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hegemonic masculinity
hegemonic masculinity
social construction theory and masculinity pdf
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In our society we see two forms of masculinity, hegemonic, and subordinate, this is known as the sociology of masculinity. Hegemonic is a very honored form of masculinity. This is the alpha male example, the man that protects all things, he is more superior than others both male and female, he has the chiseled chin, and the six pack you could wash your clothes on. Subordinate masculinity, on the other hand, defies the hegemonic norms society is so fond of. These males posses feminine qualities that put them below the hegemonic males on a hierarchal scale. Although what we find in our readings is hegemonic masculinity is policed by the worry that one may become subordinate if any sign of weakness is shown. I had a friend through high school,
The idea Pascoe is bringing forth in the reading, ‘Dude You’re a Fag’: Adolescent Masculinity and the Fag Discourse, is the same as the story I included about my friend from high school. Being called a “fag” is not a homophobic term used to highlight only gay men, “fag” a term used towards both gay and non gay boys in order to keep them in line. My friend didn’t want to be called a derogatory term such as “fag”, so he chose to hide his personality under the hegemonic version of himself. C.J. Pascoe states, “Fag’ is not necessarily a static identity attached to a particular (homo- sexual) boy. Fag talk and fag imitations serve as a discourse with which boys discipline themselves and each other through joking relationships.” (Pascoe.
That being a “more masculine” man is a sign of power, and being feminine in any way is a bad thing. There is a superiority complex over all genders that comes with being a hegemonic male. It creates a type of gender gap not only between subordinate gay men, subordinate straight men, and hegemonic gay and straight men, but also between those same men and women. If a female was as masculine as a hegemonic male she may be teased, or frowned upon. The standard is set for men and women alike due to what society thinks they should be. Women are even forced to fall into these gender norms, and conform to what men think they should look like, and what society wants them to be. Femininity is exaggerated by women sometimes in order to conform, and fit in. So, while the “fag” discourse does not apply directly to women, it is relevant here, because indirectly women do suffer from the hegemonic norm men seek to
In the article “Dude You’re a Fag: Adolescent Homophobia” the author uses pathos and logos to convey the audience the main point of her article. Rhetorical modes such as exemplification and description are used. C.J. Pascoe is trying to argue that the word “fag” or “faggot is not mainly used as a homophobic slur within high school boys, but more commonly used to describe unmasculinity.
She taught at universities both in Australia and the United States. Connell highly disagreed that the ideas about what established masculinity are ethically definite. In other words, masculinity is important to whom is referred to. For example, “if women are seen as weak, passive and emotional, then men are supposed to be strong, aggressive, and rational” (Seidman, 221). Additionally, masculinity is based on how people interact with each other in which correlates with their race, class, and sexuality. With this said, Connell said, “to recognize diversity in masculinity: relations of alliance, dominance and subordination… This is a gender politics within masculinity” (Seidman, 223). To point out Connell’s theorizing masculinity, she believes that diversity defines masculinity has its own relationships with authorities. In our text, Seidman gave a brief example of how the roles carry out to the social authority such as President, Senator, CEO, General, media executive, or surgeon. It is stated that while there are many senators, executives, or CEOs who are women, it is definite identify as masculinity because people think those high authorities is only for a male role. In our text, Connell has mentioned that “every society has a dominant or a “hegemonic” type of masculinity” (223). This means that she believes men has the power or control type of their masculinity in the
Hegemonic (Heg·e·mon·ic/ heɡəˈmänik/ adjective) masculinity is a concept first popularized by sociologist R.W Connell, hegemonic masculinity refers to the dominate role of men, and subservient/subordinate role of women in society (Connell). Hegemonic masculinity reinforces the age old idea that men are meant to be tough, strong, and reckless; whereas women are weak, obedient, and subservient to men. The concept of hegemonic masculinity and its ideals, is enforced by societies that rely on such genders. Such strong reinforcement of toxic masculinity can leave long lasting and harmful effects on individuals. Societal expectations of masculinity directly affects an individual’s relations with the same sex, and can lead to irrationals decisions motivated by: shame,
In an effort to legitimize all subcategories of sexuality considered deviant of heterosexual normatively, queer theory acknowledges nontraditional sexual identities by rejecting the rigid notion of stabilized sexuality. It shares the ideals of gender theory, applying to sexuality the idea that gender is a performative adherence to capitalist structures that inform society of what it means to be male, female, gay, and straight. An individual’s conformity to sexual or gendered expectations indicates both perpetration and victimization of the systemic oppression laid down by patriarchal foundations in the interest of maintaining power within a small group of people. Seeking to deconstruct the absolute nature of binary opposition, queer theory highlights and celebrates literary examples of gray areas specifically regarding sexual orientation, and questions those which solidify heterosexuality as the “norm”, and anything outside of it as the “other”.
