Masculinity and Tom Identity in Thailand

Abstract

Thai lesbian women engage local cultural meanings of masculinity in the creation of personal identities. Lesbian identity in Thailand is largely framed in terms of “butch-femme” gender role-playing, with the masculine woman referred to as tom and the feminine woman dee. According to informants, the dynamics between toms and dees differ from the normative expectations and experiences of hetero-sexuality for Thai women. Although Thai toms express their identity in terms of being “like men,” they often differ from typical Thai male attitudes in terms of attitudes towards female sexuality, masculine sensitivity, and expectations from women in terms of long-term relationships. I conclude that Thai tom-identity is positioned against both normative Thai femininity and masculinity. This paper addresses the feelings towards sexuality and self-identity of many Thai lesbians, and seeks to help health and welfare professionals be sensitive to cultural nuances of gender identity, and attitudes towards relationships and sex among lesbian Thai women.     

Gender Differences in the Sexual Well-Being of Mexican Adolescents

Objective: This study examines the associations of gender roles and sexual power with the sexual wellbeing of Mexican adolescents. Particularly we look at the role played by adolescent’s attitudes toward gender roles and sexual power regarding three aspects of their sexual well-being: satisfaction with one’s sex life; consistent condom use; and the refusal of unwanted sexual contact with one’s partner. Methods: we used logistic regression models to analyze possible associations between attitudes toward gender roles, and sexual power, with the sexual well-being of adolescents, using a random and representative sample of 4,738 sexually active teenagers from three Mexican states. Results: egalitarian attitudes are positively associated to high sexual satisfaction for female adolescents, whereas for males they favor the refusal of unwanted sex. Sexual power shows significant associations with consistent condom use for both males and females, and it also significantly increases the likelihood of high sexual satisfaction and refusal of unwanted sex among females. Conclusions: the findings suggest the relevance of overcoming traditional sex roles to achieve adolescent sexual well-being. In this sense, health and population policies should direct more substantial efforts in the promotion of gender equality among the adolescents and in the development of critical attitudes towards traditional gender norms.     

Perceived Justice and Reactions to Coercive Computers1

Sociology and justice theories indicate that coercive behavior creates a sense of injustice, but what if a computer is the proximal source of this coercion? I argue that people attribute justice to computers, but do so differently than to humans—people may perceive computers’ behavior as unjust, but not as unjust as the same behavior by humans. Likewise, individuals resist and retaliate against coercive behavior, but do so less if the coercer is a computer. These hypotheses are extended from justice studies in social exchange. Specifically, I expand on Molm et al.’s (1993) laboratory experiment of coercion in social exchange, adding a human versus computer identity condition. I conduct a laboratory experiment (N = 121) that replicates Molm et al.’s study and supports the hypotheses on justice, resistance, and retaliation to coercive computers.     

Gender Differences in Psychosocial Predictors of Attitudes Toward Reporting Child Sexual Abuse in the United Kingdom

There is a dearth of research investigating psychosocial correlates of attitudes toward reporting child sexual abuse in males and females and a lack of such studies drawing on participants from the United Kingdom. Therefore, the main objective of this article is to examine gender differences in social and psychological predictors of attitudes toward reporting child sexual abuse. Participants drawn from the United Kingdom general population were recruited via an opportunistic sampling method. Cross-sectional design using a self-report questionnaire was utilized. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses revealed that social support, masculinity, and age form significant associations with attitudes toward reporting child sexual abuse in females (total variance explained by the model was 25%). In the male sample, the only significant predictor of attitudes toward reporting child sexual abuse was interpersonal manipulation (total variance explained by the model was 9%). This study provides an important insight into psychosocial barriers and facilitators to reporting child sexual abuse. Such knowledge is crucial for the early detection and prevention of abuse.     

Different Strokes: The Chinese Male Subject in The Chickencoop Chinaman and M. Butterfly

Abstract

By reading The Chickencoop Chinaman and M. Butterfly together, this paper argues that they construct the Chinese male subject in pronouncedly different if not opposed ways – one by overplaying ‘masculinity’ to comic proportions out of an anxiety of desexualization and the other by overplaying ‘effeminacy’ to the point of female impersonation that questions the ‘intrinsic truth’ of gender itself – thus articulating the divided reaction of a raced and gendered community to a historic condition it had long been mired in. I would also argue that both plays are fraught with inner contradictions in their conceptualiza- tion of the subject. In Chickencoop, the male subject becomes a prisoner of normative Western manhood, which has simultaneously been challenged by black as well as Chinese conceptions of masculinity, and therefore remains inconsistent in its perception of its own maleness. And in M. Butterfly male subjectivity fails ultimately to transcend the framework of normative hetero- sexuality that it had played with all along. Yet, when it comes to the castrating impact of hegemonic Western masculinity on the Chinese/Oriental man, it is M. Butterfly which self-reflexively suggests greater possibilities for him to move beyond the restrictive boundaries of gender/sexuality and experiment with alternative masculinities. The paper examines in the process the relationship of homosociality and effeminacy to homosexuality in Chinese culture in China as well as in the Westthe Westthe West.     

