Men and Masculinities

Men and Masculinities • Study of Gender – Confusion about masculinity and femininity concepts – Main areas of study in 20th/21st centuries • Psychoanalytic • Social Psychology (study of sex roles) • Social Constructionism – View of masculinity as a stable object of knowledge – General conclusions of recent research • Multiple masculinities • Hierarchy and hegemony • Collective masculinities • Bodies as arenas • Active construction • Contradictions • Dynamic

• Masculinity and femininity as relational concepts • Masculinities: “configurations of practice within gender relations, a structure that includes large-scale institutions and economic relations as well as face-to-face relationships and sexuality” (Connell, 2000, p. 29) – “They are inherently historical; and their making and remaking is a political process affecting the balance of interests in society and the direction of social change.” (Connell, 1995, p. 44) • Common use of the term “masculine” (strategies for defining masculine person) – Essentialist: identify a feature or aspect that supposedly captures men’s essence (e.g., risk taking, aggression, Zeus energy – Positivist: what men actually are, psych scales that differentiate men and women

– Normative: what men ought to do – Semiotic: emphasis on the connection between concepts associated with a system of gender relations • Project of gender relations occurs within the larger social order that is characterized by patriarchy – Society is patriarchal when women are oppressed and to the extent it is: • Male-dominated: • Male-identified: • Male-centered: – Represents a system of social and institutional relations – Patriarchy as a social system elevates the status of gender

Model of Social Movements: Terrain of Masculinity Politics • Discussion of men and social movements: focus on change – Changes clearly occurring – Changes are happening in muddled waters – Various ideological beliefs and types of men are involved – Men’s organized responses to concerns related to gender • Eight key movements – 1. Men’s liberationists – 2. Men’s rights advocates – 3. Radical feminist men – 4. Social feminist men – 5. Men of color – 6. Gay male liberationists – 7. Promise Keepers – 8. Mythopoetic men’s movement

• Three factors – 1. Men’s institutionalized privileges • Men, as a group, enjoy institutional privileges at the expense of women, as a group – 2. Costs attached to following narrow images of masculinity • Men tend to pay heavy costs in the form of shallow relationships, poor health, and early death for conformity with narrow definitions of masculinity that promise to bring them status and privilege – 3. Differences/Inequalities among men • Men share very unequally in the fruits of patriarchy; hegemonic (white, middle class, and heterosexual) masculinity is constructed in relation to femininities and to various (racial, sexual, and class) subordinated masculinities

Institutionalized Privileges

Costs of Masculinities

Differences/ Inequalities Among Men

• Key Points: Masculinity Politics Model – Provide order to men’s diverse responses – Concerned with social justice, power issues – Focus on gender relations – Concerns about the politics of identity • Essentialist Retreats – Mythopoetic and Promise Keepers • Description • Main similarities – Spiritually based homosocial rituals for regaining manhood and traditional leadership roles – Supposedly apolitical – Some version of essentialism • Main differences – MP advocate “loose essentialism” – More open to possible coalition politics

• Men’s liberationists & Men’s rights – Early liberationists (white middle class men), psychological approach) – Equal weight to men’s and women’s costs and privileges – Brannon’s traditional male script • No sissy stuff • Big wheel • Sturdy oak • Giv’em hell – Profeminist perspective • Messner’s orientation • Radical perspective – Takes patriarchy seriously – Sexual violence emphasized • Socialist perspective – Focus on changing institutions, especially work and family – Take class issues as seriously as gender – Deal with pornography differently than radicals

• Racial/sexual identity politics (group specific) – Overriding image “black men misbehaving” – Controversy over African American men’s masculinity politics • Conservative essentialism • Radical reductionism – Paradoxes within gay culture – Controversy regarding pornography • Prospects for change and coalitions

Research and Theoretical Issues: Men and Masculinities • Definitional issues – Sex – Gender – Gender role • Possible shortcomings – Gender stereotype – Gender identity – Gender lens – Masculinity ideology

Interviewing Men (Schwalbe and Wolkomire, 2002) • Intensive, in-depth interviews • Men’s dramaturgical task – – – –

Control Autonomy Rationality Sexual desirability

• Interview setting (opportunity and threat for signifying masculinity – Baseline threat – Surplus threat (line of questioning, identity of interviewer)

