Subordinate Masculinities Research Articles

Being Subordinate Men: Paul’s Rhetoric of Gender and Power in 1 Corinthians by Brian J. Robinson

Reviewed by: Being Subordinate Men: Paul’s Rhetoric of Gender and Power in 1 Corinthians by Brian J. Robinson Vien V. Nguyen brian j. robinson, Being Subordinate Men: Paul’s Rhetoric of Gender and Power in 1 Corinthians (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books/Fortress Academic, 2019). Pp. xii + 269. $110. This book is a revised dissertation submitted to Fuller Theological Seminary (2017), supervised by Love L. Sechrest. In the book, Brian J. Robinson analyzes Paul’s appropriation of feminine imagery in his self-presentation to deconstruct the conventional assumptions and expectations of the hegemonic masculinity model, which was inconsistent with the values of the Corinthian community and contributed to discord in the community. Thus, he argues, “Paul’s rhetoric in 1 Corinthians subverts masculine ideals and intentionally recasts the appropriate masculinity and status of the men in the community in order to promote unity in the face of increasing factionalism” (p. 4). Utilizing gender criticism, R. advances his argument in six chapters. In chap. 1, R. outlines the scope of his research, discusses the contemporary scholarship on the Corinthian correspondence relevant for the study, and provides an overview of the study. In chap. 2, R. traces the development and influence of gender studies and employs them as a methodological approach to examine discourses of masculinity and gender in Greek and Roman literature. He then presents common assumptions about masculinity and addresses the intersection between masculinity and power. In Greco-Roman patriarchal societies, a man must embody the socially constructed expectations of the idealized masculinity, that is, self-control/mastery and domination over others. He must maintain and defend his masculinity before his peers via the proper presentation of the male body. A failed masculinity would result in personal attacks and charges of femininity, which would lead to loss of social and legal standing in the community (p. 38). Chapter 3 focuses on alternative masculinities found in first- and second-century c.e. texts. R. discusses the categories of masculinity: hegemonic, complicit, and subordinate. Of specific attention are complicit and subordinate masculinities. Complicit masculinity refers to men who lack key aspects of hegemonic masculinity (i.e., lower-class freemen) but who could still participate in the patriarchal power structures. Subordinate masculinity refers to those who manifest feminine characteristics (i.e., eunuchs) and who would be excluded from the patriarchal power structures (p. 66). In his examination of the writings of Favorinus, Josephus, and Philo, R. demonstrates how these authors engage in hegemonic gendered discourses to reformulate perceptions of masculinity, transforming what was perceived as subordinate masculinity into complicit or hegemonic masculinity. In chaps. 4 and 5, R. deals with Paul’s call to imitate him by adopting subordinate masculinity. In chap. 4, R. analyzes Paul’s description of himself in 1 Corinthians 1–7 as a failed orator (1:17–18; 2:1–5), a wet nurse (3:1–3), a shameful father (4:14–15), and a celibate man (7:1–7). All these imageries, perceived as feminine and subordinate, would diminish his standing before other “manly” men and restrict his access to spheres of power and influence reserved for hegemonic and complicit men (p. 146). Moreover, Paul implores the Corinthians to imitate his subordinate persona to subvert destructive and oppressive forms of masculinity, to confront factionalism, and to protect the congregation’s unity. In chap. 5, R. elaborates on Paul’s call to “misperform” discourses of hegemonic masculinity to destabilize patriarchal structures that legitimize oppression. He examines the various commands in Paul’s paraenesis to the Corinthian believers: becoming fools (1:1–4:20), not bringing [End Page 523] each other to Roman courts (6:1–8), adopting the diets of the weak (8:1–11:1), husbands submitting to their wives and wives to their husbands (7:1–6), being subordinate men (16:13). In chap. 6, R. recapitulates his argument and attempts an interpretive test of Paul’s commands on head coverings (1 Cor 11:2–16) in light of Paul’s rhetoric of gender and power in 1 Corinthians. This summary does not do justice to R.’s comprehensive work. The thesis is carefully researched and cogently argued. The book contains a wealth of indispensable material, and...

