nÃo hà / The objective of this study is to analyze how men with spinal cord injury experience their sexuality from a different body/identity as paraplegia or quadriplegia, taking into account the interference of erotic and effective exchanges in these experiments. In this dissertation, I develop my narrative from personal and social conflicts these individuals, also showing other forms of vision for the handicapped, wich are linked to the bodies of deviante eroticism and pornography of disability. The methodology used resulted from a need from their own field of study, so the nethnography was the most convenient tool, because it allows interation through the internet, wich provided greater accessibility to and interlocutors. Firstly, the interviews were in person and later mediated by videoconferencing. / O Objetivo deste estudo à analisar como homens com lesÃo medular vivenciam sua sexualidade a partir de uma diferenÃa corporal/identitÃria como a paraplegia ou a tetraplegia, levando em conta a interferÃncia das trocas erÃticas e afetivas nestas experiÃncias. Nessa dissertaÃÃo, desenvolvo minha narrativa a partir dos conflitos pessoais e sociais desses indivÃduos, mostrando tambÃm outras formas de visÃo sobre o deficiente fÃsico, que estÃo ligadas à erotizaÃÃo dos corpos desviantes e à pornografia da deficiÃncia. A metodologia utilizada decorreu de uma necessidade proveniente do prÃprio campo de estudo, a netnografia foi, portanto, a ferramenta mais conveniente, jà que possibilita a interaÃÃo atravÃs da internet, o que proporcionou uma maior acessibilidade aos e dos interlocutores. As entrevistas realizadas foram mediadas primeiramente presencialmente e posteriormente por vÃdeo conferÃncia.

Although there is a good foundation of feminist research at the intersection of performative labor, pornography, and sexuality, there are few (if any) published studies that examine race in porn content intended for gay men’s consumption. What’s more, existing research samples solely from corporatized porn, which is expressly produced, scripted, and directed. Bound by the conventions of the market, however, corporate pornography must abide by a consumer demand that reflects white machinations of black sexuality rather than the self-proclaimed sexual identity of African American men. Instead, I employ an exploratory content analysis of pornographic videos categorized as “ebony” on a popular user-submitted porn database. I am interested in 1) the character of pornographic representations of queer black masculinity and 2) how these representations vary between corporate and non-corporate producers. I find that representations of black men in gay porn rely on stereotypes of black masculinity to arouse consumers, especially those which characterize black men as “missing links” or focus excessively on their “dark phalluses.” Moreover, these depictions consistently separate gay black and white men’s sexuality into bifurcated discursive spaces, thereby essentializing sexual aspects of racial identity. Lastly, though such depictions are less prevalent in user-submitted videos, overall, both user-submitted and corporate content reify stereotypes about black masculinity.

Magister Artium (Social Work) - MA(SW) / Fatherhood is a role that is understood and exercised differently, but to most it infers a responsibility to provide and protect. Fatherhood is associated with manhood, in the sense that a man is expected to take on the role of fatherhood. The relationship between manhood and fatherhood is: the physical act of begetting a child (manhood) and the processes of accepting, as well as, performing, the role of a father (fatherhood). A paternal identity, or a man’s identity as a father, comprises of all the internalized expectations of behaviour that he has associated with being a father (e.g. being a breadwinner, being a caregiver). In the Western world, it is widely accepted that a man becomes a father when he impregnates a woman; however, masculinity is neither biologically determined nor automatic. There are many different, culturally sanctioned ways, of being a man; not only one universal masculinity. It can therefore be presumed that masculinity/fatherhood/manhood is acted or performed. This study focuses on biological fathers, instead of the broader concept of father figures. Any male can fulfil the role of a father figure to a child and take responsibility for rearing a child, but biological fathers indicate a blood relationship and a biological connection. A paternal father also retains his status as a biological parent of a child, regardless of the level of subsequent contact or involvement in the child’s life. The aim of this study is to explore the experiences of the partners and adolescent children, when biological fathers are incarcerated. In order to do this, an assessment of the biological father’s experiences, in prison, is first implemented. Paternal incarceration places a strain on families, especially children, who experience parent-child separation. The unexpected separation of a child from the parent can be linked to various emotional consequences. Incarceration limits fathers ‘familial involvement and parenting capacity’, thereby compromising family relationships. Incarcerated fathers are separated from their partners and children, which limits family contact in many ways, weakening familial bonds, not only while time is being served, but also after release. The incarcerated man also experiences a sense of insignificance, being devalued as a person and powerless.A qualitative research approach was used to explore the objectives of the study. Purposive sampling was used to select twenty incarcerated participants for this research. Due to the strict selection criteria, only fourteen (14) were eventually chosen to participate in the study. Their fourteen (14) spouses/partners and biological adolescents were also expected to participate, however, only four (4) partners, one (1) significant carer and 5 adolescents formed part of the sample for this study, due to some partners not wanting to expose their adolescents, nor their personal details, to scrutiny and others simply not being interested to participate. Data was collected by using semi-structured interviews with face-to-face interaction, open-ended questions (with fathers) and focus discussion groups (with the partners, significant carer and adolescents). Although the theoretical framework focuses on Attachment Theory, the study also considers other principles of criminological theories, regarding the identified increase in child disruptive and criminal behaviour, caused by parental incarceration. A thematic data analysis approach was used to extract themes. The main findings of this study show that the fathers experienced difficulties with maintaining their role as a father prior to, and after, incarceration. They were concerned about the financial adversity their families had to endure when they were imprisoned and the mothers/partners being forced into single parenthood. They also felt excluded from all decision-making processes and isolated from the development of their children. The partners experienced financial difficulties, loneliness and humiliation, as a result of the biological father’s incarceration. The significant carer, who was involved as a result of the biological mother not being able to fulfill the caring role, identified the problems experienced as financial difficulties, lack of child-care support and, in some cases, the substance abuse of the biological mother. The separation affected the adolescent children psychologically, when they were exposed to the stigma attached to having a father, who was incarcerated. They also identified feelings of abandonment because of the lack of a father-child relationship and being deprived of opportunities to share important events and personal achievements with their biological father.

