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R. W. Connell's "Masculinities": ReplyAuthor(s): R. W. ConnellSource: Gender and Society, Vol. 12, No. 4 (Aug., 1998), pp. 474-477Published by: Sage Publications, Inc.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/190181
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8/8/2019 R. W. Connells Masculinities Reply
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474 GENDER & SOCIETY / August 199874 GENDER & SOCIETY / August 1998
ninity is a continuousgenderproject n the lives of girls andwomen;they must
(and do) engage it, whethersociologists study it or not. I hope Masculinitiesstimulatesnewscholarship nfemininities. want o know moreabouthowwomen
practice,andresist, varied femininities and with what effects to themselves and
others(see Pringle1988). Connellsuggeststhat women can "domasculinities."
want to understand hatdynamicand how men"do femininities"as well.
Masculinitiesare culturalvalues in addition o practices.Leading,being com-
petent,beingstrong,andstandingupfor one's beliefs are valorized n society; theyare also normativelyassociatedwithmen andmasculinity/ies.Except perhapsas
mothers,women arenormatively,and often empirically,discouraged rom these
practices.A girl knows that these standards reculturallyadmiredyet she knowsalso,orlearns, hatwhen sheachievesthem,shemaybe criticized.Althoughmanymasculinitiesarepositivefor bothgenders,many emininitieshavea mixed valence
for women and arelargely negativefor men(see Connell1987).So what about my question?The answer is: He can! If masculinities and
femininitiesare practices, everyonecan do both (limitedby a few bodily con-
straints).Connelladmires hemasculinitypracticeof "sacrifice n behalfof others"
(p. 233), arguing or its preservation.Thispracticemaybe idealmasculinitybutit
is also normative emininity,a kind that is frequentlyburdensome o women and
girls. Yet,practicesike this one, which are
culturallyavailableto both
genders,may offer a place from which to begin creatingConnell's favored "complex
equality" hatsavorsoptions,toleratesvariability, ndavoids extensive differentia-
tionbasedon gender.
REFERENCES
Connell,R. W. 1987. Genderandpower.PaloAlto, CA: StanfordUniversityPress.
. 1995.Masculinities.Berkeley:Universityof CaliforniaPress.
Ferguson,Kathy.1984.The eministcase against bureaucracy.Philadelphia:TempleUniversityPress.Kondo, Dorrine. 1990. Craftingselves: Power, gender,and discourses of identity in a Japanese
workplace.Chicago:Universityof ChicagoPress.
MacKinnon,Catherine.1987.Feminismunmodified.Cambridge,MA: HarvardUniversityPress.
Pringle,Rosemary.1988.Secretaries alk:Sexuality,power,and work.Sydney:Allen and Unwin.
Schrank,R. 1994. Two women, threemen on a raft.In Differencesthatwork,edited by M. Gentile.
Boston:HarvardBusiness School.
PATRICIA ANCEYMARTINFlorida State University
Reply
The firststirringsof Men'sLiberation n theearly 1970s launcheda debateabout
problemswithin the"malerole,"as well as men'splaceinpatriarchy. oryearsthe
ninity is a continuousgenderproject n the lives of girls andwomen;they must
(and do) engage it, whethersociologists study it or not. I hope Masculinitiesstimulatesnewscholarship nfemininities. want o know moreabouthowwomen
practice,andresist, varied femininities and with what effects to themselves and
others(see Pringle1988). Connellsuggeststhat women can "domasculinities."
want to understand hatdynamicand how men"do femininities"as well.
Masculinitiesare culturalvalues in addition o practices.Leading,being com-
petent,beingstrong,andstandingupfor one's beliefs are valorized n society; theyare also normativelyassociatedwithmen andmasculinity/ies.Except perhapsas
mothers,women arenormatively,and often empirically,discouraged rom these
practices.A girl knows that these standards reculturallyadmiredyet she knowsalso,orlearns, hatwhen sheachievesthem,shemaybe criticized.Althoughmanymasculinitiesarepositivefor bothgenders,many emininitieshavea mixed valence
for women and arelargely negativefor men(see Connell1987).So what about my question?The answer is: He can! If masculinities and
femininitiesare practices, everyonecan do both (limitedby a few bodily con-
straints).Connelladmires hemasculinitypracticeof "sacrifice n behalfof others"
(p. 233), arguing or its preservation.Thispracticemaybe idealmasculinitybutit
is also normative emininity,a kind that is frequentlyburdensome o women and
girls. Yet,practicesike this one, which are
culturallyavailableto both
genders,may offer a place from which to begin creatingConnell's favored "complex
equality" hatsavorsoptions,toleratesvariability, ndavoids extensive differentia-
tionbasedon gender.