In one of our class discussions on hegemonic masculinity, we attempted to define a general list of characteristics or behaviors that one should have in order to attain this ideal. However, there was no consensus on these qualities. Frequently, the qualities that we would suggest would be those that were the opposite of qualities associated with women. For example, if we would categorize being emotional as a trait assigned to women, we would assign the trait of being impassive to men. This would also occur when we considered which behaviors would be considered masculine. While we assumed women would perform work inside of the house, we assigned men to work outside of the house, doing activities such as maintaining the yard or fixing the car. Most of, if not all of, the qualities and behaviors we assigned as being a part of hegemonic masculinity perpetuated the idea of gender inequality. When we assumed that those characteristics would be considered aspects of hegemonic masculinity, we restricted them to only being assigned to men because if a woman could possess those characteristics, it wouldn’t be considered a masculine aspect. This also explains how hegemonic masculinity can perpetuate
Masculinity is described as possession of attributes considered typical of a man. Hegemonic masculinity is a form of masculine character with cultural idealism and emphasis that connects masculinity to competitiveness, toughness, and women subordination. Masculinity hegemonic is the enforcement of male dominion over a society. Masculine ideology dates back to the time of agrarian and the industrial revolution in Europe when survival compelled men to leave their homesteads to work in industries to earn a living for their families while women remained at home to take care of family affairs (Good and Sherrod 210). Women did not work in industries then because industrial labor was considered too physical beyond their capacity. This led to definition of roles which placated the position of men in a society while condemning women as mere subordinates who cannot do without men. The critics of gender stereotypes in America describe the following five hegemonic features of masculinity: frontiersman ship, heterosexuality, occupational achievement, familial patriarchy, and physical force and control (Trujillo 4). The advent of the 20th century led to sweeping changes in American masculinity.
The first study looks at the different types of masculinity and such as hegemonic masculinity and how it relates to the hierarchy masculinities. The researchers observed male student’s attitudes in male dominance, such as power and violence. They further examine Connell’s social theory of gender by looking at two different schools and studying the relationships between the boys (Lusher, Robins, 2010). This theory is widely used to explain the hierarchical behavior in the use of masculine power, such as complicit, dominant, and subordinate masculinities (Lusher, Robins, 2010). Their methods involved studying the schools, which are religious, based and are all boy schools ...
Masculinity is a subject that has been debated in our society for quite some time. Many wonder what it means to be masculine, as it is difficult to define this one –sided term. Pairing this already controversial term with “feminist studies” can bring about some thought - provoking conversation. Feminist studies of men have been around for many years with regards to the feminist movement. It seeks to create gradual improvements to society through its main principle of modifying the ways in which everyone views what it means to be a man. Feminist studies of men bring forth the discussion of hegemonic masculinity; how this contributes to the gender hierarchy, the radicalized glass escalator and ultimately the faults of this theory.
It seems that the very existence of the term fag and the reason for its prevalence amongst adolescent boys is the fragility of masculinity. This seems to be solidified when Pascoe explains that the idea of being a fag goes beyond sexual identity and more with the association of masculine incompetence, weakness and femininity (Pascoe, 330). The fluidity of the term has allowed itself to become a powerful disciplinary mechanism in which boys heavily police themselves and others in order to avoid being attached to the term (Pascoe, 330). Even basic things like caring about one’s clothing, dancing, showing emotions or as Ben, one of the students at River High that Pascoe interviewed, says,
‘Dude, You’re a Fag’: Adolescent Masculinity and the Fag Discourse - C. J. Pascoe 2005
Hegemonic masculinity surfaced as a critique for sex role theory, stating that masculinity may vary depending on ones socialization. This idea became more evident once women entered the workforce, as men felt emasculated after what was once solely a male-based aspect of daily life, was now open to women. As the world continues to develop so do gender roles. A major aspect of sports is the clearly defined gender order, which governs the behaviours of both men and women as a means of preserving patriarch and heterosexuality. This order is instilled in boys from a young age in the hopes that they follow these strict societal norms expected from them. To help preserve this thinking, institutions continuously attempt to better male athletes by focusing their attention on the male population as oppose to splitting this attention on both male and female
Our community, as open minded as it tries to be, finds itself conforming to the hegemonic ideologies of the greater society that we wish to be found equals to by assimilating the ideals of masculine and feminine alongside the inevitable power plays involved – this truly shows the hidden power of patriarchy. Fundamentally, we all agreed that it was only loosely tied to homophobia and had found a more stable and divisive place within the male/female or masculine/feminine dichotomy. My final question of the night was this: “should we as a community try and reclaim the word “fag?” I believe Joe hit the nail on the head by saying “It may be too early to reclaim the word and given its new found place in patriarchy it should probably just fall into the annuals of history.”
In the views of Micheal Kimmel “hegemonic masculinity” is a socially constructed process where men are pressured by social norms of masculine ideals to perform behaviors of a “true man” and its influence on young male’s growth. It is the ideology that being a man with power and expressing control over women is a dominant factor of being a biological male. The structure of masculinity was developed within the 18th to 19th century, as men who owned property and provided for his family with strength related work environments was the perfect example of being a generic “American man.” Kimmel introduces Marketplace Manhood and its relation to American men. He states, “Marketplace Masculinity describes the normative definition of American masculinity.
Gay, Faggot, Dyke, and Butch are a few examples of gay slurs that society has used in negative light. “’Man, that’s gay’ gets dropped on the daily/we become so numb to what we’re saying/call each other faggots…/gay is synonymous with the lesser” (Macklemore Ln 35-36, 39). These lyrics identify how we as a society make the idea of being gay a bad thing. When he says that gay is synonymous with the lesser, he is saying that society thinks that because you are gay, you are lesser than everyone else. It’s the same idea that woman and black people have gone through in history. Black people were believed not to have a choice because they were below white men and the same idea went for woman as well until people fought for their rights. He wants us to realize that this war for gay rights has already happened in different forms: “It’s the same hate that’s caused wars from religion/gender to skin color, the complexion of your pigment” (Macklemore Ln 40-41). He also adds imagery to this statement by showing images from the past of a black and white woman running at the beach and laughing together and the American flag flowing. The image of the flag is shown because it is supposed to represent freedom but for a homosexual person, it restricts them from being who they
Wilton, Tamsin. "Which One's the Man? The Heterosexualisation of Lesbain Sex." Gender, Sex, and Sexuality. New York: Oxford University, 2009. 157-70. Print.