‘So, What is a Good Masculinity?’: Navigating Normativity in Violence Prevention with Men and Boys

ABSTRACT

Engaging men and boys to address the links between masculinity and gendered violence is a rapidly expanding space for primary prevention, in Australia and globally. There are parallel debates within feminist commentary on violence prevention and in masculinity studies over how to conceptualise and deconstruct masculinity for the long-term transformation of gender inequality. This article analyses semi-structured interviews with Australian prevention practitioners whose work focuses on engaging men and boys, which included initiatives aimed at gender equality, healthy masculinity, preventing violence against women, and domestic/family violence prevention. Interviews highlighted that these practitioners are currently grappling with how to address masculinity as a construct and/or a normative process within their work to achieve gender transformative change. These tensions reflect ongoing concerns over reproducing narrow associations between men and masculinity that perpetuate essentialised identity categories. Importantly, I question whether a focus on ‘positive’ or ‘healthy’ masculinities can effectively go beyond the binary gender relations that underpin gendered violence. The research findings suggest a need for greater reflexive and creative thinking around how men and masculinity are (de)centred within violence prevention to better support gender transformation.

KEYWORDS:

• Masculinity
• primary prevention
• gendered violence
• gender transformative change
• engaging men and boys
• feminist theory

Acknowledgements

Thanks to the research participants for their time and expertise in contributing to the project, and the journal editors and anonymous reviewers for their generous feedback. I would also like to thank Dr Andrea Waling, Dr Léna Molnar and Dr Shaez Mortimer for comments on earlier drafts, and my PhD supervisors Associate Professor Anastasia Powell, Dr Robin Cameron and Dr Kathryn Daley for their ongoing support of my work.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Data Availability Statement

The data are not publicly available as they contain information that could compromise the privacy and confidentiality of research participants.

Notes

1 For the purposes of this article, ‘prevention’ is used to refer to the broad variety of initiatives under the primary prevention of men’s gendered violence.

2 For some recent work with Australian facilitators see Stewart et al. (2022) and Keddie, Flood, and Hewson-Munro (2022), and for an earlier review of Australian prevention programs with men and boys see Carmody, Salter, and Presterudstuen (2014).

3 Though similar critiques have also been made against modernist or blended approaches in CSMM for disembodying men from masculinity (e.g. Beasley 2013; Berggren 2018).

Additional information

Funding

The project has been supported by the Australian Government PhD scholarship program - the RTP Stipend Scholarship - vis-a-vis RMIT University.

Notes on contributors

Sarah McCook

Sarah McCook is a feminist researcher specialising in gender, men’s violence, and social change. Sarah has contributed to policy and programming for the gendered violence prevention in so-called Australia and internationally, with previous publications in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence and Lancet Global Health. Sarah is currently completing a PhD with RMIT University, examining men’s lived experiences of masculinity, normativity, and transformative change to prevent gendered violence.