Vulnerable Prisoner Masculinities in an English Prison

Scholarship on prison masculinities to date has primarily centered on the most revered, dominant, or hegemonic forms, with little attention to how subordinated prisoners negotiate masculinities at the bottom of prisoner hierarchies. This article, drawing from a wider qualitative study on “revolving door” imprisonment, charts the shift from normative to subordinate masculinity for a group of men housed in a segregated Vulnerable Prisoner Unit (VPU) in an English prison. I show how these men, influenced by their previous prison status and criminal history, adopted different—more costly and high-risk—situationally adaptive strategies in negotiating their masculinities at the bottom of prison hierarchies. Exploring their subordinated prison identities reveals the dynamic, relational, fragile, and spatial elements of their masculinities. I conclude by suggesting that a greater focus on subordinated carceral masculinities adds a much-needed divergence from the preoccupation with hegemonic or dominant prison masculinities. This divergence offers researchers a new opportunity to shape and to inform policy debates on how, in extreme environments like the prison, alternative ways of “being a man” might be opened up to those who have suffered at the most brutal end of prison hierarchies.

Mothers, Warriors and Lords: Gender(ed) Cartographies of the US War on Drugs in Latin America

Abstract This paper aims to offer a feminist, Latin-American reading on the gender representations that constitute the discourse on the US war on drugs in Latin America. Drawing upon the feminist literature on international security, this article explores some of the nuances of the US war-on-drugs discourse when it comes to gender. It argues that, although a gendered discourse has been constantly present in US official discourse, it has visibly changed in character as the USA’s antidrug policies became increasingly internationalized, militarized, and oriented by a ‘supply-side approach.’ Once deployed through the feminization of drug consumption as a moral degradation of the nation’s social body, US war-on-drugs discourse perceptibly changed to encompass a process of hyper-masculinization of the figure of the US drug warrior, supported by subordinate masculinities and femininities represented by the subaltern, feminized Latin American drug warriors, and the ruthless, hyper-aggressive drug lords. Ultimately, the gender(ed) cartographies of the USA’s war-on-drugs discourse work as conditions of possibility for framing the war on drugs as the only ‘solution’ to the ‘drug problem’ and reaffirm the incessant search for sovereignty that has as its ultimate goal the total control, domination and vigilance of human interaction with psychoactive substances: attributes of a hegemonic state masculinity par excellence. Through gendered (in)security performances, the state defends not only its ‘physical’ borders from external threats, but also its own frontiers of possibility.

Negotiating masculinities in Dinah’s story: Honor and outrage in Genesis 34

This article considers the story of Dinah in Genesis 34 to be a story primarily about masculinities. Therefore, it applies insights from masculinities studies to the negotiations that occur between the various men involved in Dinah’s life. Identifying which characters exemplify particular types of masculinities is only part of the investigation. The analysis also attempts to evaluate the hegemonic and subordinate masculinities that are displayed and eventually concludes that every masculinity enacted is less than desirable.

“You Look Like a Dude, Dude”: Masculine Females Undoing Gender in the Workplace

ABSTRACTInterviews with 49 masculine females from diverse identities and occupations suggest that their workplace interactions undo gender, that is, breach rather than revise gender parameters. In this study, participants reveal that, although they were acknowledged as women in the workplace, their treatment was often more similar to men. Their classification as “like men” sometimes accrued advantage such as male camaraderie, access to information and opportunities, and greater assumed competence relative to gender-conforming women. Participants’ interactions with coworkers, supervisors, and customers suggest that, rather than a pariah femininity, masculine females may more accurately be described as a subordinate masculinity. Interactions that classify masculine females as predominantly masculine or “like men” denaturalize gender. By visibly countering gender’s anatomical basis and the notion of coherent gendered selves, masculine females might, in one small way, undo gender.

The ‘recruiting muddle’: married men, conscription and masculinity in First World War England*

ABSTRACTInterviewed many decades after the end of the First World War, Mary Morton recalled vividly how her mother’s family had made no secret of their contempt for her father’s conduct during the conflict: he was – they thought – a ‘bounder’. Tellingly, they condemned not his continued civilian status, but the fact that he had volunteered, despite his responsibilities as husband and father. Historians have long recognized the powerful pull of military masculinities during the First World War, as well as the denigration of civilian men and masculinities: this article suggests that the wartime experiences of married men like Mary Morton’s father complicate this picture of hegemonic and subordinate masculinities. They, it was widely agreed in the early years of the conflict, had responsibilities that tied them to the home front; it was unmarried men’s duty to ‘go first’. In May 1916, however, the pressing need for military manpower led to the introduction of conscription for all men, without reference to marital status. This article explores the underlying shift in understandings of manly conduct in wartime, from a belief that married men had responsibilities that kept them from enlisting, to a new emphasis on the equality of duty among all physically fit men of military age, irrespective of domestic responsibilities.

