SKOK-seminar: Threatening Masculinities – Threatening Men
Centre for Women's and Gender Research (SKOK) intends, as part of the strategic plans for the centre, to build its competence on research on masculinities in the years to come. For a long time we have wanted to organize a seminar on masculinities to mark the start of this research area at SKOK.
Then July 22nd happened in Norway, an event that has set the agenda for researchers as well as for society at large. How could this happen? What made such atrocities possible? In the wake of the terror attack, public debate has pondered these very questions. Some researchers have attempted to analyze the ideological rationale behind these horrific acts, while others, especially on the internet, have overtly supported Anders Behring Breivik and what they call his herioic actions in the cultural war against multiculturalism, islam and feminism. One of our researchers at SKOK was in that context threatened on Korsfarer.no for being a supporter of multiculturalism and for being a gender researcher. In October, SKOK organized an open panel at the University of Bergen entitled “Gender in the Age of Terror,” where we invited, among others, a male master student from our university who publicly hailed Anders Behring Breivik for “his ability to act”. On his anti-feminist blog, he claims that rape – and in some cases murder - are legitimate means to combat a state, which supports gender equality.
In light of the gender ideology expressed in Anders Behring Breivik’s manifest as well as in related right-wing extremist publications, we want to raise the question of masculinity as an integrated element in the ideological framework of these right-wing extremist groups. Michael Kimmel has already (in an article published in Dagbladet this fall) called attention to the fact that it is a question of gender ideology. The tragic events are partly the results of the celebration of certain forms of masculinities within these movements.
But we ask: What happens when we take into account these extreme views and their relation to a much widespread, but still the same ideology, in a more palpable form? In many discussions in the media we recognize somewhat modified, but still related attitudes. The battle over masculinity is what is at stake. And it is perhaps at the heart of the cultural conflict?
SKOK wants to investigate some of the reasons for this state of affairs and some of the ramifications of cultivating certain masculinities ideals, while denigrating others. The seminar Threatening masculinity – Threatening men aims not exclusively at focusing on the extreme right and its masculinity ideals which certainly pose a concrete threat to society, but it also aims to throw light on various forms of masculinity that are considered to be a treat in the sense that they threaten normalized conceptions of masculinity, such as queer masculinities, non-white masculinities, etc.
The seminar is open to all.
Program
09:15-09:30
Welcome
Professor Ellen Mortensen, SKOK, University of Bergen
09:30-10:15
Critical Studies on Men and Masculinities: the/its problem of men's violences
Professor Jeff Hearn, Linköpings universitet
In this session I outline how Critical Studies on Men and Masculinities have developed over recent years, and the variable places that the study of men's violences, especially men's violences to women, has taken within those developments. This includes a critique of the dominant contemporary mode of theorising around hegemonic masculinity that has become established in CSMM, as representing in several ways an inadequate way of approaching men's violences to women.
10:15-11:00
Even when there is no Cock, the Sun will still Rise": Challenging Masculinities in the Face of Sexual and Gender-based Violence and HIV in Africa
Professor Ezra Chitando, University of Zimbabwe
Earlier interventions by activists in the area of gender-based violence and HIV tended to focus exclusively on women. The emphasis was on predominantly on women as victims and survivors of sexual and gender-based violence. However, in the last decade there has been an increasing acceptance on the need to increase male involvement in responding to sexual and gender-based violence. This presentation analyses this theme with particular reference to interventions within the faith-based communities in Africa. The theme of Redemptive/Transformative Masculinity has been emphasised in an effort to challenge men to become part of the solution. The presentation draws attention to some of the key factors that lead to "threatening men." It also outlines some of the challenges and achievements of interventions from within the faith-based sector, drawing examples from the presenter's own work within the Ecumenical HIV and AIDS Initiative in Africa (EHAIA) and its Transformative Masculinity workshops in different parts of Africa.
