Hegemonic Gender Roles

The hegemonic male (the dominant male) is a traditional take on the ideal man and our understanding of the pinnacle of man has been evolving with the lens that the particular society saw the world through. In order to understand the hegemonic male and his context, a brief understanding of the world’s perspective from era to era is necessary. The hegemonic male is considered one who dominates: over his peers, his significant other, his environment, his family, his job and the entirety of the opposite gender. These various desires are imposed on him by outdated rhetoric and discursive momentum. Various values form over the course of time depending on the moral compass of the time and this causes certain dispositions to become prevalent even across generations.
This role stemmed from the fact that men were considered as hunters. This means that men had to be able to brave the outdoors and feed their family otherwise their manhood could be questioned and this is the ultimate slight for the hegemonic male. Michael S. Kimmel states that “The hegemonic definition of manhood is a man in power, a man with power and a man of power.” In this case the man needs to be able to dominate his environment and his environment needs to yield to him. We see this manifested in major corporations use of the Earth and it’s minerals without any thought of sustainability and the ever worsening effects of climate change. Their refusal to take the matter seriously only points to a mentality that reaffirms the paradigm that states that the environment is merely a tool for the use of men in order to display their power. (Masculinity as Homophobia: Fear, Shame, and Silence in the Construction of Gender Identity, MS Kimmel, 2004, Oxford University