'Independence' was an important ideal for men in Georgian England. In this period, however, the word meant much more than simply the virtues of self-sufficiency and impartiality. Most people believed that obligations absolutely compromised freedom and conscience, whereas 'independence' was associated with manly virtue and physical vigour. Fundamentally, the political world was thought to consist of 'independent men', exercising their consciences and standing up for the general good. As such, Georgians thought about political action and masculine virtue very differently to the ways in which we do today. In this study, newly available in paperback, Matthew McCormack establishes the links between the histories of masculinity and politics, highlighting the centrality of 'manly' ideals in the political world and - conversely - the role of politics in the operation of gender ideology. -- .

Sexuality, religion and faith often have complex and conflicting interactions, on both personal and societal levels. Numerous studies have been conducted on queer subjects, but they have predominantly focused on 'Western' expressions of faith and queer identities. This book contributes to the wider scholarship on queer subjects by drawing on actual lived experiences of self-identifying gay and bisexual men in Malaysia. It discusses what we can learn from the realities of their lives that intersect with their religious, spiritual, theological or humanistic values in an Asian context. Analysed within the critical frameworks of queer theory and queer sexual theology, this study divulges the meanings ascribed to sexual identities and practices, as well as conceptualisations of masculinity, sexual desire, love and intimate physical connections. It also lays bare the complex negotiations between gender, desire and spirit, and how they can affect one another. Tying fascinating case studies and underexplored Asian theologies with wider conversations around sexuality and faith, this book will be of significant interest to scholars working in religious studies, theology, queer studies, sexuality studies and Asian studies.

Football has traditionally been an institution hostile toward sexual minorities. Boys and men in the sport have deployed high levels of homophobia for multiple reasons. However, the ground-breaking research within this book shows that intolerant attitudes toward gay men are increasingly being challenged. Based on unprecedented access to Premier League academies, Inclusive Masculinities in Contemporary Football: Men in the Beautiful Game explores these changing attitudes toward homophobia in football today. Revealing a range of masculine identities never before empirically measured at this level of football, this book discusses the implications for the complex and enclosed structures of professional sport, and extends our understanding of contemporary masculinity. It also offers fresh insights to the importance of "banter" in the development of relationships and identities. This culture of banter often plays a paradoxical role, both facilitating and disrupting friendships formed between male footballers. As the first title in the Routledge Critical Studies of Men and Masculinities Series, this book is fascinating reading for all students and scholars interested in football and the study of gender, sexuality and the sociology of sport.

The challenges that young women go through in order to be successful in the world of dance are well known. However, little is known about the experiences of young men who choose to take dance classes in non-professional settings. Dancing Boys is one of the first scholarly works to demystify the largely unknown challenges of adolescent males in dance. Through an ethnographic study of sixty-two adolescent male students, Zihao Li captures the authentic stories and experiences of boys participating in dance classes in a public high school in Toronto. Accompanied by the boys' artwork and photographs and supported by a documentary-style video, the study explores their motivations for dancing, their reflections on masculinity and gender, and the internal and external factors that impact their decisions to continue to dance professionally or in informal settings. With the author's reflections on his own journey as a professional dancer woven throughout, Dancing Boys will spark discussion on how and why educators can engage adolescent males in dance.

Anthropology is particularly well suited to explore the contemporary predicament in the coming of age of young men. Its grounded and comparative empiricism provides the opportunity to move beyond statistics, moral panics, or gender stereotypes in order to explore specific aspects of life course transitions, as well as the similar or divergent barriers or opportunities that young men in different parts of the world face. Yet, effective contextualization and comparison cannot be achieved by looking at male youths in isolation. This volume undertakes to contextualize male youths? circumstances and to learn about their lives, perspectives, and actions, and in turn illuminates the larger structures and processes that mediate the experiences entailed in becoming young men. The situation of male youths provides an important vantage point from which to consider broader social transformations and continuities. By paying careful attention to these contexts, we achieve a better understanding of the current influences encountered and acted upon by young people.

For every female suicide in Ireland, there are five male suicides. This book is based on fieldwork done in and around Cork, Ireland between 2008 and 2012 among some forty young lads, aged 18-34. This anthropological approach aims to help explain why some groups in a specific society or community are more prone to commit suicide than others. In addition to suicide, this book focuses extensively on related issues such as alcohol, drug abuse, and other self-destructive behaviors prominent within Irish lad culture. This includes peer pressures and loyalties, chauvinistic jargon, homophobic bullying, humor, and the culture of mocking so as to grasp the cultural expectations of this particular form of masculinity. The everyday workings of gender segregation and gender-appropriateness is examined in detail by informants while addressing the underlying question whether increased gender equality-which includes men-could lessen young men's vulnerability to self-destructive behaviors and suicide in Ireland.

