Search results

AbstractThe study of masculinities is a recent growing field in Anthropology. Within this growing subfield, one must be careful to study masculinities within wide circuits of power. By examining masculinities instead of masculinity, I center the social context and multiplicities necessary to ethnographically chart masculinities without falling into the trap of just centering male bodies and only the social practices of men. Masculinities must be understood in relation to colonialism, postcolonialism, imperialism, racism, heterosexism, and heteronormativity. Black feminist theory, women of color feminism, Third World feminism, and queer of color critique provide important theoretical tools in ethnographic research to decipher power and can destabilize singular, hegemonic Western epistemologies about masculinity. Through such a theoretical engagement, I showcase the complexity, multiplicity, and contradictions in the performance of masculinities in the global South, in queer of color communities, in Indigenous communities, and across various institutions in social life.

Across the West, suicide rates in young men have been rising for some time. This trend has attracted considerable media attention and is often cited within media discourse as evidence of a 'crisis of masculinity'. The field of suicide research (or suicidology) is dominated by quantitative methodology, and although there has been research attention to the gendered character of suicidal behaviour, studies tend to compare 'men' as a group with 'women' as a group. There is also relatively little consideration within this literature of power relations and the social-political dimension of masculinities. This paper argues the case for a qualitative sociological approach to the study of gendered suicide and begins to outline a framework for understanding the diversity of suicidal masculinities. Connell's theoretical work on masculinities is used to analyse evidence from the suicidology literature. The framework includes consideration of when hegemonic masculinity fails; the subordinated masculinities of gay sexuality and mental illness; and control in intimate relationships.

Recent social science research has made important changes in our understanding of masculinities and men's gender practices, emphasizing the plurality and hierarchy of masculinities, and their collective and dynamic character. These gains have been achieved mainly by close-focus research methods. But in a globalizing world, we must pay attention also to very large scale structures. An understanding of the world gender order is a necessary basis for thinking about men and masculinities globally. We can trace the emergence of globalizing masculinities at different stages of the history of the world gender order. Hegemony in the contemporary gender order is connected with patterns of trade, investment, and communication dominated by the North. A transnational business masculinity, institutionally based in multinational corporations and global finance markets, is arguably the emerging dominant form on a world scale.

Kim Townsend, Manhood at Harvard: William James and OthersNaomi Segal, André Gide: Pederasty and PedagogyTrev Lynn Broughton, Men of Letters, Writing Lives: Masculinity and Literary Auto/Biography

In his definitive ethnography of hardcore bodybuilding in Southern California, Klein (1993) examined gender construction in a narcissistic subculture characterized by deceit and excess on many levels. In the present article, I compare my own experiences as a strength athlete and bodybuilding author with some of the observations Klein made at Olympic Gym. Like Klein, I address ironies associated with hardcore bodybuilding and discuss the nature of deviance in the bodybuilding subculture.