‘I am a Manly Man!’

I stumbled across the poem ‘I am a Manly Man!’ written by Bradley Hathaway (see link below) on Facebook recently. Although laced with humour and irony, it does provide an interesting personal account of how men are active in the construction of their masculine identities, and that their behavior is influenced by their understanding of how their own behavior relates to hegemonic masculinity.

There are clear links between hegemonic masculinity and subordinated, marginalized, or resistant forms of masculinity (Connell 1995; Hall; 2009; Hall & Gough, submitted; Kimmel & Messner 1995) and these are evident within the text. Bradley acknowledges the existence of more than one discourse of masculinity: hegemonic masculinity (‘manly man’) and alternative masculinities. He described some of his own hegemonic masculine attributes as ‘Because I don’t flush and I leave the lid up’, ‘I drive a nineteen eighty-eight Ford Pick-up truck’ and ‘I fart, burp, spit when I want. Not caring who is nearby’. These can be contrasted to other alternative masculine attributes of Bradley’s which he describes as including a ‘sissy frame…rib laden chest’ ‘I tell my guy friends that I love them. And sometimes, I even hug them’ and ‘I watched Bambi. I cried’.

The decision to endorse and embody a particular form of alternative masculinity is not a simple choice because of the strong fundamental links to identity – behavior that is not hegemonically masculine is immediately judged to be non-masculine or feminine (e.g. ‘sissy’ ‘gay’) (McQueen and Henwood 2002). Bradley describes a manly man as embodying a masculinity characterized by being physically strong, heroic, tough, and brave. He made a clear contrast between this ideology and other aspects of his own masculinity, which he characterized by characteristics such as being loving, compassionate and caring rather than stoic and emotionally reserved. Given that the tone of the poem is about trying to justify alternative masculine characteristics as still hegemonic masculinity, suggests that although masculinity and femininity are not bipolar opposites, neither are masculinity and femininity truly orthogonal (see de Visser, 2009). This poem may therefore, give hope to young men who reject hegemonic masculinity but still desire a clear sense of being a man.

I am a Manly Man!

Masculinity/Femininity

Alicia Keys, pregnancy and Western ideals of feminine beauty

Following on from my previous post ‘ Women must be slim?’ discussing the social construction of the body and the implications it has for women’s psychological health, I want to draw on Johnson’s (2010) recent work in order to understand how Alicia Keys (and other women) might be experiencing pregnancy.

Johnson’s (2010) discourse analysis explored how women take up, negotiate and rework dominant discursive constructions of the pregnant body. The key ways in which the women in the study spoke about their bodies related to pregnancy as a transgression of Western cultural ideals of feminine beauty (e.g. women must be slim to be attractive). This was mainly because the pregnant body often has a similar shape to the fat body. This mirrors Dogruyol’s (2010) (see my previous post) experiences of her body as being fat and less attractive. Unlike Dogruyol’s experiences, Johnson also found that pregnancy allowed these women to relax the usual standards of feminine beauty and freed them to some extent from the objectifying sexualized male gaze by making them asexual. However the women interviewed did suggest that pregnancy enhanced their beauty and sexuality in profiting from bigger and fuller breasts.

In terms of experiencing their bodies as dis/connection from self and others Johnson (2010) found that her interviewees felt disconnected from their bodies in the sense that their pregnant body was experienced as ‘weird’ (Johnson, 2010: 252), yet at the same time they felt connected to their baby and a ‘delight with the merging of two bodies’ (ibid., 252).

In drawing on the work of Johnson (2010) and Bordo (1993), I hope to have provided a brief glimpse of how Alicia Keys may be experiencing her pregnant body and how her body relates to ideals of Western feminine beauty.

Pregnant and proud Alicia Keys parades around on stage in a beige playsuit

Reclaiming Embodiment within Critical Psychology: A Material-Discursive Analysis of the Menopausal Body

‘Beefeater sacked for harassing first female Yeoman’: A quick analysis of how gender is invoked as a resource for making sense of disputes.

Since Gilligan (1982) established the theory of moral development, feminist psychologists have provided some interesting analysis to show, not whether morality is essentially gendered, but rather, how morality can be invoked to warrant gendered complaints (Muntigl and Turnbull, 1998). For example Stokoe (2003) demonstrated, from interview transcripts of neighbour’s disputes, how female categories such as ‘mothers, ‘single women’ and ‘sluts’ were made relevant (both explicitly and implicitly) in order to judge each other’s moral behaviour (Stokoe, 2003:320). In the following extract from The Sunday Mail’s exclusive interview with the dismissed Yeoman, I will suggest that much of the Yeoman’s warrant for unfair dismissal rests on invoking his former female colleagues status as a ‘single woman’. Consider the following extract in which the Beefeater describes the appointment of the first female Yeoman.

