How Long Is Hegemonic Masculinity?

Hegemonic masculinity refers to the culturally normative ideal behaviours of males. This concept is based on the assumption that there is a hierarchy of masculine behaviour, suggesting that most societies encourage men to exemplify a dominant version of masculinity. Hegemonic masculinity is competitive and reflects an inclination for males to pursue domination over other males and subordinate females. Contrary to feminism, anti-femininity demonstrates a male’s strong aversion and fear of being attributed to feminine characteristics. Men 's identity strategies are established through their complicit or resistant stance to prescribed dominant masculine styles. Masculine characters are not given. Rather, a range of possible styles and personae emerge from the gender regimes found in different cultures and periods of time.
Among the possible ways of being masculine, some become winning style and it is this with which men must engage. This manufactured image of the male projected the appearance of an educated man, the talented athlete, hardworking good family man, with the ability to always provide. This has become the standard definition of manhood. The workplace became the arena that allowed manhood to be tested and, proving to other males. It provided the space for which men could prove opposite characteristic of women, although women were one of many vehicles available to males for the purpose of exhibiting levels of success. Through the gender identity model, demonstrated by Christopher T. Kilmartin, this paper will view the different dimensions of male and female gender roles. Moreover, through the work of Ann Ferguson, the crucial interpretation of gender performance and transgressive acts will be fundamental in identifying how hegemonic masculinity is identified as