In this issue in Gender, self-efficacy, and warrior identification, Wood and Charbonneau explore attitudes to women in the Canadian Army. Army personnel reported on the success of women’s integration, self-efficacy, warrior identification and soldier pride. The authors found no gender differences in attitudes towards the presence and capabilities of women in the Army, and soldier pride. However, servicewomen reported lower levels of self-efficacy and less warrior identification relative to servicemen.
In Modelling part-time employment in Spain, Huete-Morales and Vargas-Jiménez characterize the employment status of women. The following hypotheses were tested in this study: that women are more likely than men to be in part-time employment; that this likelihood is even greater for married women; that the higher the level of educational qualifications, the lower the probability of being in part-time employment; and that the female immigrant population is less likely to be in part-time employment (but that nationality has no such influence among the male population). The authors suggest that it is not that women prefer part-time contracts, in order to reconcile family life with their work or as a personal preference, but that this is something imposed by society.
In Female Trouble: Menstrual Hygiene, Shame and Socialism, Sitar analyses advertisements for menstrual hygiene products in socialist Slovenia and wider Yugoslavia. Tensions are observed in the language of the socialist system, how women perceive menstruation and the messages conveyed through these advertisements. The choices made by women in relation to their views of these products assist in evaluating the emancipatory potential they are imagined to have, as well as the shame still widely associated with menstruation itself.
In ‘The appy for a happy pappy’, Thomas, Lupton and Pederson examine the mobile apps related to pregnancy and how expectant or new fathers are represented in such technologies. The research here identifies how these artefacts represent a problematic version of performing fatherhood. On the one hand, notions of ‘intimate’ fatherhood are enacted by emphasizing the importance of men acquiring knowledge about pregnancy/childbirth as well as providing emotional and informed support to their partner. However, many apps also condescend to, and trivialize the role of, fathers assuming that they need entertainment to promote their involvement. The authors suggest that such meanings are reflected in wider social expectations and paradoxes of the role of men in parenthood.
In No andropause for gay men? Erol and Ozbay contribute to the ongoing scholarly debate on the implications of andropause through employing the case of Turkish gay men. The pressures on gay men in Turkish society occur around intersections of masculinity politics, homophobia and ageism. Through the active rejection of the external outcomes of ageing mid-life Turkish gay men present an idiosyncratic vantage point to explicate the relatively understudied subject of andropause in non-western contexts. The data that emerged provided the authors with the chance to assess the ubiquitous heteronormativity inscribed in the narratives of andropause.
In Muslim masculinities: what is the prescription of the Qur’an? Arat and Hasan look at historical and contemporary associations between Islam and violence. Although committing violence, for religion or other causes, is not limited to Muslim men, there is a popular notion that Islam encourages male violence. This paper examines the Qur’an, revealing at least five salient traits that may be taken as prescriptions of masculinities. The traits – submissiveness, altruism, righteousness, steadfastness and combativeness – are overlapping but also contradictory.
In Good manners and high heels, Ejaz analyses articles from South Carolina’s largest newspaper – The State – in order to determine its portrayal of the state’s first female governor, Nikki Haley. Haley was first celebrated as the harbinger of moral change in the political landscape of South Carolina only to be positioned in a contentious space between manhood and femininity by her second term. Her husband’s new role as first gentleman of South Carolina was portrayed on a smaller scale but in a similar vein, one that demonstrated a publication’s attempts to negotiate changing gender roles.
In Ronald Reagan in Heels, Ha investigates the ways in which ‘Mama Grizzlies’ (female Tea Party politicians in the USA) strategically made use of socially dominant constructions of both masculinity and femininity in their 2010 US mid-term election campaigns. By analysing news media interviews, television debates and campaign advertisements, this study found that ‘Mama Grizzlies’ are female and contemporary versions of Reagan; an icon of conservatism in US politics. Hegemonic masculinity proved to be a useful device for Mama Grizzlies to attack their opponents as indecisive. Masculinity, as displayed by Mama Grizzlies, corresponds to a type of ‘female masculinity’ by which these female candidates tried to portray themselves as strong and tough. At the same time, by constructing an empathetic persona and utilizing a feminine style of presentation, these candidates employed a gender strategy of hybrid masculinity: a blending of muscle and compassion. Mama Grizzlies’ gendered rhetoric also contravened some of the basic tenants of feminism, such as gender equality.