This study on the friendships of young men aimed to explore how young men perceive and experience their friendships. It also sought to understand whether and how young men negotiate issues of care and support in their friendships. The sample consisted of 10 students aged between 18 and 25 years old. The study was guided by a qualitative design. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with the young men. Thematic analysis was used as the method of data analysis. It was found that young men value elements within their friendships such as the opportunity to confide personal information, receive guidance and empathy from friends. The young men value care and support in their friendships, and these are expressed through both relational and instrumental means. While the young men acknowledge the importance of emotional support, they report that it is a precarious matter which needs to be negotiated within the friendship. / Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2011.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2008. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 415-429). Also available online in Scholars' Bank; and in ProQuest, free to University of Oregon users.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio University, August, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 141-169).

Thesis (M.A.), Psychology (Experimental)--University of Central Oklahoma, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 64-68).

Esta tese é um estudo acerca da produção de sentidos sobre a masculinidade e suas relações com a homofobia. Parte-se da premissa de que tanto a masculinidade quanto a homofobia são fenômenos construídos socialmente. A adoção do regime de amizade entre homens de orientações sexuais distintas permite problematizar as dinâmicas de gênero presentes nessa relação específica de homossociabilidade e suas interrelações com as diferentes concepções sobre masculinidade, homossexualidade e homofobia. A homofobia é compreendida sob duas perspectivas: (1) como um preconceito que gera discriminações e violências contra pessoas não heterossexuais; e (2) como um dispositivo regulador da relação entre homens, constituindo-se como um dos pilares da construção da masculinidade heterossexual. O trabalho de campo incluiu entrevistas individuais com homens heterossexuais de camadas médias das cidades do Rio de Janeiro e São Paulo que mantém relações de amizade com homens homossexuais. O conjunto dos participantes é heterogêneo no tocante à faixa etária (entre 25 e 47 anos), exercício profissional e experiências diversas de convívio com pessoas homossexuais. São analisadas as tensões, dilemas e ressignificações que ajudam a produzir diferentes sentidos para a masculinidade. Os resultados apontam para a coexistência de sentidos convencionais e liberais acerca do gênero e da sexualidade masculinos. / This dissertation is a study about the production of meanings of masculinity and its relationship to homophobia. It is based on the premise that both masculinity and homophobia are socially constructed phenomena. The formation of friendship between men of distinct sexual orientations provides a basis for problematizing the gender dynamics present in these homosocial relationships and their interrelations with different conceptions about masculinity, homosexuality, and homophobia. Homophobia is understood here in two perspectives: (1): as a form of prejudice that generates discrimination and violence against non-heterosexuals; and (2) as a regulatory tool in relationships between men, constituting one of the pillars in the construction of heterosexual masculinity. The field work for this study included individual interviews with middle-class, heterosexual men in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo who maintain friendships with homosexual men. The group of respondents is heterogeneous in terms of age (between 25 to 47 years old), profession, and life experiences with homosexuals. The analysis focuses on the tensions, dilemmas and reframing that help to produce different meanings about masculinity. The results point out the coexistence of conventional and liberal meanings about gender and sexuality.

Esta tese é um estudo acerca da produção de sentidos sobre a masculinidade e suas relações com a homofobia. Parte-se da premissa de que tanto a masculinidade quanto a homofobia são fenômenos construídos socialmente. A adoção do regime de amizade entre homens de orientações sexuais distintas permite problematizar as dinâmicas de gênero presentes nessa relação específica de homossociabilidade e suas interrelações com as diferentes concepções sobre masculinidade, homossexualidade e homofobia. A homofobia é compreendida sob duas perspectivas: (1) como um preconceito que gera discriminações e violências contra pessoas não heterossexuais; e (2) como um dispositivo regulador da relação entre homens, constituindo-se como um dos pilares da construção da masculinidade heterossexual. O trabalho de campo incluiu entrevistas individuais com homens heterossexuais de camadas médias das cidades do Rio de Janeiro e São Paulo que mantém relações de amizade com homens homossexuais. O conjunto dos participantes é heterogêneo no tocante à faixa etária (entre 25 e 47 anos), exercício profissional e experiências diversas de convívio com pessoas homossexuais. São analisadas as tensões, dilemas e ressignificações que ajudam a produzir diferentes sentidos para a masculinidade. Os resultados apontam para a coexistência de sentidos convencionais e liberais acerca do gênero e da sexualidade masculinos. / This dissertation is a study about the production of meanings of masculinity and its relationship to homophobia. It is based on the premise that both masculinity and homophobia are socially constructed phenomena. The formation of friendship between men of distinct sexual orientations provides a basis for problematizing the gender dynamics present in these homosocial relationships and their interrelations with different conceptions about masculinity, homosexuality, and homophobia. Homophobia is understood here in two perspectives: (1): as a form of prejudice that generates discrimination and violence against non-heterosexuals; and (2) as a regulatory tool in relationships between men, constituting one of the pillars in the construction of heterosexual masculinity. The field work for this study included individual interviews with middle-class, heterosexual men in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo who maintain friendships with homosexual men. The group of respondents is heterogeneous in terms of age (between 25 to 47 years old), profession, and life experiences with homosexuals. The analysis focuses on the tensions, dilemmas and reframing that help to produce different meanings about masculinity. The results point out the coexistence of conventional and liberal meanings about gender and sexuality.

