Hegemonic Masculinity
Hegemonic Masculinity: Rethinking the Concept
Origins: it formulated 2 decades ago, it was first proposed in reports from a field study in social inequality in Australian schools. “Towards a new sociology of Masculinity” critiques male sex role literatures and proposed a model of multiple masculinities and power relations. The gramscian term hegemony was current at the time in attempts to understand the stabilization of class relations. Before the women’s liberation movement, a literature in social psychology and sociology about the male sex role had recognized the social nature of masculinity and the possibilities of change in men’s conduct (hacker 1957). During the 70’s there was an explosion of writing about the male role, criticizing role norms as the source of oppressive behaviors by men. Some saw gay liberation as bound up with an assault on gender stereotypes. The idea hierarchy of masculinities grew directly out homosexual men’s experience with violence and prejudice from straight men. Homophobia originated in the 70’s and was already being attributed to conventional male role (Morin & Granfinkle 1978). Those studies added the ethnographic realism that the sex role literature lacked, confirmed the plurality of masculinities and the complexities of gender construction for men. The concept was influenced by psychoanalysis.
Formulation: hegemonic masculinity was understood as the patter of practice that allowed men’s dominance over women to continue. Hegemonic masculinity was distinguished from others, especially subordinated masculinities. Hegemonic masculinity was not normal in the statistical sense; only a few enact it. Ideologically legitimated the subordination of women to men. Hegemonic did not mean violence, although it could be supported by force; it meant ascendancy achieved through culture, institutions and persuasion. They assumed that gender relations were historical so gender hierarchies were subject to change. Hegemonic masculinities
Origins: it formulated 2 decades ago, it was first proposed in reports from a field study in social inequality in Australian schools. “Towards a new sociology of Masculinity” critiques male sex role literatures and proposed a model of multiple masculinities and power relations. The gramscian term hegemony was current at the time in attempts to understand the stabilization of class relations. Before the women’s liberation movement, a literature in social psychology and sociology about the male sex role had recognized the social nature of masculinity and the possibilities of change in men’s conduct (hacker 1957). During the 70’s there was an explosion of writing about the male role, criticizing role norms as the source of oppressive behaviors by men. Some saw gay liberation as bound up with an assault on gender stereotypes. The idea hierarchy of masculinities grew directly out homosexual men’s experience with violence and prejudice from straight men. Homophobia originated in the 70’s and was already being attributed to conventional male role (Morin & Granfinkle 1978). Those studies added the ethnographic realism that the sex role literature lacked, confirmed the plurality of masculinities and the complexities of gender construction for men. The concept was influenced by psychoanalysis.
Formulation: hegemonic masculinity was understood as the patter of practice that allowed men’s dominance over women to continue. Hegemonic masculinity was distinguished from others, especially subordinated masculinities. Hegemonic masculinity was not normal in the statistical sense; only a few enact it. Ideologically legitimated the subordination of women to men. Hegemonic did not mean violence, although it could be supported by force; it meant ascendancy achieved through culture, institutions and persuasion. They assumed that gender relations were historical so gender hierarchies were subject to change. Hegemonic masculinities