Inhaltsangabe
This volume offers an introduction to, and a synthesis of, a new field of knowledge and politics. It examines and assesses the history of attempts to create knowledge of the nature of masculinity by psychoanalysis, social scientists, and movements for social change. Connell argues that, while the goal of a science of masculinity is mistaken, we can gain fresh ways of thinking about men's bodies and men's involvement in a gendered world. There is not "one" masculinity, but multiple masculinities, which can be understood through a social analysis of gender relations. Contemporary developments in masculinities are examined through a close focus on the lives of four groups of men, interviewed especially for this volume, who are undergoing different experiences of change - some working to transform gender relations and some resisting such transformation. Their trajectories towards and away from hegemonic masculinity are traced in detail; some of these accounts are highly amusing while some are tragic. After this detailed analysis of the lives of a number of men, "Masculinities" moves to a larger framework of inquiry, and shows that modern masculinities are a product of a 400-year history in which gender was closely connected with empire and the creation of a global economy. New forms of politics about masculinity have recently emerged. The final sections of the book examine these new forms as they have occured in Western countries, including the currently fashionable "masculinity therapy", and discuss how one might pursue social justice in a gendered world. Students in sociology, politics and gender studies should find the book of interest, as should anyone interested in the nature or form of gender relations.
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