Configurations of Masculinity


Book Description

In this pathbreaking book, Christine Di Stefano offers a new perspective on the dimension of gender in modern political thought in order to elucidate what is specifically masculine in political theory. Attempting to clear some conceptual space for feminist political theory, Di Stefano provides innovative readings of Hobbes, Marx, and J. S. Mill.




Masculinities


Book Description

This is an exciting new edition of R.W. Connell's ground-breaking text, which has become a classic work on the nature and construction of masculine identity. Connell argues that there is not one masculinity, but many different masculinities, each associated with different positions of power. In a world gender order that continues to privilege men over women, but also raises difficult issues for men and boys, his account is more pertinent than ever before. In a substantial new introduction and conclusion, Connell discusses the development of masculinity studies in the ten years since the book's initial publication. He explores global gender relations, new theories, and practical uses of mascunlinity research. Looking to the future, his new concluding chapter addresses the politics of masculinities, and the implications of masculinity research for understanding current world issues. Against the backdrop of an increasingly divided world, dominated by neo-conservative politics, Connell's account highlights a series of compelling questions about the future of human society. This second edition of Connell's classic book will be essential reading for students taking courses on masculinities and gender studies, and will be of interest to students and scholars across the humanities and social sciences.




Subverting Masculinity


Book Description

Contemporary Western societies are currently witness to a “crisis of masculinity” but also to an intriguing diversification of images of masculinity. Once relatively stable regimes of masculine gender representation appear to have been replaced by a wider spectrum of varieties of masculine “lifestyles” taken up by the media and the market, to produce new and immensely flexible forms consumerised gender hegemony. The essays in Subverting Masculinity concentrate on contemporary film, literature and diverse forms of popular culture. The essays show that the subversion of traditional images of masculinity is both a source of gender contestation, but may equally be susceptible to assimilation by new hegemonic configurations of masculinity. Subverting Masculinity maps out the ongoing relevance of gender politics in contemporary culture, but also raises the question of increasingly unclear distinctions between hegemonic and subversive versions of masculinity in contemporary cultural production. Subverting Masculinity will be of interest to students and teachers of gender, cultural, film and literary studies.




The Dynamics of Masculinity in Contemporary Spanish Culture


Book Description

16 Identifying the male: Language, humor, and gender performance in Companyia T de Teatre's Homes! -- Index




50 Key Concepts in Gender Studies


Book Description

The authors' introduction gives an account of gender studies - what it is and how it originated. Their selection of topics is authoritative and the 50 entries reflect the complex, multi-faceted nature of the field in an accessible dictionary format.




Hegemonic Masculinity


Book Description

The concept of hegemonic masculinity, formulated by Raewyn Connell more than three decades ago, has been the driving force behind the expanding field of masculinities studies. Hegemonic Masculinity: Formulation, Reformulation, and Amplification provides the first comprehensive overview of the concept—from its original conception to how it has evolved over time. The book also examines some of the most powerful ways the concept is being used in contemporary gender studies. Hegemonic Masculinity describes the development of the concept, the actual formulation and initial applications of the concept, the eventual reformulation and subsequent applications of that reformulation, and finally, the amplification of the reformulated concept of hegemonic masculinity. The book also includes a chapter theorizing why and how hegemonic masculinities are constructed, and the concluding chapter chronicles the prospects for social change toward more egalitarian gender relations. Hegemonic Masculinity: Formulation, Reformulation, and Amplification brings together for the first time in one volume the history of the concept as well as a discussion and examination of some of the most important research accomplished on hegemonic masculinity over the last thirty years.




Heterosexual Masculinities


Book Description

In recent years there have been substantial changes in approaches to how genders are made and what functions genders fulfill. Most of the scholarly focus in this area has been in the areas of feminist, gay, and lesbian studies, and heterosexual masculinity - which tended to be defined by lack and absence - has not received the critical and scholarly attention these other areas have received. Heterosexual Masculinities rethinks a psychoanalytic tradition that has long thought of masculinity as a sort of brittle defense against femininity, softness, and emotionality. Reflecting current trends in psychoanalytic thinking, this book seeks to understand heterosexual masculinity as fluid, multiple, and emergent. The contributors to this insightful volume take new perspectives on relations between men, men’s positions as fathers in relation to their sons and daughters, the clinical encounter with heterosexual men, the social contexts of masculinity, and the multiplicity of heterosexual masculine subjectivities. What to a previous generation would have appeared as pathological or defensive, we now encounter as forms of masculine subjectivity that include wishes for intimacy, receptivity, and surrender, alongside ambition and the pleasures of "phallic narcissism."




Men, Masculinities and the Modern Career


Book Description

This book focuses on the multiple and diverse masculinities ‘at work’. Spanning both historical approaches to the rise of ‘profession’ as a marker of masculinity, and critical approaches to the current structures of management, employment and workplace hierarchy, the book questions what role masculinity plays in cultural understandings, affective experiences and mediatised representations of a professional ‘career’.




Challenging Hegemonic Masculinity


Book Description

In the past twenty years there has been a growing interest in the issues surrounding men and masculinity. Driven primarily by the second-wave feminist critique of the legitimacy or hegemony of masculine practice and culture, the hegemony of men in social spheres such as the family, law, and the workplace can no longer be taken for granted. Beginning with the work of Antonio Gramsci and a focus on developing the full complexity of his theory of hegemony, Howson’s fascinating new book then moves on through theory, applications and analysis of various topical issues, discussing and extending the work of R.W. Connell, and drawing out new possibilities for social justice in gender. Over the course of several informative chapters, the book considers: * a tripartite model of hegemony * hegemony in the theory of practice * application of hegemony to gender * the study of masculinity and family law * radical pluralism * radical organic protest in gender. Presenting a detailed examination of hegemonic masculinity and its interpretations, this significant new book provides an important contribution to contemporary understandings of men and masculinity.




European Perspectives on Men and Masculinities


Book Description

Drawing on collective work in fourteen countries over four years, this book reviews the state of knowledge and critical research on men and masculinities within Europe, emphasizing: men's relations to home and work, social exclusion, violences, and health; Europe-wide social change and no-change in men's practices; Europeanization and globalization; and fundamental changes in post-socialist Central and Eastern Europe. Addressing politics, policy and analysis on men in relation to these matters is increasingly important and urgent.