Abstract
An arrogance of certainty besets discourses of gender in today’s culture, and denigrating as well as overly affirming accounts of masculinity leave the individual man at risk of either self-loathing or self-aggrandizing. This article will look at various lay accounts of masculinity and the dynamics of its construction in opposition to culturally dominant moral codes, and will interrogate the underlying philosophical positions at work through Nietzsche’s Genealogy of Morality. In doing so, we propose that it is helpful to see Nietzsche as an early philosopher of difference, and embrace a less fixed approach to ontologies of gender accordingly.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes on contributors
Dr Niklas Serning is a doctor of counselling psychology and a child psychotherapist. He is the Clinical Director of Bristol’s award-winning young person’s charity Off The Record, a Senior Lecturer at the University of the West of England (UWE), and sees clients and supervisees in his private practice. He teaches psychotherapy, ethics and sexuality at doctoral level, and also brings extensive experience from managing several United Nations operations in complex international emergencies.
Nina Lyon is a writer with an interest in mind, philosophy and religion, and a PhD candidate at Cardiff University. She is the author of Mushroom Season (Vintage, 2014) and Uprooted: On the Trail of the Green Man (Faber, 2016) and has written for a number of other blogs, periodicals and essay collections. Her PhD research looks at Lewis Carroll’s later work amid contemporary philosophical developments. She is currently working on a second book for Faber on the uncanny.