Changing men and masculinities: a reply to Roberts, Elliott and Ralph

ABSTRACT

In this short article I provide a response to Steven Roberts, Karla Elliott and Brittany Ralph’s reply to my recently published article, Men and masculinities: a continuing debate on change. I address Roberts, Elliott and Ralph’s critique over the limitations of comparing the frameworks of inclusive and hybrid masculinities, and I respond to their claims over the use of intersectionality to account for the lack of change among less privileged men. Throughout the article I highlight the need for analysing men and masculinities in relation to wider systems of inequality and power hierarchies between men and women on the one hand, and among men on the other. I also keep insisting that research on changing men and masculinities should rely on intersectional, multi-layered analyses that take into careful consideration the contextual, interactional and situational factors that may affect men’s practices and (re)constructions of masculinity.

KEYWORDS:

• Masculinities
• men
• social change
• intersectionality
• CMMS

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Andria Christofidou

Andria Christofidou is Lecturer in Sociology in the Department of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Cyprus. Her current research is concerned with men and masculinities, sexualities, and social change while her previous research explored, among others, dance as a space of resistance and a practice cultivating reflexivity. She is the author of Men, masculinities and sexualities in dance: transgression and its limits (Palgrave). Other parts of her work appear in NORMA, the Journal of Gender Studies, and the European Journal of Cultural Studies.