314 final readings Flashcards
If One Does Not Fulfil His Duties, He Must Not Be a Man”: Masculinity, Mental Health and Resilience Amongst Sri Lankan Tamil Refugee Men in Canada - William Affleck
Looked at the experiences of Sri Lankan Tamil Refugee men in Canada specifically the interplay between war trauma, migration, concepts of masculinity, and mental health. The highly patriarchal Sri Lankan Tamil Masculinity is centered on the “Warrior Hero” ideal and the fulfillment of familial and community duties is challenged because of their experiences of war and resettlement. Not being able to fulfill prescribed masculine roles leads to a state of depleted masculinity which causes feelings of depression and social isolation. The study also identifies resilience factors, like the active rebuilding of masculine identity through increased adherence to perceived duties and responsibilities within their new context. Sri Lankan culture is deeply patriarchal with men generally holding positions of authority within the family and society. The dominant idea of masculinity is “hyper-masculine” based on the “Warrior-Hero” ideal which emphasizes physical and psychological strength, courage, leadership, self-reliance, and sexual prowess. This culture also views the greater the sacrifice a man makes for his family, community, or nation the more highly regarded as a man he is. These men reported distress from their inability to fulfill masculine roles. Experiences of being unable to protect family members from harm or provide for their basic needs led to intense feelings of failure. Men felt criticized and shamed by their wives for their perceived failures to provide and achieve in Canada.
*The cumulative effect of war trauma, migration stressors, inability to fulfill duties, and intimate criticism led to a state of “depleted masculinity”. Men essentially felt that the core attributes of their masculine identity, such as self-reliance, psychological strength, and sexual virility, and the capacity to provide and contribute, were diminished or lost entirely”.
Theorizing Black (African) Transnational Masculinities - Pasura, Dominic;Christou, Anastasia
Examines how Black African men in London negotiate and perform respectable masculinity within transnational settings, specifically the workplace, community, and family. Men often experience a loss of status as breadwinners and a disruption to their masculine identity upon migrating, forcing them to negotiate new forms of respectability in the face of changing gender relations and a neoliberal hostland context. Migration often leads to a “loss of status as breadwinners and a rupture of their sense of masculine identity. Many African migrants experience deskilling and end up in lower-end labor market jobs.
Four strategic responses to the crisis of masculinity:
Withdrawal - involves men leaving the marriage or returning to their homelands to regain their perceived privileged position. The author suggests that return migration can become a “pathway to regaining eventually future respectable masculinity”.
Accommodation - The most common strategy, where men consciously adapt and embrace transformative masculine identities, such as sharing household chores previously considered women’s work.
Resistance - Some men resist the changes in gender roles by resorting to hypermasculinity, domestic violence, drug and alcohol abuse.
Endorsement/Subversion - This involves men embracing aspects of more egalitarian gender roles while simultaneously using religious and social spaces to resist a perceived complete shift in power dynamics.
The identified strategies of withdrawal, accommodation, resistance, and endorsement/subversion demonstrate the fluidity and hybridity of masculine performances in the diaspora, shaped by changing gender relations, neoliberal pressures, and ongoing transnational engagements. The research underscores the importance of considering the specific experiences of this demographic and challenges stereotypical representations of African men.
Masculinity Challenged: Emotional Responses to State Support for Women’s Employment in the United Arab Emirates - Clingan, Lauren
Looking at the emotional responses of Emirati men to the United Arab Emirates state-led efforts to significantly expand womens employment termed “State-building feminism”. While men initially experience negative emotions like emasculation and frustration these feelings do not necessarily translate into backlash. The study looks at a process of “emotional ambivalence” where men manage and reframe these negative emotions in accordance with institutional enforced masculinity schemas: “good provider” and “modern masculinity”. Emirati masculinity is deeply rooted in the “good provider” idea and men taking full financial responsibility for families.
Emirati men experience “emotional ambivalence” fluctuating between negative feelings and the pressure to conform to the feeling rules associated with the “good provider” and modern masculinity (unperturbed by women’s employment, not frustrated with state feminism).
Four key emotional strategies used by Emirati men to reframe their initial negative emotions:
Rationalization - Using logic and reason (masculine-coded) to explain and justify shared breadwinning, often downplayed emotional impact.
