Lot’s Struggle for “Masculinity”: Use, Function, and Ideology of Masculinity in the Lot Stories

Taking a look at Lot through the lens of Biblical Masculinity Studies, we see him constantly trying to meet ideals of a performance of hegemonic masculinity but failing to do so. This paper uncovers masculinity as the motor of the narrative in the Lot stories, especially in Gen 19. The stories make fun of Lot and his offspring, the Moabites and Ammonites, as “failed” men. This paper analyses how this is achieved by the authors. Masculinity and masculine traits are artistically and deliberately used as a highly idealised background foil in order to highlight Lot’s failure. Furthermore, the authors’ point of view is highly ideological. They are in a superior and dominant position from which they portray Lot and his masculinity. They do this from safe distance, since they themselves are not represented in the stories by a character.

Abenteuer Männlichkeit. Adoleszenz in Wolfgang Herrndorfs Roman «Tschick»

This article deals with literary constructions of masculinity in Wolfgang Herrndorf’s novel Tschick. The focus is on male adolescence as represented by the characters in the text. The study is guided by the question of how the male socialisation of adolescents is narrated in the novel. Themes such as the search for identity, friendship, sexuality and being an outsider are addressed. The analysis is based on theoretical perspectives offered by masculinity studies, intersectional approaches of identity research as well as genre-related reflections on young adult fiction.

Comment: Socialism’s Mal(e)contents

This article reflects on how the authors in this Special Forum collectively advance the work in the subfield of critical masculinity studies. The several significant themes emerging in this collection of articles include: persistent state intervention in gender relations, the impact of longstanding patriarchal norms, the rapidly changing postwar gender equilibrium, and the continuing significance of war and martial masculinity. Furthermore, the Special Forum illuminates the importance of micro-histories and ego-documents to the study of masculinities in Central and East Europe. Finally, by framing agency as a relational process affected by a variety of constraints, these authors’ work marks a productive forward movement for the future study of critical masculinity studies more generally.

The Unrealized Potential of Body-Reflexive Practices

Raewyn Connell’s work foregrounds bodies in a way that challenges the social-constructionist orientation that has dominated much of the critical research on masculinities. Yet, her concept of “body-reflexive practices” is one of the least explored aspects of her work. In this commentary, I argue that body-reflexive practices, as the concept is developed in The Men and the Boys, points in the direction of a potentially productive convergence between masculinity studies and new materialist theories. In its engagement with the nature of bodies underlying the cultural construction of gender, Connell’s work maintains a relevance that has been largely unappreciated. This is especially the case for boys and young men as they develop masculinities in negotiation with their corporeal capacities.

The Unrealized Potential of Body-Reflexive Practices

Raewyn Connell’s work foregrounds bodies in a way that challenges the social-constructionist orientation that has dominated much of the critical research on masculinities. Yet, her concept of “body-reflexive practices” is one of the least explored aspects of her work. In this commentary, I argue that body-reflexive practices, as the concept is developed in The Men and the Boys, points in the direction of a potentially productive convergence between masculinity studies and new materialist theories. In its engagement with the nature of bodies underlying the cultural construction of gender, Connell’s work maintains a relevance that has been largely unappreciated. This is especially the case for boys and young men as they develop masculinities in negotiation with their corporeal capacities.

Representations of Masculinities in Gaya Jiji's Film Named My Favorite Fabric

Masculinity refers to the roles expected of men by gender ideology. Masculinity studies after 1990 revealed that masculinity cannot be taken as a universal subject. Another important concept in this study is orientalism. Orientalism generally refers to the West's point of view regarding the East. In Western narratives, Eastern women are generally depicted as oppressed heroes, and men as heroes who are always strong. However, alternative narratives reveal that different forms of femininity and masculinity can be seen in Eastern societies. In this study, a Syrian director's film named My Favorite Fabric is analyzed with a semiotic method within the framework of these concepts. When the representations of masculinity in the film are examined, it is seen that different forms of masculinity are constructed, and an alternative to the orientalist discourse is presented accordingly. It has been revealed that different variables are effective in the construction of masculinities.

“The best men can be”

In January 2019, the company Gillette released a short movie “We believe” as advertisement for the brand. In the ad, Gillette reframes their slogan from “the best a man can get” to “the best a man can be.” Connecting the video to the #MeToo movement and critiquing ‘toxic masculinity’, Gillette portrays a new, more responsible, gentle, empathetic masculinity for “the men of tomorrow.” In this article, we present and discuss theories and strands of masculinity studies, and we analyze how the short movie portrays contemporary masculinity vis-à-vis these theories. Our argument is that while Gillette’s short movie and similar branding movies appeal to social responsibility and might open for new and more inclusive masculinities, it does, however, at the same time reproduce the patriarchal organization of masculinity in which power and privilege run from man to man and leave women and children as objects. Furthermore, the recoding of masculinity from toxicity to empathy is framed as an individual choice within neoliberal logics.

Men and Masculinities the Journal

In this reflective piece, the new editors of the historic journal Men and Masculinities explicate how key tenets of Raewyn Connell’s scholarship informed their expanded vision of the journal. It begins with a meta-analysis of empirical research published in the journal for the last 20 years, and highlights its emphasis on contemporary scholarship from various disciplines and fields. Each facet of the journal’s new vision is relayed thereafter, including its feminist perspective, international focus, and interdisciplinarity. It concludes with efforts by the editors to actualize their vision in the service of broadening the field of gender, boyhood, and masculinity studies.

Situating Right-Wing Populisms and Revisiting The Men and the Boys under the Neoliberal Turn

This exploratory article draws critical insights from Raewyn Connell’s The Men and the Boys (2000) to unpack the gendered nature of neoliberal rightwing populist governance in India and America. Connell’s prescient work targeted towards forging new theoretical inroads in masculinity studies research, on its conception, continues to provide a vital heuristic model to make better sense of the present condition. This article first situates right-wing populist governance in India and America within the rubric of global neoliberal capitalism. It then unpacks Narendra Modi and Donald Trump’s carefully calibrated populist imaging, drawing attention to the surrounding gendered discourses rooted in local and culturally idealized perceptions of hegemonic masculinity. Narendra Modi and Donald Trump’s public figuration falls in the “cult of strongman leader stereotype”, characterized by risk-taking translated into perceived virility. Social media and its affordances further prop up their perceived masculine public personas, while affectively inscribing traditional inscriptions of heteronormative masculinity, such as ideas of dominance, as aspirational. Through preliminary research, this article then considers the effects of political masculinities on adolescent masculinities. In conclusion, this article stresses the theoretical relevance of Connell’s important work twenty years later.

Raewyn Connell and the Making of Masculinity Studies in South Africa

The study of masculinity in South Africa scarcely existed in 1990. A minor interest in gender was focused on women and inequality. South Africa was emerging from four decades of apartheid. It was into this environment that Raewyn Connell’s ideas were introduced, adopted and adapted. Raewyn herself made a number of trips to South Africa in the 1990s and 2000s and found a ready reception for her theories about masculinity. South Africa was in transition feeling its way from white minority rule and authoritarianism toward democracy and a commitment to ending poverty, inequality, racism, and the oppression of women. In this article, I describe how Raewyn’s idea energized scholarship, created a new research interest in men and masculinity, and contributed to gender activism.