The construction of ‘alternative masculinity’ among men in the childcare profession

In Germany about 3%–5% of kindergarten teachers¹1. They are not usually referred to as teachers in Germany because no academic/university education is required of people wanting to work in kindergartens. The German word used to describe caregivers in kindergartens is Erzieher, which could be translated as ‘educator’.View all notes (for children aged 3–6) are men (BMFSFJ 2010). In this qualitative research on men as kindergarten teachers I analyzed how men in this profession construct masculinity while working with children and during interaction with (mostly female) colleagues, parents, and in the interview situation. Therefore, 10 men teachers were observed for one day in their working environment and interviewed in qualitative interviews. One main theoretical implication was the concept of ‘doing gender’ (e.g. West and Zimmerman 1987, Gildemeister 2004), which was adopted to understand the ‘doing masculinity’ of these men. Another theoretical basis is the concept of hegemonic masculinities by Raewyn Connell (1987, 2006), which was used, critically discussed, and as a result re-conceptualized. The discussion of the theoretical implications and the analysis of the empirical material showed that Connell's theory misses a type of masculinity that opposes hegemonic masculinity, just as her type of ‘complicit masculinities’ supports it. From the interviews and observations a type of ‘alternative masculinity’ was developed.     

Reliable Professionals,Sensitive Dads and Tough Fighters

The significance and complexity of mostly male-dominated military peacekeeping forces continues to grow globally, as does the complexity of the masculinities performed in them. This article discusses the discourses and performances of peacekeeper masculinities, drawing on a qualitative case study of Finnish peacekeeping forces. The self-image of Finland as a provider of ideal peacekeepers and practising progressive gender policy is critically analysed. Taking the notion of multiple masculinities as a starting point, three indicative categories of Finnish peacekeeper masculinities are examined. Discourses of ‘amateur professionals’ and ‘peacekeeper fathers’ create space for military peacekeepers to show aspects of masculinity not associated with traditional military masculinities. The third discourse of ‘tough fighters’, however, harks back to more traditional ‘warrior’ concepts. Official gender mainstreaming efforts and assumptions that these attitudes are internalized ‘naturally’ by Finns are put into question by deprecatory or ambiguous attitudes towards gender equity and sexual exploitation. Despite being part of multi-national forces, peacekeeper masculinities are defined based on presumed notions of ‘national character’.     

Hierarchisches Selbstinteresse und Fremdenfeindlichkeit bei Jugendlichen

The article focuses on the construct ‘Hierarchic Self-Interest’ (HSI) which is put into the context of conceptual considerations about the process of individualization (Heitmeyer et al., 1992). The construct is an expression of the logic of the market, the individual effort to perform ‘better than others’,and therefore it can be labelled as internalized elbow mentality. It is shown that HSI is a stable predictor of xenophobic attitudes and mediates the impact of sociological factors like socio-economic status, parental style, and gender in the statistical models. Intergenerational transmission of xenophobia, i.e., the transfer of attitudes from parents to offspring has a genuine influence independent of HSI. For the reported analyses, questionnaire data of a panel survey (1999–2001) from 443 familiy quadruples (target child, opposite-sex sibling, mother, father) were used. The target children came from 68 Berlin schools and were in 8^th or 9^th grade during the first wave of data gathering.     

Redoing Gender: How Women in the Funeral Industry Use Essentialism for Equality

Although some research considers women's participation in traditionally male‐dominated jobs as an ‘undoing’ of the gender system, other scholars argue that women's participation in non‐traditional roles can actually maintain hegemonic masculinity. Because women have recently entered the funeral industry in unprecedented numbers, the profession offers a unique context to study how women negotiate a sense of belonging in male‐dominated fields. I draw on 22 interviews with women in the funeral industry to reveal how gender is done and undone in an occupational context. In what Hughey ( 2010 . Social Problems, 57, 653–679) refers to as a ‘paradox of participation’, I argue that women in the funeral industry redefine the image of the ideal funeral director by using gender essentialist logic, which originally acted as a barrier to their entry to the field, to justify their participation. By showing how gender essentialism and egalitarianism can constitute reinforcing logics instead of an opposing binary, this research contributes to the literature concerning women in non‐traditional roles.     