• Control strategies/responses – Testing • Allow symbolic expressions of control • Let participant ask first question • Challenge participant to take charge as expert • “I’m not sure how to ask this, but…” • “Since you brought it up…” – Sexualizing • Dress • Reward participants’ on-task answers • Business like settings – Minimizing • Proceed, then circle back • Invoke other men’s stories/accounts • Be aware of participant’s demeanor and ask questions after recorder is put away

• Getting at emotions – Proceed, then circle back – Ask for stories, then ask how they felt – Invoke other men’s stories/accounts – Elicitation devices ([pictures, photographs) – Ask about thoughts, then feelings • Participants’ Bonding ploys – Interviewer’s desire to be accepted must be checked – Circle back – Newcomer’s license not to understand – Reflect answers back to participants giving them a chance to choose between descriptions/interpretations – Indirect routes (e.g., women in workplace, “crack open” interview • Evolution of the interviewing process (methodological memos)

Main Research Areas • Men’s beliefs and attitudes • How masculinities are constructed, negotiated, and manifested in different contexts (e.g., work, family, sexuality, sport) by individuals • Intersection between gender, race, and class • Masculinities and social movements • Male bodies and body issues (e.g., sport, health, violence, sexuality, procreation) • Masculinities constructed by global forces

• Theoretical Perspectives – Sociohistorical – Social constructionist – Social psychological • Social exchange • Social cognition • Symbolic interactionism – Life course – Standpoint theories • Focusing on men’s emotions • Studying men in groups • Placing men’s experiences in structural context

• Historical analysis of manhood in America – History of manhood: two histories • Changing ideal version of masculinity • Tensions between parallel and competing versions – Models of manhood • Genteel Patriarch • Heroic Artisan • Marketplace Man (1830) – Masculinity as homosocial enactment: What does this mean? – What is the great secret of American manhood? – What is Kimmel’s expanded interpretation of homophobia? – How are women and marginalized men implicated in men’s efforts to prove their manhood?

Social Construction of Masculinities: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives • Gender is continually constructed and reconstructed (Kimmel) • Crisis or transitional periods – Occur at specific junctures in history when structural changes transform the institutions affecting personal life (marriage, family, work) which are sources of gender identity • Crisis of masculinity (U.S. 1880-1914) – Description of the period – Three reactions • Antifeminist backlash • Promale backlask • Profeminist men

• General periods of white mainstream masculinity (U.S.) – Function of three factors: • Relationship between men and women • Relationship between men and other men • Relationship between men and themselves – Agrarian Patriarchal (1630-1839 – Commercial (1820-1859) – Strenuous Life (1860-1919) – Compassionate Providing (1920-1965) – Contemporary (1965-present)

Social Historical Developments in Middle-class Manhood 1770-1920 • What made a “good” man: – Earlier period • Usefulness to oneself, friends, community and country • Man of God, strong community values – Later period • Self was key, “self-made” man • Growing link between male body and perception of manliness, especially closer to 1900s • Self-control as important – Reasons for change • Related to shift in world view (vertical to horizontal view) • New style of family life • Expansion of market economy

Male Socialization • Definition: process whereby boys/men learn the physical, mental, and social skills that will enable them to adapt to a society’s, subculture’s, or group’s expectations of them as males • Gender and gender identity: key issues – Are all aspects of identity consciously experienced – Relationship between gender/gender identity and other aspects of self (selfconcept, self-esteem, processing of information) • Those with gender-typed identities tend to process information differently than those without • Individuals differ in extent to which concerns about masculinity and femininity matter to their general self-concept

• Acquiring gender identity – Social aspects • Physical environment • Choice of play objects • Interaction styles – Social learning theory • Response consequences • Modeling – Criticisms of social learning approach • Modeling process is more complex • Too much emphasis no children as passive – Cognitive development perspective • Gender socialization seen as shift in child’s knowledge of the world

• At an early age child begins to: – Structure his/her experience (differentiates aspects of gender in others) – Categories rest of world and then self • Major criticism – Unable to identify and explain the underlying processes by which cognitive development occurs – Relevance of both social and cognitive aspects • Cognitive aspects may play a stronger role in early phases and “likelihood” of reward” notions probably take on greater importance as the child develops socially

