Soc 700 21St Men And Masculinity (2Nd Semester Final Exam)

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Men Right Activism

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Metcalf-Subjectives Narratives)Right to exercise competing narratives from dominant narratives

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A Social Movement

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A set of opinions and beliefs in a population representing preferences for changing specific elements of the social nature of a society or social world

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Social Movement Organization

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A complex or formal organization that identifies its goals with preferences of a social movement and attempts to implement these goalsIn effect, an SMO formalizes and attempts to realize the goals, and mobilize the resources, of a movement itself

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Role of Social Movements and SMO’

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are a recognized framework within the sociology of human rights from both a

Structural Functional and

Social Conflict perspective

SF: social movement examine the operational functions of a social structure - government, policy, laws.SC: social movements examine the conflicts existent within these social structures - equality, equity, safety.

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Structural Functional

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social movement examine the operational functions of a social structure - government, policy, laws

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Social Conflict perspective

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SC: social movements examine the conflicts existent within these social structures - equality, equity, safety.

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Cultural Relativism

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The principle that an individual’s beliefs and activities should be understood by others from the perspective of that individuals own cultureThe establishing of Cultural Relativism was in part a response to Western ethnocentrism.

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Franz Boas via Kant:

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Argued that one's cultural immersion may limit one's perceptions of difference – other cultural beliefs

Culture is food, art, and music or religion, but culture is also:

The totality of the actions and reactions that characterize the behaviour of those composing a social group collectively and individually in relation to their natural environment, to other groups, to members of the group itself, and of them individual to themself

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Culture produces twin discontents:

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One: how to escape the unconscious bonds of one's own culture, which inevitably bias our perceptions of and reactions to the world

Two: how to make sense of an unfamiliar culture?

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Part Two: Men’s Right’s Activism as Cultural Antagonist

Social Movement over Men's RIghts

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Social Movements have often been important vehicles for promoting social change: the Civil Rights Movement, the Women’s Movement, early EnvironmentalismIn the modern age of protest as described above, social movement activism revolved around mass mobilization, rallies, sit-ins, as well as civil disobedience and the formation of subcultures – KKK in 20th century - in promoting “their” beliefs re social changeIn the postmodern age, online communities are added to the list above

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Dubbed the “manosphere”

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an online collection of various MRA websites and blogs exist and consists of extreme, misogynistic viewpoints that blame women, particularly feminists, for the downfall of society

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Portrayals of Manhood in Men’s Rights Activism

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Masculinities in Cyberspace: Rachel Schmitz & Emily Kazyak (2016)In this study of 12 MRA websites, Schmitz and Kazyak explore the stategies used by MRA groups designed to support men in their pursuit of a return “to social legitimacy and power.”Two primary categories emerge in the study: (1) Cyber Lads in Search of Masculinity and (2) Virtual Victims in Search of Equality

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MRA in CyberSpace

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MRAs are supportive of the tenets of hegemonic masculinity as they seek to maintain a gender hierarchy with white, heterosexual men at the apex of power and privilege, while femininity is deemed inferior.Men’s rights groups also rely on the support of a homosocial network to uphold their belief systems.We extend upon previous research on MRAs and conceptions of stereotypical masculinity to explore these groups and their online discourse, where they have more freedom and flexibility to promote anti-feminist dialogue

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Rachel Schmitz & Emily Kazyak (2016

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Cyber Lads in Search of Masculinity and (2) Virtual Victims in Search of Equality

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Cyber Lad MRAs

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Are traditionally-masculine men, and “women and homosexuals are discouraged from commenting.”These websites’ imagery also supported their ideology as it emphasized activities associated with traditional masculinity (i.e., weightlifting, hunting) and the inferiority of women (overly emotional, promiscuous).

