Gender, sexuality and politics: masculinity

Résumé du document

We need to acknowledge the power that men have in society. All men feel powerful in their individual lives, but they also have to recognize their inherited sense of superiority in relation with women.

Extraits

[...] Nonetheless, it cannot be denied that this feeling of superiority and power is increasingly under attack; the masculine character is becoming highly volatile and insecure. This following section has been divided into three parts. The first one deals with the factors and the characteristics of changing masculinity. The second analyses how masculinity has been rethought. The third one explores the crisis of masculinity focusing especially on the consequences of the changes in the notion of power. Undoubtedly, there have been changes in images of masculinity in the aftermath of WWII. [...]

[...] This is part of a crisis of contemporary masculinity. There is a contradiction between an assumed, unproved and expected power of men in society and an actual lack of power in their individual lives. This is at the origin of masculinist movements. Perhaps there is also a moral panic over the undermining of the legitimacy of men's power over women[32]. The crisis in masculinity could also signify a major shift in gender relations which has provoked an identity crisis and a legitimation crisis. [...]

[...] Nickie Charles, Gender in Modern Britain, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), p Hacker (1957) in The new burdens of masculinity cited in Charles p Andrew Tolson, The limits of Masculinity, (London: Tavistock Publications, 1977), p.15. Lynne Segal, Slow Motion Changing Masculinities, Changing Men, (London: Virago, 1990). Robert Connell, Masculinities, (Cambridge, Polity Press, 1995), p Nickie Charles, Gender in Modern Britain, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), p Lynne Segal, Slow Motion Changing Masculinities, Changing Men, (London: Virago, 1990). Victor J. Seidler, Man enough Embodying Masculinities, (London: SAGE Publications, 1997), p. 51-53. [...]

[...] But the debate is exactly the same for men and for the construction of masculine identity. In the 1980s and 1990s attention turned clearly to masculinities. Studies focused more on the material social relations within which gender identities are constructed, specifically exploring masculinities and style, and the different masculine identities associated with young men as a new and important consumer group. For most people, “masculinity” is taken for granted as a part of everyday life. There would be a masculine way of talking, of negotiating or behaving towards others. [...]

[...] Andrew Tolson, The limits of Masculinity, (London: Tavistock Publications, 1977), p.8. Lynne Segal, Slow Motion Changing Masculinities, Changing Men, (London: Virago, 1990), p Frank Mort (1996) in Cultures of Consumption, cited in Nickie Charles, Gender in Modern Britain, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), p Andrew Tolson, The limits of Masculinity, (London: Tavistock Publications, 1977), p.13. Victor J. Seidler, Man enough Embodying Masculinities, (London: SAGE Publications, 1997), chapter 4. Seidler (1997: 49) Andrew Tolson, The limits of Masculinity, (London: Tavistock Publications, 1977). [...]