How is love different from lust or infatuation? Do love and marriage really go together "like a horse and carriage"? Does sex have any necessary connection to either? And how important are love, sex, and marriage to a well-lived life? In the Second Edition of this lively, lucid, and comprehensive book, Raja Halwani explores and elucidates the nature, uses, and ethics of romantic love, sexuality, and marriage. It is structured in three parts: Love examines the nature of romantic love and how it differs from other types of love, such as friendship and parental love. It also investigates the relationship of love to morality and asks what limits morality puts on romantic love and even whether romantic love is inherently moral. Sex demonstrates the difficulty in defining sex and the sexual, and examines what constitutes good and bad sex in terms of pleasure, "naturalness," and moral permissibility. It discusses the nature of sexual desire and its connection to objectification and virtue, all the while looking at specific sexual engagements such as pornography, BDSM, and raced desires. Marriage traces the history of the institution and describes the various forms in which marriage exists and the reasons why people marry. It also investigates the necessity of marriage and ways in which it requires reform. Updates and Revisions in the Second Edition Expands the coverage of love and morality from one to two chapters, incorporating much of the recent literature on love as a moral emotion. Includes a new chapter on sex and virtue ethics. Ends each of the chapters on sex with an "applied" topic, such as pornography, BDSM, prostitution, racial sexual desires, and adultery. Increases coverage of the nature and purpose of marriage, including debates surrounding same-sex marriage, but also moving beyond these debates to include issues on minimal marriage, temporary marriage, polygamy, and other forms of marriage. Updates the Further Reading and Study Questions sections at the end of each chapter and provides an up-to-date comprehensive bibliography at the back of the book. Includes new discussions of topics on the nature of love; love and reasons; distinctions between two types of romantic love; love and its connections to moral theories; definitions of crucial sexual concepts; objectification; virtue and sex; racial sexual desires; and the definition of marriage and whether it is important as an institution.

This practical resource identifies complex issues associated with masculinity in higher education, providing administrators and faculty with research-based strategies for supporting the success of this student group. Grounded in interdisciplinary social science theories and representative case studies, this book unpacks the experience of college men while simultaneously addressing the various identities they embrace or are assigned. Masculinity and Student Success in Higher Education shares strategies on increasing enrollment, engagement, and persistence of men in higher education across racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic distinctions. By successfully interrogating their own campus practices, readers can better address issues of diversity while also supporting and engaging the social and academic factors that contribute to student success.

This book examines the potential impact of rape survivors' traumatic experiences in post-conflict zones. With specific attention given to the experiences of women who were sexually abused during the breakup of the former Yugoslavia, it addresses the sexuality of survivors, which has so far been inadequately researched, and challenges the stereotypical and victimized images and narrations that have so far prevailed in academic and public discourse about women survivors while exploring the effects of those narratives on the political, social and economic status of the survivors themselves. Methodologically innovative, the book questions the processes of re-victimization that can follow fieldwork with survivors and introduces the theoretical and practical foundations of applied drama and community theater as a research approach in this field, revealing its potential as a means of expressing a range of ethnographic, anthropological and case-study research findings. Based on the narratives of advocates, scholars and different social stakeholders, together with new drama-based methodologies employed directly with survivors, Sexuality after War Rape: From Narrative to Embodied Research offers a sensitive and ethically-responsible research approach to contesting assumptions about the sexualities of survivors of sexual violence and revealing the emancipatory potential of testifying. This book will appeal to scholars of sociology and gender studies, victimology and sexuality.

In this day and age, much has been discussed as to what it means 'to be an Arab'. However, this enlightening volume seeks instead to invite us deeper into young Arab-Australian men's lives as we explore their vocational aspirations and working experiences within highly racialised and hierarchical industries. Young Migrant Identities is an in-depth exploration into the lives of Arab-Australian young men living in Western Sydney with creative career aspirations. Indeed, not only does Idriss explore how these men develop interests in fields such as music, filmmaking, and design, but she also examines the multilinear routes that they take to turn these interests into vocational identities. However, in the local migrant communities in which these young men live, creative identities are seen to compromise individual and familial prospects for social mobility, and artistic interests tend to go unsupported. Thus, this book also strives to offer new insights about how notions of gender, ethnicity, and social class are experienced because of these young men's 'risky' career ambitions. A timely volume, Young Migrant Identities draws together a range of theoretical issues and debates, engaging with sociological approaches to race and social class, creative and cultural economies, and studies on youth. It will particularly appeal to post-graduate students and post-doctoral researchers interested in fields such as Youth Studies, Ethnicity Studies, Cultural Economy, and Migration Studies.

