Plural Masculinities

"Plural Masculinities" offers a contemporary portrait of the plural dynamics and forms of masculinity, emphasizing the multiple, even contradictory, pathways through which men are remaking their identities. Proceeding from the premise that it is impossible to fully understand masculinity without considering its connection with family change and women's change, it places men and masculinities within the realm of family life, examining men's practices and discourses in their relationships with women and their changing femininities. From an analysis of 'complicit men' as partners and fathers, it becomes apparent that right at the centre of the hetero-normative definition of masculinity men's practices and identities are changing into multiple, hybrid, even paradoxical, forms. Rather than pursuing a single development or radical metamorphosis, by embracing 'new expressive roles' within the private sphere, men transform the features of masculinity as traditionally conceived through a combination of old and new. Combining an empirical study based in Portugal with cross-national analyses of attitudes towards ideal gender arrangements in Europe and the U.S., this book examines the various ways in which men come to define their identities and will appeal to those working in the fields of masculinities, gender studies and the sociology of the family.