Beyond the sex machine? Sexual practices and masculinity in adult men's heterosexual accounts

Abstract

The processes of reproduction and change of adult masculinities through everyday sexual practices remain largely invisible to research. Our attempt is to shed light upon these processes by investigating middle-aged Italian men's accounts of their heterosexual, sexual biographies on the basis of 36 in-depth interviews. These cohorts of men have experienced structural transformations in gender relations and changes in the cultural scenarios regarding sexuality, with the emergence of new permissive and intimacy scripts. Many of them substantially neutralise these changes, reproducing a naturalised view of male sexuality, while others move towards broader understandings of sexuality, less centred upon intercourse, and, in some cases, reveal a loosening of the connection between sexuality and masculinity. In the ways these men make sense of these changes, the ongoing work of doing gender emerges as taking place within specific communities of practices.

Keywords:

• heterosexuality
• sexuality
• masculinity
• scripts
• accounts
• community of practices

Notes

1. The image of the ‘patchwork’ was used in Italian feminist scholarship for describing the complex and multiple arrangements through which women weave together, in their care-giving work, the requirements of public services, the labour market and family life (Balbo 1987).

2. In order to simplify the text, in exploring heterosexuality through sexual practices we will use the term ‘sexual’ to focus upon the practical enactment of sex, and the term ‘heterosexual’ to emphasise the interconnections between sexuality and gender.

3. Being naturalised and taken for granted, heterosexuality is an element of identity only in terms of definition of external boundaries.