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Cyber Lads in Search of Masculinity 3 Threads Emerged

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Homosocial Policing of Masculinity (1.1), The Evils of Feminism (1.2) and Women as Sexual Commodities (1.3)

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Homosocial Policing of Masculinty (1.1):

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Reinforce traditional, hegemonic masculinity and assist in allowing me to “again take charge of their lives.”Encourage a subscription to a social identity defining “a true man” as determined by this group of menRejecting these tenets will encourage “the pussification of American men who are now feminized, weak and passive”

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The Evils of Feminism (1.2):

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feminism combined with broader social liberalism is the source of men’s downfall and oppression.A commonly used tactic involves the demonization of feminist tenets through a methodical, antifeminist denial of gender inequality: “Feminism is not about equality. It is a revolting ideology that creates dishonest feminist panics such as rape culture”

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Women as Sexual Commodities (1.3):

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stress an exclusive heteronormative environment, whereby sexual relationships with women are exalted as the primary marker of idealized masculinity

Women are a prominent point of discussion and concern and are generally characterized as immoral, irresponsible, and unworthy of men.

Women are unreliable and cannot be trusted to follow through with their promises, especially as they relate to men, because a large number of them suffer from “The Flakey Chick Phenomenon”, also known as “Entitlement Princess Syndrome”

Women are “repellant and unsavory but also objects to be won”.

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Virtual Victims in Search of Equality (2)

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Virtual Victims relates to men who feel victimized by society and argue that men are equally oppressed as women

Men In Crisis (2.1), Combating Institutional Misandry (2.2), Delegitimizing Women’s Issues (2.3)

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Men In Crisis (2.1):

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Thesis: a growing concern for men’s lack of social support that has resulted in men’s subordinated position in a number of contexts, including education, the workforce and the family

Facing men, such as homelessness, suicide, and “the burden of initiating romantic relationships

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Combating Institutional Misandry (2.2

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examine a political agenda - and critique social institutions – that are biased towards women and discriminatory against menIssues examined include child custody, alimony and child support

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Delegitimizing Women’s Issues (2.3)

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women receive special privilege and protection, while male pain and suffering are trivialized and/or ignored in societyEstablishes a strategic adversarial binary between men and womenWorks to delegitimize women’s issues and dismiss gender inequality as inaccurate or biased

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W. I. Thomas

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As social facts, both “race” and whiteness define real situations in American societyAs real situations, both race and whiteness enter into real social consequences.

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Harold Blumer

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race” relations emerged from the intersection of three significant events in history:

(a) “conquest of the Indians

(b) the forced importation of Africans and

(3) the less solicited arrival of Europeans

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Perea (1997):

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Sociology engages in studies of racial inequality, however, the sociology of race relations often fails to observe and report on the social construction of both sides of America’s black/white binary paradigm

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Anthony Giddens (1984): RACE

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We can identify three structural dimensions of social systems: Signification, Domination, and Legitimation

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Anthony Giddens (Signification)

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symbolic orders (discourse, language, and communicative processes in interaction) in a society.Domination is the dimension whose domain includes resource authorization and allocation in a social system

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Domination (Giddens)

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tends to manifest itself in a society’s political and economic institutions.

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Legitimation

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refers to a society’s systems of normative regulation, as reflected in its social and legal institutions

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Structuration / Insititutionilization

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suggests that when Signification, Domination and Legitimation occur in consecutive order, institutionalization or structuration develops.

Sructuration (or institutionalization) of America’s race relations produces a so-called racialized society.The role of “race” finds its way, then, into the social construction of law or normative rules for social interaction between whites and non-whites.It is this history of the development of such properties of the structuration process of the system of “race” relations that informs the work of scholars engaged in Whiteness studies

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According to Atkinson masculinity -performed and natural

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(a) Social structure(b) Discursive studies(c) Institutional and discursive practices

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Discursive Studies

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how white male masculinity is organized in terms of representation, medias, discourses, language, power and symbolsExamines how white male masculinity is framed as “both the normal and preferred state of being, existence and identityIn the Company of Men (1997)

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As Atkinson points out:

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role of white male masculinity is examined in terms of mobility, access and privilege, a backlash arrives

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Physical Culture Studies

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Considers context in understanding the practices, discourses and subjectivities through which bodies are organized, represented and experienced in relation to social power

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Do The Right Thing (1989)

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Atkinson, Do The Right Thing represents a shift in mediated representational politicsThe White male (Larry Bird) is destabilized and in recognizing this resorts to cliché: “man is free to live wherever he wants”The response offered by the young men (mostly) of color reflects what Atkinson calls “the notion of reverse discrimination.”The Imagined Community set by freedom, access and mobility is destabilized by the film’s “giving voice to the subaltern and also granting this group voice and power.”

