Mama’s boy? mother-son bond as a resource for masculinity construction

ABSTRACT

The vibrant field of research about masculinities has rarely discussed mother-son relationships outside the classical psychoanalytic prism of gender identity development. The paper addresses this void by exploring men’s accounts of their identities as men through the lens of their relationships with their mothers within a societal context that identifies masculinity with separation from the mother and denial of her feminine traits. This qualitative study is based on in-depth interviews with 15 Israeli men who state they have close relationships with their mothers. The interviewees portray their mothers as significant models for key social capabilities. We contend that the transforming ideologies of manhood allow these men to describe this close dyad as a resource for a broader emotional vocabulary, heterosexual attractiveness, and for ascending the Israeli hierarchy of masculinity. Through their descriptions of the dyadic bond, they are in fact expanding the toolkit available to them for signifying their gender. These close dyadic relationships do not detract from their belonging to the category of ‘men’. Indeed, these men use these relationships to derive personal benefits and upgrade their social status vis-à-vis women as well as other men. These findings can contribute to the scholarly debate concerning the changing nature of masculinity.

KEYWORDS:

• Masculinities
• motherhood
• critical discourse analysis

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. All names have been changed.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Orit Bershtling

Orit Bershtling Senior faculty member in the school of Social Work at Hadassah Academic College, Jerusalem, and an adjunct lecturer at the Faculty of Social Welfare & Health Science, University of Haifa. Social worker, expert in gender studies and women counseling. Main research fields: masculinity; motherhood; transgenderism; gender and language; critical discourse analysis; feminist social work.

Roni Strier

Roni Strier Senior lecturer. Head of the Interdisciplinary Center for the Study of Poverty and Social Exclusion, founder of the Master's Leadership and Social Change program, founder of the ”Haifa Partnership for Poverty Alleviation” program and founder of the ”Program for Combating Exclusion and Social Solidarity”.