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University of California Press

About the Book

This is an exciting new edition of R.W. Connell's groundbreaking text, which has become a classic work on the nature and construction of masculine identity. In its first edition, Masculinities provided one of the most important voices in feminist scholarship by men. Connell argued that there is no such thing as a single concept of masculinity, but, rather, that many different masculinities exist, each associated with different positions of power. In a world in which gender order continues to extend privilege to men over women, but that also raises difficult issues for men and boys, Connell's account is more pertinent than ever.

In the new edition's substantial new introduction and conclusion, Connell discusses the development of masculinity studies in the ten years since the book's initial publication. She explores global gender relations, new theories, and practical uses of masculinity research. Looking to the future, her new concluding chapter addresses the politics of masculinities, and the implications of masculinity research as a way of understanding current world issues. Against the backdrop of an increasingly divided world, one that is presently dominated by neo-conservative politics, Connell's account highlights a series of compelling questions about the future of human society.

This second edition of Connell's classic book will be essential reading for students taking courses on masculinities and gender studies and will be of interest to students and scholars across the humanities and social sciences.

About the Author

R. W. Connell is Professor of Education at the University of Sydney in Australia. She is the author of The Men and the Boys (California, 2001) among other books on gender.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction to the Second Edition
Introducing Masculinities
Growth of the Field of Study
Debates and Difficulties
The Global Dimension
In Conclusion

Part I Knowledge and its Problems

1 The Science of Masculinity
Rival Knowledges
Clinical Knowledge
The Oedipus complex
Archetype and identity
Radical psychoanalysis
The Male Role
The New Social Science
Histories
Ethnography of the other
Social construction and gender dynamics
Political Knowledge
The Object of Knowledge

2 Men's Bodies
True Masculinity
Machine, Landscape and Compromise
The Body Inescapable
Complexities of Mire or Blood
Banquo's Ghost: Body-Reflexive Practices
Forming the World

3 The Social Organization of Masculinity
Defining Masculinity
Gender as a Structure of Social Practice
Relations among Masculinities: Hegemony,
Subordination, Complicity, Marginalization
Historical Dynamics, Violence and Crisis Tendencies

Part II Four Studies of the Dynamics of Masculinity

Introduction
4 Live Fast and Die Young
Group and Context
Abstract Labour
Violence and the State
Compulsory Heterosexuality for Men
Masculinity as Collective Practice
Protest Masculinity
Other Trajectories
Divergent Masculinities and Gender Politics

5 A Whole New World
The Moment of Engagement
Distancing
The Environmental Movement
Encounters with Feminism
The Moment of Separation
The Annihilation of Masculinity
The Moment of Contestation

6 A Very Straight Gay
The Moment of Engagement
The Grain of Sand: Sexuality
Being Gay: Identity and Relationships
Relations between Masculinities
Facing Change
Gay Masculinity as Project and History

7 Men of Reason
Constructing Masculinity
Constructing Rationality
Career and Workplace
The Irrational
Reason and Change

Part III History and Politics

8 The History of Masculinity
The Production of Masculinity in the Formation
of the Modern Gender Order
Transformations
The Present Moment

9 Masculinity Politics
Men's Politics and Masculinity Politics
Masculinity Therapy
The Gun Lobby: Defending Hegemonic Masculinity
Gay Liberation
Exit Politics

10 Practice and Utopia
Historical Consciousness
Purposes of Action
Degendering and Recomposing
Forms of Action
Education
Prospects

Afterword: The Contemporary Politics of Masculinity
Men's Interests in Contemporary Patriarchy
'Backlash' Politics
Neoliberalism and Men's Interests
The Problem of Violence
Masculinity Politics on a World Scale

Notes
References
Index

Reviews

FROM THE PREVIOUS EDITION:

"Clearly written and sophisticated, this book presents Connell's ideas about males and the social phenomena that interact with gender."—Choice

"Connell’s book is the fundamental study on masculinity as a formative factor on modern social inequality, and also of the most important books in the social sciences in recent years."—Journal for the Study of British Cultures

"A wonderful book; engagingly written, broadly researched, and politically useful. It is certainly one of the best of the recent, to use Connell's witty phrase, 'books about men.'"—Australian Journal of Political Science