JOÃO MELO: IDENTIDADE NACIONAL E MASCULINIDADES EM CRISE

O desenvolvimento dos estudos de gênero possibilitou a investigação específica das masculinidades hegemônicas e subordinadas, pondo em evidência a relação entre o exercício da masculinidade e do poder. A sociedade burguesa enfatizou a masculinidade em função da identidade dos estados nacionais europeus e, para isso, construiu paradigmas que se representavam em suas literaturas nacionais. Tendo em vista a crise contemporânea das identidades de gênero, a obra do angolano João Melo, no alvorecer do século XXI, reconhece o estado de crise experimentado pelas masculinidades que recusam continuamente as predeterminações que aproximam o gênero e o poder.

Masculinities and femininities of drinking in Finland, Italy and Sweden: Doing, modifying and unlinking gender in relation to different drinking places

In this article we analyze how Finnish, Italian and Swedish men and women are doing, modifying and unlinking gender in relation to different drinking places and situations. In the study, Finland and Sweden represent the Nordic intoxication-oriented drinking cultures, whereas Italy, in turn, represents the Mediterranean meal drinking cultures. The data were collected in a similar way in Finland, Italy and Sweden from 2007 to 2010, covering four different age groups. From each country at least eight male and eight female groups were selected, i.e. two male and two female groups from each age group, one representing higher and the other lower social status professions. All focus groups were asked to interpret a set of pictures representing different kinds of drinking places and situations, such as a couple’s moderate wine drinking at a sidewalk table, heavy drinking among men in a bus, and playful drinking among women while dancing. In the analysis we emphasize the flexibility of doing gender and the possibility of challenging conventional gender performances. We assume that doing gender is a multi-dimensional process mediated by structures, hierarchies, identities, situations and agency. Our analysis presents a mosaic repertoire of masculinities and femininities that change shape depending on how the place is seen in terms of a drinking space or situation. The masculinities and femininities are not reducible to any single hierarchy of dominant and subordinate masculinities and femininities. Rather, the doing, modifying and unlinking of masculinities and femininities vary by geographical area, age and/or education, as well as by drinking situation.

Masculine Compensation and Masculine Balance: Notes on the Hawaiian Cockfight

This article poses a framework for considering the social processes that drive masculinity's enaction, including men's presentation of gender, masculinity's intersituational flexibility, and the persistence of gender inequality. I draw on ethnographic observation and in-depth interviews conducted in a small cockfighting community in Hawaii. On the surface, my findings are surprisingly counter-Geertzian: within Hawaiian cockfighting's uncontestedly and almost exclusively male context, fighters carry out behaviors they consider feminine in other areas of their lives, such as caretaking, nurturing, and overt emotional expression. I draw on existing theoretical frameworks, including hybrid masculinities, to use Hawaiian cockfighting as a vehicle for elaborating our understanding of the sociology of masculinity. I argue that rather than approximating an archetypal masculinity, ideal performance incorporates a balance of masculinized and feminized traits. This tempered incarnation of masculinity is enacted in particular localized contexts to deliberately fall short of archetypal masculinity. I introduce the term masculine undercompensation to describe the mechanism through which subordinate masculinities are incorporated to create a tempered, locally contingent performance. The processes I identify strengthen and contextualize the growing literature documenting how hybridization can contribute to the maintenance of unequal gender relations.

Sensitive Cowboys

In the past few decades, a multi-billion-dollar “therapeutic boarding school” industry has emerged for America’s troubled upper-class youth. This article examines the therapeutic models prominent in these programs and the ways they conflict with dominant notions of masculinity. Using in-depth interviews and ethnographic fieldwork inside a Western therapeutic boarding school, I show how privileged young men navigate this masculinity dilemma by constructing hybrid masculinities that incorporate qualities associated with femininities and subordinate masculinities. However, these qualities are incorporated strategically and in ways that reproduce and obscure privileges associated with students’ positions as young, upper-class, white men. Using hybrid masculine styles that include humility, commitment to service, and open emotional expression, students re-assert dominant positions as leaders and as “better” men in contrast to various others.

