According to dominant cultural representations, masculinity in heterosexual relationships is signified by men’s dominance, aggression, sexual promiscuity, and emotional unavailability. Yet, the preferred way of doing masculinity is context-specific, and middle-class men face increasing expectations that they engage in egalitarian relationships. In this study, I use in-depth interviews with thirty-one college-educated, heterosexual men to examine how they construct their masculinity under changing social conditions. My findings show that men use egalitarian narratives as a form of identity work in which they construct understandings of themselves as progressive, caring, and respectful of women, in contrast to the majority of men, whom they ascribe with stereotypical male traits. However, these egalitarian narratives serve as a shield, allowing men to dismiss inequalities that emerge in their romantic relationships as the result of individual preferences so that gendered outcomes are allowed to go unquestioned, thereby leaving gender inequalities intact.
AndersonEric. 2009. Inclusive Masculinity. New York: Routledge.
2.
BeckerJuliaWrightStephen. 2011. “Yet another Dark Side of Chivalry: Benevolent Sexism Undermines and Hostile Sexism Motivates Collective Action for Social Change.”Journal of Personal and Social Psychology101:62–77.
3.
BogleKathleen. 2008. Hooking-up: Sex, Dating, and Relationships on Campus. New York: New York University Press.
4.
BridgesTristan. 2010. “Men Just Weren’t Made to Do This: Performances of Drag at “Walk a Mile in Her Shoes” Marches.”Gender & Society24:5–30.
5.
BridgesTristan. 2014. “A Very “Gay” Straight: Hybrid Masculinities, Sexual Aesthetics, and the Changing Relationship between Masculinity and Homophobia.”Gender & Society28:58–82.
6.
ChenAnthony. 1999. “Lives at the Center of the Periphery, Lives at the Periphery of the Center: Chinese American Masculinities and Bargaining with Hegemony.”Gender & Society13:584–607.
7.
CollinsonDavid. 1992. Managing the Shopfloor: Subjectivity, Masculinity, and Workplace Culture. New York: Walter de Gruyter.
8.
ColtraneScott. 1989. “Household Labor and the Routine Production of Gender.”Social Problems36:473–90.
9.
ConnellR. W.1987. Gender and Power: Society, the Person, and Sexual Politics. Sydney, Australia: Allen & Unwin.
10.
ConnellR. W.1995. Masculinities. Sydney, Australia: Allen & Unwin.
11.
ConnellR. W.MesserschmidtJames. 2005. “Hegemonic Masculinity: Rethinking the Concept.”Gender & Society19:829–59.
12.
CooperMelanie. 2000. “Being the “Go-to Guy”: Fatherhood, Masculinity, and the Organization of Work in Silicon Valley.”Qualitative Sociology23:379–405.
13.
DellingerKirsten. 2004. “Masculinities in “Safe” and “Embattled” Organizations: Accounting for Pornographic and Feminist Magazines.”Gender & Society18:545–66.
14.
DiPreteThomasBuchmannClaudia. 2006. “Gender-specific Trends in the Value of Education and the Emerging Gender Gap in College Completion.”Demography43:1–24.
15.
EastmanJasonSchrockDouglas. 2008. “Southern Rock Musicians’ Construction of White Trash.”Race, Gender, and Class15:205–19.
16.
EatonAsiaRoseSuzanna. 2011. “Has Dating Become More Egalitarian? A 35 Year Review using Sex Roles.”Sex Roles64:843–62.
17.
EnglandPaulaShaferEmily FitzgibbonsFogartyAlison. 2008. “Hooking Up and Forming Romantic Relationships on Today’s College Campuses.” In The Gendered Society Reader, 3rd ed., edited by KimmelMichaelAronsonAmy, 531–47. New York: Oxford University Press.
18.
EzzellMatthew. 2012. ““I’m in Control”: Compensatory Manhood in a Therapeutic Community.”Gender & Society26:190–215.
19.
GellerJaclyn. 2001. Here Comes the Bride: Women, Weddings, and the Marriage Mystique. New York: Four Walls Eight Windows.
20.
GersonKathleen. 2002. “Moral Dilemmas, Moral Strategies, and the Transformation of Gender: Lessons from Two Generations of Work and Family Change.”Gender & Society16:8–28.
21.
GersonKathleen. 2010. The Unfinished Revolution: How a New Generation Is Reshaping Family, Work, and Gender in America. New York: Oxford University Press.