This research was undertaken with a view to advancing scholarship on the production and reproduction of notions of masculinity through everyday experiences of violence in the domestic sphere. In particular, the researcher sought to explicate constructions of masculinity in men’s narratives of their experiences of violence in the homeplace. The participants in this study constituted a fairly homogenous sample in terms of age, education, geographic location, and socio-economic status. A homogenous sample was purposefully selected because it aided an analysis of the phenomenon under study without diversions from extraneous variables. Data was collected from semi-structured, personal, in-depth, face-to-face interviews with eight young men. In these interviews participants were asked to recall and to talk about one particular experience of domestic violence that they witnessed or that had happened to them in the past. Photo elicitation was used as a reflective technique aimed at facilitating recall and discussion during the interviews. Data was analysed by means of a discourse analysis. The main findings of this research were that the participants grew up in communities where a more traditional hegemonic masculinity was commonplace and where violence as a means of exerting control was associated with being a ‘real man’. The participants did however question this notion of masculinity as a result of their experiences, particularly when they perceived the violence that they had been exposed to as excessive or unwarranted.

This study offers an exploration of masculinity in both Iraqi and Iranian fiction which holds the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988) as its major theme. Representations of masculinities in Iran-Iraq War fiction present a deep, and at times, confounding paradox. Whilst this corpus of war fiction at times deeply challenges hegemony and completely reformulates its own definitions of normative codes of manliness, at other times it strictly conforms to chauvinistic and often profoundly oppressive patterns of male behaviour. By relating these works of fiction to their wider social and political context, the aim of this study is to recognise and nuance the relationship between representations of masculinities, and literary depictions of the nation at war. Theoretically grounded in reformulations of the concept of hegemonic masculinity, the study also reflects the work of Joseph Massad, as it attempts to contextualise a body of fiction which employs representations of masculinities as part of wider socio-political allegories. As such this study treats masculinity as a complex phenomenon fraught with ambivalence, operating within particular historical and political contexts, whose subjects are often empowered and oppressed in equal measure. By relating these representations to wider social and political contexts, this study seeks to recognise and nuance the relationship between representations of masculinities and the role which the nation plays in literature, in particularly, when war is the over-arching theme. It is within the context of war, when masculinity is often proposed to be at its most simple, that it is proven to be at its most complex as age, class and political affiliations become defining factors in the pursuit of hegemony and therefore what constitutes hegemonic masculinity. By comparing two national literatures participating in the same conflict, this study reveals the close socio-political dynamic which exists between gender, literature and the so-called constructed “reality” of nation which they purport to represent. Accordingly this study showcases a corpus of work which speaks to a larger literary canon systematically ignored in studies of Persian and Arabic literature. Through in-depth readings of eight works of fiction, published between 1982 and 2003, this study investigates representations of masculinity in both an Iranian and Iraqi context. This thesis is a riposte to common assumptions that literary canon which constitutes Iran-Iraq War is purely associated with state-sponsored narratives, and instead sheds light on a subtle body of fiction which offers a complex account of war and its effect on society.