The Unknown Victims: Hegemonic Masculinity, Masculinities, and Male Sexual Victimisation

This paper adopts the theoretical framework of hegemonic masculinity to elucidate and make sense of male sexual victimisation. Critically evaluating the empirical data, which comprises of police officers and practitioners in voluntary agencies (N = 70), that this paper offers, I argue that gender expectations, hegemonic masculinities and sexism prevail in societies, state and voluntary agencies. It has been found that, because male rape victims embody subordinate masculinities, they are marginalised as ‘abnormal’ and ‘deviant’. They are, in other words, classified as the ‘other’ for challenging and contradicting hegemonic masculinity, disrupting the gender order of men. Consequently, male sexual victimisation is not taken seriously in services, policy and practice, whilst the victims of this crime type are relegated in the gender hierarchy. As a result, male rape victims suffer a ‘masculinity crisis’ in the context of male rape. This paper attempts to open up a dialogue regarding male rape and male sexual assault, to challenge hegemonic masculinity, and to bring male rape ‘out of the closet’.

Defying the Dominant Masculine Identity in D. H. Lawrence’s Novel The Rainbow

The active contributions to studies on men and masculinity that comprise a wide scope of cultures support the notion that significant social organisations legitimise the domination of men over women. Men’s dominance over women is ideologically sanctioned in some cultures. However, not all men observe this nature of masculinity as there are some who dispute the dominant type of masculinity by inculcating alternative masculinities which are subordinate in nature. Nevertheless, most men place themselves fittingly in unavoidable circumstances especially in gendered relationships. In this study, there are instances in D.H. Lawrence’s novel, The Rainbow that show how one of the male protagonists rebels against the social convention that advocates stereotyped masculine norm. The purpose of this study is to explicate the male protagonist’s portrayal of subordinate masculinity that flouts the social expectations during the industrial British era. This study applies the concept of Wetherell and Edley to explicate the features associated with subordinate masculinity in a gendered relationship. The fundamental findings reveal that the male protagonist negotiates his dominant masculinity to allow improved relationship with his spouse.

The Deadly Challenges of Raising African American Boys

Through 60 in-depth interviews with African American middle- and upper-middle-class mothers, this article examines how the controlling image of the “thug” influences the concerns these mothers have for their sons and how they parent their sons in light of those concerns. Participants were principally concerned with preventing their sons from being perceived as criminals, protecting their sons’ physical safety, and ensuring they did not enact the “thug,” a form of subordinate masculinity. Although this image is associated with strength and toughness, participants believed it made their sons vulnerable in various social contexts. They used four strategies to navigate the challenges they and their sons confronted related to the thug image. Two of these strategies—experience and environment management—were directed at managing characteristics of their sons’ regular social interactions—and two—image and emotion management—were directed at managing their sons’ appearance. By examining parenting practices, this research illuminates the strategies mothers use to prepare their sons to address gendered racism through managing the expression of their masculinity, racial identity, and class status.

Masculinities and ethnicities: Ethnic differences in drive for muscularity in British men and the negotiation of masculinity hierarchies

Although relatively little is known about ethnic differences in men's drive for muscularity, recent theoretical developments suggest that ethnic minority men may desire greater muscularity to contest their positions of relative subordinate masculinity. This study tested this hypothesis in a sample of 185 White, 180 Black British, and 182 South Asian British men. Participants completed self-report measures of drive for muscularity, need for power, adherence to traditional cultural values, and ethnic group affiliation. Taking into account between-group differences in body mass index, results indicated that White men had significantly lower drive for muscularity than Black and South Asian men, who were not significantly different from each other. In addition, greater need for power was significantly associated with higher drive for muscularity in ethnic minority, but not White, men. Greater adherence to traditional cultural values, but not ethnic group affiliation, was associated with lower drive for muscularity in all ethnic groups. These results suggest that ethnic minority men may desire greater muscularity as a means of negotiating masculinity and attendant ideals of appearance.

