Masculinities & Social Change

Is Teleworking an Opportunity for Male `Joint Responsibility´ at Home?: Egalitarian Men during the Pandemic in Spain

Sara Moreno-Colom — 2024-02-21

The COVID-19 crisis spurred a large increase in teleworking, with inherent consequences for the use and distribution of time spent on paid, domestic, and caregiving work. This article aims to contribute to the knowledge about the material and symbolic conditions that fostered joint responsibility among men who telecommuted during the lockdown period. A qualitative study of the Spanish case was conducted, based on 25 interviews with different profiles of men, in terms of life cycle and job category, who teleworked during the first months of the pandemic. The results showed a more egalitarian male profile, as telecommuting encouraged men to take joint responsibility within the household. These were fathers with a mid-category job who telecommuted and had young children at home while their partner worked outside the home. All these conditions fostered their greater involvement in domestic and caregiving tasks, which involved internalizing the daily management, organization and planning practices typical of the traditional female role.

Men Also Feel: Consequences of Traditional Masculinity on Mental Health and Relationships in Ecuadorian Men

Marie-France Merlyn-Sacoto — 2024-02-21

The objective of the present investigation was to explore the possible consequences of adherence to the values of traditional masculinity on the mental well-being of Ecuadorian men, their relationships and social interactions. In this descriptive, exploratory and comparative study, 1044 Ecuadorian men between the ages of 18 and 35 (µ= 23.23; S.D.= 3.064) participated; they completed the Masculinity and Well-being Study Questionnaire. The results show that men who identify with traditional masculinity are more satisfied with their lives and have a lower risk of depression; however, they are also more disconnected from their emotions, present risky behaviors (traffic accidents, fights), show difficulties in becoming intimate in their personal relationships, and have problems in their social interactions in terms of homophobia, bullying, and sexual harassment. It is concluded that the apparent well-being comes from conforming to the social norm, but that the cost of adhering to traditional masculinity is high both emotionally and relationally.

Expressions around Positive Masculinities on Mexican Facebook and TikTok Profiles. A Content Analysis Approach

Gabriel Perez-Salazar — 2024-01-21

With the objective of identifying the way in which manifestations around masculinities take place in a selection of Mexican profiles that publish content in Spanish on both Facebook and TikTok, around proposals that oppose what Connell identifies as hegemonic masculinity, a content analysis was carried out on a non-probabilistic sample of publications and comments. Main results indicate that the proposals made in the observed sites revolve around participatory parenthood, given in the context of respectful couple relationships, with tolerance for sex-gender diversity, also highlighting free emotional expression as part of self-care that is both mental and physical. Some of the main conclusions suggest that, despite the resistance to the patriarchal structure that can be observed in the digital spaces studied, other research reveals that there are still many manifestations that shows asymmetric positions of power between different sex-gender identities.

Masculinities to Trans-femininities: Evidence through the “Girl” Film

Anas Ahmadi — 2024-02-21

This study aims to explore the life journey of a man who wants to become a transfeminist woman through the perspective of masculinity studies. This study uses a qualitative method. The results of this study are as follows. First, Lara as a transfeminist made psychological changes by making herself a graceful figure, changing her love desires by loving men, and having aspirations of becoming a ballerina so that she is like a natural woman. Second, Lara as a transfeminist made physical changes to become a normal woman by wearing earrings and women's clothes, cooking, doing feminizing hormone therapy to grow breasts, and planning to do a sex reassignment surgery to have a vagina. Third, from the aspect of attitude, Lara's family that supports Lara's transformation from male to female has become a controversy. However, in society, Lara, who is a transfeminist, is still controversial and not everyone accepts the presence of transfeminism/LGBT. This can be seen in how society bullies and sexually harasses her. In the end, Lara, who was assigned as a male, actually turned into a female.