Rural-urban migration within China has transformed and reshaped rural people's lives during the past few decades, and has been one of the most visible phenomena of the economic reforms enacted since the late 1970s. Whilst Feminist scholars have addressed rural women's experience of struggle and empowerment in urban China, in contrast, research on rural men's experience of migration is a neglected area of study. In response, this book seeks to address the absence of male migrant workers as a gendered category within the current literature on rural-urban migration. Examining Chinese male migrant workers' identity formation, this book explores their experience of rural-urban migration and their status as an emerging sector of a dislocated urban working class. It seeks to understand issues of gender and class through the rural migrant men's narratives within the context of China's modernization, and provides an in-depth analysis of how these men make sense of their new lives in the rapidly modernizing, post-Mao China with its emphasis on progress and development. Further, this book uses the men's own narratives to challenge the elite assumption that rural men's low status is a result of their failure to adopt a modern urban identity and lifestyle. Drawing on interviews with 28 male rural migrants, Xiaodong Lin unpacks the gender politics of Chinese men and masculinities, and in turn contributes to a greater understanding of global masculinities in an international context. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars working in the fields of Chinese culture and society, gender studies, migration studies, sociology and social anthropology. Shortlisted for this year's BSA Philip Abrams Memorial Prize.

A brief commentary on the necessity and the impossibility of black men's participation in the development of black feminist theory and politics, Black Men, Black Feminism examines the basic assumptions that have guided-and misguided-black men's efforts to take up black feminism. Offering a rejoinder to the contemporary study of black men and masculinity in the twenty-first century, Jared Sexton interrogates some of the most common intellectual postures of black men writing about black feminism, ultimately departing from the prevailing discourse on progressive black masculinities. Sexton examines, by contrast, black men's critical and creative work-from Charles Burnett's Killer of Sheep to Jordan Peele's Get Out- to describe the cultural logic that provides a limited moral impetus to the quest for black male feminism and that might, if reconfigured, prompt an ethical response of an entirely different order.

Role-playing games offer a chance to pretend, make believe, and share fantasy. They often invoke heavy themes into their game play: morality, violence, politics, spirituality, or sexuality. Although interesting moral debates perennially appear in the media and academia concerning the appropriateness of games' ability to deal with such adult concepts, very little is known about the intersection between games, playfulness, and sexuality and what this might mean for players. This book offers an in-depth, ethnographic look into the phenomenon of erotic role-play through the experiences of players in multiplayer and tabletop role-playing games. Brown explores why participants engage in erotic role-play; discusses the rules involved in erotic role-play; and uncovers what playing with sexuality in ludic environments means for players, their partners, and their everyday lives. Taken together, this book provides a rich, nuanced, and detailed account of a provocative topic.

Out of K.O.S. (Knowledge of Self): Black Masculinity, Psychopathology, and Treatment provides a comprehensive analysis of the development of racialized masculinity in Black males. This text explores the current theories related to gender development and racial identity development and their impact on the formation and expression of Black masculinity. Specifically, this text investigates the intersection between Black masculinity development, racial identity, and race-related traumas/stressors. Out of K.O.S. (Knowledge of Self): Black Masculinity, Psychopathology, and Treatment highlights the dual experience of social oppression and cultural identity suppression as the catalyst for the formation of unintegrated Black masculinity, and its subsequent influence on Black male mental health. Lastly, this book provides a comprehensive discussion concerning therapist variables and clinical interventions that can be helpful when working with Black males in a clinical setting.

During the 1950s and 60s in the Congo city of Kinshasa, there emerged young urban male gangs known as "Bills" or "Yankees." Modeling themselves on the images of the iconic American cowboy from Hollywood film, the "Bills" sought to negotiate lives lived under oppressive economic, social, and political conditions. They developed their own style, subculture, and slang and as Ch. Didier Gondola shows, engaged in a quest for manhood through bodybuilding, marijuana, violent sexual behavior, and other transgressive acts. Gondola argues that this street culture became a backdrop for Congo-Zaire's emergence as an independent nation and continues to exert powerful influence on the country's urban youth culture today.

