Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons^™

“We Need To Figure Out Who We Are”: Reframing Manhood In An Online Discussion Forum, Tomas Sanjuan Jr.

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, I explore the potential of online communities in negotiating alternative forms of “doing” masculinity. I focus on the /r/bropill which is hosted on Reddit – home to thousands of active discussion forums called subreddits. I argue that the members of /r/bropill subreddit are attempting to redefine what it means to live your life not only as a man but as a “good man.” Using a purposive sample, I analyzed 24 discussions which totaled 1325 posts (n = 1325). I conducted a qualitative textual analysis of the original posts and comments inspired by grounded theory. My findings reveal …

Cover Guys: Masculinity, Sexuality, And Representations Of Men's Bodies In Popular Magazines For Men, Trenton M. Haltom

Department of Sociology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Scant research puts magazines into conversation with sociological theories of masculinity or sexuality. Yet, magazines have long projected idealized images of masculinities, the male body, and men’s sexuality. In this dissertation, I examine representations of men in popular magazines, highlighting the multifaceted ways magazines have marketed masculinity and the sexualization of men.

Using an explanatory sequential mixed method content analysis, I analyze 38 years (1980–2018; N=2,750) of magazine covers from GQ (n=516), Men’s Health (n=277), and Sports Illustrated (n=1,671). Each cover was coded using a standardized coding form developed for this dissertation. The coding …

Eat Like A White Man: Meat-Eating, Masculinity, And Neo-Colonialism, Saphronia Carson

The Pegasus Review: UCF Undergraduate Research Journal

Gender Studies scholarship has argued that one significant way contemporary hegemonic masculinities are constructed and reinforced is through meat consumption. Conversely, plant-based diets such as veganism and vegetarianism are considered feminine. This paper builds on an emerging body of research that traces this gendering of meat and plant-based diets to British colonialism in India. Drawing on ecofeminist and postcolonial theory, it shows how British colonizers feminized Indian dietary cultures, specifically Hindu vegetarian diets, to reinforce their own sense of masculinity. Through critical analyses of marketing and media, it demonstrates how these colonial gendered food images continue to populate contemporary imaginations. …

A Reason For The Rampage: Aggrieved Entitlement And White Masculinities, Amira Silverman

Sociology Senior Seminar Papers

As mass shootings events continue to occur with alarming frequency in the United States, scholars search for explanations, turning frequently to a dynamic referred to as aggrieved entitlement to explain why shooters are so often white men. This study attempts to continue work expanding the concept of aggrieved entitlement and its applicability across continuums of violence by proposing a preliminary quantitative measure for the dynamic. Survey data from the 1996 General Social Survey is utilized to create an index of aggrieved entitlement which is then compared with sex, race, region, and religion. It is hypothesized that on an index of …

How Alternative Masculinity Types Fit Inside The Strict World Of Hegemonic Masculinity, Alexander Pyritz

Student Symposium

The project sought to understand how understand how masculinity has historically been defined, and to then explore how alternative definitions of masculinity fit within the traditional definition. To begin, the historical definition of masculinity first had to be defined. In doing this, research was done to understand how masculinity had traditionally been defined, and was compared to the understanding of what it meant to be "masculine". Based on the research done, the traditional standards of masculinity were categorized within the construct of hegemonic masculinity, an illusion that male identifying people measure themselves against, but rarely ever achieve. Once the traditional …

Contesting Consent: Consent, Sexual Scripts, And Gendered Power, Julia Kristine Metz

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Within the past decade, the United States has seen an upsurge of affirmative consent policies being introduced or passed within the legislation of state governments and universities (Laker and Boas 2015). However, in a moment when the President of the US has been recorded saying “Grab ‘em by the pussy,” two Supreme Court justices have been accused of sexual misconduct, and a Secretary of Education has rolled back Title IX policies that had made progress in curbing sexual violence in schools, the meaning of sexual consent is now being contested more than ever. However, there have only been a handful …