11:00-11:15
Coffee/tea
11:15-12:00
Quotidian Violences, Silence, and the Burden of Citizenship in Queer Lives of All Colors
Professor Carlos Decena, WGS, Rutgers University
This presentation turns to quotidian negotiations of homophobia within an immigrant group of self-identified gay and bisexual men to stress how the construction and sustenance of male privilege and of the very contours of the male subject require vigilance and careful policing of all presumably male bodies regardless of their sexual orientations. Masculinity studies scholars have rightly pointed out that homophobia and “gay panic” constructs and sustains masculinity. Usually, this is a “panic” manifested most explicitly in phobia of homosexuality in its collapse with gender dissent. However, our emphasis on the dichotomy effeminate vs. masculine man has made it difficult to grasp where power in hegemonic masculinity resides. Based on an analysis of retrospective life history interviews with Dominican gay and bisexual immigrant men conducted between 2001 and 2002, I will propose that is at stake in quotidian exchanges among the participants is the fastidious work of calibrating the male body to signify “maleness” properly. The codes and signs associated with “sissies” are not the exclusive province of homosexual-identified men. It is precisely because they might erupt in any body that they need careful policing in quotidian exchanges as well as in communities of self-identified gay men. The sequela of the constitutive role that low-intensity forms of violence has in the constitution of masculinity is part of what these men wrestle with as they develop relationships and build a sense of belonging.
12:00-12:45
The Threat of the “Dirty Old Man” and the Promise of the Intimate Older Lover A study on Masculinity, Sexuality and Old Age
Post doc. fellow Linn Sandberg, Linköpings Universitet
While later life has historically been associated with asexuality and largely neglected, a cultural-scientific shift has occurred in recent years where sexuality is increasingly discussed as lifelong and part of a healthy ageing. Not least have the sexualities of old(er) men emerged as a “hot topic” with the market-introduction of Viagra and other sexuopharmaceuticals promising men eternal sexual function. In a study of popular discourses of older men, Calasanti & King (2005) argue that advertising campaigns aimed at older men are increasingly emphasizing the need for “staying hard”, for maintaining sexual function and activity even when older. Yet, the threat of emerging as the stereotypical “dirty old man”, someone who is inappropriately sexual for his age, could potentially also shape old men’s possibilities of staying sexual.
12:45-14:00
Lunch
14:00-14:15
This Masculinity Stinks: Anal-izing dunst's Bottoms
PhD candidate Mathias Danbolt, University of Bergen
Since their formation in 2001 in Copenhagen, the Danish performance and activist collective dunst has made their name on the cultural scene with trashy genderfuck performances, outrageous parties, and scandalous interventions on public radio and TV. This paper approaches the politics of dunst's bottom-centered performance practice, focusing on their investment in trashing conceptions of masculinity, maturity, and respectable heteronormality.
14:15-14:30
Man Enough? Embodiment and Narratives of Masculinity in Trans Video Blogs on YouTube
PhD candidate Tobias Raun, Roskilde Universitetscenter
This paper takes its point of departure in my PhD research, investigating trans people who have been or are going through medical gender transition and have turned to YouTube as a platform for self-representation and community building. My analysis focuses on a selection of American/English speaking trans male video bloggers, using the vlog as a tool to document and discuss the bodily, psychologically and socially changes during transition.The paper will address the following questions: What notions of men and masculinity are expressed? How is masculinity performed, claimed and embodied in these vlogs? How is masculinity connected to or informed by other claims of identity like sexuality? How does the camera become a vehicle in becoming a (trans) man?
14:30-14:45
Metro-warriors in Norwegian popular culture
PhD-candidate Fredrik Langeland, University of Stavanger
The presentation relates to a PhD-project titled From metro to retro: Masculinities in the Norwegian popular culture in the 2000s. It engages with representations of white, heterosexual masculinities in the Norwegian media and popular culture. How can we understand the emergence of and conflicts between the ideals of metrosexuality and retro-masculinity in the Norwegian popular culture in the 2000s?
In the fall of 2010 a new Norwegian men’s magazine called Alfa was launched. It created a lot of noise in relation to a controversial article concerning Norwegian soldiers in Afghanistan. The soldiers were quoted in the magazine stating that war is better than sex. Alfas idealized warrior-masculinity was explicitly marked in contrast to metrosexuality. But the magazine also had commercials that advertised male grooming products, and sections about men’s style and fashion. The presentation will focus on the blurring between traditional warrior masculinity and elements related to metrosexuality in this magazine.
14:45-15:00
Coffee/tea
15:00-16:00
Discussion