Hegemonic Masculinity Practices

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Recommended: The feature of hegemonic masculinity

Hegemonic masculinity practices are not only dominate towards women - domination practices also involve ‘other’ masculinities. Hegemonic masculinity is thus “the hegemony over women and hegemony over subordinate masculinities”, according to Demetriou (2009,341).

Not all men and their practices, fall within the hegemonic masculine “category”. Connell and Messerschmidt (2005:846) observe that there are hierarchy within masculinity and describe this as a pattern of hegemony. Within this hierarchy, certain masculinities are socially more central and more associated with authority and power compared to others. They expand by stating that non-hegemonic masculinities, within the masculinities sphere – are subordinate to their hegemonic brothers. They describe this subordination as complex with factors such as cultural consent, discursive centrality and marginalization playing a part in the process of domination and the creation of non-hegemonic masculinities.

Demetriou (2001, 341-343) label non-hegemonic masculinities as internal hegemony (or masculine hegemony over other masculinities). Three forms of internal hegemony are identified: subordinate masculinity, marginalized masculinity and complicit masculinity.

Subordinate masculinities, according Demetriou and in concurrence with Wedgwood (2008:335), specify that certain groups of men have less status and privilege than the ‘dominant’ hegemonic group. He uses the example of gay versus heterosexual men - with gay men receiving the short end of the stick in relations to material practices and is discriminated against in a political-, economic-, cultural- and legal sphere.

Marginalized masculinities refer to the domination of men (by men) based on their social class and/or et...

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... were still engaging in violent criminal practices. Many were violently abused by their fathers. Violence was historically and presently deeply embedded in the lives of the men. (Walker, 2005).

Walker (2005, 232) observed that many of the respondents were struggling with conflicting masculinities; on the one hand they felt guilty for beating their girlfriends, while on the other hand they identified with a gender order that did not denounce gender violence. In some instances defiant sexual behavior such as a right to sex regardless of the woman ‘not wanting it’ did translate into feelings of remorse, while others perceived violence towards women as the norm. The respondents were thus in constant turmoil; they do not feel comfortable within traditional masculinity but are having difficulty relating to ‘prescribed’ (as per the ‘new’ liberation) modern sexualities.

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