Re-Thinking Aspiration and Hegemonic Masculinity in Transnational Context

Abstract

This article offers a contribution to the on-going critical analysis of the concept hegemonic masculinity. However, not in a way that seeks the demise or supersession of the concept but rather to offer a theoretical development that brings into focus certain important and specific claims: (1) that masculinity is something men do yet, (2) hegemonic masculinity requires all men to position themselves in relation to it. In trying to build some connection between these two claims as well as, thinking through some of the key issues that have challenged hegemonic masculinity over the last two to three decades this article re-introduces and develops the concept of aspiration as one important way to articulate the contemporary importance of hegemonic masculinity in the field of masculinity theory. Further it offers a brief application of aspiration and hegemonic masculinity in the field of the transnational.