“He Must Learn What Being a Man is All About”: Negotiating the Male Code at the Louisiana State Penitentiary

Abstract

Much of what has been written about masculinities inside prisons focuses on the pressure to live up to a hypermasculine ideal that privileges aggression, the concealment of vulnerability, and the victimization of weaker inmates. Believing this approach lacks nuance, I explore how prisoners writing in The Angolite, the Louisiana State Penitentiary’s prison newsmagazine, conceive of manhood. Incorporating hundreds of men’s voices into this discussion reveals the complexity of these prisoners’ lives as men—their emotional depth, friendships, and struggles to grow, learn, and better themselves—and compels us to reconsider what we think goes on inside prisons.

Acknowledgments

The author thanks Phil Goodman, Adam Green, and Candace Kruttschnitt for their comments on earlier drafts of this article.

Notes

¹ I requested copies of every issue from 1976 (when the first uncensored issue of The Angolite was published) to 2001 (shortly after former editor Wilbert Rideau [2010] claims the administration began trying to limit the staff’s journalistic freedom). The first available issue was dated March/April 1979. There is no evidence to suggest that the content of this convenience sample differs in a systematic manner from what would be found in a strictly random sample of issues.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.

Notes on contributors

Liam Kennedy

LIAM KENNEDY holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Toronto. This manuscript is part of his doctoral research, which contributes to our understanding of the lives, experiences, and conceptions of prisoners through an analysis of their writings.