The purpose of this study is to examine how, and in what ways, young men aged 20-25 are affected by the body ideals that prevail on social media and this has been explored by interviewing eight young men. The results have been analyzed using Raewyn Connells theory of hegemonic masculinity and Erving Goffmans concepts of front and back stage and self-stigma.   The results show that social media can be understood as a front stage where certain norms and ideals are constructed mainly by influencers. In the front stage images of an idealized body characterized by muscles and low body fat are published. Influencers embody the hegemonic body ideal on social media and this study identified two different practices after exposure to such pictures, namely striving for the body ideal or experiencing body dissatisfaction. Men who feel that they do not live up to the norm risk internalizing the negative body image that he believes society has about his body type, which can be understood as self-stigmatization.   Previous research has mainly been conducted on girls and women. This study contributes valuable knowledge that men are aware of what characterizes a desirable body and how this is presented in social media as well as the ways in which they are influenced by body ideals.

Workplace violence is reported to be on the increase, and within the South African Police Service, the inherently stressful nature of policing leads to high rates of suicide and violent behaviour. Contemporary investigations of workplace violence reveal epistemological, methodological and theoretical biases towards positivistic, rational-empirical approaches resulting in partial understandings and limited scope. This study aimed to qualitatively explore workplace violence as a socially embedded act. In-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with a primary participant and three others directly related to him in order to supplement existing understandings from a social constructionist perspective. Discourse analysis allowed for discovery of socio-historically located discursive networks, while an ethnographic or empathic technique was used to gain insight into the life worlds of participants. Discourses of organisational negligence, betrayal and concurrent discourses of group solidarity and cohesion and organisational culpability reveal a reliance on external locus of control and avoidance coping. Discourses of absolution due to another‟s involvement, retribution, justice, and innocence perverted by a stronger agency relied on strategies of justification, denial, disclaimer, excuse or apology to negotiate positive participant identities. Discourses of masculinity allowed for a corroboration, justification and maintenance of male violence in general, and social discourses of female subjugation and commodification were used as a means to deflect responsibility and as justifications for actions of violence towards women. Inherent in all discourses was a deep socially and historically embedded conception that facilitates violent action as an expression of maleness in all spheres of life. From an ethnographic or empathic perspective, participants‟ world views were polarised around masculinity and femininity, suggesting that an ability to remain unemotional in situations of turmoil is a highly-prized characteristic of maleness, especially in a hypermasculine setting such as the police. The implicit and explicit approbation for the expression of masculine stoicism, as opposed to feminine or „weaker‟ emotions, causes recruits to experience isolation and shame if unable to face traumatic situations with the requisite dispassion, leading to negative coping mechanisms, depression, and suicide or violence. The conclusion can be drawn that prevention of violence relies on extrication of the concept of violence from masculinity at ideological, cultural and social levels within the SAPS, and the concurrent reduction in justificatory discourses reliant on an external locus of control. This has considerable implications, including the radical transformation of the organisation through the development of a clear vision of the future that can be supported by management, members and the community; the empowerment of employees through active participation in decisions and development of skills through training; rigorous modification of the practices that generate inequitable social conditions; and the revolution of cultural practices that venerate and enforce gendered inequalities. / Psychology / D. Litt. et Phil. (Consulting Psychology)

This thesis is an ethnographic study of two local institutions within the community of Fallin which explores how twenty-four men understand, maintain and reproduce community and belonging. Throughout, the thesis suggests that the past acts as a stable reference point for the men to deal with social change. The Bowling Club and the Pub are suggested as being sanctuaries for this type of collective remembering to take place as they still reflect a mode of life associated with the past. It is argued that imagined histories were recollected, recreated and maintained through the power of storytelling and sharing experiences to the younger generations or outsiders (Blenkinsopp, 2012; Homans, 1974). This thesis suggests that perceived threats from outsiders only serve to further galvanise the central values of their community (Cohen, 1985; Homans, 1974). Chapter Two provides a review of the literature and theoretical concepts which sets out the academic foundations of this thesis. The work of Bourdieu shapes the theoretical, methodological and reflexive nature of this project. Chapter Three introduces the ethnographic method which gives this study an in-depth account of the narratives and identities of the men in this project. Chapter Four outlines the reflexive nature of the author’s relationship with the community, the Bowling Club and The Goth and how this affects the interpretations presented in this thesis. Chapter Five provides the reader with descriptive and demographic data of the community of Fallin and the research sites. Chapters Six and Seven analyse the data and directly answer the research question through interpreting interview data and using field notes. Concluding in Chapter Eight, this thesis suggests that the version of community that the men helped to reproduce and maintain is strongly associated with a historical working-class mode of life. This thesis suggests that these local institutions reproduce historical notions of community and belonging through outside forces and incomers challenging this traditional mode of life. Of particular interest is how the younger men in the study often adopt this shared habitus and learn how to be a man through regular interactions in The Goth and the Bowling Club.