Male Sexuality • Two primary male heterosexual themes (Alan Gross) – Perception that sex is more important and enjoyable for men than women – Men are more likely to isolate sex from other social aspects of life • Secondary male sexual themes – Goal and success • Perhaps a cultural evolution from sexual animal to sexual technician image of the male sexual role (especially in the middle class) – Control and power – Aggression and violence

• Male homosexual experience – Status passage process from assumed heterosexual to homosexual (bisexual – Cultural link between gender and homosexuality (people tend to see gay males as being less masculine and more feminine than their heterosexual counterparts – Only about 20% of gay males see themselves as sexually different before the age of 12, and only a few label this difference as “homosexual” (socially created categories tend to have little meaning for young children—though perhaps more so in recent years) • Male heterosexuality and the early years – Cultural scenarios – Interpersonal scripting – Intrapsychic scripting – Subjective expected utility – Sexual scenario – Sexual script – Heterosexual masculinity

• Recreational: Key model for many adolescent males – Sex as valuable commodity – Sex is desirable as early in a relationship as possible – More sex is better – Opportunities for sex should not be squandered • Link between gender and sexuality – Competitiveness – Aggressiveness – Dominance – Assertiveness – Independence – Emotional coolness

Older Men’s Sexuality • Figure 1: Conceptual model for older men’s sexuality • Key Ideas – Variety of interrelated factors – Theoretically informed integrated model • Gender lens • Biosocial • Life course/life span • Social constructionist • Scripting • Symbolic interactionism – Physiological changes – Partner’s influence: sexuality as coconstructed – Sexual self-concept as key mediating factor

Male sexuality: “Let’s not look to the figure of the ‘soft’ penis. This would seem the most obvious route to re-visioning masculinity; but we’re trying to refuse ‘hard/soft’ now. So, let’s rather allow the imagination to play with the figure of the aroused penis—aroused (as in the state of readiness to perform). This liberation of the sexually excited penis from its phallic signification allows us to radically re-imagine the erotic charge of what we usually call the ‘erect’ penis. It charge becomes connected not to an imagination of where it can go, what it can do, etc. (the imagination that privileges its ‘hardness,’ its ability to penetrate, its performance) but to an imagination of what it is feeling—that is, arousal. The penis has a rather unique capacity to make erotic arousal visible and apparent to the other person; it wears its ‘heart’ on its sleeve, so to speak. That transparency of response can be profoundly sexually moving; it can also be experienced as a moment which empowers the one who has stirred the response, allows her or him to vitally experience

her or his capacity to move another person. Looked at in this way, the ‘erect’ penis is anything but ‘armored.’ Such a reading, however, has been culturally occluded by the construction of male sexuality in terms of the opposition hard/soft, within which the aroused penis is valued because it is ‘hard’ and the armored, ready to storm the castle, and disdained when it loses its armor and becomes ‘soft.’” (p. 727

Susan Bordo (1993), Reading the male body. Michigan Quarterly Review, XXXII (4), 686737.

Procreative Consciousness • Definition • Key Features – Procreative Responsibility • Aspects of sexual, contraceptive, fertility processes • Fatherhood obligations – Latent (inactive) vs Wide awake (active) – Situated vs Global – Individual vs Relationship-based

Procreative Consciousness • Process – Gradual/Undulating/Sudden • Human development • Relationships – Becoming aware • Properties – Knowledge • Awareness of own/others’ potential • Degree of potency • Confirmed status – Emotionality (type/intensity) – Temporality [duration/freq) – Child visions (presence/type)

Procreative Consciousness and Turning Points • Turning Point (Typology] – – – – –

Milestone Forecasting Ceremonial announcement Experiential role-drama Betrayal

Procreative Consciousness and Turning Points (Examples) • Procreative – Fecundity knowledge – Pregnancy scare – Pregnancy – Abortion – Miscarriage – Birth

• Nonprocreative – Father’s death – Religious conversion – Christening – Military service – Engagement – Female acquaintance with HIV