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Symbolic Significance Body

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1. trace the meanings embedded within cultural representations of particular bodies and

2. examine how these operate to sustain specific power relationships between groups and influence lived cultural experiences

Stuart Hall: cultural meanings organize and regulate social practices, influence our conduct and consequently have real, practical effects’

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Ben Carrington:

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The process of representation “is a primary site for the construction and constitution of collective and individual identities”

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Frantz Fanon’s Black Skin, White Masks

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black male struggling to obtain recognition within a racially stratified society echoes

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Stuart Hall:

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ideologies are not made up of isolated or separate concepts, but rather a sum of different elements articulated into a distinctive chain of meaning or understanding.

The ideological statements voiced by media are not the product of individual awareness, but rather are influenced by the inescapable framework of the ideological foundations in which these statements were articulated.

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For Carrington SPORTS

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are a context in which black bodies can be gazed upon, safe in the knowledge that the circumscribed arena of sports provides a legitimate space for race signified encounters.

Further, the black sporting body becomes “a key repository for both contemporary desires and fears about blackness”.

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Sports Media and Black Athletes

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Central role in “biologising black performance via their constant use of animalistic similes” to describe black athletes.Black athletes invariably described as being strong, powerful and quick but with unpredictable and ‘wild’ moments when they supposedly lack the cognitive capabilities – unlike their white peers – to have ‘composure’ at critical moments.

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issues concerning the representation and identification of black bodies consists of three primary articulations:

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1. the obsession with a perceived biological endowment

(2) the white gaze's power in constructing the black identity

(3) the return of the black body to its owner as something outside of his own power to define

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Ben Carrington

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The black male sporting body possesses a complicated status in which it has become sexualized and transformed into an object of desire and envy.T

he muscled black male torso as a commodity-sign has achieved iconic status within sport and popular cultural

The black male sporting body “recreates, at the connotative level, colonial fantasies about the perceived sexual excesses of black masculinity.D’Angelo

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The Malace at the Palace

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fight between two basketball players (Ron Artest and Ben Wallace) turned into a fight between players and fans.Aftermath: social, political, and cultural commentators engaged in constant conversation about its larger cultural meaning and significance.

Predominantly, commentators argued about the presumed influence of hip-hop, the “ghetto mentality”

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Conclusion NBA Malace in the Palace

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entrenched meaning system in place beginning in the 1970s as “being too black” in a very basic, physical sense – too many black players and not enough white players was bad for business, television and sponsorship

league targeted the overtly urban and rap characteristics of many of the NBA's players, which is deemed offensive to the sanitary normative that the NBA is trying to sell to its dominantly white audiences.

This ruling, targeting the practices of black players without calling it racism, also defines the common sense racism suggested by Hall that permeates the professional sports world.

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David J Leonard

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Scholars have noted the simultaneity of commodification—a form of embracement— and demonization of both Black male bodies and cultural practices

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Todd Boyd in Young, Black, Rich and Famous:

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he dress code (and new age limit) reflects the hegemonic practice of policing young black males who defy dominant expectations “with their baggy shorts, trash talking, ‘bling-bling’ and hyper-masculinity”

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For Boyd,

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, there exists “a possessive colonizing white gaze that frames the actions of black athletes and demands subservience - knowing your placeBlack bodies tread a thin line between the desire and disgust of fans and characterize the representations of black males in popular culture

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Rethinking Hegemonic Masculinity

Michael Messner (1993):

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analyze transformations among American men toward more “emotionally expressive” performances of masculinity

(ii) critiques investigations of these transformations as they tend to focus on “styles of masculinity, rather than the institutional position of power that men still enjoy”

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Willa Brown

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A variety of aestheticized masculinities constitute themselves as a symbolic performance of old-style heterosexual masculinity in the 21st CenturyThe so-called Masculinity Crisis of the 1990s/2000s has generated a desire for some to advocate for a “return of the man’s man.”

