This article focuses on the processes of exclusion by which male victims of sexual violence in conflict (SVC) are overlooked or erased from view. Opening sections explain the background of SVC before reviewing relevant secondary source literature. Themes explored include lack of recognition and historical factors. Relevant texts often bear misleading or ambiguous signifiers that perpetuate the confusion and lack of awareness that exists on the issue of male-directed SVC, and this issue is explored in a focus on the problem of language. The second half of the article considers the historical roots of SVC by Imperial Japanese forces and explores the practice of same-sex relationships in Japanese samurai culture. The practice of nanshoku was driven underground into a libidinal economy that became characterized ever more acutely by misogyny and sexual aggression. A culture of impunity for perpetrators of sexual violence, whether female- or male- directed, during peacetime will be exacerbated during periods of conflict. This assertion is based on insights across a wide range of disciplines including health, law, security, masculinities studies, and historical analysis.
The present study tested a moderated mediational model of the relationship between workplace incivility, demoralization, and male aggression as a function of U.S. regional differences in culture of honor. Eight-five male restaurant employees from the Southern (an honor culture) and Northern (a non-honor culture) U.S. completed measures of uncivil treatment at work, feelings of demoralization, and instrumental and hostile aggression. Results revealed that feelings of demoralization mediated the relationship between workplace incivility and instrumental and hostile aggression, particularly for men from the Southern U.S. compared to men from the Northern U.S. These relationships were especially pronounced for instrumental aggression. These findings suggest that demoralization is an important explanatory mechanism linking experiences of workplace incivility and aggression for male targets, especially men from cultures of honor.
Centre for Interdisciplinary Research, University of Bielefeld, in Cooperation with TU Dresden and German Research Council, 20–23 January 2016, Bielefeld, Germany [No abstract available]
In November 2013, the authors collaborated on a presentation called Tackling Rape Culture Requires a Team Effort. The central aim was to locate the problem where it should be located: on men, or more specifically, on the heteronormative, hypermasculine cultures of men that can breed rape culture attitudes and behaviours. In the few days prior to the presentation, the authors came to a critical point of divergence. One felt that it would be an oversight to not mention how some women contribute to and support rape culture, while the other felt that doing so would be seen as lecturing women and, thus, reinscribing patriarchy and sexism. Through their email exchange, they came to understand that their disagreement arose from positionality, specifically concerning sexuality identity. Their article addresses how positionality and privilege are key to tackling, and even talking about, rape culture on campuses. They explore the complications that they worked through as they planned for the presentation, and suggest strategies by which men who work against violence against women can address identity and positionality to enhance their activism on post-secondary campuses and in society.
Mannlichkeit: Ein interdisziplinares Handbuch [Masculinity: An Interdisciplinary Handbook], edited by Stefan Horlacher, Bettina Jansen, and Wieland Schwanebeck. Stuttgart: J.B. Metzler Verlag, 2016. 382 pp. ISBN 978-3-476-02393-3 (hb) 978-3-476-05196-7 (e-bk)German-speaking scholars of men and masculinity studies across the disciplines will welcome the publication of this new handbook enthusiastically. For a fairly long time, introductions, reference works, and handbooks in this broad and diversified field of research have concentrated on sociological approaches, as far as theories and methods were concerned, and the geographical focus has predominantly been on the U.S. The handbook Mannlichkeit, edited by Stefan Horlacher, Bettina Jansen and Wieland Schwanebeck (of Dresden Technical University) provides overviews of the theories and practices of masculinity studies as well as of the history of representations of men and masculinity in the media and the arts, with a focus on Europe, but including Latin America. It is impossible do justice each of the 27 fine chapters here, written by renowned experts in the field and densely packed with information as they are, and it would also be unfair single out some and be silent about others. I will therefore attempt convey an overall impression of the handbook's structure and conception, adding a comment on its usefulness.The editors' introduction traces the development of men-and-masculinity studies over the past decades as well as the potentially problematic public discourses on masculinities, caught between nostalgia and the diagnosis of crisis on the one hand, and the manifestation of allegedly true masculinity on the other. The aim of the handbook, as formulated by the editors, is to bring together perspectives from the sciences, the social sciences and the humanities in a non-hierarchical context, and link the specific knowledge concerning masculinities produced by the disciplines and the arts (p. 4, my translation). To the present reviewer, it seems that this goal has been reached.The first section (Part II, Mannlichkeitsforschung [Masculinity Research]) features five chapters on the study of men and masculinities in the geographical areas covered, that is, a survey article on masculinity studies in German-speaking countries; in English-speaking countries; in Russia and Mid-Eastern Europe; in France, Italy and Spain; and in Latin America, respectively. There is much discover for researchers interested in the state of the art, the foci of research and the theories and methods used within the neighbouring disciplines. And while some aspects of masculinity studies appear be fairly widespread, such as the performative turn and the fundamentally interdisciplinary nature of the field, a highly differentiated and complex overall picture of the field emerges from this section. It is necessary keep in mind that the traditions of gender studies and masculinity research have different birth dates and have seen different developments in the countries surveyed, and whereas a move towards queer theory and the questioning of the very category of masculinity can be observed in some countries, topics such as male violence and homophobia dominate current discussions in others. …
