Critical Perspectives on Masculinities and Relationalities: In Relation to What? (Crossroads of Knowledge)

This volume explores which relations produce or maintain masculinities and certain gendered systems of power and the consequences of these gender constructions that further gender research. To understand the meanings of masculinity/masculinities and relationalities as critical concepts in gender studies it takes a wide theoretical grip that spans over several research fields. From a feminist perspective, it critically investigates masculinities as relationally constructed by scrutinizing which relations construct masculinity within a certain gendered system of power, such as the nation, the family, or the workplace, and explores how this is done. ‘In relation to what?’ is hence, in spite of its almost vulgar rhetorical simplicity, an important question in investigating and problematizing gender. Front Matter....Pages i-ix Introduction: Masculinity/Masculinities and Relationality....Pages 1-7 Exploring the Relationality of Fatherhood: John Irving’s The Cider House Rules ....Pages 9-21 Doing (Oppressive) Gender Via Men’s Relations with Children....Pages 23-34 Making Friends: Constructions of Change, Masculine Positions, and Friendships Among Former Drug Users....Pages 35-52 Constructions of Masculinity: Constructions of Context – Relational Processes in Everyday Work....Pages 53-66 (Re)Doing Men in Museum Exhibitions? Masculinities and the Democratization of Heritage in South Africa....Pages 67-96 Fear and Love: Masculinities and Emotions in Autobiographies by Swedish Politicians....Pages 97-114