Hybrid Masculinities: New Directions in the Sociology of Men and Masculinities

Hybrid masculinity refers to men's selective incorporation of performances and identity elements associated with marginalized and subordinated masculinities and femininities. We use recent theorization of hybrid masculinities to critically review theory and research that seeks to make sense of contemporary transformations in masculinity. We suggest that research broadly supports three distinct consequences associated with recent changes in performances and politics of masculinity that work to obscure the tenacity of gendered inequality. Hybrid masculinities (i) symbolically distance men from hegemonic masculinity; (ii) situate the masculinities available to young, White, heterosexual men as somehow less meaningful than the masculinities associated with various marginalized and subordinated Others; and (iii) fortify existing social and symbolic boundaries in ways that often work to conceal systems of power and inequality in historically new ways.     

Dangerous Privilege: Trans Men,Masculinities, and Changing Perceptions of Safety

This article examines the construction of masculinities in social interaction through in‐depth interviews with trans men living in the San Francisco Bay Area. Interviewees’ concerns for safety, particularly the threat of violence from other men, shaped their masculine practices, which led some men to practice defensive masculinities and, for others, constrained their ability to practice transformative masculinities. Respondents’ concerns for safety, and their masculine practices, changed according to variation in transition, physical location, audience, and their physical stature. These findings have implications for the relationship between men's fear of violent victimization and accountability to situated gender expectations in interaction and the persistence of gender inequality. Theoretically, this article engages a complex understanding of accountability and multiple masculinities to argue that the perceived threat of violence shapes men's practices in interaction. The fear of violence encourages conformity and inhibits men's transformative practices.     

Warrior Heroes and Little Green Men: Soldiers,Military Training,and the Construction of Rural Masculinities*

Abstract In this paper I examine military masculinities as a form of rural masculinity. I argue that one model of military masculinity, the warrior hero, acts as a dominant military construction of masculinity. I examine how the countryside as a location, and rurality as a social construction, impinge upon the construction of the ideal type of the warrior hero. The paper draws on recruitment literature, Ministry of Defence publicity materials, popular accounts of soldiering, and Army videos to trace out the practices and representations that construct the dominant discourse of the warrior hero. The paper is grounded conceptually in theories of gender identity and rurality as social constructions. I conclude by questioning the political consequences, both for rural life and for the armed forces, of this hegemonic model of masculinity.     

Cockpits,Hangars, Boys and Galleys: Corporate Masculinities and the Development of British Airways

This article sets out to examine the role of masculinity in the development of a gendered organizational culture over time. The development of images of masculinity within one company — British Airways — is examined through content analysis of company newsletters, advertising copy, annual reports, internal memoranda, and written rules and regulations. Exploring the notion of ‘multiple masculinities’, the article traces the prominent forms of masculinity that emerged in British Airways and assesses their impact on the ways that organizational practices were developed, maintained and understood. Four key corporate images of masculinity are examined — the pilot, the steward, the engineer and the ‘native boy’— and it is argued that those images contributed to the exclusion of women and people of colour from those occupations by laying down cultural rules about the ideal typical characteristics of the job holder. The article concludes by raising questions about the value of a multiple masculinities focus in explaining changing and contradictory practices of discrimination; the primacy of extra-organizational over organizational practices; and the relationship between multiple masculinities and hegemonic masculinity. Further research is suggested into the extent to which hegemonic masculinity is undermined, over time, by changing and contradictory forms of masculinity within definite sites of gender construction.     

Heterosexual Masculinities,Anti‐homophobias,and Shifts in Hegemonic Masculinity: The Identity Practices of Black and White Heterosexual Men

In this study, I use in‐depth interview data with black and white heterosexual men to explore shifts in the role of homophobia in the social construction of heterosexual masculinities. A continuum is introduced to map a range of interactional practices through which these men enact heterosexual masculinities. Heterosexual men who, on one end of the continuum, construct their heterosexual masculinities through homophobic practices establish strong boundaries of social distance from gays. The other end documents heterosexual men's anti‐homophobias, moving from men who establish weak boundaries to those who blur them. These heterosexual men's anti‐homophobic stances trade on the prestige of being tolerant of gays, with black men's anti‐homophobias drawing on their experiences with racism.     