The role of the father in a family and for his children has varied greatly throughout history. However, scientific research into fatherhood began relatively late at the end of the 1960s and early 1970s, with a strong focus on the impact of the father on child development. This book focuses on the role of the father in the contemporary two-parent heterosexual family. Of eight longitudinal studies from several Western countries, six focus on the socialization outcomes of the children, and two concentrate on parental satisfaction. Although the father is in focus, family dynamics cannot be conclusively described without a look at the mother and parental interaction. Therefore, all of the studies examine mothers and their role in the family system. Thus, the book gives a contemporary insight into the father and his role in changing family dynamics. This book was originally published as a special issue of the European Journal of Developmental Psychology.

The last two decades have seen a significant revolution in fatherhood in Norway and the Nordic countries. Statutory paternity leave has been introduced, men write books about how wonderful it is to be a father, Prime Ministers are photographed holding their babies, new websites are continually appearing for fathers, and most importantly, statistics show that the average man now participates in the care of his children in a completely different way than previously. Fathers seem to have a real desire to take their place in the home, and to be with their families and children.The first study of its kind, this book traces 150 years of the history of fatherhood in Scandinavia and shows how Scandinavian gender equality policy has important implications for the rest of the world. Among other interesting findings, Jorgen Lorentzen reveals that the modern-day rise in equality fathering can be traced back to the 19th century. Ultimately, the main aim of this study is to offer an understanding of fatherhood; how those who wrote, wrote about it, and what their texts can tell us about the changes in the thinking that surrounded this absolutely vital subject.

The downsides of monogamy are felt by most people engaged in long-term relationships, including restrictions on self-discovery, limits on friendship, sexual boredom, and a circumscribed understanding of intimacy. Yet, a "happily ever after" monogamy is assumed to be the ideal form of romantic love in many modern societies: a relationship that is morally ideal and will bring the most happiness to its two partners. In Why It's OK to Not Be Monogamous, Justin L. Clardy deeply questions these assumptions. He rejects the claim that non-monogamy among honest, informed and consenting adults is morally impermissible. He shows instead how polyamorous relationships can actually be exemplars of moral virtue. The book discusses how social and political forces sustain and reward monogamous relationships. The book defines non-monogamy as a privative concept; a negation of monogamy. Looking at its prevalence in the United States, the book explains how common criticisms of non-monogamy come up short. Clardy argues, as some researchers have recently shown-monogamy relies on continually demonizing non-monogamy to sustain its moral status. Finally, the book concludes with a focus on equality, asking what justice for polyamorous individuals might look like.

In the last two decades there has been a plethora of research on a range of subjects collectively and rhetorically known as 'work-life balance'. The bulk of this research, which spans disciplines including feminist sociology, industrial relations and management, has focused on the significant concerns of employed women and/or dual career couples. Less attention has been devoted to scholarship which explicitly examines men and masculinities in this context. Meanwhile, public and organizational discourse is largely espoused in gender neutral terms, often neglecting salient gendered issues which differentially impact the ability of women and men to successfully integrate their work and non-work lives. This edited book brings together empirical studies of the work-life nexus with a specific focus on men's working time arrangements, how men navigate and traverse paid work and family commitments, and the impact of public and organizational policies on men's participation in work, leisure, and other life domains. The book is innovative in that it presents both macro (institutional, how policy affects practice) and micro (individual, from men's own perspectives) level studies, allowing for a rich and contrasting exploration of how men's participation in paid work and other domains is divided, conflicted, or integrated. The essays in this volume address issues of fundamental social, labor market, and economic change which have occurred over the last 20 years and which have profoundly affected the way work, care, leisure and community have evolved in different contexts. Taking an international focus, Men, Wage Work and Family contrasts various public and organizational policies and how these policies impact men's opportunities and participation in paid work and non-work domains in industrialised countries in Europe, North America, and Australia.

This book examines teacher candidates' experiences with gender and sexuality in the classroom, offering insight and strategies to better prepare teachers and teacher educators to support lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer/questioning (LGBTQ) youth and families.

Black Social Science and the Crisis of Manhood, 1890-1970 describes the young black male crisis, why we are largely unfamiliar with the story of the black superman, and why this matters to contemporary debates. It does so by returning to the work of those original black social scientists to explore the ways in which they understood the challenges of black manhood, offered substantive critiques of the nation's race, class, and gender systems, and worked to construct a progression. The careful study of their work reveals the centrality of gender to discussions of race and class, and also new possibilities for understanding and discussing black men. This book offers a look at pioneering black social scientists as well as a history of the changing perceptions, ideals, and shifting depictions of black and white manhood over nearly a century.