The Colonized Masculinity And Cultural Politics Of Seediq Bale, Chin-Ju Lin

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article, “The Colonized Masculinity and Cultural Politics of Seediq Bale,” Chin-ju Lin discusses a Taiwanese blockbuster movie, a postcolonial historiography and a form of life-writing, which delineates the last Indigenous insurrection against Japanese colonialism. This article explores the cultural representations in Seediq Bale. Fighting back as a colonized man for pride and dignity is portrayed as means to restore their masculine identity. The headhunting tradition is remembered, romanticized, praised highly as heroic and even strengthened in an inaccurate way to promote individualistic masculinity and to forge a new national identity in postcolonial Taiwan. Nevertheless, the stereotypical …

Bushler Bay And Hood View, 40 Years On: Gender, Forests And Change In The Global North, Carol Jean Pierce Colfer

Humboldt Journal of Social Relations

In 2017, Carol Colfer revisited the communities of Bushler Bay and Hood View on the Olympic Peninsula, where she had spent three years doing ethnographic research in the 1970s. The purposes were two-fold: to test several rapid rural appraisal techniques and, as emphasized here, to assess the changes that had taken place in the interim. The ultimate goal was to contribute to USFS efforts to collaborate more effectively with women and men in forest communities. Her findings suggest that changes occurred in three (or more) spheres: livelihoods, demography, and gender relations, each of which is discussed below for each time …

Boys To Men: Masculinity, Victimization, And Offending, Shon Michael Reed

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Male victims are an underrepresented group within society as research within victimology primarily focuses on female victims and services available typically cater to female populations. This study focuses on male victims and draws attention to the role that victimization may play in criminal offending. Prior research has found that male victims may feel a diminished sense of their own masculinity. While other studies have noted that masculinity plays a role in some men’s decisions to engage in criminal behavior (Messerschmidt, 1993, 2016). It seems logical that these two concepts (masculinity and victimization) would be related. Utilizing self-reported data from 135 …

Manning Up At Depauw: Performing Fraternal Masculinity On A Liberal Arts Campus, Rachel Higson

Honor Scholar Theses

No abstract provided.

Growing A Garden Of Healthy Masculinities: Combating Homophobia In The Imagine Project Workshops, Mia Lloyd

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This qualitative research study examines how peer educators can combat homophobia within the Imagine Project workshops. The Imagine Project is a three country initiative which aims to engage young men to work against sexual violence and sexual harassment through peer education. Combating homophobia is not stated as an official goal of the Imagine Project, and consequently it has not received that much attention within the workshop curriculum and preparation. A literature review and six interviews were conducted to gather information about homophobia, it’s role within the Imagine Project workshops, and how it can be combated in that context. Relevant literature …

What Does It Mean For The Husband When His Wife Keeps Her Own Surname?, Rachael D. Robnett, Marielle Wertheimer, Harriet R. Tenebaum

Research Briefs

No abstract provided.

Female Autistic Perspectives: Limits In Diagnosis And Understanding, Alexandra Helmers

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder has increased dramatically within the last two decades, with males being diagnosed, on average, four to five times more than females. Although researchers in the medical community have searched for a biological explanation for this discrepancy, no definitive cause has been found. I argue that our understanding of autism is primarily a social and cultural construction, in addition to a diagnosable medical disorder. The gender disparity in diagnosis reflects cultural narratives surrounding social interaction and the widespread belief in two distinct gender roles. Furthermore, narratives surrounding the topic of autism tend to unintentionally highlight …

#Representationmatters: A Study Of Masculinity In The Avengers Movies, Lauren F. Cooke

Senior Projects Spring 2018

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies of Bard College

Masculinity: Understanding Authority Across Institutional Settings As Social Control, Andre Martin

Global Honors Theses

Masculinity is observed here as it relates to authority, and as it functions within discourse surrounding the American penal and health care institutions. Understandings of race and gender are dictated by beliefs that masculinity can be “achieved,” or functions as a value within society. This piece works to stress that masculinity is instead a worldview, which assists in the distinguishing and perpetuation of dichotomy tied to plays of superiority and inferiority. It is for this reason, when recognizing masculinity within a capitalist global context, abolition becomes a necessary approach, when attempting to confront masculinized authority and institutions.

