Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 1999. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 238-265).

This study was directed at exploring the personal constructions of young males who had self selected as peer counselors, of what it means to be a man in South Africa at this time in history. One of the goals identified was to highlight and examine both hegemonic and alternative versions of masculinity and, in particular, to examine how young men position themselves in relation to these constructions. In order to investigate the research question, ten adolescents/young men participated in focus group discussions on the topic of masculinity. The participants included 8 school boys, 5 white and 3 black, attending a private, all boys school, as well as 2 black university students. All participants had self selected as peer counselors. The study is located in the qualitative research tradition which allows for depth of description and interpretation. The three focus group discussions held (two at the boys school with 4 participants in each, and one at the university) were recorded and transcribed verbatim. These transcripts were then subject to a critical thematic content analysis. The main themes were identified and the four themes which emerged as dominant in the conversation and occurred most regularly across all three groups are analyzed and discussed. These themes are emotional stoicism, normative heterosexuality, gendered division of labour and displayed toughness. Under each theme material supporting hegemonic constructions of masculinity and material supporting alternative constructions of masculinity is discussed as a separate sub-theme. The impact of the role as peer counselor on participants’ constructions of masculinity is also discussed. A brief meta-theoretical discourse analytic commentary is also provided, addressing for example, strategies employed by participants to maintain their sense of masculinity in the discussions. This study highlights the fluidity and plurality of masculinity as well as the struggle of adolescent boys and young men as they engage with where and how to position themselves as masculine. A main finding or observation is that some degree of alternative masculinity will be countenanced provided there is evidence of an acceptable baseline of hegemonic or traditional masculinity in a boy or man.

Abstract not available

This research study explores the relationship between cultural representations of heterosexual male sexuality and heterosexual men’s sexuality. A critical realist framework is adopted to facilitate the examination of this topic with qualitative and quantitative methods; an analysis of representation in men’s magazines, an analysis of men’s accounts produced in individual and group interviews, and an analysis of a large-scale survey are undertaken. The findings of this study demonstrate that across age and relationship context, there is considerable variation in men’s experience of sexuality, negotiation of representations and in the consequences they experience. The findings of the study are significant for understanding heterosexual men’s subjectivity and sexual practices; the implications for sexual relationships , sexual coercion and violence, and for sexual health and education are considered throughout. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) (Psychology)

Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Hong Kong, 2006. / Title proper from title frame. Also available in printed format.

Thesis (M.A.)--Ohio University, June, 2005. / Title from PDF t.p. Includes bibliographical references (p. 162-168)

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2003. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also from UMI Company.

This thesis is concerned with local concepts of kinship and personhood in a small Miskitu village named Kakabila in eastern Nicaragua, and examines how gender identities are organised around a culturally specific variant of the set of practices which anthropologists have glossed as 'brideservice'. Personhood in Kakabila is focussed on the establishment of a stable conjugal partnership. Men usually attach themselves to the households of their conjugal partners, and attempt to legitimate their claims to their wives by uxorilocal postnuptial residence and the practice of long term brideservice. The central concern of many Kakabila men therefore is with demonstrating that they conduct themselves with their affines harmoniously in accordance with village ideals. For many men, however, the eventual objective is to detach their wives from the influence of consanguineal kin, and this produces a tension between the need to project affinal harmony and the concern that actions may be construed in terms of elopement. Kakabila women, however, tend to be much more concerned with constructing networks of symbolic exchange and mutual assistance among themselves, particularly with their consanguineal kinswomen. In many cases, therefore, women resist the attempts of husbands and sons-in-law to disrupt these networks, and organise their actions around ensuring that errant husbands and junior male affines adequately supply them with sufficient symbolic capital to adequately maintain and cultivate these networks. This thesis, therefore, suggests a very specific formulation of the logic of gender identities in Kakabila, where brideservice is as much a style of distribution as it is a 'style of consumption' (Collier and Rosaldo 1981: 275), based on a particular disjunction between men's and women's motivations. This thesis also considers the changes in Miskitu kinship in terms of changes which have taken place among the Miskitu during the last three hundred years, particularly the marked trading and political imbalances brought about by long term contact with the English speaking Caribbean countries. The disappearance of the historically attested distinction between cross and parallel cousins and the serial exchange of offspring and siblings, and the emergence of uxorilocal postnuptial residence, are analysed in terms of a gradual historical reformulation of Miskitu notions of affinity which owes a great deal to these regional contacts. An ethnographically and historically informed analysis for these transformations is considered, which in turn is used to shed light on gender identities and the practice of brideservice in present day Kakabila.

This thesis examines how young children experience games and how that question is relatedto gender. The examination of this question is conducted through interviews with a group of24 Swedish fifth-grade pupils. The paper also draws from theories and concepts found inestablished literature on gender and games. The results of this thesis informs the theory ofviolence as a masculine preference as well as the separation of gender identities from biologicalsexes.

Thesis (Psy. D.)--Indiana University of Pennsylvania. / Includes bibliographical references.