Often romanticized as heroes within folklore of mythology, the Cowboy and the Lumberjack have emerged of stylized masculinities aiming to reflect an “archetypal manliness” of the past

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Research into Hybrid Masculinities examine how HM’s may

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(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.

(iii) fortify existing social and symbolic boundaries in ways that often work to conceal systems of power and inequality in historically new ways.

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“hybrid” was coined in the natural sciences during the 19th century.

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it was applied to people and social groups to address popular concern with miscegenation: “racial mixing”The social sciences & humanities both use “hybrid” to address socio-cultural miscegenation – rethinking entrenched ideas of social meanings surrounding gender, for example.

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New Directions in the Sociology of Men & Masculinities (Tristan Bridges)

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Bridges examines the ways that men are increasingly incorporating elements of various “Others” into their identity projects.Thesis: gendered meanings change historically and geographically,

NDSMM addresses hybrid masculinities and asks whether recent transformations point in a new, more liberating direction.

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Theorizing Masculinity

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(i) We’re skeptical of whether HM’s represent anything beyond local variation

(ii) We argue that HM’s are culturally pervasive and indicate that inequality is lessening and possibly no longer structures men's identities and relationships

(iii) We consider that the majority of the research and theory supports the notion that HM’s are widespread.

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Michael Messner:

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Rather than suggesting that they are signs of increasing levels of gender and sexual equality, Messner argues that hybrid masculine forms illustrate the flexibility of systems of inequality.

Thus, HM’s represent significant changes in the expression of systems of power and inequality, though fall short of structural challenging them at an institutional level

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Connell and Messerschmidt

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question the extent of hybrid masculine practices, their meaning, and influence.Specific masculine practices may be appropriated into other masculinities, creating a hybrid (for example: hip-hop style and language adopted by some working-class white teenage boys)Meaning: flexibility re masculinity may be marked socio-culturally in which this demographic has the agency to perform a at times “hyper-masculine racialized identity.”

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Inclusive Masculinity

Eric Anderson's

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“inclusive masculinities” challenges Connell and Messerschmidt's perspective.He argues that contemporary transformations in men's behaviors and beliefs are widespread and are best understood as challenging systems of gender and sexual inequality

.Studying a variety of young, primarily heterosexual white males, Anderson finds that masculinity among these groups is characterized by “inclusivity” rather than exclusivity

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Anderson argues

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that these practices indicate “decreased sexism” and “the erosion of patriarchy”Thus, Anderson theorizes hybrid masculinities (which he calls “inclusive masculinities”) as a fundamental challenge to existing systems of power and inequality.To account for this transformation, Anderson argues that what he calls “homohysteria” is decreasing

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Homohysteria:

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fear of being ‘homosexualized’” has decreased due to:An increase in popular awareness of gay identity, alongside a decrease in (i) the cultural disapproval of homosexuality and

(ii) the cultural association of masculinity with heterosexuality. Unyoked from compulsory heterosexuality then,

Anderson argues that contemporary masculinities are characterized by increasing levels of equality and less hierarchy.

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Intersectional Gender Practices

Tristan Bridges examines three issues in examining masculinity, sexuality and intersectional gender politics:

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(1) the hybridization of straight men’s identities through the use of gay aesthetics(

2) the social construction of sexual aesthetics

(3) the motivations for and consequences of this practice.

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Hybridization

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A central issue in research on hybrid masculinities is whether they challenge and/or perpetuate systems of inequality.There are three streams of research that address this question:

(a) question the extent of hybridization

(b) considers hybridization as pervasive and as illustrating a unilateral move toward greater gender and sexual equality

(c) believes hybridization is significant and argues that it perpetuates inequalities in new and “softer” ways

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Hybridization Connel and Messerschimidt

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Connell and Messerschmidt acknowledge that “specific masculine practices may be appropriated into other masculinities”Neither are convinced, however, that hybrid masculine forms represent anything beyond local subcultural variation. For example, hybridity conducted in specific social spaces often with social or personal benefit and privilege attached

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Sexual Aesthetics

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A significant strand in this research deals with the incorporation of “gay” cultural styles to enact masculine gender identitiesTheorizing the “aesthetic” elements of sexualities enables a more thorough analysis of the consequences of their incorporation into hybrid masculine identities and practices.

