Negotiating Hegemonic Masculinity: Imaginary ... - UCSB Linguistics

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Abstract In this paper we provide a critical analysis of the concept of hegemonic masculinity. We argue that although this concept embodies important theoretical insights, it is insufficiently developed as it stands to enable us to understand how men position themselves as gendered beings. In particular it offers a vague and imprecise account of the social psychological reproduction of male identities. We outline an alternative critical discursive psychology of masculinity. Drawing on data from interviews with a sample of men from a range of ages and from diverse occupational backgrounds, we delineate three distinctive, yet related, procedures or psycho-discursive practices, through which men construct themselves as masculine. The political implications of these discursive practices, as well as the broader implications of treating the psychological process of identification as form of discursive accomplishment, are also discussed. KEYWORDS: male identity, hegemonic masculinity, identification, gender categories, the imaginary, discourse analysis, discursive practice, discursive psychology. 2
This paper focuses on the discursive strategies involved in negotiating membership of gender categories. Specifically, we are interested in how men position themselves in relation to conventional notions of the masculine. How do men take on the social identity of 'being a man' as they talk, and what are the implications of the typical discursive paths they follow? We concentrate on responses to interview questions such as "Would you describe yourself as a masculine man?" and "Are there moments in everyday life when you feel more masculine than at other times?", and on men's responses to magazine photographs of possible role models. To help make sense of these moments of self-assessment and identification, we introduce notions of 'imaginary positions' and 'psycho-discursive practices' and initiate a dialogue with the feminist sociology of masculinity developed by Robert Connell and his colleagues (Carrigan et al., 1985; Connell, 1987; 1995). According to Connell, the task of 'being a man' involves taking on and negotiating 'hegemonic masculinity'. Men's identity strategies are constituted through their complicit or resistant stance to prescribed dominant masculine styles. Connell's (1987) analysis of this process of identification is an anti-essentialist one. He argues that masculine characters are not given. Rather, a range of possible styles and personae emerge from the gender regimes found in different cultures and historical periods. Among the possible variety of ways of being masculine, however, some become 'winning styles' and it is these with which men must engage. Connell's conception of hegemony draws on Gramsci's (1971) depiction of the wars of position and manoeuvre characteristic of social formations. <strong>Hegemonic</strong> ideologies preserve, legitimate and naturalise the interests of the powerful - marginalising and subordinating the claims of other groups. Hegemony is not automatic, however, but involves contest and constant struggle. <strong>Hegemonic</strong> masculinity, Connell argues, is centrally connected to the subordination of women. It is a way of being masculine 3
Page 1: Negotiating Hegemonic Masculinity:
Page 5 and 6: prescriptive social norms which mak
Page 7 and 8: een common-place in recent years to
Page 9 and 10: In this paper we will not be concer
Page 11 and 12: particular case that equalled mine
Page 13 and 14: punching people (.) not only head-b
Page 15 and 16: eady-made, always social first and
Page 17 and 18: NIGEL: Okay (.) right so (.) is it
Page 19 and 20: NIGEL: So then would you argue that
Page 21 and 22: (NIGEL: Hmm) and certainly that one
Page 23 and 24: people felt that that implies somet
Page 25 and 26: DAVE: In the end (.) yes (.) um (.)
Page 27 and 28: shown (.) erm really just a strong
Page 29 and 30: complicit with hegemonic masculinit
Page 31 and 32: too narrow, therefore, when we try
Page 33 and 34: These procedures are a particular c
Page 35 and 36: Appendix A Six images of men were t
Page 37 and 38: References Antaki, C. (ed) (1988) A
Page 39 and 40: Changing the Subject: Psychology, S
Page 41: Author Biographies Margaret Wethere

Negotiating Hegemonic Masculinity: Imaginary ... - UCSB Linguistics

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?