Spain violated: foreign men in Spain's heartland

The process of colonial expansion in the sixteenth century fundamentally changed Spanish culture. Along with race, religion, ethnicity, status and honour, definitions of proper gendered and sexual behaviour changed as well. This article argues that Spanish communities and institutions came to define foreign men as examples of a subordinate and dangerous masculinity. The threat that foreign male sexuality posed to Spanish women and thus Spanish patriarchy – not only in the colonies, but within Spain itself – led institutions to prosecute foreign men. This essay draws on the language used in Inquisition and ecclesiastical court cases against foreign men as well as in Spanish literature of the period.

“Straighten Up Yu Argument”: Language as Shibboleth of Jamaican Masculinity

Some man a play number twoNuff man a oil and Vaseline fi trueI and I nuh inna none a dat, it won't do-Terror Fabulous, Number 2 (1994)the Jamaican scholar Clinton hutton has referred to the gayification/gyalification of Jamaica: the increasing visibility of homosexuality in general, homosexual in particular, and a metrosexual aesthetic.1 This article explores the reactions of a group of young Jamaican to this trend. It will show that these resisted these transgressive masculinities through linguistic performances: language manipulation that included lexical avoidance and modification. This word play became a shibboleth of authentic Jamaican masculinity: those who adhered to the rules were real and those who did not were fish (homosexuals).Understanding masculinity(ies)There are various masculinities operating in patriarchal society at any one time: what R.W. Connell calls hegemonic masculinity, as well as other subordinated masculinities formed through the interplay of such variables as ethnicity and class, which are measured, surveilled and hierarchised against the hegemonic ideal.2 While hegemonic may not be normal, in that most may not practise it, it is normative^ the ideal ideational construct^ Homophobia is at the nucleus of hegemonic masculinity: homosexuals are the diametric opposite of'real and therefore effeminate, and boundaries must be policed to prohibit entry. Men are therefore aware that in order to prove their they must prove their heterosexuality.Keith Nurse states that the need to police the boundaries of hegemonic becomes more and more important,* due to what Rhoda Reddock terms in the gender order.6 In the Caribbean (and elsewhere), these changes include the increasing economic and decision-making power of women demonstrated by their superior educational performance and growing displacement of in employment. In addition, Nurse argues that the objectification of men's bodies and the emergence of a new consumer ethic that incorporates men have feminised the man by subjecting him to the erotic gaze.7 Further, the rise of activism around homosexual/alternative sexuality issues has gone some way to de-marginalising subordinate masculinities. Not surprisingly, a backlash has occurred, which Nurse says is manifested in elite male discourse.In Jamaica, the key elements of hegemonic are promiscuous heterosexual behaviour, domestic freedom, financial provision for children and mother, dominance, aggression and overt homophobia in word and action - what Barry Chevannes calls anti-homosexual heterosexuality.8 Donna Hope argues that homophobia is not just the rejection of the homosexual, but in fact a radical and extreme manifestation of Jamaican masculine paranoia of the feminine, where male homosexuals are deemed gender traitors.9 Chevannes states that fear of being branded a 'batty man' drives boys to heterosexual sex at an early age.10 Homophobia is an integral component of the perverse masculinity that Noel Cowell argues cuts across all masculinities in Jamaica, whether hegemonic or subordinated;11 as do exaggerated rimais12 which must be engaged in as proof of masculinity, since know that inadequate performances lead to questioning of their sexuality.1* Patricia Anderson has pointed out that while the importance of being loving fathers is implicated in Jamaican men's identity, this characteristic tends to be attenuated by socioeconomic status, so that hyper-masculinity is more pronounced in poorer communities, hHomophobia's virulence and effect on LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered) Jamaicans have been documented.1* Research on homophobia in Jamaica has suggested that it is tied not only to Jamaican masculinity, but to Jamaican cultural identity more generally. These studies have linked it to both official and popular culture, and to the strong religiosity in the country, although some have pointed to the nuanced nature of its expression. …

Dangerous friends and deadly foesperformances of masculinity in the divided city

This paper examines the relationship between dominant and subordinate masculinities n inner-city residential areas of Belfast. It explores these relationships within the arena of the religiously segregated district, before exploring how these categories shift and mutate when transferred outside the local community. It examines how fear of violence among both dominant and subordinate men can be understood as a way of expressing masculinity. Through examining how men engage in spatial negotiations based on an assumption that they could be categorised as possible members of paramilitary organisations, the blurring of divisions between masculinities becomes obvious. Locational change can ensure that internal categories become blurred and indistinct, demonstrating the relational and contingent nature of gender. Drawing upon a literature on gender performativity, the paper argues that the categories of dominant and subordinate are merely ideal gender roles that are enacted daily by individuals constrained within these performative genres.