Thèse numérisée par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal.

Ce projet de thèse explore les identités culturelles de la Renaissance de Harlem, aussi bien que les croisements épistémologiques et les agentivités littéraires et artistiques de cette période. Dans un premier temps, le projet s’intéresse à mettre en évidence les discours et les pratiques épistémiques qui traversèrent la Renaissance de Harlem lors de son débout. Notamment, les parrains et activistes de la Renaissance (Du Bois, Locke) sont étudiés dans leur rapport intellectuel avec le discours nationaliste américain; cet étude est situé dans le contexte d'urbanisation et réglementation des corps et des espaces tel qu'il eut lieu à New York au début du XX siècle, époque de la Grande Migration des noirs du Sud au Nord des États Unis. L'analyse se complexifie en considérant comment les pratiques artistiques mais aussi ludiques de Harlem s'approprient des identités genrées et racisées produites par le pouvoir étatique national, et comment les modernistes blanc.hes s'insèrent dans ces processus à niveau épistémique, discursif et poétique. Deuxièmement, le projet engage une lecture approfondie de l’œuvre de l'écrivain noir jamaïcain Claude McKay. Les écritures de McKay permettent de dégager des axes thématiques révélatrices des préoccupations communes aux parrains de la Renaissance: notamment le rapport à la performance des identitées racisées et gendrées dans les discours politiques et propagandistes nationalistes du début du XX siècle. D’ailleurs, les écrits de McKay dépassent la formalisation idéaliste du “black folk” (Du Bois) portée par les élites culturelles de la Renaissance de Harlem, pour se situer sur un terrain plus matériel et existentiel. A partir du style dialogique des écrits de McKay, et de leur rapport aux écritures nationalistes européennes, le projet réfléchit donc à la notion d’intersubjectivité, alors que la littérarité des ouvrages de la Renaissance de Harlem est mise en avant et étudiée en relation aux subjectivités noires et blanches qui s’affrontent ou rencontrent dans le panorama national de l’époque. Troisièmement, le style et les figures culturelles et poétiques déployées dans la fiction de McKay guident l’étude des oeuvres signées par Wallace Thurman, Richard Bruce Nugent, Nella Larsen, aussi bien qu’une discussion des ouvrages par des auteurs et autrices blanches. Ici, la question méthodologique de la mort de l’auteur, mise à l'épreuve des concepts de race et de genre, sera ultérieurement approfondie afin de dégager un éventail d’identités culturelles le plus vaste et riche possible, et d’interroger les rapports de pouvoir liés à la performance de ces identités dans les arts et la littérature de l'époque. / This research project explores the cultural identities and the literary and artistic agencies of the Harlem Renaissance. Firstly, discourses and epistemological practices that traversed the Harlem Renaissance are highlighted in a short intellectual genealogy of the movement. In particular, the relationship of the godfathers of the Harlem Renaissance (W.E.B. Du Bois, Alain Locke) to the American nationalist discourse is given front stage. Such relationship is considered on the background of early-XX-century New York urbanization and regulamentation of bodies and spaces, as the Great Migration of black Americans from the South to the North was taking place. The analysis is complexified by considerations on how, in Harlem, artistic and recreational practices appropriated gendered and racialized identities generated by national state power; also, white modernists' epistemic, discursive and poetic participation to the process is explored. Successively, the research project engages with the reading of black Jamaican author Claude McKay’s literary works. McKay’s writings allow us to trace some thematic axes that show commonalities with the Renaissance godfathers’ concerns, notably in relation to the performance of raced and gendered identities in political and propagandistic discourses of the beginning of the XX century. Yet, it appears that McKay’s writings exceed the idealist formalization of the “black folk” (Du Bois) supported by the cultural elites of the Renaissance, to occupy a ground which privileges a material and existential outlook. Elaborating from the dialogism that characterizes McKay’s writings, and from their relation to European nationalist fictions, the thesis reflects on the notion of intersubjectivity as the literariness of the Harlem Renaissance works is considered and put in relation to black and white subjectivities that clash or meet on the national panorama of the time. Thirdly, the style and cultural figures that appear in the McKay’s fiction provide some guidelines to the study of the works by black writers Wallace Thurman, Richard Bruce Nugent, Nella Larsen, as well as of the works by white writers such as Carl Van Vetchen. Contextually, the methodological question of the death of the author will be further explored in order to extricate a vast and complex specter of cultural identities, and to question power relations linked to the performance of such identities in the arts and writings of the time.