‘What concerned me most, and what caused apprehension and shock among the wives of the Beefeaters, was that she was single.…I have seen a lot of very good friends’ marriages go down the pan in the Army, not because they have done anything, but because other people perceive they have done something…It is not difficult to see the potential for trouble in employing a single woman. Naturally there was some ribald speculation as to what she might look like and whether she would wear high heels with her scarlet tunic’.

In this extract the Beefeater constructs an interpretative frame within which to interpret her appointment. Notice that he deploys the category ‘single woman’. Such a categorisation carries with it a host of inferences that can be traded on, and made available, as a stock of common-sense knowledge about ‘single women’ e.g. being sexually available. However, this alone is not sufficient to provide an immoral account of her. One way in which this can be achieved is by implying that certain types of ‘single women’ are immoral based on their activities (Wowk, 1984). Since gender relations are managed by the norms of monogamy, women (but not men) who are perceived to be a threat to this rule can be held morally accountable. Although the Beefeater does not explicitly state that she was ‘sexually overt’, she is positioned as such through speculation of ‘whether she would wear high heels with her scarlet tunic’ and as a potential cause marital problems for male colleagues. In this way then, the female Yeoman’s ‘single woman’ status is linked to immorality.

Beefeater sacked for harassing first female Yeoman tells how her arrival caused ructions at the Tower… and cost him his job

Social Psychology and Discourse

Mothers, Single Women and Sluts: Gender, Morality and Membership Categorization in Neighbour Disputes

A Metrosexual Christmas?

Metrosexual icons such as David Beckham and Christiano Ronaldo have inspired a new generation of men to spruce up their act and embrace the ever-growing range of grooming products designed with men in mind. Many of these products as likely to feature in style magazines, newspapers, on television and billboards, in the run up to Christmas. With retailers expecting sales to be brisker than last year (Centre for Retail Research, 2009), one might also expect the market for men’s grooming products to follow suit. However, although Mintel (2007) estimated the overall market size for men’s grooming products was a good-looking £806m, it still continued to exhibit unfulfilled potential.

The slow uptake of these products seems to be because of the continued identification of grooming and self-presentation practices with women and femininity. Harrison’s (2008) visual semiotic analysis of male cosmetics advertised online by Studio5ive found that the organisation reframed mascara and eyeliner in masculine ways (‘manscara’; ‘guy-liner’) in order to distinguish it from women’s products. Those men who actively engaged with such products, risked being critiqued and rejected as non-masculine (hence accusations of homosexuality, effeminacy and narcissism) and so tended to invoke conventional masculinity signifiers (e.g. heterosexual prowess, self-respect etc.) in order to justify their consumption (Hall, 2009). The apparent difficulty men face in enjoying such hitherto feminine identity products shows how more conventional or ‘hegemonic masculinities’ (see: Connell, 1995; Connell & Messerschmidt, 2005) still remain culturally available and are likely to influence men’s (and women’s) consumption patterns this Christmas.

Analysing Discursive Constructions of ‘Metrosexual’ Masculinity Online: ‘What does it matter, anyway?’

The Journal of Popular Culture

Men’s Grooming Habits – UK – March 2007

UK Christmas retail sales to rise 1.9 pct

The Super Scooby: ‘You have to be a real man to eat one.’

It is widely regarded that a healthy diet protects against major illness. Men on the whole however, are not given to healthy eating and lifestyle practices, although recent reports from the Department for Health (2009) suggest men’s health awareness is beginning to change.

One reason for men’s slow up-take of a healthy lifestyle and eating practices is the meanings men attach to food and the relationship between diet and health (Gough, 2007). Historically, diet and the concern with healthy eating have been associated with feminised ideals and practices which centre on consumption, health and embodiment (Gill, Henwood & McLean, 2005). These associations put pressure on men to conform to conventional masculine identity projects with their disinterest in health and appearance. The recent launch of the Super Scooby provides an interesting example of how masculine ideals can absolve men from changing their health-defeating ways.

The Metro’s article about the ‘Super Scooby’ with its ‘artery-busting 2,645 calories’ draws on conventional masculine identity markers, which allow men to engage unproblematically in eating the unhealthy meal. For example the ‘Super Scooby’ is offered to ‘real men’ who are willing to take up the challenge to ‘beat the (as yet unbeaten) beast’. Indeed, the ‘Super Scooby’ provides a man-size portion of meat with its eight rashers of bacon and four burgers (Gough 2007). Irony and humour (see Benwell, 2004) are also frequently used to mock health concerns associated with eating the burger ‘health concerns haven’t been completely ignored – the monster burger contains some salad. It boasts two lettuce leaves and six slices of tomato… accounting for all of 29 calories’.

Super Scooby is UK’s ‘biggest burger’

The beer talking: four lads, a carry out and the reproduction of masculinities

‘Real men don’t diet’: An analysis of contemporary newspaper representations of men, food and health

New stats reveal England’s calorific alcohol intake

Concerns about health and looks are driving thousands to cut back on alcohol