The Gender Gap in Attitudes About Childlessness in the United States

Acceptance of childlessness has increased since the 1970s, with women reporting greater acceptance than men. Using the National Survey of Families and Households (1987 – 1988; N = 10,648) and the General Social Survey (1994; N =1,395), we examined this gender gap as it relates to both structural and sociocultural factors, including religion, gender attitudes, and other attitudes about gender and family. Women were more likely than men to hold positive attitudes about childlessness, and women’s less traditional attitudes about marriage, gender equality, and women’s employment only partially explained this difference. In the childbearing ages, positive attitudes were strongly related to intentions to remain childless and showed a greater gender gap at higher education levels. The findings highlight important differences in men’s and women’s experiences of family, work, and gender issues.     

“We're Supposed to Look Like Girls,But Act Like Boys”: Adolescent Girls’ Adherence to Masculinity Norms

In the ecological systems perspective, gender ideologies are part of the macrosystem that shapes human development. A growing literature indicates that youth accommodate and resist such ideologies, with adherence to masculinity norms being linked with negative adjustment. Most masculinity research focuses on boys’ adherence to masculinity, but girls are also pressured to uphold masculinity norms. Using mixed modeling, we examined girls’ adherence to masculinity and psychological (self‐esteem, depressive symptoms) and social (peer support and conflict) well‐being in the United States (N = 407; M_age = 12.28) and China (N = 356; M_age = 12.41). In both countries, adherence to masculinity was negatively associated with psychosocial well‐being. Chinese girls reported greater masculinity adherence, but associations with psychosocial well‐being were not moderated by nationality.     

Attitudes and Acts of Sexual Aggression on a University Campus*

There is increasing understanding of the widespread extent of men's physical sexual coercion of women in this society. In this study, we document the amount of that coercion among a sample of college students. We try to explain that coercion in terms of certain valucs (traditional sex-role conceptions that amount to an ideology of gender inequality). We also try to explain that coercion in terms of attitudes towards physical sexual coercion. For purposes of this study, we measured both females’experience as victims of sexual aggression and males’experience as perpetrators of sexual aggression. We also measured both males’and females’values regarding gender inequality and attitudes regarding sexual aggression. We found that female college students in our sample had experienced a considerable amount of sexual aggression. We also found that male and female students’values regarding gender inequality and their attitudes regarding physical sexual coercion differed widely. Finally, we found strong relationships between male students’values and attitudes and their participation in sexual aggression.     

New Trends in Russian Intellectual Anti-Americanism: The Strange Case of Viktor Pelevin’s Novel S.N.U.F.F.

Victor Pelevin’s 2011 novel S.N.U.F.F. is discussed in terms of being a dystopia and a Menippean satire, as well as an anatomy of today’s cultural interactions between Russia and the West. Pelvin’s consistent approach in constructing an elaborate critique of U.S. cultural imperialism is examined in relation to the expansion of popular culture, and also through a Eurocentric epistemological hegemony in the context of which U.S. leftist–liberal academics teach the non-Western ‘rest of the world’ what such things as gender, race, homo- and heterosexuality, femininity, masculinity, sexism, hate speech, etc., should mean in one’s respective culture. The vast, panoramic satirical canvas of intellectual attitudes and cultural beliefs that Pelvin has drawn is described as an attempted worldwide ‘colonization of the mind’, which has today become an avatar of cultural Americanization.     

Men in Traditional and Nontraditional Careers: Gender Role Attitudes,Gender Role Conflict,and Job Satisfaction

Men established in traditional (mechanical engineering, n = 100) and nontraditional (elementary school counseling, n = 100) careers were compared on their career compromise choices (sex type vs. prestige), adherence to masculinity ideology, gender role conflict, and job satisfaction. The engineers tended to choose sex type over prestige; the school counselors indicated a clear preference for prestige. The engineers reported more traditional gender role attitudes. The gender role variables had little predictive value for the career compromise choices. The Gender Role Conflict Scale (J. M. O'Neil, B. J. Helms, R. K. Gable, L. David, & L. S. Wrightsman, 1986) Conflict Between Work and Family Relations subscale predicted job satisfaction for both groups.     

‘Ass‐kicking’ Women: Doing and Undoing Gender in a US Livestock Auction

Using in‐depth interviews with farm operators and participant observation at a livestock auction, this article explores how women in conventional agriculture in the USA ‘do gender’ in a male‐dominated world. In particular the ways that space, both public and private, alters the performance of gender are analysed. Given that agriculture in the USA has traditionally been tied to masculinity and that more and more women are entering the field, the article examines the strategies women employ to negotiate the tension between being women and being farmers. The findings suggest that in general women's success is intricately tied to their ability to reproduce the masculinity that spells success for their male counterparts. These women dress in masculine clothing, swear and are ‘tough as nails’. Furthermore, women's mere presence as farm operators does not necessarily subvert the relationship between masculinity and agriculture. In many ways this notion is reinforced by the presence of these women and so the performance of gender ultimately reinforces rather than subverts the ties between hegemonic masculinity and agriculture.     