This thesis argues that clubs and associations provided a major arena for masculine social life in the period from 1800 to 1914. Using a range of sources from life writings and administrative records to photographs, drawings and buildings, the thesis presents a detailed picture of club life in the two provincial cities of Manchester and Liverpool. Examining the ways in which middle-class men wrote about associational culture, decorated their club houses and behaved in the company of other club men, the work highlights the complex and varied roles clubs and associations played in shaping masculinities. Club culture offered men the opportunity for homosocial friendship and fellowship, a respite from work but also access to business networks and political contacts. Above all, associational life allowed middle-class men to express their different tastes and identities, highlighting the diversity of masculine cultures in nineteenth-century provincial cities. The thesis explores the ways in which masculinity was constructed as a relationship between men in the context of the club, and reveals how the identity of the club man intertwined with his role at work and in the family. It argues that the function of the club shifted over the course of the male lifecycle, determined by a man's position as the head of a household and business. However masculine behaviour within the all-male association was also governed by its own codes of self-control; club life had no place for those men who drank too much, or failed in business. The buildings of nineteenth-century provincial club houses form an important part of this study. The work shows how the interiors of club buildings were decorated and arranged as a significant setting for male social life, and functioned as places where men could articulate and express their different identities via activities such as dining and smoking. The thesis also reveals how the architectural styles of the club buildings functioned as an outward expression of middle-class identity. By unpacking the different social, political and cultural influences which shaped the appearance of these institutions, it is argued that middle-class masculine culture in Manchester and Liverpool was diverse, fiercely independent and distinctive from the metropolis. Clubs and associations were not simply peripheral spheres for masculine social life, but major arenas in their own right.

No description available.

While a great deal of research has been completed on the relationship between biological sex and infidelity, no research currently exists that examines the relationship between masculine gender norms and infidelity. In this study, 202 men and 486 women were recruited from a Midwestern university, the surrounding community, and nationallyon line. Their Conformity to Masculine Norms (CMNI) scores were compared to threeinfidelity measures: a modified version of the Attitudes Toward Marital Exclusivity Scale(ATME), the Justification for Extramarital Infidelity Questionnaire (JEIQ) sexual justifications subscale, and the JEIQ emotional intimacy justifications subscale. Participants' CMNI total score was hypothesized to be correlated with ATME total scores, JEIQ sexual justification, and JEIQ emotional intimacy justification scores. Further, scores on four CMNI subscales ("risk taking", "dominance", "playboy", and "pursuit of status") were hypothesized to predict ATME total scores, as well as JEIQ sexual and emotional intimacy justification subscales scores for both men and women. Preliminary analysis identified significant variance between men's and women's responses to the ATME and JEIQ sexual intimacy subscales. Results were therefore presented for both men and women separately. Men's, but not women's, CMNI total scores were found to be correlated with their ATME total and JEIQ sexual scores. Both men's and women's scores on identified CMNI subscales scores were found to predict ATME, JEIQ sexual, and JEIQ emotional scores. For men, only "playboy" scores were related to the variance these scores. For women, "playboy" was associated with variance in ATME scores, both "risk-taking" and "playboy" were associated with variance in JEIQ sexual scores, and both "playboy" and "pursuit of status" were associated with variance inJEIQ emotional scores. From these results, utility of overall conformity to masculine in understanding men's attitudes about infidelity is established. Additionally, masculine nonrelational sexuality norms are found to be useful in understanding attitudes and approval of sex based infidelity.