This research investigated the manner in which a group of African male students perceive and construct gender equality in the work place. A sample of 19 African male students within the University of Witwatersrand student population was used. The participants were aged between 19 and 30 years. This specific age range was chosen on the grounds that most students in this age range would have already formed specific views regarding gender equality. Individual and focus group interviews were the main methods of data collection; both types of interviews were conducted with this varied sample of African male students. The study was qualitative in nature and it employed thematic content analysis as a method of data analysis. Key themes were identified and discussed.The results indicated the contradictory nature of how men understand and accept equality. This was evident in how men tried to curb and undermine the empowerment of women in a manner that helped to advance the agenda of men. The participants used a varied number of strategies to try and argue for male power and control. These strategies were utilised as deemed contextually relevant by the men. This was especially relevant in how men were seen to negotiate their roles within the workplace in a manner that would align or help them be seen to be in favour of equal opportunities in the workplace yet in private and within their homes they were seemingly against the whole notion altogether.

À partir d'une enquête par observation participante conduite au sein d’une grande entreprise de distribution, du siège social aux entrepôts, ce travail a pour objectif d’étudier la construction sociale des masculinités au et par le travail. L’histoire de Transfrilog est imprégnée d’une culture familiale forgée autour du management paternalisme des autodidactes du transport. Aujourd’hui devenu les cadres dirigeants de l’entreprise, la professionnalisation du secteur les oblige désormais à composer avec les jeunes diplômés issus des formations logistiques dont le style de management se détache des formes traditionnelles d’expression de la masculinité et de l’autorité. Dans ces conditions, comment la masculinité perpétue-t-elle son hégémonie ? La thèse s’attache à montrer que la capacité de la masculinité hégémonique à se (re)produire tient à son processus d’hybridation. La thèse montre par ailleurs la coexistence d’une pluralité de masculinités hégémoniques spécifiques à chaque filière (transport, logistique, fonctions supports) et qui sont hiérarchisées entre elles. Pour autant, la mobilisation autour d’un idéal viril propre aux injonctions productivistes et à l’intensification des tâches propose un référentiel commun aux hommes, au-delà des clivages de classe, de race et des différents métiers de la chaîne logistique. Aussi, et malgré la volonté de certains dirigeants d’amorcer une réflexion sur l’égalité professionnelle, l’hybridité de la masculinité hégémonique n’interroge qu’à la marge une répartition genrée des emplois et l’inégale échelle de valeur entre les différentes formes de masculinités. / From a participatory observation survey conducted in a logistics company, from head office to warehouses, this work aims to study the social construction of masculinities at and through work. The history of Transfrilog was built through a family culture forged around the paternalistic management of self-taught employees. Today, having become the company's senior executives, the professionalization of the sector now compels them to deal with young graduates from supply chain training whose management style stands out from the traditional forms of expression of masculinity and authority. In these conditions, how does masculinity perpetuates its hegemony? The thesis aims to show that the capacity of hegemonic masculinity to (re)produce itself is due to a process of hybridization. The thesis also shows the coexistence of a plurality of hegemonic masculinities specific to each sector (transport, logistics, support functions) and which are hierarchized between themselves. However, the mobilization around a virile ideal specific to the productive injunctions and to the intensification of the tasks proposes a common reference to men, beyond divisions of class, race and different trades of the logistic chain. Also, and despite the desire of some leaders to initiate a reflection on professional equality, the hybridity of hegemonic masculinity asks only marginally a gendered distribution of jobs and the unequal scale of value between different forms of masculinities.

Studiens syfte var att öka förståelsen för hur maskuliniteter och femininiteter kan iscensättas inom gruppen män. Detta gjordes under hashtagen pappaledig på det sociala nätverket Instagram. Variationer och mönster undersöktes i relation till könsstereotypa normer. En semiotisk bild- och textanalys användes för att kunna besvara studiens syfte och frågeställningar. Begreppen maskuliniteter och femininiteter användes som en integrerad analysenhet i syfte att frångå könsdikotomi.  Studiens huvudresultat visade att majoriteten av männens bilder kunde tolkas maskulina medan texterna uppvisade en mer feminin eller mixad karaktär. I relation till Connells teori om hegemonisk maskulinitet tycks de hegemoniska idealen reproduceras i de hårdare och mindre uttrycksfulla bilderna medan en mjukare och mer emotionell karaktär kunde ses i bildtexterna. Texternas mer omhändertagande prägel kunde relateras till ett modernt faderskap. / The aim of the study was to increase understanding of how masculinities and femininities exhibit within a group of men. This was done in the hashtag #pappaledig on the social network Instagram. Variations and patterns were examined in relation to gender stereotyped norms. A semiotic image- and text analysis was used to answer the study's purpose and questions. The terms masculinities and femininities were used as an integrated analysis unit for the purpose of departing from sex dichotomy. The main results of the study showed that the majority of men's images could be interpreted masculine while the texts showed a more feminine or mixed character. In relation to Connell's theory of hegemonic masculinity, the hegemonic ideals appear to be reproduced in the tougher and less expressive images while a softer and more emotional character could be seen in the captions. The more disposal character of the texts could be related to modern paternity.