British Masculinity in the 'Gentleman's Magazine', 1731 to 1815, by Gillian Williamson. Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan, 2016. 296 pp. ISBN 9781137542328 (hb) 9781137542335 (e-bk)Read in lieu of contemporary feminism-obsessed literary multiculturalism, British Masculinity, with its strikingly fragmented chapters against the promise of thematic investigation, encapsulates the spirit of prevalent gender comparisons. As a candid narrative of intellectual repetition, it succeeds to portray an example of female critics' growing thirst for rewriting historical clashes which have gendered literary competition amongst men and women. Offering, at the outset, a parallel text for comparative significance, the author invites her readers to consider Kathryn Shevelow's Women and Print Culture: The Construction of Femininity in the Early Periodicals (1989) for its analysis of feminine attributes. However indirect yet untactful this readerly instruction appears in its positioning within the introductory chapter, there is no doubt, as Gillian Williamson asserts, that the Gentleman's Magazine provides a robust source for literary scholars of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. By way of unabashedly conventional reading and chronological evaluation, British Masculinity, in short, chronicles the theoretical backdrop of eighteenthcentury gentlemanliness as Williamson categorically summarizes certain ideas and ideologies on politeness, anxiety, and private and public spheres, rather than expanding on the magazine's acceptance in public literary and non-literary circles. In her expansive thematization of eighteenth-century masculinities, Williamson momentarily discusses the diversity of cultural qualities that bring us to her literary engagement with British manliness historiography.Even so, much careful analytical work has gone into two other particularly interesting areas in this book, namely the social practices of the magazine's readership and its literary cultural approach to masculinity. Williamson's choice of the masculine middling-sort men, that of those espousing self-restraint while being involved in active and economically productive industry, goes some way towards hypothetically instructing the reader where to look for-in periodicals-for cultural definitions and poetic identifications with ideal British masculinity of the pre- and post-Enlightenment eras. In her more strategic than literary manoeuvre, Williamson demonstrates the core counter-argument to eighteenth-century feminine frailty, exposing masculine as the centre-subject through numerous issues of the Gentleman's Magazine. She has recognised the magazine's take on the idea of gender and its subdivisions in eighteenth-century masculinities as hierarchically and socially constructed power rather than its engagement with observed manliness and practiced gender norms of the time.Despite the author's attempt to clarify manliness as portrayed in the magazine, a want of adequate debate-surrounding diverse literary behaviours of eighteenth- century male and female writers-is manifest. For instance, one hardly notes any mention of maternal authority, as discussed throughout by Davies (2014), written in conversation between male and female writers or presented in works of fiction and poetry of the time, while also being advertised and mentioned in the same magazine. Given the expansion of Williamson's introductory themes, one would have expected to see further examples of contextual gender roles as the realistic background for what emerged in actual volumes of the magazine. Sarah and Henry Fielding, for instance, would have been befitting literary figures for such conversational and contextual understanding of gender roles within literary circles. Several questions arise, in the face of missing mention of such close-knit literary families, one being whether Sarah Fielding's female characters were discussed with male writers-concerning their assertive and active roles rather than presenting eighteenth-century frail femininity. …
This article is about the changing identities of young male recruits in the British army. The data is based on 60 in-depth, semi-structured, interviews that formed part of a major three-year longitudinal study (2008–11). The great majority of the recruits, were aged between 16–19 years old, and were in the infantry or other combat related units. The article explores the characteristics of the peer group culture, discusses the important function of role models, and considers the career point at which the trainees begin to regard themselves as being a “real” soldier. The idealised and hegemonic form of masculinity that the recruits aspired to was based on physicality and toughness and was encapsulated in the action image of the “warrior hero”. However, although the culture was highly competitive, the data shows there to be a more nuanced form of hegemonic military masculinity, which was also inclusive and egalitarian, and contained a number of more feminised associated qualities such as of collaboration and caring.
