This workshop investigates and discusses academic destabilizations of the relation between masculinity, men, and women, and of understanding of men’s absolute hegemony in any social and structural context. Especially in so-called queer theory it has been the aim to counter the usual support of a dichotome understanding of gender with the purpose of dissolving/deconstructing this and of making a broader and more open perspective on gender possible. Thus, an opportunity to include studies of masculinity represented by both male and female bodies is created, and it becomes possible to focus on the fact that the notion masculinity is constructed, changeable, and plastic. Furthermore, problems with the notion masculinity itself has been pointed out. Intersectional studies have called attention to great differences between the power-relations between different groups of men in a given society, and careers and work studies show that men in some ways can be said to be positioned in a powerless situation in work places dominated by women or in paternity cases.

We encourage papers and discussions which take their departure in questions like:

How are men’s bodies connected with notions of masculinity in research on men and masculinity?

How can men with gender identities which are read as culturally “feminine” or going beyond the bounds of “the masculine” influence the understanding of connections between female bodies, femininity, and masculinity?

Should we stop using the terms masculinity and femininity? If so, what should replace them in research contexts?

Can men be said to be in a hegemonic relation to women always and in any context? What does it mean to possess power? And what does it mean to be powerless? Can men in a given situation both be powerful in some ways and powerless in others?

Workshop participants and titles of paper presentations:

Thursday 29/1:

Professor Kristín Loftsdóttir, University of Iceland: ‘Pure manliness’: The Colonial Project and Africa’s Image in 19th Century Iceland.

Ph.D.-student Dag Balkmar, Tema Genus, Linköping University: Taming the beast - Swedish motoring magazines and technoembodied masculinities in the making.

Phil. Dr. Claudia Höfner, Dept. of Sociology, University of Vienna, and Cornelia Schadler, Donau-Universität Krems, Dept. for Pschychosocial Medicine and Psychotherapy, Austria: When Men Become Fathers: Men Doing Identity Transition.

Friday 30/1:

Ph.D.-student Linda Ekström, Stockholm University: Män som offer, män som förövare? – Uppfattningar kring hegemonisk manlighet och mäns hegemoni inom mäns feministiska självorganisering.

Mag. Art. Jonatan Leer: Køn og samtalekøkken - Om maskulin iscenesættelse og performative maskuliniteter i danske kogebøger i samtalekøkkenets tidsalder.

Phil. Dr. Claudia Lindén, Södertörns högskola: Axel Munthe, och den könsöverskridande maskuliniteten.

Download abstracts for this workshop here.