22.
GlickPeterFiskeSusan T.. 1996. “The ambivalent sexism inventory: Differentiating hostile and benevolent sexism.”Journal of Personality and Social Psychology70:491–512.
23.
GrafNikkiSchwartzChristine. 2011. “The Uneven Pace of Change in Heterosexual Romantic Relationships: Comment on England.”Gender & Society25:101–7.
24.
HamiltonLauraArmstrongElizabeth. 2009. “Gendered Sexuality in Young Adulthood: Double Binds and Flawed Options.”Gender & Society23:589–616.
25.
HamiltonLauraGeistClaudiaPowellBrian. 2011. “Marital Name Change as a Window into Gender Attitudes.”Gender & Society25:145–75.
26.
HeathMelanie. 2003. “Soft-boiled Masculinity: Renegotiating Gender and Racial Ideologies in the Promise Keepers Movement.”Gender & Society17:423–44.
27.
HochschildArlie
with
MachungAnne. 1989. The Second Shift. New York: Avon Books.
28.
Hondagneu-SoteloPierretteMessnerMichael. 1994. “Gender Displays and Men’s Power: The “New Man” and the Mexican Immigrant Man.” In Theorizing Masculinities, edited by BrodHarryKaufmanMichael, 200–19. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
29.
JohnsonAllan. 2005. The Gender Knot: Unraveling Our Patriarchal Legacy. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.
30.
KimmelMichael. 1996. Manhood in America: A Cultural History. New York: Free Press.
31.
LamontEllen. 2014. “Negotiating Courtship: Reconciling Egalitarian Ideals with Traditional Gender Norms.”Gender & Society28:189–211.
32.
LanerMary RiegeVentroneNicole. 1998. “Egalitarian Daters/Traditionalist Dates.”Journal of Family Issues19:468–77.
33.
MesserschmidtJames. 2010. Hegemonic Masculinities and Camouflaged Politics. Boulder, CO: Paradigm.
34.
MessnerMichael. 1993. “‘Changing Men’ and Feminist Politics in the United States.”Theory and Society22:723–37.
35.
McCaugheyMartha. 2007. The Caveman Mystique: Pop-darwinism and the Debates over Sex, Violence, and Science. New York: Routledge.
36.
McGuffyC. ShawnLindsay RichB.. 1999. “Playing in the Gender Transgression Zone: Race, Class, and Hegemonic Masculinity in Middle Childhood.”Gender & Society13:608–27.
37.
PascoeC. J.2007. Dude, You’re a Fag! Masculinity and Sexuality in High School. Berkeley: University of California Press.
PykeKaren. 1996. “Class-bases Masculinities: The Interdependence of Gender, Class, and Interpersonal Power.”Gender & Society10:527–49.
40.
RayRashawnRosowJason. 2009. “Getting off and Getting Intimate: How Normative Institutional Arrangements Structure Black and White Fraternity Men’s Approaches toward Women.”Men and Masculinities12:1–24.
41.
SasslerSharonMillerAmanda. 2011. “Waiting to Be Asked: Gender, Power, and Relationship Progression among Cohabiting Couples.”Journal of Family Issues32:482–506.
42.
SchrockDouglasSchwalbeMichael. 2009. “Men, Masculinity, and Manhood Acts.”American Review of Sociology35:277–95.
43.
StonePamela. 2007. Opting Out? Why Women Really Quit Careers and Head Home. Berkeley: University of California Press.
44.
SumerauJason. 2012. “That’s What Men are Supposed to Do: Compensatory Manhood Acts in an LGBT Christian Church.”Gender & Society26:461–87.
45.
TalbotKirstenQuayleMichael. 2010. “The Perils of Being a Nice Guy: Contextual Variation in Five Young Women’s Constructions of Acceptable Hegemonic and Alternative Masculinities.”Men and Masculinities13:255–78.
46.
TaylorLaramie. 2005. “All for him: Articles about sex in American lad magazines.”Sex Roles52:153–163.
47.
WilkinsAmy. 2009. “Masculinity Dilemmas: Sexuality and Intimacy Talk among Christians and Goths.”Signs34:343–68.
48.
WilkinsAmy. 2012. “Stigma and Status: Interracial Intimacy and Intersectional Identities among Black College Men.”Gender & Society26:165–89.