This dissertation describes practices among men who desired men from 1910 to 1945 that combined mobility, eroticized leisure practices, and non-urban spaces in cultivating nascent sexual subcultures. It contains four case studies that detail how vacillations between "productive" labor and recurrent "drifting" allowed men to simultaneously perform normative gender identities while conveying their sense of sexual difference with respect to white bourgeois manhood. Each case study explores institutional linkages between mobility and stigmatized male sexualities, and analyzes autobiographies, correspondence, visual culture, and fictional works in which men who desired other men imagined their ambivalent relationships to labor as a means of expressing their discomfort with the sexual and gender constraints of modern commercial centers. This study suggests that the eroticization of laboring male bodies and "natural" leisure spaces were vital in cultivating subcultures based on non-heterosexual desire. Moreover, while the historiography of male homosexuality prior to World War II has largely focused on urban experience, this discussion illuminates a decidedly anti-modern bristling against city life and commercialism that also motivated the movements of men who desired men in this period. The first two chapters trace the development of queer "tramp" identities. By the 1920s, socioeconomic changes and American folklore perpetuated tramp nostalgia in which writers portrayed wandering homeless men as romantic dreamers wary of marital confinement, rather than economically marginalized laborers. Analyses of sociological records involving working-class gay men in Chicago and the career of tennis champion Bill Tilden demonstrate that this tramp epistemology enabled white men to cultivate non-heterosexual identities through their desires for mobility and their challenges to prevailing distinctions between work and pleasure. The final two chapters describe the queer spatial and temporal potential of non-urban spaces (specifically waterways and beaches) among artists and working-class men. In fantasies contained in paintings and archived correspondence, sailors embodied mobility, erotic "masculine" physicality, and sentimentalized vulnerability. At the same time, artists and writers saw in their tourist practices the potential to attain queer intimacies. Their depictions of beach leisure allowed them to mobilize fantasies of same-sex relationalities that evaded both the capitalist privileging of "masculine" productivity and modern sexual categorizations.

Major Depressive Disorder is regarded as a major contributor to the global burden of disease. It is considered as the fourth highest cause of disability across the globe and second highest between the ages of 15 and 44. It is a serious mental health condition that affects individuals’ physical and mental health and is often associated with comorbidities, functional impairment and at times fatal consequences. Men with depression are considered as an at-risk group as research has shown that males are less likely to receive intervention or health care compared to women, due to hegemonic masculine norms. Within the qualitative research community, some efforts have been made to give voice to men’s experiences of depression and help-seeking, as well as the coping strategies that they deploy to manage such symptoms. However, comparatively little to no research has focused on the South African population, and specifically on Black men’s experiences. Similarly, only a few studies have concentrated on the positive, helpful and/or adaptive coping strategies used by men to manage their internal distress. Thus, this study contributed to a growing body of knowledge and filled a gap in current literature. This research was qualitative in nature and deployed Braun and Clarke’s (2006) six-phase framework for conducting a thematic analysis, in order to analyse the eight individual interviews conducted. The analysis produced various themes and subthemes that elucidated the experiences of masculinity, depression, help-seeking and coping mechanisms among Black men in South Africa. The three overarching themes included: Real men don’t cry; Sadness hurts, but sharing hurts more; and Dark days, take control; all of which were related to several subthemes. The analysis indicated that Black men in South Africa do experience depressed moods and internal distress. However, they may deny such experiences due to their subscription to strength-based masculine ideals. They instead foster a mask of indifference to such pain by denying or supressing their emotions in order to assimilate into masculine norms. This was even more apparent in Black African cultures where hegemonic masculine norms were further entrenched and encouraged. Furthermore, public and self-stigma were commonly cited as a reason why the men in the study felt the need to uphold this image of indifference and keep subscribing to such dogmas. This translated into the men’s experiences and attitudes towards help-seeking, where they would often reject or be reluctant to disclose their emotional distress to professionals or to those closest to them. This was due to the perception that help-seeking is in line with femininity, which diverts/shifts away from the masculine ideals they sought to uphold. Another aspect introduced was how these concepts intertwined with Black African cultures. Namely, it may be more difficult for Black men in South Africa to openly express their experiences of depression or seek help psychologically, as these are Westernised terms and are uncommon in Black communities. However, a more traditionally accepted help-seeking route was to go to a traditional healer or Sangoma. Considering the men’s overall reluctance to seek help, they engaged in coping strategies in order to manage depressed feelings, as this was more in line with the masculinity expectations of autonomy, unemotionality and problem solving. Negative coping mechanisms were seen as a celebrated and normalized way for men to numb or supress their emotional distress, while still enacting masculinity. Lastly, although positive coping strategies were posited as a way for men to directly engage in distressful emotions, this was more difficult to adopt as they were perceived to be aligned with more feminine traits. This research created a framework that can be used to conceptualise Black South African men’s experiences of depression, help-seeking and coping strategies. This research is of utmost importance considering that men are noted to be more likely to experience functional impairments or fatal consequences due to their reticence for help-seeking. As such, men and future public health messaging could capitalise on this research in order to improve help-seeking and self-management behaviour amongst this population. This is particularly relevant considering our current context of the COVID-19 global pandemic. Keywords: Major Depressive Disorder, South African men, help-seeking, coping strategies, and qualitative thematic analysis. / Mini Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2021. / Psychology / MA (Clinical Psychology) / Unrestricted