Downplaying - Minimizing the financial important of women’s contributions, focusing instead on non-monetary benefits like personal fulfillment for women or marital harmony,
Rearticulation - Expressing grievances related to state-building feminism in moral terms that align with the state’s discourse of progress, equality, and rights, often framing frustration as concern for “balance” or other forms of inequality.
Displacement - Attributing negative feelings and resistance to women’s employment to other, often more marginalized, groups of men thereby positioning themselves as modern and progressive.
The Model Man: Asian American Masculinity and Shifting Desire - Kelly Chong, Nadia Kim
The article examines how US born/raised middle class heterosexual Asian American men are utilizing a new form of masculinity, termed “the model man” to navigate and challenge negative stereotypes and improve their romantic desirability in relation to white women. “Model Man” is a hybrid construction blending elements of White hegemonic masculinity and model minority based “Asian” masculinity. This masculinity integrates traits associated with the model minority (intelligence, hard work, devotion to family) with aspects of White hegemonic masculinity (confidence, social skills, attractiveness). The study highlights the ongoing struggle of Asian American men with a “double masculine /racial consciousness” where they measure themselves against white hegemonic standards while seeking an authentic sense of self.
“The Model Man” represents a strategic adaptation by Asian American men to negotiate racial stereotypes and improve their romantic standing. While this strategy presents opportunities for challenging negative portrayals and ascending the hierarchy of desire, it is also fraught with contradictions and the potential for reinforcing harmful stereotypes and existing power imbalances. Ultimately, the authors suggest that this dynamic and hybrid form of masculinity may contribute to a broader transformation of hegemonic masculinity in the United States, albeit with ongoing complexities and potential pitfalls.
Indigenous Men and Masculinities: Legacies, Identities, Regeneration - Diné Masculinities, Relationships, Colonization, and Regenerating an Egalitarian Way of life - Lloyd Lee/Robert Alexander Innes/Kim Anderson
Explores traditional Diné understandings of gender roles and relationships, the impact of colonization on these dynamics, contemporary Diné male perspectives on these changes, and the potential pathways for regenerating a more egalitarian way of life between Diné men and women. Emphasizes the complementary nature of male and female, the egalitarian pre-colonial structure, the disruptive effects of colonization on traditional gender roles and relationships, and the contemporary concerns of Dine men regarding the loss of cultural teachings and its impact on relationships. Dine men and women lived in an egalitarian and autonomous relationship with integrated work roles and equally valued economic contributions. Gender equity was a critical aspect of social life.
Colonization has undeniably transformed Diné masculinities and relationships, leading to contemporary challenges and concerns about the loss of cultural values and egalitarian principles. However, the chapter posits that by focusing on strengthening families, increasing female representation in politics, revitalizing cultural ceremonies for boys, and fostering positive male role models, the Diné people can work towards regenerating a more equitable and harmonious way of life grounded in their foundational cultural teachings. The interviewed Diné men recognize the changes but also hold the potential to embody and promote the values of responsibility, respect, knowledge, and wellness that are central to Diné identity.
How Environmental Decline Restructures Indigenous Gender Practices: What happens to Karuk Masculinity When There are No Fish - Kari Marie, Norgaard, Reed, Ron, Bacon
This article examines the profound impacts of environmental degradation, specifically the decline of salmon populations in the Klamath River, on the gender identities and practices of the Karuk Tribe in northern California. Karuk men’s masculinity is deeply intertwined with their role as fishermen, providing salmon for their families and community, a practice imbued with cultural, ecological, and spiritual significance. The authors argue that the decline of salmon, a direct result of “colonial ecological violence” stemming from non-Native management policies, not only affects food security and social connections but also undermines traditional Karuk masculinity and symbolizes cultural genocide. The study highlights how Karuk men experience anger, grief, guilt, and shame due to their inability to fulfill these roles and explores how some are restructuring their identities through environmental activism and fishery science, thus adapting traditional responsibilities to new contexts as a form of resistance against ongoing colonialism and racism. The authors call for a decolonized sociology that recognizes the crucial role of ecological relationships in shaping gender within Indigenous communities and understands environmental degradation as a form of gendered and racialized colonial violence.
Fishing is a valued social role for adult men and an informal rite of passage for young men, with specific sites and responsibilities passed down through families.