The Men's Shed Movement: The Company of Men, edited by Barry Golding. Champaign, IL: Common Ground Publishing Co., 2015. 433 pp. ISBN: 9781612297873 $40.00The Men's Shed Movement started in Australia, originally in small cities and rural areas, for and among working class men. The need was felt especially given higher mental health problems/issues and suicides among older men, often retired and with a felt loss of the masculine provider identity previously provided by their jobs. Barry Golding estimates there are now 1,800 men's sheds today with a new one opening each day around the world. This is not one of the branches of what was commonly called the contemporaneous men's movement of the 1980s and 1990s, however. Men's sheds evolved informally as places where men could meet, variably in sheds, garages, dens, and sometimes unoccupied buildings, as their activities grew and needed more space, while using their hands to build things, which they were used to doing as part of their work. It has also been a place for men who were unemployed, to work with their hands and feel useful.Men's sheds spread from Australia to New Zealand, UK, Scotland, and Ireland. Canada has seen the latest organization activity, often in collaboration with various community partners, which in Canada include Movember Foundation, the University of Manitoba, and the Men's Depression and Suicide Network of the University of British Columbia School of Nursing. The men's sheds movement does not come out of any of the branches of what might be called the contemporary men's movement, which has pro-feminist, mythopoetic, fathers' rights, and men's rights divisions, and whose branches were rarely made up primarily of working class men coming together on the basis of a grassroots ethos. The former is more of a men's health modality for older working class men. Instead of working and meeting face-to-face, activities are rather more shoulder-to-shoulder. Though the notion is not emphasized in the book, what the men are clearly receiving is a form of social support provided by in-group socializing and from which they benefit, improving their health, and being part of the glue that holds the sheds together. Women play a role in various sheds. Sometimes they use the sheds at designated times for women. Many see the benefits that their husbands/partners receive from participation in shed activities and lend their support in supporting the men's participation. Women may also be the administrators for a shed or for a state or national Men's Shed organization, and some research men's sheds. In this respect these women are paid and/or their contribution is part of their employment.Another component of the glue is public and/or institutional funding that Men's Sheds receive. …
Buttoned Up: Clothing, Conformity, and White-Collar Masculinity, by Erynn Masi de Casanova. Ithaca: ILR/Cornell University Press, 2015. 275 pp. ISBN 978-0-8014-5418-9 (hb) 978-1-5017-0049-1 (pb)Erynn Masi de Casanova's Buttoned Up: Clothing, Conformity, and White-Collar Masculinity (2015) draws on white-collar men's discussion of their fashion choices to shed light on how masculinity, work-type, class, race, and geographic region shape their styles ofdress. Each chapter highlights a piece of what goes on in men's heads as they dress for work: workplace dress codes (both official and unofficial), family inspiration, for whom they dress, and the pitfalls of being too fashionable or not enough. In addition to what to wear, Casanova also explores what not to wear in a white-collar professional work setting. The current dearth of research on the topic of men's bodies and fashion leads to a dialogue that is both insightful and thought provoking. Readers will enjoy not only well-done sociological research, but also moments of nostalgia for the fashions of our fathers, grandfathers, brothers, and uncles.Casanova's work is based on interviews with 71 white-collar men in Cincinnati, San Francisco, and New York City, paying special attention to ethnicity and age variation within the sample along with different white-collar occupational types. She elaborates on certain themes with mini-ethnographic descriptions in short, topical inserts provided after each chapter. In one of these vignettes, the author takes her husband to a tailor to be measured and fitted for a custom suit. In this scene, Casanova describes not only the process of picking on-trend yet classic fabrics, but also how her spouse became increasingly uncomfortable being measured by another male as women entered the shop. Complimented by Casanova's conversational writing style, pieces like this effectively personalize the book.One thread running throughout Buttoned Up is that of attention: men's battle between receiving wanted and unwanted attention from others for the ways they are dressed. To avoid standing out, some men prefer wearing suites because doing so limits options and makes fashion choices easier. Others express themselves through cufflinks or fun socks for flashes of personality in an otherwise drab office fashion environment. Meanwhile, in their talk about fashion as the new f-word (Chapter 6), Casanova's white-collar workers are hesitant to say they pay too much attention to fashion, preferring instead to safely label themselves as trendy rather than fashionable. Indeed, for many of these men, fashion becomes a trigger word indicating that being too fashionable