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Connell’s (1992) work on gay men who identify as “a very straight gay” is a useful illustration

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Sexualities are communicated and adopted to define one’s self and others based on a wide array of sexual aesthetics.Sexual aesthetics refer to cultural and stylistic distinctions utilized to delineate symbolic boundaries between gay and straight cultures and individuals

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Motivation

Connell found that gay

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Connell found that gay men’s use of “straight” had less to do with cultural subversion and more to do with safety and gender identification.Gay men who incorporate elements of “straight” masculinity are a powerful illustration of the co-construction of gender and sexualityOther research focuses on how “gay culture” is not only gendered but constituted through race, culture and class also

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Queer Masculinities of Striaght Men

Robert Heasley

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Many straight men experience and demonstrate “queer masculinity”The “ways of being masculine outside hetero-normative constructions of masculinity that disrupt traditional images of the hegemonic heterosexual masculine” archetype.

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Interrogating Gender

Heasley 5 catagories

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A typology of queer masculinities of straight males offers space and language to lived experience and situate straight-queer male social narrativesHeasley proposes 5 categories alongside recognized shared characteristics within each group:

(1.) Straight sissy boys (

2.) Social-justice straight-queers

(3.) Elective straight-queers

(4.) Committed straight-queers and

(5.)Males living in the shadow of masculinity.

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(1) Straight Sissy Boys

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These are straight males who reject or feel estranged from “straight masculinity”.The SSB presents to others as queer, though that is not his intention nor identity, and ikely to be isolated from straight male culture and/or choose to separate themselves from the dominant male culture.

They are likely to be isolated from straight male culture and/or choose to separate themselves from the dominant male culture.Result: the existence of males who appear as “non-straight”

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Social-Justice Straight-Queers

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Males in this category take action publicly and at the risk of being responded to as if they were gay.Thus, their actions represent risk taking, placing the straight-queer in a position of being threatened, stigmatized, or violated as a result of association with gayness.

A key element in this category is the public expression by straight males, verbally or through action, in ways that disrupt both heterosexuality and masculinity

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Elective Straight Queers

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Elective queer identity can be seen as straight men performing queer masculinity.Males in this category elect to move into queer masculinity as a means of liberating the self from the constrictions of hetero-normative masculinity.

Such males can move with varying degrees of comfort back into “straight masculinity” without necessarily losing power within the dominant culture.

Result: Straight men can “flirt” with queerness. They take on queer characteristics and move the body “queer-ly” within the context of the queer world. i.e. a gay bar or participation in gay-dominant environments such as parties or gay-identified professions.

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Committed Straight Queers

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Different from the elective queers, committed straight-queers practice at being queer with the intention of benefiting from moving toward queerness as an integral aspect of their sexuality and their masculinity.

Intentional in both public and private exploration of queerness.When in public, behaviours are political but also a means to express gender in a way that is increasingly comfortable and familiar to them

Result: While the elective straight-queer may or may not be interested in learning about queerness to expand sexual and gender boundaries, this is clearly the intent for those in this category

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5) Males Living in the Shadow of Masculinity.

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Some men who hide in the shadow of masculinity are what we might call “informed inactive”.They are informed about sexuality and masculinity and are likely to understand and support feminism as well as gay rights.T

hey are straight but not “narrow” in terms of knowledge and even attitudes on the subject of gender and sexuality.They may find ways to display behind-the scenes support for queer gay men but are not comfortable with queer straight men or with putting themselves in positions publicly where they might be perceived as gay.

Thus, they are unlikely to display nonconforming behaviours or appear in queer space unless accompanied by a girlfriend or female friend

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Continuing into the 21st Centur

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The benefit of building a typology of queer masculinities is to begin to give voice and legitimacy to the queerness that exists within the straight male world.Heasley presents developing constructions for several categories, drawing from examples of men who appear to “fit” as case examples into each or several of the categories