There’s a great deal of pride being able to deliver fish to people. It connects you to the earth, it connects you to pananahouikum, the people that walk before us.”). This inability undermines their traditional masculine roles as providers and community contributors, affecting their self-concept and social standing.
Survival Narratives: Constructing an Intersectional Masculinity through stories of the rural/urban divide - Braden Leap
Men in predominantly white and heterosexual rural communities construct and reinforce an ideal of intersectional rural masculinity defined by race,class, and sexuality through survival narratives. By positioning themselves as “heroes” who safely navigate these urban dangers. Define and achieve what they consider a respectable white, working to middle class, heterosexual rural masculinity, simultaneously drawing a representational wedge between rural and urban spaces. The paper argues for the necessity of explicitly considering the intersections of gender, race, class, and sexuality alongside the perceived divisions between rural and urban contexts, to understand the construction of masculinities in rural communities facing socioeconomic transformations.
The central theme is how an ideal of rural masculinity is actively constructed and performed through narratives. This ideal is not monolithic but is shaped by the intersection of gender with race (whiteness), class (working to middle class occupations), and sexuality (heterosexuality).
“By focusing on how men effectively built an intersectional masculinity through stories that drove a represen-tational wedge between rural and urban spaces, I stress the need to consider the divergent meanings applied to rural and urban con-texts in addition to the material links across these spaces.”
It highlights how seemingly innocuous everyday conversations can serve as powerful tools for defining in-group identity by creating and reinforcing negative stereotypes of urban “others” based on race, class, and sexuality.
Seasonal Masculinities: The Seasonal Contingencies of Doing Gender - Braden Leap
Examines how men in a rural Missouri community perform masculinity differently throughout the year. He introduces the concept of “seasonal masculinities” to highlight how these elements converge to shape how gender is “done” in this specific context. Arguers that masculinities in the small town are not static but dynamically performed and shaped by changing seasons. Areas demonstrating how mens interactions with plants, animals, and the environment which vary across seasons are integral to their construction of masculinity. Masculinity is tied differently with different seasons. For example in spring there is more of a focus on fishing and turkey hunting. Masculinity is displayed through participation in these activities, storytelling, and homosocial joking that reinforces norms. In summer there is an emphasis in flathead fishing and embodying masculinity through sweat and tans as markers of outdoors labor. Because physical, outdoors work is often associated with rural masculinity, men regularly drew attention to the degree to which their and others bodies were sweaty and/or tan tio delineate the boundaries of respectable masculinity. In the fall duck and deer hunting becomes central.
Leap’s article provides a compelling analysis of how masculinities are fluid and context-dependent, shaped significantly by seasonal changes, interactions with the nonhuman world, and institutional regulations within a rural Missouri community. The concept of “seasonal masculinities” offers a valuable framework for understanding the intricate relationships between gender, environment, and time. The research highlights the importance of moving beyond human-centric and static understandings of gender and considering the dynamic interplay of social and ecological factors. Furthermore, it raises important questions about the potential impacts of environmental change on gender performance and identity in the future.
So People Know I’m a Sikh: Narratives of Sikh Masculinity in Contemporary Britain - Santokh Singh Gill
Explores how second and third-generation British-born Sikh men identify with their faith and construct their masculine identities in postcolonial Britain. Sikh men utilize and interpret Sikh symbols, particularly the turban and uncut hair, to navigate their faith and gender in diverse ways.
The article emphasizes that there isn’t a singular way to be a Sikh man in contemporary Britain. Young men negotiate their identities in diverse ways, influenced by factors such as family life, gender, geographical location, and sexual orientation.
Despite this multiplicity, there is a “collectively understood idea of what an ‘ideal’ gendered Sikh masculinity” is.
Drawing on Connell and Messerschmidt’s concept of hegemonic masculinity, the article suggests that a specific “British Sikh hegemonic masculinity” exists, partly informed by the Khalsa discourse.
This ideal masculinity seeks to shape the performance of masculinity within the community and can confer male privilege.
However, in broader British society, these same performances of masculinity (e.g., wearing a turban) may also signify a “more marginalised masculinity vis a vis other dominant hegemonic forms.”
The Traffic in Hierarchy: Masculinity and its Others in Buddhist Burma - Ward Keeler
Focusing on the interplay between ideals of autonomy and attachment, productivity and exchange, and the crucial role of sexuality and its renunciation in shaping masculine prestige, particularly in the context of monastic life. The text argues that while there are multiple idealized forms of masculinity, they are often linked by the concept of power, with the ascetic ideal emphasizing power over the self and achieving autonomy holding the highest prestige.