MASKULINITAS DAN PRAKTIK TANGKAP LEPAS DALAM MEMANCING: SEBUAH KAJIAN TERHADAP SPORTFISHING

The absence of legal regulation in fishing activities has brought Indonesian waters to a serious degradation, especially in the population of game fish. The most reasonable solution to this problem is performing Catch and Release (CnR). However, very little has been explored regarding the activity of fishing and CnR in Indonesia. This study aims to identify masculinity traits in sportfishing as a masculine act. Furthermore, the result will hopefully be useful in designing an effective campaign for CnR. This study employs qualitative method to discover how sportfishing is produced and consumed, formulate the meaning of sportfishing to Indonesian anglers, and identify masculinity traits in the enactment and involvement of this activity. The study concludes that sportfishing is the new hegemonic masculinity, replacing the previous conventional fishing. It is a masculine bloc that inherits classic masculine traits and combines them with aspects of femininity, resulting in a new adaptive model of masculinity that sustains the patriarchal dominance toward subordinate masculinity and women.

Reluctant Role Models: Men Teachers and the Reproduction of Hegemonic Masculinity

In-depth interviews with men teachers and other key personnel in early childhood education (ECE) revealed that the men are attempting to perform a type of subordinate masculinity that could challenge traditional gender relations. However, their attempts are thwarted by the gender regime embedded in the occupational structure, particularly the demand that they perform as “male role models” for the boys in their classes. This means that they are prescribed to perform in stereotypical ways and to purposely model traditional masculinity to boys, thereby inculcating hegemonic norms of masculinity.

Florianópolis 1889/1930: estratégias de produção simultânea de masculinidades hegemônicas e subordinadas

Buscamos descrever e analisar as estratégias de produção simultânea de masculinidades hegemônicas e subalternas manifestadas no noticiário da imprensa de Florianópolis entre os anos de 1889 a 1930. Pelos artigos divulgados nos jornais da capital catarinense neste período é possível perceber a construção positivada das representações que envolvem uma masculinidade de homens brancos, jovens e viris, atentando para um código de urbanidade que passava a exigir um maior cuidado com o corpo e o domínio de si. Satisfazer a esse modelo valorizado socialmente era a garantia de que o homem desempenharia bem as responsabilidades que dele se esperava, como prover a família, produzir uma prole saudável, ser trabalhador, cumprir seus contratos e ser um bom cidadão. De modo articulado ao campo das políticas de gênero, os artigos buscavam constranger as mulheres no espaço privado, reservando aos homens a esfera pública. A exaltação de atributos de prestígio da masculinidade produz, de modo simultâneo, a representação do que é indesejável nas atitudes de um homem, notadamente nos espaços públicos. A partir da década de 1910, pode-se evidenciar com maior precisão a divulgação de uma série de práticas e representações que visavam a coibir comportamentos masculinos que deixavam de ser tolerados nos logradouros públicos da cidade. Entre tais comportamentos estava a prática da embriaguez e o uso da violência como forma de solução de conflitos interpessoais. Naquele contexto, passou-se a exigir dos homens que circulavam pela cidade certa previsibilidade em suas atitudes, associada ao uso da razão e em oposição aos modos violentos e impulsivos daqueles das classes baixas ou do ambiente rural. Na avaliação dos gestores da cidade, a emergência do progresso era atravancada por uma série de práticas culturais arraigadas na população. Por isso, não bastava simplesmente transformar o espaço urbano, era preciso também investir nos corpos dos habitantes da capital de Santa Catarina. Os comportamentos masculinos passaram então a ser alvo de toda uma série de ingerências que pretendiam adequá-los à nova realidade social e urbana que se buscava estabelecer.