may lead to being labeled metrosexual, a term and embodiment of style still receiving criticism today. Moreover, being too on-trend may also pique curiosities as to an individual's sexual orientation which, in the heteronormative office world, is still a taboo subject. In sum, Casanova paints a picture of the precarious nature (Vandello et al., 2008) of the embodiment of masculinity through men's office attire.Boundaries were also a common theme throughout Buttoned Up: walking the many lines between too formal and too casual, too fashionable or too outdated, too fat or too thin. Falling on one side of the line or the other could result in workplace reprimands in the forms of formal and informal sanctions from coworkers or bosses. The way the boss dresses often inspires the wardrobe climate of a workplace (Chapter 7). To Casanova, this topic brought about the question: For whom do white-collar men dress? The short answer is: for other men. In the corporate world where women, particularly female bosses, are few and far between, men dress to impress their male coworkers and peers.But there is more. The way a businessman dresses for a potential client could make or break a deal, reveal power dynamics in meetings, or simply reveal a certain level of commitment to the job. …
Young Black men consume media images of love and happiness on a terrain in which models of loving and happy Black masculinities are scarce and usually Black men are stereotypically rendered as violent. A qualitative study was conducted exploring ways in which the media shape young men’s understanding of love and happiness as well as how these are in turn related to constructions of masculinity. Informed by four focus group discussions, findings highlight the value of examining discourses conveyed through media as well as the possibilities and constraints prevalent representations pose for young men regarding positive masculinity. The study holds potential for going beyond the stereotypical risk-and-deficit approaches to studies on Black men and masculinity by focussing on the significance of positive emotions in constructions of masculinity.
(ProQuest: ... denotes non-USASCII text omitted.)Recognizing the prevalence of traditional gender roles in parenting (Takeuchi, Lepak, Marinova, & Yun, 2007), the Japanese government has been promoting increased involvement of fathers in child-rearing (Yamase, 2012). In 2010, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare launched the Ikumen Project that encourages fathers to more actively participate in raising their children. Ikumen combines the Japanese word ikuji meaning child-rearing with the English word men (Tanabe, Kawamura, & Hatanaka, 2011). However, this initiative is still to be evaluated. Studies suggest that not all Japanese fathers identify with a traditional male gender role. For example, in a study of 520 Japanese couples with at least one 3- or 4-year-old child, 20% of fathers considered themselves responsible for parenting and housework as well as being the primary breadwinner (Ohno, 2008). Likewise, a survey study of 703 Japanese fathers of young children who attended a childcare center or kindergarten found that fathers valued being a parent and saw being a father as an important part of their overall identify. The fathers' involvement in child-rearing was significantly related to life and marital satisfaction (Tanabe, Kawamura, & Hatanaka, 2011).However, in a study with young Japanese fathers who were raising young children, Sagara, Ito, and Ikeda (2008) found that these fathers were more likely to report lower marital satisfaction compared to older fathers who were not raising young children. Sagara et al. (2008) provided two possible explanations for this finding. First, they suggested that compared to older fathers, young fathers were more likely to be involved in childrearing activities. Consequently, their involvement in child-rearing and household demands, including the influence of their wives' daily dissatisfaction and stress associated with child-rearing, contributed to a decrease in young husbands' marital satisfaction. Second, compared to fathers who were not raising young children, fathers with elementary school-age children, with a large gap between expected and actual responsibilities, were more likely to spend more time at home, allowing them to sense more directly their wives' dissatisfaction and exhaustion. it is assumed that these experiences contributed to a decline in young fathers' marital satisfaction. Sagara et al. (2008) also reported that these young fathers held a non-traditional gender role perspective (i.e., equal rights for both sexes), suggesting that this perspective may have alerted fathers to their wives' discontent. That is, since fathers realized that their involvement in childrearing did not meet their wives' expectations, this awareness might have led to a lower marital satisfaction (Sagara et al., 2008).Japanese husbands continue to lag behind their counterparts in other developed countries when it comes to participating in housework and parenting (Nakano, 2009). In the majority of Japanese households, fathers are considered the main breadwinner while mothers are primarily responsible for housework and childrearing and work part-time (Sato, 2012). Likewise, these roles and responsibilities were also found within those expatriate, or sojourning, families who live abroad or overseas on a temporary basis (Takeuchi et al., 2007). Within the expatriate families, fathers typically are employed in the host country while visa restrictions and language barriers make it difficult for wives to pursue employment (Takeuchi, et al., 2007). Thus, examining expatriate fathers' time spent with children, their marital satisfaction, and their perceived importance of their identity as fathers, warrants further studies.Fathering IdentityOgata (2015) described the twenty-first century's five universal expected roles of all fathers in the Western countries: (1) breadwinners, (2) housekeepers, (3) playmates with their children, (4) educators of children's sociability, and (5) supporters of their wives. …