Checking Privilege At The Door: Men’S Reflections On Masculinity In Women’S And Gender Studies Course, Rachel Schmitz, Emily Kazyak

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Certain types of masculinity undergird gender inequality, but different contexts may encourage individuals to conceptualize gender in new and unique ways. Women’s and Gender Studies (WGS) university courses support this for women, but less is known about men’s experiences. Through an analysis of interview data from 15 men who have taken WGS courses, we ask: What do men experience in the WGS classroom and how do men perceive that their experiences in WGS courses shape their conceptualizations of gender and gender relations? Men described developing their understandings of gender inequality after taking a WGS course and they applied this knowledge …

Bringing Mothers And Fathers Together: Undergraduate Studies In Anthropology And Sociology, Angela Castañeda, Matthew Oware

Sociology and Anthropology Faculty Publications

As social scientists in a combined Sociology and Anthropology department at a small liberal arts institution, we approach research questions on mothering and fathering from our respective disciplines. In the summer of 2014 we made plans to experiment with a first year seminar that would bring our distinct courses together: Oware’s Man Up: Unpacking Manhood and Masculinity, and Castañeda’s Global Perspectives on Reproduction and Childbirth. In the fall of 2014, we combined our courses over two-weeks to discuss the roles of fathering and mothering in our research agendas. As we suspected, our courses were unevenly represented on their own with …

Reconsidering The Orphan Problem: The Emergence Of Male Caregivers In Lesotho, Ellen Block

Sociology Faculty Publications

Care for AIDS orphans in southern Africa is frequently characterized as a "crisis", where kin-based networks of care are thought to be on the edge of collapse. Yet these care networks, though strained by AIDS, are still the primary mechanisms for orphan care, in large part because of the essential role grandmothers play in responding to the needs of orphans. Ongoing demographic shifts as a result of HIV/AIDS and an increasingly feminized labor market continue to disrupt and alter networks of care for orphans and vulnerable children. This paper examines the emergence of a small but growing number of male …

Lullaby For The Burning Ear: How Intersectional Feminism Can Help Decolonize The Latino Consciousness, Donovan E. Hernandez Garcia

Senior Theses

People exist with their own religions, cultures, and practices, which illustrate the ingenuity of humanity. Yet, because of major events that altered the fate of the Americas, a certain societal structure was created to maintain power. Due to colonization, the prolonged exposure to numerous cultures, and the continuation of oppressive systems, people have been forced to band together based on similar characteristics, be it race, gender, or sexual orientation, creating divisions within society. It is because of such colonial mentality, subliminal and apparent, political and cultural movements, such as Feminism and intersectionality, have been created to combat the harmful effects …

Lessons From The Gender Equality Movement: Using Title Ix To Foster Inclusive Masculinities In Men's Sport, Deborah L. Brake

Articles

This article was written for a symposium issue in Law & Inequality: A Journal of Theory and Practice on the topic of LGBT inclusion in sports. The symposium, which was held at the University of Minnesota Law School in November of 2015, was precipitated by the controversy that erupted when NFL player Chris Kluwe sued and settled with the Minnesota Vikings for allegedly firing him over his outspoken support for marriage equality. The article situates the Chris Kluwe controversy in the broader context of masculinity in men’s sports. At a time when support for LGBT rights has resulted in striking …

Male Development In Young Adult Novels: Mapping The Intersections Between Masculinity, Fatal Illness, Male Queerness, And Brotherhood, Ruth Nelson

Departmental Honors Projects

Since 2000, Young Adult (YA) literature has grown exponentially. The subgenres of cancer novels (teen “sick-lit”) and LGBTQ fiction, in particular, have experienced a recent surge in popularity. The novels in these subgenres that feature young men as the affected characters (diagnosed with cancer and/or identifying as gay or queer) are particularly interesting because of the threats that these experiences pose to heteronormative masculinity. Because this fiction is directed at an impressionable audience in the process of forming their identities, the novels’ representations of gender could have a strong influence over readers’ gender identity development. Researchers have begun exploring the …

Negotiating Masculinity: How Infertility Impacts Hegemonic Masculinity, Myscha Burton

Laurier Undergraduate Journal of the Arts

No abstract provided.