REFERENCES
Connell,R. W. 1987. Genderandpower.PaloAlto, CA: StanfordUniversityPress.
. 1995.Masculinities.Berkeley:Universityof CaliforniaPress.
Ferguson,Kathy.1984.The eministcase against bureaucracy.Philadelphia:TempleUniversityPress.Kondo, Dorrine. 1990. Craftingselves: Power, gender,and discourses of identity in a Japanese
workplace.Chicago:Universityof ChicagoPress.
MacKinnon,Catherine.1987.Feminismunmodified.Cambridge,MA: HarvardUniversityPress.
Pringle,Rosemary.1988.Secretaries alk:Sexuality,power,and work.Sydney:Allen and Unwin.
Schrank,R. 1994. Two women, threemen on a raft.In Differencesthatwork,edited by M. Gentile.
Boston:HarvardBusiness School.
PATRICIA ANCEYMARTINFlorida State University
Reply
The firststirringsof Men'sLiberation n theearly 1970s launcheda debateabout
problemswithin the"malerole,"as well as men'splaceinpatriarchy. oryearsthe
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COMMENT AND LETTERS 475
debateremained actshort, f notfactfree,a situation n which fantastic alesabout
masculinitycouldbe thoughta revelation.By the early 1990s, a certain volume of researchon men and gender had
accumulated-Gender &Society playingan honorablerole in theprocess.One of
the main purposesof Masculinitieswas to document and evaluate this research
(much of which was not well known), place it in historical context, offer a
theoretical ramework or understandingt, andassayits intellectualandpolitical
consequences. PatriciaYancey Martin and Judith Lorber are generous in their
appraisalof this effort,andI ampleasedthat suchjudges shouldthink it useful. I
welcome their criticismstoo, which arefairlystatedandimportant.nthe spiritof
testing arguments o improvethem,here are briefresponsesto some mainpoints(space preventsme fromresponding o others).
My rathercomplicateddefinition of masculinityarose from a strongsense of
the multileveled and multidimensional haracterof gender,and from a research
literature hat dentifiedmasculinities n such different hingsas a neuroticperson-
ality,a subculturalpeer group,a formalorganization, nda mass mediaimage.No
single-level notion of "core"or "true"masculinitywill do.
Have I stretched he term too far?Martinquerieswhethermasculinitycan be a
"place"or an "effect."Her exampleis to the point.When a man dresses "like a
woman,"he is preciselyoccupyinga feminineplaceinthatsegmentof the structureof genderrelationsthat defines semiotic oppositionsin dress. The metaphorof
"place"s partof theconceptionof genderasstructure.But thestructures complex.The man in drag need not be occupying a feminine place in otherpartsof the
structure, uch as the division of labor-a pointof importance, n understandingthe different orms of genderambiguityandtransgression.
Socialpractices ncludingdress and laborhavebodilyeffects,and a good many
(frompumping ronandplayingball to cosmeticsurgeryandlearningdeportment)are intendedas partof theconstructionof gender.I wouldarguethatthe circuit of
interactionbetween social andbodily processes
is of suchimportance
hat these
effects shouldbe included n the definitionof "masculinity"and"femininity").Martin s rightthat the meaningof anyplace arises from the structure;t is not
fixed. Wearinga shortpleatedskirtwas a masculinepractice n early 18th-centuryScotland,a femininepractice n 20th-centuryManhattan.So farI would go with
Kondo. But conceptions of genderthatemphasize performancerisk truncatingthe whole field. Gender s not only a systemof signs andmeanings; t involves the
material aborof houseworkandmachineminding, he accumulation f wealth,the
materialitiesof violence andpower,pregnancyand childrearing,and so on. Our
models should not privilege the symbolic dimensionof social practiceover all
others.