Going All the Way: Politicizing,Polarizing, and Radicalizing Identity Offline and Online

This essay conceptualizes radicalization as a collective process that evolves within the context of global, national, or local intergroup tensions. People do not radicalize on their own, but as part of a group in which a collective identity is developed. Some members of the group may take a radical activist route to promote or prevent social change. Their interactions with their opponents intensify, while their ideas and beliefs sharpen. In this essay, I propose an interpretative framework to analyze radicalizing collective identities. The framework departs from the notion that supranational processes shape and mold the micro level of (radicalizing) citizens' demands, the meso level of social movements and political parties, and the macro level of national political systems. The answer to questions such as who radicalizes, why people radicalize, and the forms radical action takes lies in the interaction of supranational processes, national political processes, and the context of political mobilization. It is argued that radicalizing identities are key in this process, no radicalization without identification!     

Making Men: The Construction and Representation of Agriculture‐Based Masculinities in Australia and New Zealand*

Abstract Gender analyses of farming have become well established in rural sociological literature. In recent years, however, increasing attention has been given to the discursive processes influencing gender relations and identities. In the current paper I continue this trend by exploring how a range of key agriculture‐related masculinities are constructed and articulated in Australia and New Zealand. First, a conceptual discussion identifies the need to consider discourse and creation of knowledge and truths about masculinity. An outline of the research is provided. Then I report on two broad fields in which masculinity is constructed, namely the farm arena and industry politics. Finally, I make closing comments in relation to the possibility of alternative genderings of agriculture.     

Problematizing contemporary Men/Masculinities theorizing: the contribution of Raewyn Connell and conceptual‐terminological tensions today

Critical studies of men and masculinities (CSMM) have burgeoned in recent times. For this reason, it seems to me a useful moment to reflect on what I see as some tensions, even contradictions, in these studies. In keeping with Chantal Mouffe's espousal of the advantages of agonism rather than consensus, I suggest that heterogeneous theoretical directions in scholarship attending to men/masculinities are by no means to be discouraged. However, the various theoretical tools employed in this scholarship may be incommensurable and thus produce a certain inconsistency or even incoherence. In this context, I suggest that in order to more clearly articulate current theoretical/terminological debates it is important to undertake analysis of key conceptual distinctions and widely used terms, such as notions of structure and patriarchy, gender identities/masculinities/men, hegemony and hegemonic masculinity, and relations between gender and sexuality, amongst others. The aim here is not to produce or require homogeneity in studies of men/masculinities but rather to provide an opportunity to consider the epistemological frameworks which inform the political intentions and goals of this sphere of scholarship.     

(En)gendering Colonialism: Masculinities in Hawai'i and Aotearoa

In this paper I argue that indigenous men in the Pacific engage in gender practices that historically have had widely different consequences for their positions of power or marginality. I focus my analysis on the production of modern Polynesian masculinities in Hawai'i and Aotearoa (New Zealand), highlighting the importance of the intersection of European and American colonialism(s) with indigenous forms of social organization. I look specifically at the participation of indigenous men in the military and sports, two of the most important sites for the production of masculinities where indigenous men contend with hegemonic ideologies of gender and culture. I end with some critical reflections on the possibilities and limitations of reviving traditional indigenous masculinities in decolonization movements in Hawai'i and Aotearoa.     

Book Review: Michael Edwards and Alan Fowler (eds.), The Earthscan Reader on NGO Management,Earthscan, London, 2002, 455 pp., notes,index, $18.95

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations -     

Embodied Heterosexual Masculinities,Part 1: Confluent Intimacies,Emotions and Health

This and an accompanying article ( Robertson and Monaghan 2012 ) constitute a developmental ‘think piece’ on embodied heterosexual masculinities, emotions and health. After highlighting the imbrications of heterosexual intimacy, hegemonic masculinity and health – alongside a note on the relevance and limitations of existing literature – our discussion includes: a critical acknowledgement of (different) feminist scholarship and queer theory; reflections on the ‘pure relationship’ and ‘confluent’ or ‘liquid love’; the ‘individualisation thesis’ and the rise of ‘abstract knowledge’; the separation of love from sex as a possible masculine ruse; corporeality, eroticism and the rationalisation of sex. In conclusion, we underscore the need for more research on embodied masculinities, heterosexualities and emotions.