The co-existence of gender with its multiple manifestations has been increasingly studied in the field of masculinity studies, and in this issue, I try to bring together research that tackles the performance of masculine identity and the regulation of this performance.
In Dissonant Masculinities?, Cerchiaro explores the interconnections between masculinity and migration in Italy as well as the extent to which a mixed-marriage challenges definitions of masculinity. The multiple and contradictory gender discourses that co-exist, the emotions revealed, the conflicts arising and reprocessing of masculinity are all investigated. New social networks, which may provide a common space to overcome difficulties in this context, are examined.
In Gendering ‘Thursday Night Football’, Sadri, Bell and Billings assess the impact of the first all-female broadcast of a US National Football League game between the Los Angeles Rams and the Minnesota Vikings. Hannah Storm and Andrea Kremer broadcast on a livestream at the same time as a Fox TV broadcast of the same game by veteran announcers Buck and Aikman. The authors used content analyses of the broadcasts and report seismic changes to a media landscape that had historically promoted aggression as well as a disruption to a sports ecosystem that routinely reinforces male-dominated gender norms.
In Holy Problematics Fabman!, Bikowski finds that representations of gay male superheroes follow a heteronormative framework and miss the opportunity to provide positive images to gay youth. Previous studies have shown that graphic novels and comics are valuable resources in aiding youth in the navigation of their identities but DC and Marvel currently lack positive representations. Iceman of The X-Men, Wiccan and Hulkling of The Young Avengers, and the multiple gay male heroes of The Pride are still tangled in heteronormativity, homonormativity, and hegemony. While representation can increase visibility, a new framework for how gay superheroes are depicted is necessary.
In Masculinity threat, Borras Guevara and West assess the case of Jamaica and its levels of sexual prejudice; previous studies having shown that Jamaican men report more anti-gay prejudice than Jamaican women do. This study investigated potential explanations for these gender differences which are at their greatest under conditions of lower income, less education and younger age. Religiosity and preferences for dancehall music did not moderate the effects of gender on anti-gay behaviour. The findings suggest that Jamaican men’s anti-gay prejudice may be driven, at least in part, by motivations to bolster their masculinity in the face of underlying contemporary other threats.
In Hegemonic masculinity, gender, and social distance, Van Doorn and March look at the aggressive behaviours and negative attitudes associated with hegemonic masculinity and whether people might choose to avoid those displaying characteristics consistent with it. A fictitious man displaying such characteristics was employed in a vignette-based study alongside a woman with the same characteristics. There was no link found between the gender of the fictitious individual and anticipated social distance, suggesting that desire to distance was associated with the ‘toxic’ attitudes/behaviour themselves. The implications of the findings are discussed, highlighting the role social connections play in changing attitudes.
In ‘Curiosity with Corpses’, Walsh compares the poetry of Heaney and McGuckian in their imagery of the female body in pain as a site of political violence in Ireland. Walsh finds this body to be skewed within Heaney’s collection which reinforces traditional nationalist stereotypes that silence women and that conjure links between womanhood and nationhood. McGuckian’s debut collection responds to this literary silencing and recalibrates the meaning of ‘Mother Ireland’, situating the female body beyond the hegemonic structures previously in place in the poetry of the region.
In An Intersectional Approach to Hegemonic Masculinities and Internal Hegemony, Dharani, Vergo and April investigate the social categories that intersect with hegemonic masculinities and internal hegemony. A South African context was chosen due to its recent Apartheid history of assigning racial hierarchical privileges between men, and the subsequent encouragement to amalgamate that has brought differences in masculinities to the surface. Using thematic analysis of interviews, the study concludes that cultural identity is profound in defining hegemonic masculine identity for South African men, while race continues to play a decisive role for internal hegemony. Additionally, social categories of sexuality, marital status, and the number of wives and children, signal external hegemony to other men, and these have an amplified effect on internal hegemony. The study concludes that race and awareness of other masculinities exacerbate internal hegemony.
In Corporal Punishment and Gender Equality, Hunter and Morrell, also taking South Africa as their site of study, look at the human-rights framework interventions designed to achieve gender equality in education. The progressive constitutional changes of the last decades appear to have had limited effect in reducing gender inequality and gender-based violence in schools. The authors here study the continuing illegal use of corporal punishment to explore the limitations of a right-based approach. Drawing on research undertaken in schools of different socioeconomic status, the authors argue that rights-based approaches against physical chastisement resonate most in middle-class schools while in other schools, physical punishment has persisted, often with the approval of parents and learners, where the acts are thought of as a caring and necessary means to redress schooling inequities.
In A Comparative Analysis of Attitudes Towards Female and Male Breadwinners, Miller, Carter, Macrae and Schulz compare attitudes towards female and male breadwinners in Western societies. Data from Wave 6 of the World Values Study were used to analyse attitudes in three countries with historically different gender contracts: Germany (male breadwinner), Sweden (dual-breadwinner), and the United States (male breadwinner and female breadwinner). The findings indicate that although women are more likely to believe that men should not be entitled to jobs over women, they also view female breadwinners as problematic. Men are largely supportive of both men and women being a family’s breadwinner. Cross-national comparisons show that women and men in Germany have the most conservative views while those in Sweden have more liberal beliefs. Accounting for differences in education and employment status did not explain the gender differences in attitudes.
In the Forum section of this issue, Ue (a regular contributor to Forum) examines Alice W Fuller’s short story ‘A Wife Manufactured to Order’ (1895). The incorporation of artificial intelligence with nineteenth-century debates surrounding the rights of women warrants further scholarly attention. This article offers a corrective by attending to the story’s treatment of the marriage between man and machine, recovering Fuller’s economic metaphors. As a precursor to influential works such as Ira Levin’s The Stepford Wives (1972) and film adaptations, the commonalities between these works, and the economic thread that unites them, emerges.
Announcements
The Journal of Gender Studies/Centre for Women’s Studies award is made annually to post-graduate/s nominated by our host institution (York University, UK). The 2020 prize is given to Yuliia Mieriemova and Harriet Foreman. Mieriemova’s dissertation was entitled Women in Politics in Ukraine and Foreman’s was entitled ‘Jihadi Brides Who Dare to Call This Country Home’: Exploring British newspaper representations of ISIS Brides since the fall of the Caliphate.
The Janet Blackman annual prize for 2020 is awarded to Ángela Santamaría and Fallon Hernández for their paper Fostering solidarity for gender/ethnic reincorporation: the experience of female indigenous ex-combatants in Tierra Grata, Cesar. There were a number of strong calibre nominations this year so the decision was a difficult one. Ultimately this study of ex-combatants in Colombia was felt to have an original edge, introducing the neglected concept of indigeneity while also resonating with the research interests of Janet Blackman (who we all miss).