My project explores the role of affective bonds of a sexual, romantic, and/or mentoring nature between male warriors in the production and maintenance of warrior identity during Japan's Warring States (1467–1603) period. Employing the notion of queer reading as a guiding principle, I examine the traces of intimate bonds between male warriors left behind in poetry, love oaths, personal correspondence, and other documents. I argue that male-male warrior intimacy played a central role, often undervalued by historians due to the conventional disciplinary emphasis on male-female marriage, in the construction of warrior retainer bands and the establishment of warrior alliances. Ranging from the purely hierarchical to the overtly sexual, relationships between warrior youths and their relatively older lords reproduced and reinforced warrior identity, through their violent oathing rituals, recreational activities, and function as a site for cultivating future trusted retainers. A young subordinate could also take advantage of the attention and trust given to him by making demands of his ostensible superior, disrupting the power asymmetries of the lord/retainer bond, or even by openly plotting a rebellion In considering warrior intimacy, the project occasions a reevaluation of the unification process that marks the Warring States period’s central narrative. I contend that the conventional interpretation, which relies on the trope of the Three Unifiers, minimizes the influence of male-male ties on events that effected significant historical change at the macro level, including the circumstances that enabled the Tokugawa clan’s ultimate victory, their vision of the social order, and the form of their sacred authority. I also explore the legacy of these bonds in the Edo period (1603–1868), repurposed as ideals of warrior masculinity and loyal retainership by both samurai attempting to find new purpose in a time of peace and commoners enjoying their newfound wealth and leisure time. Each chapter focuses on an influential warlord and his younger retainer: Ōuchi Yoshitaka (1507–1551) and Sue Harukata (1521–1555); Takeda Shingen (1521–1573) and Gensuke (dates unknown); and Date Masamune (1567–1636) and Tadano Sakujūrō Katsuyoshi (dates unknown), respectively.

Latin erotic poetry is an important genre recording surviving examples of male friendship. This report argues that a specific group of poems involving the poet and his powerful friend should be identified and studied separately as a sub-genre. Drawing examples largely from Horace, Catullus and Propertius, I argue that homosocial erotic poetry exploits the same repertoire of generic conventions as erotic poetry, but reshapes some of them for different functions. To articulate the erotic emphasis and the generic concern of this report, Eve Sedgwick’s notion of “homosocial desire” (1985) is introduced. The concept of homosociality is useful in revealing how male desire in our sub-genre has an erotic tinge and functions to foster the social bond of male friendship, but precludes the homoerotic possibility. Chapter One introduces the important terms and methodology chosen for this study, while Chapters Two to Four define and describe three distinctive features of the sub-genre. Chapter Two is devoted to showing that sermo amatorius, the “love speech” often featured in romantic relationships, can be assimilable to the structure of male homosocial relations. Chapters Three and Four examine how the sub-genre reshapes the recusatio and the topos of wealth to negotiate the tension of desire between the poets and their powerful friends. Ultimately, this report argues that male homosocial desire motivates the sub-generic conventions and thereby the seemingly disparate poems constitute a coherent sub-generic classification. / text

Zugl.: Osnabrück, Univ., Diss., 2005