There is a real expectation for Burman men to provide materially for their families, leading to frustration due to lack of work in Burma and a desire to seek employment abroad. Fulfilling the masculine ideal often requires productive activity that benefits dependents, ideally done with apparent ease and without seeming selfish.
Monks are not expected to engage in material productivity and must avoid appearing greedy. While they might acquire money through sermons or granted assets, this generates ambivalence among lay supporters due to Buddhist strictures against monks handling money.
The prohibition on sexual activity is the most emphasized rule for monks, even more so in common discourse than the prohibition on murder.
While Connell’s “hegemonic masculinity” might suggest a single dominant ideal, Burman masculinity presents two apparently different idealized forms: the active, productive lay male and the remote, ascetic monk.
The ascetic ideal of the monk enjoys greater honor, potentially making it the “hegemonic” view in terms of prestige. However, failing to adhere to this ideal does not necessarily discredit a lay male.
Men are Lost. Here’s a map out of the Wilderness - Christine Emba
Deindustrialization, automation, free trade, and peacetime have altered the labor market, diminishing the demand for traditional male physical labor and favoring soft skills and academic credentials. Women are excelling in education and the workplace, challenging the traditional “provider” model of masculinity. There has been a relative absence of a clear and positive vision for modern masculinity. The decline of father figures and male authority figures in boys’ lives is identified as a significant contributing factor to the crisis. Men now receive about 74 bachelor’s degrees for every 100 awarded to women,” and a significant increase in women out-earning or earning the same as their partners.
The provided text outlines a compelling argument for a contemporary crisis in masculinity, driven by significant societal and economic changes. The lack of a clear and positive vision for modern manhood has created a vacuum that right-wing influencers have exploited, often promoting harmful ideologies. The mainstream’s reluctance to engage in nuanced discussions about men’s challenges has further exacerbated the issue. The author argues for the urgent need to develop a new, pro-social understanding of masculinity that acknowledges male distinctiveness, builds upon valuable traditional traits, and provides young men with positive role models and guidance for navigating the complexities of the 21st century. Failure to address this crisis risks further radicalization and negative social outcomes.
A Silent Crisis in men’s health gets worse - Parker-Pope, Tara Gilbert
The provided text highlights a significant and often overlooked “silent crisis” in men’s health, characterized by a growing longevity gap between men and women globally. Despite societal advantages, men face a higher risk of death at every stage of life, leading to shorter lifespans.The central theme is the widening disparity in life expectancy between men and women. In the US, the gap reached 5.9 years in 2021 (79.1 for women vs. 73.2 for men), the largest in a quarter-century.
The source provides stark statistics demonstrating higher male mortality rates for numerous conditions:
COVID-19: Age-adjusted death rate of 140 per 100,000 for males vs. 87.7 per 100,000 for females.
Diabetes: Death rates of 31.2 per 100,000 for men vs. 19.5 per 100,000 for women.
Cancer: Mortality rate of 189.5 per 100,000 for men vs. 135.7 per 100,000 for women (with Black men facing the highest rates).
Suicide: Men die by suicide nearly four times more often than women.
Accidents: Men account for a significantly higher percentage of deaths in motor vehicle crashes, pedestrian incidents, and bicycle/motorcycle accidents.
Infant and Teen Mortality: Mortality rates are also higher for boys in infancy and for teenage boys (ages 10-19).
Risky Behaviors:Men are more likely to engage in drug and alcohol use, smoking, and reckless driving.
adult men visit doctors significantly less frequently than women.
The provided text clearly outlines a significant and multifaceted crisis in men’s health, evidenced by a growing longevity gap and higher mortality rates across numerous diseases and causes of death. This disparity is driven by a complex interplay of biological, cultural, and behavioral factors, compounded by the underutilization of healthcare services by men and a historical lack of focused research and advocacy. Addressing this “silent crisis” requires a shift in perspective, increased research funding, the development of targeted healthcare pathways for men, and a dismantling of cultural barriers that prevent men from seeking care. Ultimately, prioritizing men’s health will not only benefit men themselves but also contribute to healthier families and communities.
