What Is Masculinity?

It has recently become an interest of mine to explore the question “what is masculinity?”.

Masculinity has long been associated with power, dominance, and authority but often, these components are in reference to  particular groups of people. Generally speaking, the most common form of masculinity is embodied by white, middle class and usually heterosexual men. This is sometimes referred to as "hegemonic" masculinity (although the term and it's ideas are  a lot more complex once you read further in to it). 

There are however many other forms of masculinity that identifying men use to express themselves. Masculinity, like most forms of social identity is performative – this means that as men we perform masculinity in reference to what we think best embodies or defines the term. So to clarify, whilst hegemonic is largely viewed as the dominant form of masculinity, it is not the only form that exists. 

Often though, men try to emulate dominant ideas surrounding masculinity in their own ways, by referencing their cultural identity (what groups of people they most closely identify with) and what ideas are shared within these groups. Other social factors such as socio-economic status, ethnicity and sexuality also influence how masculinity is performed. These factors can marginalize or privilege particular groups of men and this will be explored more in a future post...

With masculinity though, you are dealing with a whole host of intersecting social identities that influence the experience of embodying and projecting a particular masculinity in to the world. Masculinity is a subjective experience in the sense that whilst I may share an understanding of what it means to be a man with another man, our experience of this idea is most likely going to be different and experientially inaccessible. So, it could be said that there are as many active masculinities as there are identifying men, all with different ideas and interpretations surrounding cultural frameworks that perpetuate ideas of masculine.

My aim is to shed light on the fluidness of masculinity. It is problematic to assume that to be a male is to be solely dominant and authoritative. Gender identities like most social constructs are constantly changing and adapting, with this change influencing the ways in which we view ourselves. By the end of this series, your view of masculinity should be radically different and for all identifying men reading this, I hope to shed light on the different types of masculinities that we all borrow and share at numerous points in our lives.

I’m excited!