Martin s quiteright hat he termhegemonicmasculinityhas come to havemore
than one meaning.Whenmy colleagues (TimCarriganand JohnLee) andI were
first trying to define it, we thoughtof hegemony as a situation,which arose in
historyandcould changein history.But in some writingsince, the term has come
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476 GENDER & SOCIETY / August 1998
to stand or a fixedcharacterype, something ike aTypeApersonality-and almost
alwayswithnegativeconnotations.I must take some responsibility or this. The termis defined in relation to the
legitimacy of patriarchy.Although I have tried to be consistent in defining it
historically, n some usages I refer in a shorthandway to hegemonic masculinitywhen the topic is menbehavingbadly(withrespectto genderequality).And this
gives an openingto the notionof a fixed negativecharacterype.But I do thinkit possibleforhegemonyto be a positiveforce. That was partof
Gramsci's original conception of hegemony in class relations,and it is quiteconceivable thatacertainhegemonycould be constructed ormasculinities hatare
less toxic, more cooperativeand peaceable, than the currenteditions. That is,indeed,a usefulwayof formulating oalsforeducational ndpoliticalwork.Which
leads to questionsof political strategy.Lorberbegins and ends her remarkswith a categorizinggesture("men'sfemi-
nism") which has considerable mplications.I thinkeveryone would agree that
feminism has beenof crucial mportanceorthedevelopmentof recentresearchon
men andmasculinity.That s certainly rue orme.Myworkongender ssuesbeganas a response to feminism, and has been conductedin constantdialogue with
feminists,especiallyPam Bentonbutincludingmanyothers.
Yet,acknowledginghis in the fullest terms is not to
acceptthe
categorizationof the work on masculinityas men's feminism.First,a gooddeal of it (andnot the
least influential) is done by women: Nancy Chodorow,Lynne Segal, Ursula
Mueller,CarolHagemann-White, nd ElisabethBadinter,amongothers.Second,
significantpartsof the work do not stem from feminismat all. The concept of
hegemonic masculinitywas adaptedfrom Gramsci'sMarxism,the concept of
hierarchies f masculinitywas workedoutby GayLiberation, ndother deas have
come fromFreud,Foucault,Sartre, tructuralism,ndpoststructuralism.ome of
the bestworkon men'ssexuality s aresponse othe HIV/AIDSepidemic,andsome
of the best historicalworkonmasculinitygrows
outof concernswith colonialism
andrace.
I think t importanto recognizethemultiplesourcesof the recentworkonmen
andmasculinity n order o grapplewith thepoliticaldilemmaLorberposes.Men's
feminism-as she senses, in her commentson men's inabilityto sharewomen's
"angerandresentment"-can only be tail-endism,anda weak assetpolitically.(Itwill also be a weakasset for feminism ntellectually, ince it will reflect thealreadyfeminist theoriesthat t "applies.")Thenonfeministandantifeministmen'smove-
ments sharethis view of men's feminism and ridiculeprofeministactivists and
researchersas, to quote a currentAustralianbook, "the sackcloth and ashes
brigade."Thepoliticalargument f Masculinitiess notaPollyannahopeof making hings
betterfor everyone,butan argumentabout the significanceof social alliancesin
genderreform.Lorberdoes not thinkmuchof this approach, ince "few women"
have benefitedfromprogressivesocial policies. Theremay be otherreasonsfor
being waryof alliances,but thatis not a good one; the evidence rangesfromthe
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COMMENT AND LETTERS 477
historicalgains for womenfromthe growthof publiceducation n Americato the
current osses women aresufferingas the welfarestateis trashedby reactionariesin Britainand Australiaand the regimeof formalequality s trashed n theformer
Soviet states.
If one is concernedwith buildingsocial majorities n supportof progressive
genderpolitics,thenit is importanto form allianceswithothersocialmovements,and to think how to bring groupsof men into them. Whatsuch alliancesneed as
bindingis a robustconceptionof socialjustice.And it is a politicsof socialjustice,rather han a tail-end relationwith feminism,thatprovidesthe groundon which
progressivegenderpoliticsamongmen can stand.
Whateverone's view of alliancepolitics,I shouldthink hatMartin,Lorber,andI are in agreementon this: Foranyform of progressivegenderpolitics,a vigorous,multisourcedmovement of researchandactivism on issues aboutmen andmascu-
linity will be a long-termasset.
R. W.CONNELL
Universityof Sydney