Working with the “smart” machine: computerization and the discourse of anthropomorphism in organizations ∗

Computers are routinely anthropomorphized in contemporary societies. Yet, few studies seriously examine the personification of computers at the workplace. This paper focuses on the discourse of anthropomorphism and work computerization. Based on the findings of an ethnographic study that looked at the computerization of administrative processes in a Health Maintenance Organization, the paper demonstrates how the discourse of anthropomorphism simultaneously reflects attitudes towards the computer, and structures relationships with the technology in the workplace. Three themes emerged within the discourse of anthropomorphism in the organization. They were (1) the intelligent & cerebral computer, (2) the human computer, and (3) the computer as superior life form. These themes also performed certain ideological functions by glamorizing the computer and thereby legitimizing it in the organization. At the same time, employees discursively resisted the ideology of the ‘smart’ machine by interpreting it in ways that were contrary to managerial expectations. Overall, the paper presents a complex picture of human-machine relationships revolving around the personification of computers at the workplace.     

Gender consciousness at work: modification of the male breadwinner norm among steelworkers and their spouses

Nous analysons ici la recherche, assez mince jusqu'à maintenant, sur la conscience de sexe, selon les perspectives libérate, radicale et socialiste féministe. Nous esquissons une approche qui reconnaît que les identityés de sexe ainsi que des formes sociales plus large de consience de sexe sont construites socialement par les hommes et les femmes, dans des pratiques spécifiques à leur classe et à leur race, au travail, à la maison et dans leurs communautès. Nous appliquons ensuite cette approche à une étude de couples de Hamilton, principalement des travailleurs de l'acier et leurs conjoints. Notre attention se porte en particulier sur une dimension centrale de l'identité de sexe, la norme de l'homme comme ‘soutien de famille,’ telle qu'exprimée chez les travailleurs de l'acier dans la culture ouvrière et dans les attitudes des deux conjoints dans leurs families. Nous tentons de montrer comment le stéréotype de ‘l'homme comme soutien de famille’ est présentement à la fois reproduit et modifié, en réponse à la participation croissante des femmes au marche du travail, et en particulier à l'arrivée de travailleuses de l'acier dans ce qu'on croyait être un bastion de la masculinité ouvrière. This paper reviews the limited research to date on gender consciousness from liberal, radical and socialist feminist perspectives. An emergent approach that recognizes both gender identities and broader social forms of gender consciousness as continually constructed by men and women in class and race-specific practices within paid workplace, household and community spheres is outlined. This approach is applied to a study of Hamilton couples, especially steelworkers and their spouses. We focus on assessing expressions of one central aspect of gender identity - the male breadwinner norm - through steelworkers' shop floor culture and the attitudes of both spouses in steelworker households. We attempt to show how the male breadwinner stereotype is currently being both reproduced and modified in response to women's growing participation in paid employment and particularly the recent presence of women steelworkers within a presumed bastion of traditional working class masculinity.     

Computer Acceptance by Social Workers

Summary

Much has been said and written concerning the influence of intrinsic personal and professional factors on the use of computers in general and in the social services in particular. For example, much has been made of the negative attitudes of professional personnel towards computer use. Little data however has been forthcoming to demonstrate the accuracy of this viewpoint. Theoretical analyses of the computerization process have mentioned three general issues in overcoming the imputed outcomes of these negative attitudes.

An ex post facto study on computer acceptance by social workers, employed in municipal social service agencies (MSSA) in Israel, where a computerized case management system was implemented, was conducted. The impact of (1) intrinsic attitudes towards computer utilization in Human Services; (2) organizational factors; and (3) system design related factors on system acceptance was explored. It was found that readiness to computerize was related mainly to organizational and system design factors and not, contrary to expectations, to intrinsic attitudes of social workers. Implications of these findings on system implementation are discussed.     

Culture,Son Preference,and Beliefs About Masculinity

We examined whether endorsing hyper‐masculine attitudes positively related to the psychological well‐being of adolescent boys (N=233) in an extreme son preference community, in Tamilnadu, India. A survey with masculinity and measures of psychological well‐being was administered. We predicted that endorsement of masculinity would positively relate to personal strength, academic achievement, and positive psychological outcomes. Using regression analyses, we found that greater endorsement of masculinity predicted lower self‐reported depression (b=?.48, p<.001), lower internalized shame (b=?.48, p<.001), higher academic performance (b=.15, p<.05), and higher personal strength (b=.43, p<.001). We discuss the relevance of our findings for developing interventions to combat extreme female neglect.