The Ambiguous Construction of Nondominant Masculinity: Configuring the "New" Man through Narratives of Choice, Involved Fatherhood, and Gender Equality
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The Ambiguous Construction of Nondominant Masculinity : Configuring the "New" Man through Narratives of Choice, Involved Fatherhood, and Gender Equality. / Bach, Anna Sofie.
In: Men and Masculinities, Vol. 22, No. 2, 2019, p. 338-359.Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - The Ambiguous Construction of Nondominant Masculinity
T2 - Configuring the "New" Man through Narratives of Choice, Involved Fatherhood, and Gender Equality
AU - Bach, Anna Sofie
PY - 2019
Y1 - 2019
N2 - This article explores the development of gender equality-oriented (heterosexual)masculinity discussing the challenges of constructing nondominant masculine identities in the context of the Danish welfare state. Combining narrative methods with the theoretical framework of masculinity as cultural repertoire, the article offers a qualitative study examining how three Danish men construct (gender) identity in relation to being the partners of career-oriented and high-achieving women. Analyzing the men’s narrative negotiations of power, gender, and self, the article identifies three central narratives produced by the men to render themselves and their family arrangements intelligible and desirable. Considering how the narratives of (1) choice, (2) involved fatherhood, and (3) gender equality work as strategies to negotiate and reconstruct the meaning of compliance and autonomy, I delineate and discuss how traditional notions of what it means to be a man are simultaneously preserved and destabilized. Thus, the article demonstrates that, while nurturing practices and the loss of traditional male breadwinner authority can be positively reconstituted within the Nordic ideals of intensive parenting and gender equality, a fear of male subordination still seems to affect the construction of masculine selves even among gender equality–oriented “new” men.
AB - This article explores the development of gender equality-oriented (heterosexual)masculinity discussing the challenges of constructing nondominant masculine identities in the context of the Danish welfare state. Combining narrative methods with the theoretical framework of masculinity as cultural repertoire, the article offers a qualitative study examining how three Danish men construct (gender) identity in relation to being the partners of career-oriented and high-achieving women. Analyzing the men’s narrative negotiations of power, gender, and self, the article identifies three central narratives produced by the men to render themselves and their family arrangements intelligible and desirable. Considering how the narratives of (1) choice, (2) involved fatherhood, and (3) gender equality work as strategies to negotiate and reconstruct the meaning of compliance and autonomy, I delineate and discuss how traditional notions of what it means to be a man are simultaneously preserved and destabilized. Thus, the article demonstrates that, while nurturing practices and the loss of traditional male breadwinner authority can be positively reconstituted within the Nordic ideals of intensive parenting and gender equality, a fear of male subordination still seems to affect the construction of masculine selves even among gender equality–oriented “new” men.
KW - masculinity
KW - the "new" man
KW - gender equality
KW - identity
KW - narratives
KW - cultural repertoires
U2 - 10.1177/1097184X17715494
DO - 10.1177/1097184X17715494
M3 - Journal article
VL - 22
SP - 338
EP - 359
JO - Men and Masculinities
JF - Men and Masculinities
SN - 1097-184X
IS - 2
ER -
ID: 242302187