Procreative Consciousness and Turning Points (Continued) • Turning Point Properties – Degree of control – Duration – Presence of subjective and/or behavioral changes – Individual or shared experience – Vicarious or experiential – Type and degree of institutional context – Centrality – Emotional response and evaluation

Fatherhood Readiness • Prominent Themes – Degree and form of collaboration – Focus of attention • Relational (self, child, partner) • Substantive – Temporal orientation – Experience • Source • Intensity – Degree of clarity

Fathering Visions • Images of the good or ideal father • Visions of future fathering experiences • Biological paternity – Intergenerational – Naming • Manhood and fatherhood

Male Awareness/Involvement Program Foci: Stress Gender Themes • Self knowledge, appraisals, aspirations • Relationship issues with partners • Experiences with own father • Paternal role models • Fathering philosophies • Child visions

Take Home Messages and Food for Thought • Men’s procreative consciousness is multifaceted and complex • Framework relevant to research, programs, and social policy • Insights can inform efforts to improve men’s (and women’s) “becoming aware” and “being aware” of their ability to create human life • Study men in different settings while focusing on developmental, ecological, and gender issues

Sociology of Fatherhood • Growing interest in fatherhood issues – Fatherhood initiative – Publications – Growth in research centers – Data collection efforts – Funding • Historical portrait of fatherhood ideals (Pleck & Pleck) – Stern patriarchs – Distant breadwinners – Dads – Co-parents • Institution of fatherhood (LaRossa) – Culture of fatherhood: shared values, norms, beliefs, about men’s parenting – Conduct of fatherhood: fathers’ actual parenting behavior

20th Century Model of the Culture and Conducting of Parenting

Conduct of Motherhood Culture of Fatherhood Culture of Motherhood

Conduct of Fatherhood

• Factors affecting males’ family involvement – Motivation – Skills – Social supports – Institutional barriers • Consequences for asynchronous change in institution of fatherhood – Fathers present in body, not in spirit – Marital conflict over childbearing – Fathers’ ambivalence and guilt • Consequences of greater paternal involvement – Women, men, and children • Swedish experience with paternity leave

• Key fatherhood issues (U.S.) – Stepfathers’ identity and roles – Fathers’ commitment (“package deal”) and positive involvement – Social capital – Paternity establishment – Nonresident fathering (child support and visitation issues) – Fathers’ abuse – Incarcerated fathers – Fathers in fragile families

Male Social Perception and Physical Self • Male social perception (affected by) – Male identity salience – Male commitment to images of masculinity, degree to which: • Relationships depend on being a certain type of male • Men want to maintain specific relationships – Male self-esteem issues • Male social perception (organized around) – Knowledge/views about role options – Mental states – Role-making and role-playing strategies – Personal communication techniques • Nonverbal sensitivity: two types – Altruistic – Egoistic

• Consequences of male social perception – Impression formation: conclusions about traits, moods, emotions, and other attributes – Impression management: regulation of self-disclosure info • Reciprocity effect • Men’s perceptions of self (body) – Recent stages of modernity and emphasis on the body • Centrality of the body to self-identity • Paradoxical developments – Means to exert control over our bodies – Knowledge about what constitutes our body and how we should control it is less certain • Media age and dissemination of info/standards • Growing tendency to view the body as “project” • Social constructionist perspective

– Margaret Morganroth Gullette “All together now: The new sexual politics of midlife bodies • The male privilege of being largely immune to ageism issue associated with body image is slowing declining – Double standard for viewing aging men and women (youth conscious culture) – Two key factors: • Women are viewing men differently • Marketers have begun to turn attention to men – Men’s health magazine – Health-related products – Cosmetic surgery – ED clinics – Commercial packaging of youth is big business • Consumption of youth products on the rise

– Older men have not thought of themselves as a gender and age category • “Men need to understand that from the opening decades of the twentieth century, various discourses have aged them in ways that biology along never can.” – Older men’s access to younger women?

