After many decades in which femininity, ‘female experience,’ and the social-political situation of women have formed the rightful foci of research, the male psyche and self have, at least since the 1980s, begun to receive attention in the US and UK academy. However, in most European countries masculinity studies are still the exception, and in comparison to the importance of gender studies they represent a minority interest in the field of gender research worldwide. Due to the relative lack of communication and exchange among the various disciplines dealing with masculinity, no consensus has been reached about the role that biological determinism, anthropological, evolutionary, and socio-historical factors, and representations as well as images of masculinity circulating in the cultural imaginary actually play in the construction of masculinity. Thus masculinity is still a highly problematic and controversial field of study that is located at the intersection of the humanities and the arts, the social sciences and natural science.
This chapter begins by critically taking stock of the images of masculinity presented in the media in the early twenty-first century; it then offers a short survey of current approaches to and concepts in masculinity studies, ranging from a survey of US American perspectives and Raewyn Connell’s concept of hegemonic masculinity to recent European approaches and theories. This is followed by a discussion of topics that are still unresolved by masculinity studies, such as the notion and importance of the body, female masculinities, and the question of whether there is something ‘queer’ about or within masculinity as such. In the conclusion, the chapter presents complementary, and up until now neglected, perspectives on masculinity and argues for rethinking masculinity with the help of concepts taken from intersectional, trans-, and interdisciplinary theories, the new field of comparative masculinity studies, and transgender and intersex studies.
Masculinity studies as well as gender, transgender, queer, and intersex studies interest me because they ultimately revolve around more complex understandings of identity and subjectivity. Because of their inherent power to blur and question binaries, masculinity and sexuality studies are intimately linked to questions of epistemology (“What can we know?”) and insurgent forms of knowledge (“What are we allowed to know?”), as well as to the distribution of power and the marginalization of minorities within societies.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:DRESDEN/oai:qucosa:de:qucosa:71720 |
| Date | 14 September 2020 |
| Creators | Horlacher, Stefan |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis Group |
| Source Sets | Hochschulschriftenserver (HSSS) der SLUB Dresden |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersion, doc-type:bookPart, info:eu-repo/semantics/bookPart, doc-type:Text |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
| Relation | 978-1-138-66588-0, 978-1-315-61964-4, 10.4324/9781315619644 |
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