"Ewa Mazierska has set herself an ambitious task with this her new well researched book... Her] study excels in the breadth of its comparison of Czech and Polish films...The volume also makes a valuable contribution to the study of how Socialist Realism was implemented in Czech and Polish cinema." . Slavonic and East European Review

"Offering an excellent overview of masculinity - in relationship to war, fatherhood, love, and homosexuality - in Polish, Czech, and Slovak film this accessible highly interpretive work addresses a number of films and then attempts to contextualize their meaning in a larger framework...One of the greatest strengths of this work is its historical grounding... The author's subtle understanding of larger psychological forces at work ... make this a dynamic, engaging study. An invaluable resource for students of central/eastern European film studies and gender studies." . Choice

..".This is an intelligent and insighful investigation of masculinities in three unique and artistically vibrant Eastern European nations. And while the author admits to trating only select films, the breadth of films covered is nevertheless impressive." . Slavic and East European Journal

Gender, especially masculinity, is a perspective rarely applied in discourses on cinema of Eastern/Central Europe. Masculinities in Polish, Czech and Slovak Cinema exposes an English-speaking audience to a large proportion of this region's cinema that previously remained unknown, focusing on the relationship between representation of masculinity and nationality in the films of two and later three countries: Poland, Czechoslovakia/the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The objective of the book is to discuss the main types of men populating Polish, Czech and Slovak films: that of soldier, father, heterosexual and homosexual lover, against a rich political, social and cultural background. Czech, Slovak and Polish cinema appear to provide excellent material for comparison as they were produced in neighbouring countries which for over forty years endured a similar political system - state socialism.

Ewa Mazierska is Professor of Contemporary Cinema, Department of Humanities, University of Central Lancashire. Her publications include numerous articles in Polish and English and several books, such as Roman Polanski: The Cinema of a Cultural Traveller (I.B. Tauris, 2007), Women in Polish Cinema (Berghahn, 2006) (co-authored with Elzbieta Ostrowska), Dreams and Diaries: The Cinema of Nanni Moretti (Wallflower Press, London, 2004) and From Moscow to Madrid: Postmodern Cities, European Cinema (IB Tauris, 2003, London) (both co-authored with Laura Rascaroli). She also co-edited Relocating Britishness (MUP, 2004). Her latest title is Jerzy Skolimowski: The Cinema of a Nonconformist (Berghahn, 2010)"

Clumsy stereotypes of the Romani and Travellers communities abound, not only culturally in programmes such as Big Fat Gypsy Weddings, but also amongst educators, social workers, administrators and the medical profession. Gypsy cultures are invariably presented as ruled by tradition and machismo. Women are presented as helpless victims, especially when it comes to gendered forms of violence. The reality, however, is much more complicated. In Gypsy Feminism, Laura Corradi demonstrates how Romaphobia - racist and anti-Gypsy rhetoric and prejudice, pervading every level of society - has led to a situation where Romani communities face multiple discrimination. In this context, the empowerment of women and girls becomes still more difficult: until recently, for example, women have largely remained silent about domestic violence in order to protect their communities, which are already under attack. Examining feminist research and action within Romani communities, Corradi demonstrates the importance of an intersectional approach in order to make visible the combination of racism and sexism that Gypsy women face every day. This concise and authoritative book will appeal to scholars and students in the areas of Sociology, Cultural Studies, Women's and Gender Studies and Anthropology, as well as Politics, Media Studies, Social Policy, and Social Work. It is also an invaluable resource for activists, community and social service workers, and policymakers.

This important new book, which focuses on the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, but which looks back to the earlier decades of the century and has a conclusion dealing with the 1970s to 1990s, maps the world of those known as "trade" -- ostensibly straight men who would engage in homosexual sex -- and hustlers -- those who were paid for it. It was a milieu that was central to the sexual histories of several generations of twentieth-century American men and also influenced American literary and visual culture; the "trade aesthetic" informed the work of a variety of artists, filmmakers, and writers. This sexual culture, though compelling in itself, also allows us to explore some key aspects of modern sexual history. This pioneering work, which draws on a wide range of visual and literary sources, including previously unpublished material from the Kinsey archives, will appeal to a wide range of readers, especially those interested in the histories of sex, the city, masculinity, and American culture.