Masculinities

by R.W.Connell (Author)

• New

  Paperback
  2005

  $45.84

  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.

• Used

  Paperback
  1995

  $7.99

  Masculinities offers a comprehensive introduction to, and a remarkable synthesis of, a new field of knowledge and politics. It examines and assesses the history of attempts to create knowledge of the nature of masculinity by psychoanalysts, social scientists, and movements for social change. Connell argues that, while the goal of a science of masculinity is mistaken, we can gain fresh ways of thinking about men's bodies and men's involvement in a gendered world. There is not one masculinity, but multiple masculinities, which can be understood through a social analysis of gender relations. Contemporary developments in masculinities are examined through a close focus on the lives of four groups of men, interviewed especially for this study, who are undergoing different experiences of change - some working to transform gender relations and some resisting change. Their trajectories towards and away from hegemonic masculinity are traced in detail; some of these accounts are highly amusing while some are tragic. After this detailed analysis of the lives of particular men, Masculinities moves to a larger arena, and shows that modern masculinities are products of a 400-year history in which gender was closely connected with empire and the creation of a global economy. New forms of politics about masculinity have recently emerged. The final sections of the book examine these new forms as they have occurred in Western countries, including the currently fashionable masculinity therapy , and discuss how men can pursue social justice in a gendered world.