Boys’ identities are distinctly gendered, racialized, and classed across disparate social and cultural contexts. Related intersectional identity processes are associated with boys’ academic success. While intersectionality has been utilized throughout boys’ education scholarship, a limited, “light touch” approach is often enacted. A critical logic of interpretation, intersectionality theory accounts for race, class, and gender within equity-based empirical studies. The authors contend insufficient engagement with intersectionality may lead educational research on boys’ social and learner identities to become static. Examining boys’ identities through intersectional approaches reveals more complex insights particularly as related to their school engagement. Critical of recent “boy crisis” literature, this article strives to compel theorists of boys’ education to more fully leverage the history, constructs, and epistemologies of intersectionality.
In her 2011 paper "Phenomenal Concepts, Color Experience, and Mary's Puzzle", Diana I. Perez argues that some phenomenal concepts, namely those linked to color experiences, are complex recognitional concepts. In addition, she holds that only the postulation of this kind of concepts allows us to account successfully for the new knowledge intuition which underpins the knowledge argument. However, in this paper I show that Perez fails to distinguish between phenomenal, psychological and recognitional concepts and, therefore, her argument is unsound. In particular, I contend that there are in fact no phenomenal concepts as Perez conceives them.
The literature calls for a greater focus on developing counselling and therapeutic approaches in working with men from cross-cultural perspectives. This article provides a theoretical and clinical values-based Integrity model perspective in working with men around issues of culture and identity. Framed around the case example of Akio, a Shinto priest presenting at the Emergency Room with overwhelming anxiety about homicidal impulses, this article offers clinical support for the results of Integrity-based clinical and empirical research based on nearly five decades of work indicating that men have been receptive to this positive, strengths-based and gender-sensitive therapeutic approach, challenging the myth of the emotionally defective male.
This multi-institutional qualitative study was conducted to understand how African American male undergraduates, who are members of Black Greek Letter Organizations (BGLOs), construct manhood within both historically Black college and predominantly White institution contexts. Built on evidence derived from participants’ narratives, this study contributes to the field by offering manhood perspectives as a pertinent part of the overarching view of BGLO membership and identity as experienced by African American males. Following data analysis, two general themes emerged: (1) teaching persistence and leadership and (2) expanding worldviews. Findings from this study inform higher education administrators, advisors and staff about how African American male students construct manhood as members of BGLOs.
this essay is concerned with the ways in which Fumi Yoshinaga’s comic series What did You eat Yesterday? sheds new light on the relationship between queer people and domestic space. of particular interest is how the suggestion of alternative lifestyles and modes of masculinities is made by Yoshinaga through her deployment of gastronomic discourses as metaphoric modalities which capture the attention of mainstream audiences in contemporary Japan. the essay argues that Yoshinaga’s comic series has been instrumental in making the inhabitation of domestic space by a queer couple visible in Japanese media. it also argues that the series’ commercial success with mainstream audiences is evidence of how well it has spoken to the concerns of many who live in the current neoliberal social condition.
Scholars have emphasized the importance of being more intentional about investigating the experiences of Black men at historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs). This article responds to that call by examining poor help-seeking behavior, which could be symptomatic of an unhealthy masculine identity, among Black men at HBCUs. This study was prompted by a single, institutional study, which found evidence of poor help-seeking behavior among Black men at an HBCU. Using data from the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE), this article seeks to understand the prevalence of poor help-seeking behavior among Black males in HBCUs. This article concludes with implications for future research and institutional practice.
