should incorporate gender perspectives by seriously considering women’s day-to-day activities as forms of spiritual practice; and third, that those who participate in the dialogue of peace activism should seek out practical ways of creating shared power relations among all living beings and liberate themselves from the fear fed by militarism.

The Relationship Between Conformity to Masculine Norms and Men's Health Behaviors: Testing a Multiple Mediator Model

Relationships between men’s scores on subscales of the Conformity to Masculine Norms Inventory-46 (CMNI-46) and the Health Behavior Inventory-20 (HBI-20) are complex. Some subscales appear to act as risk factors, as predicted by the Gender Role Strain Paradigm (GRSP), and others as protective buffers, as predicted by positive masculinity and social norms theories. We compared the relative strengths of these two theories in explaining the buffering effects by assessing the roles of two theorized positive aspects of the traditional masculine role (general self-efficacy and emotional stability) and a key construct of social norms theory (perceptions of men’s normative health behaviors) in mediating the relationships between CMNI-46 and HBI-20. We evaluated a multiple mediator model of these relationships with 585 men who responded to an online survey. Emotional stability was not a mediator, but general self-efficacy and perceptions of normative health behaviors together partially mediated the relationship between CMNI-46 and HBI-20, transmitting a protective buffering effect. However, an examination of the individual mediating effects indicated that perceptions of normative health behaviors better accounted for the buffering effect. The results are discussed in terms of future research, implications for health care practitioners, and limitations.

Deconstructing Rape by Fraud

Abstract In this Article, I critically examine the role of normative masculinity in determining the shape and scope of the criminal law doctrine of rape by fraud, which purports to criminalize sexual intercourse procured through certain material deceptions. In application, the rape by fraud doctrine is exceedingly narrow--deceptively induced sexual intercourse is rarely criminalized as rape, despite deception s profound impact on the voluntariness of sexual consent. As the Article explains, the rape by fraud doctrine is thus in tension with the prevailing view that rape law principally protects a thick norm of individual sexual autonomy. Despite this tension, the narrowness of the rape by fraud doctrine is frequently defended, often by those who are most committed to individual autonomy elsewhere in rape law. Through an analysis of court decisions and academic commentary, I demonstrate that those defenses largely rest on appeals to a romanticized ideal of the practice of seduction. I illuminate the link between seduction and a prevailing ideology of normative masculinity that allocates social status for men on the basis of demonstrations of sexual conquest. That ideology perpetuates narratives in which women, through their capacity to grant or withhold consent, hold power over men when pursued as objects for sex. Indeed, within this account, the transgression of women s power is what makes sexual conquest worthy of masculine status. Deceptions used to procure sex are criminalized only in exceptional cases where the narratives of interpersonal power break down. Thus, the rape by fraud doctrine can be seen as codifying existing limits on masculine status transfer. Ultimately, I argue that understanding the rape by fraud doctrine in terms of normative masculinity exposes an important continuity between contemporary rape law and rape law historically, in which rape was a crime against men s property interest in women. Men do not want solely the obedience of women, they want their sentiments. --John Stuart Mill, The Subjection of Women (1869) INTRODUCTION I find it curious that, both socially and legally, the narratives of contemporary rape law center on women. Socially, rape law reform is overwhelmingly regarded as a feminist undertaking. Legally, the laws against rape are overwhelmingly justified by the need to protect the sexual autonomy of (presumptively female) victims. Yet, rape is predominantly a male social practice. (1) As is law. (2) To understand rape law, then, we should seek to understand why men pass laws that purport to outlaw the men who rape. This Article begins that inquiry by offering a critical examination of the criminal law doctrine of rape by fraud. Broadly speaking, rape by fraud refers to instances of sexual intercourse where a victim's consent is procured through fraud, deception, impersonation, or other material misrepresentation. (3) In theory, the fraud vitiates putative consent, rendering the intercourse nonconsensual and thus punishable as rape. As the justifications for contemporary rape laws coalesce around the protection of autonomous sexual decisionmaking, the rationale for treating rape by fraud as rape is increasingly obvious. (4) In practice, however, deceptively induced sexual intercourse is rarely criminalized as rape. Courts and commentators have largely clung to the view that--outside of certain exceptional cases--rape by fraud is not rape at all, despite deception's profound impact on the voluntariness of sexual consent. In fact, interest in the subject of rape by fraud has only recently been revived by several controversial prosecutions that are viewed as overstepping the narrowly established boundaries of the doctrine, (5) as well as by an equally controversial article from Jed Rubenfeld suggesting that our cultural resistance to criminalizing sexual deception may be stronger than our commitment to sexual autonomy. …

Isolating stereotypical gender in a grammatical gender language: Evidence from eye movements

ABSTRACTThe present study investigates the effects of stereotypical gender during anaphor resolution in German. The study aims at isolating the effects of gender-stereotypical cues from the effects of grammatical gender. Experiment 1 employs descriptions of typically male, female, and neutral occupations that contain no grammatical cue to the referent gender, followed by a masculine or feminine role noun, in a reaction time priming paradigm. Experiment 2 uses eye-tracking methodology to examine how the gender typicality of these descriptions affects the resolution of a matching or mismatching anaphoric pronoun. Results show a mismatch effect manifest at very early stages of processing. Both experiments also reveal asymmetries in the processing of the two genders suggesting that the representation of female rather than male referents is more flexible in counterstereotypical contexts. No systematic relation is found between eye movements and individual gender attitude measures, whereas a reliable correlation is found with gender typicality ratings.