Surgiram nas últimas décadas muitos movimentos sociais que têm questionado os padrões estabelecidos pelo sistema patriarcal, levando-nos a discussão em torno das novas masculinidades e feminilidades, da relação entre os gêneros, da crise do masculino e da promoção das mulheres. Em Cabo Verde, essas temáticas também têm sido constantemente discutidas por toda a sociedade, encontrando na literatura espaço para representação de vários modelos de masculino e feminino. A partir da análise de três obras ficcionais: Estátuas de Sal (2003), de Evel Rocha, Estórias de dentro de casa (1998), de Germano Almeida, e Mornas eram as noites (1994), de Dina Salústio, com base num corpus teórico diversificado e interdisciplinar, que trata de temas como a construção social da masculinidade, a dominação masculina, as relações entre o masculino e feminino, entre outros, além de documentos e relatórios que contextualizam a situação do país, buscaremos demonstrar como o discurso literário tem expressado essas novas masculinidades e feminilidades, desde estruturas mais tradicionais a novas possibilidades para os gêneros e caminhos possíveis para as transformações das relações. / Many social movements have emerged in recent decades which have questioned standards set by the patriarchal system, leading us into a discussion around new masculinities and femininities, the relation between genders, the crisis of the masculine and the advancement of women. In Cape Verde, these themes have constantly been discussed by society, finding in literature a space for the representation of masculine and feminine models. From the analysis of three fictional works, Estátuas de Sal (2003) by Evel Rocha, Estórias de dentro de casa (1998) by Germano Almeida, and Mornas eram as noites (1994) by Dina Salústio and based on a diverse theoretical and interdisciplinary corpus that deals with themes such as the social construction of masculinity, male domination, the relationship between male and female, among others, besides documents and reports that contextualize the situation of the country, our work aims at presenting the way in which the literary discourse has expressed these new masculinities and femininities, ranging from the more traditional structures to new possibilities for genders and possible paths towards transforming these relations.

Surgiram nas últimas décadas muitos movimentos sociais que têm questionado os padrões estabelecidos pelo sistema patriarcal, levando-nos a discussão em torno das novas masculinidades e feminilidades, da relação entre os gêneros, da crise do masculino e da promoção das mulheres. Em Cabo Verde, essas temáticas também têm sido constantemente discutidas por toda a sociedade, encontrando na literatura espaço para representação de vários modelos de masculino e feminino. A partir da análise de três obras ficcionais: Estátuas de Sal (2003), de Evel Rocha, Estórias de dentro de casa (1998), de Germano Almeida, e Mornas eram as noites (1994), de Dina Salústio, com base num corpus teórico diversificado e interdisciplinar, que trata de temas como a construção social da masculinidade, a dominação masculina, as relações entre o masculino e feminino, entre outros, além de documentos e relatórios que contextualizam a situação do país, buscaremos demonstrar como o discurso literário tem expressado essas novas masculinidades e feminilidades, desde estruturas mais tradicionais a novas possibilidades para os gêneros e caminhos possíveis para as transformações das relações. / Many social movements have emerged in recent decades which have questioned standards set by the patriarchal system, leading us into a discussion around new masculinities and femininities, the relation between genders, the crisis of the masculine and the advancement of women. In Cape Verde, these themes have constantly been discussed by society, finding in literature a space for the representation of masculine and feminine models. From the analysis of three fictional works, Estátuas de Sal (2003) by Evel Rocha, Estórias de dentro de casa (1998) by Germano Almeida, and Mornas eram as noites (1994) by Dina Salústio and based on a diverse theoretical and interdisciplinary corpus that deals with themes such as the social construction of masculinity, male domination, the relationship between male and female, among others, besides documents and reports that contextualize the situation of the country, our work aims at presenting the way in which the literary discourse has expressed these new masculinities and femininities, ranging from the more traditional structures to new possibilities for genders and possible paths towards transforming these relations.