When Wives Migrate And Leave Husbands Behind: A Jamaican Marriage Pattern, Elaine B. Douglas-Harrison

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

For over a hundred years Jamaicans have been migrating to make the proverbial `better life' for themselves and their families. In the early 20th century husbands migrated, leaving wives behind. As economies of the United States and Canada have become more service-oriented, wives migrate leaving husbands behind. The experiences of Jamaican immigrant women are documented in Caribbean migration studies, but the marriages of Jamaican legally-married immigrant wives and their husbands left behind in Jamaica are so far unstudied. The main research question of this study is what maintains these transnational marriages over time, sometimes for decades, when spouses see each …

Take Off Your Masc: The Hegemonic Gay Male's Gender Performance On Grindr, Duncan Shuckerow

Cultural Studies Capstone Papers

The hegemonic Grindr clone is a gay male Grindr user who enforces the privileging of traditional masculine gender performance and condemns effeminacy. Through this project’s own field work along with the website “douchebagsofgrindr,” the hegemonic Grindr clone is here within analyzed. Drawing upon the theory ofhegemony articulated by Gramsci, a historical analysis of the 1970s urban gay male clone, and contemporary analysis and research, the project argues that the hegemonic Grindr clones, while only a minority group of Grindr users, rules over the cyberspace as sexual gatekeepers. Hegemonic Grindr clones maintain their privileged status on the application through depicting and …

The Australian Football League And The Closet, Andrew Douglas

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This thesis examines the complete absence of openly gay males from the ranksof the professional players in the Australian Football League (AFL). It seeks to explain this absence in the context of the modern gay rights movement. incontemporary Australian society. It compares and contrasts the effects of thismovement on both the AFL and other mainstream Australian social institutions.

Over more than four decades, the gay rights movement has effected a number of social changes. These changes include both specific legal reforms and more general trends such as the increasing social visibility of gay men across a range of mainstream institutions …

Decoding Literary Aids: A Study On Issues Of The Body, Masculinity, And Self Identity In U.S. Aids Literature From 1984-2011, Alexander Shimon Abrams

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Rather than waiting decades to respond, novelists of nearly every literary genre began conceptualizing the AIDS epidemic shortly after the first documented case of the virus in the United States in 1981. Writers, feeling a sense of urgency, wasted little time constructing didactic texts that differ from much historical fiction in that they were written as the tragedy they are commenting on occurred. However, AIDS literature has changed as the disease has spread well beyond the gay communities of San Francisco and New York, causing people to reexamine their longstanding beliefs on masculinity, sexuality, and body politics.

My Master's thesis …

Narrative Framing Of U.S. Military Females In Combat: Inclusion Versus Resistance, James Scott Herford

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study utilizes discursive data to examine how the strategic use of narratives inform policies that shape women's participation in military service overall and more specific, the current controversy over exclusion of women from participation in combat roles within the U.S. military. Specifically, I examine popular military newspapers, blogs and the Department of Defense 2012 Report regarding policies and regulations of female service members. In this study, I provide a sociological analysis of current military-cultural narratives and the institutional narrative discussing women's participation in combat roles in order to provide evidence of the current threat to the military form of …

Socially Situated Identities Of Gay Gang- And Crime-Involved Men, Vanessa R. Panfil

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Within the criminological literature, gay men have primarily been portrayed as victims of anti-gay bias crimes or intimate partner violence, or as sex workers and/or drug users. This coverage, which is limited in scope, largely fails to recognize that gay men have agency (choice or power to control the situation). It also provides an incomplete picture regarding gay men's involvement in gangs, violence, and crime.

"Nudge A Mexican And She Or He Will Break Out With A Story": Complicating Mexican Immigrant Masculinities Through Counternarrative Storytelling, Berenice Villela

Scripps Senior Theses

In this thesis, I explore Latino masculinities and contest their uniformity through transforming an oral history conducted with my father into a collection of short stories. Following storytelling traditions of Latino/Mexican culture, I converted an oral history interviews with my dad into a collection of short stories. From these short stories I extracted themes relating to the micro and macro manifestations of gender policing. Drawing from Judith Butler's Theory of performativity and Gloria Anzaldua's theory of Borderland identities, I rethink masculinity and offer Jose Esteban Munoz's theory of disidentification. With these theories in conversation, I analyze the themes of the …

Feminism Without Illusions: A Fallopian Discourse From A Male Perspective, Nelson Aguirre

Women’s Studies, Feminist Zine Archive

Writings and artwork about males as feminists , including a historical examples of male feminist actions and the list "How Can You Be a Better Feminist Man?".