Emotional Intimacy and Male Friendship • Growing interest in studying male friendship • Cultural ideals of male friendship: comradery and brotherhood • Swain’s definition of intimacy: interaction that connotes a mutual sense of closeness and interdependence – Is a perceived bond the same as a stated bond? • Comparison between male friendships and female friendships • Possible reasons for males’ stated desire for friendship but limited self disclosure – Communicate intimacy differently than women – Friendships may be less intimate, but men may be content

• Experimental research on male groups – Fairly stable dominance hierarchy – Members talk to group – Little talk about personal selves • Lewis’ 4 barriers to intimacy – Competition – Homophobia • My study results (15-19 yr old males) – I could be friends with a gay person: » 38.5 disagree a lot » 20.7 disagree a little » 28.6 agree a little » 12.3 agree a lot – Aversion to vulnerability – Lack of role models

• Perspectives on male-male relationships – Psychoanalytic – Biological – Socialization • Environments very different for boys and girls – Economic-historic (cross-cultural) • Male friendship highest form of love during classical age of Greek society, European Renaissance • Celebration of male friendship in non-Western cultures • What happened to minimize male friendship? – Changes in men’s work – Changes in nature and perception of marriage

Synthesis of Four Perspectives (Psychoanalytical, Biological, Socialization, and EconomicHistoric) • Explanation for difference in contemporary men’s and women’s relationships – 1. Industrial revolution produced economic forces that required male competition rather than cooperation – 2. Nature of male relationship began to shift from “high” to “low” intimacy – 3. New values for appropriate male behavior emerged – 4. Values were gradually incorporated into childbearing practices and thus produced different developmental environments for boys and girls

– 5. This environment reinforced boys’ biological predisposition toward aggression/competition – 6. This environment also intensified and accelerated process to sever the primary bonds wit the mother and identify with a father figure – 7. Because of fathers’ frequent absence from the home and limited role in childrearing, boys were generally deprived of a male model of closeness and intimacy • Thesis suggests that many males develop an interpersonal style characterized by separation and individuation (whereas females’ styles tends to be more connected and socially embedded)

• Future of male friendships – More single time – Females’ increased participation in work force • How might men respond? – Look for new kinds of friendships (men and women)? – Invest more time and energy in male friendships? – Androgynous men’s fear of rejection

Male Aggression and Violence • Variety of forms • Common patterns • Explanations and discussions of male violence – Biological perspectives – Psychological perspectives • Factors encouraging violence • Factors discouraging violence • Social class, aggression, and violence • Messershmidt’s work • Focus on men’s violence against women – Limitations of research – Historical and recent developments – Controversial interface between politics and research (key slogans) • “All men are potential rapists” • Emphasis on idea that rape is rape • Rape is an issue of power not sex

Men and Sports • Messner’s work • Sports and gendered identities • Changes in the institution of sports (female participation) • Go beyond view of males being socialized by sporting experience – What is it about a developing sense of male identity that attracts males to sports? – How does this socially constructed male identity develop and change as it interacts with the structure and values of the sports world? • Features of institutionalized sports – Rule governed, structured activity – Psychologically safe environment – Organized sport reflects boys’ playing style

– Sports institution often affects boys’ lives who do not participate – Significance of sports accentuated because of the paucity of rites of passage – Class differences – Fathers’ involvement as emotional element • Self and sports role – Role identities – Identity salience – Role commitment and psychological centrality • Social relationships depend on being certain type of person (athlete) • Social costs associated with losing identity • Loss of athletic role – Gradual or sudden – Perception of sports acting like a trap • Sports and male friendships – Nature and quality of friendships – How do friendships structure attitudes/relationships with women

African American Men’s Experiences • Factors shaping black males’ experiences – Socioeconomic disadvantage – Major’s and Billson’s book Cool Pose (set of attitudes and actions, type of posture, expressive life style) – Black male scarcity – Institutional decimation of black males – Black women’s rejection of traditional female role • Social structure and black “social” males – Peer groups – Subcultural reference groups – Societal reference group • Intersection of race, class, and gender – Possible cognitive dissonance issues

Concluding Remarks • Gender as important dimension to social organization – Men’s relationships with themselves, other males, and females • Several major themes – Social constructionist perspective – Socio-historical perspective • Industrialization • Urbanization • Women’s labor force participation • Social movements – Diverse experiences across race and social class

– Life course perspective • Personal transformation – Social institutions – Significant others – Fathering/caring for children – Traumatic experiences (death, ED, health decline, role-exit)