Suchergebnisse

The puzzling persistence of gendered dating -- The quest for egalitarian love -- New goals, old scripts : heterosexual women caught between tradition and equality -- A few good (heterosexual) men : inequality disguised as romance -- Queering courtship : LGBQ people reimagine relationships -- The more things change -- Dated dating and the stalled gender revolution

AbstractThe research on gendered dating demonstrates the remarkable staying power of the conventional norms that shape the practice. Heterosexual women and men rely on a proactive/reactive framework in which men take the lead and women respond. This is in spite of broad changes in patterns of relationship formation as well as increased commitment to egalitarian relationships which should conceivably shift how women and men date. Yet, as this review of the literature demonstrates, multiple challenges to these gendered expectations around dating, including a self‐development imperative and extended period of independence before marriage, hookup culture on college campuses, and online dating, have failed to sufficiently challenge these gendered scripts. Heterosexual men and women locked out of these normative practices by economic constraints and social inequalities continue to desire them and struggle to enact rather than transform them. Moving forward, research should focus on the conditions under which sustained change does occur given the implications for research on gender inequality more broadly.

According to dominant cultural representations, masculinity in heterosexual relationships is signified by men's dominance, aggression, sexual promiscuity, and emotional unavailability. Yet, the preferred way of doing masculinity is context-specific, and middle-class men face increasing expectations that they engage in egalitarian relationships. In this study, I use in-depth interviews with thirty-one college-educated, heterosexual men to examine how they construct their masculinity under changing social conditions. My findings show that men use egalitarian narratives as a form of identity work in which they construct understandings of themselves as progressive, caring, and respectful of women, in contrast to the majority of men, whom they ascribe with stereotypical male traits. However, these egalitarian narratives serve as a shield, allowing men to dismiss inequalities that emerge in their romantic relationships as the result of individual preferences so that gendered outcomes are allowed to go unquestioned, thereby leaving gender inequalities intact.