This article explores the gender complexities of men caught between social power and powerlessness. Specifically, I consider the cases of Jewish men and gay men in the late modern West, two demographics with deep historic ties to both abjection and privilege. Such "in-between-ness” steers many, especially those who are white, cisgender, and/or otherwise privileged, toward what I term liminal complicity, a normative adaptation whereby men embrace manly ideals while disavowing femininity in themselves and others. I synthesize cultural, interactionist, and psychoanalytic literatures on stigma, boundaries, and gender practice to articulate liminal complicity as both an emotional retreat from stigmatization and a rational means of accruing status and redrawing social boundaries. I conduct a comparative-historical analysis of gendered discourses and practices at different historical junctures to show how analogous processes of (1) normative identification, (2) self-transformation, and (3) distinction from and (4) aggression toward feminized others enable historically subordinated men to elevate themselves without disrupting broader systems of domination.
AkramSusan M.JohnsonKevin R.2003. “Race, Civil Rights, and Immigration Law After September 11, 2001: The Targeting of Arabs and Muslims.” New York University Annual Survey of American Law58 (2002): 295–56.
2.
AschheimSteven E.1999. Brothers and Strangers: The East European Jew in German and German Jewish Consciousness, 1800-1923. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
3.
AvieliNir2013. “Grilled Nationalism: Power, Masculinity and Space in Israeli Barbeques.” Food, Culture & Society16 (2): 301–20.
4.
AyresTony1999. “China Doll: The Experience of Being a Gay Chinese Australian.” Journal of Homosexuality36 (3–4): 87–97.
5.
BakacakAyca GelgeçŌktemPinar. 2014. “Homosexuality in Turkey: Strategies for Managing Heterosexism.” Journal of Homosexuality61 (6): 817–46.
6.
BartonBernadette2017. Stripped: More Stories from Exotic Dancers. New York: New York University Press.
7.
BenjaminJessica1998. Shadow of the Other: Intersubjectivity and Gender in Psychoanalysis. New York: Routledge.
8.
BersaniLeo1987. “Is the Rectum a Grave?” AIDS: Cultural Analysis/Cultural Activism43: 197–222.
9.
BhabhaHomi K.1994. The Location of Culture. New York: Routledge.
10.
BowLeslie2010. Partly Colored: Asian Americans and Racial Anomaly in the Segregated South. New York: New York University Press.
11.
BoyarinDaniel1997. Unheroic Conduct: The Rise of Heterosexuality and the Invention of the Jewish Man. Berkeley: University of California Press.
12.
BrandAdolf1899. “Der Eigene.” Der Eigene, January 1899.
13.
BreinesPaul1990. Tough Jews: Political Fantasies and the Moral Dilemma of American Jewry. New York: Basic Books.
14.
BrennerMichaelReuveniGideon. 2006. Emancipation through Muscles: Jews and Sports in Europe. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
15.
BridgesTristanPascoeC. J.2014. “Hybrid Masculinities: New Directions in the Sociology of Men and Masculinities.” Sociology Compass8 (3): 246–58.
16.
BrodHarry1994. “Some Thoughts on Some Histories of Some Masculinities: Jews and Other Others.” In Theorizing Masculinities, edited by BrodHarryKaufmanMichael, 82–97. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
17.
ButlerJudith P1997. The Psychic Life of Power: Theories in Subjection. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
18.
CohnWillie. 1915. Zukunftsfragen Des Deutschen Judentums. Allgemeine Zeitung Des Judentums. November 26, 1915.
19.
ConnellRaewyn. 1994. “Psychoanalysis on Masculinity.” In Theorizing Masculinities, edited by BrodHarryKaufmanMichael, 11–38. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
20.
ConnellRaewyn2005. Masculinities. Berkeley: University of California Press.
21.
D’EmilioJohnFreedmanEstelle B.2013. Intimate Matters: A History of Sexuality in America. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
22.
DrussRichard G.1967. “Cases of Suspected Homosexuality Seen at an Army Mental Hygiene Consultation Service.” The Psychiatric Quarterly41 (1): 62–70.
23.
DuckworthKiera D.Nell TrautnerMary. 2019. “Gender Goals: Defining Masculinity and Navigating Peer Pressure to Engage in Sexual Activity.” Gender & Society33 (5): 795–17.
24.
DuncansonClaire2009. “Forces for Good? Narratives of Military Masculinity in Peacekeeping Operations.” International Feminist Journal of Politics11 (5): 63–80.
25.
The Forward. 1925. “The Great Ethel Controversy Closes,” November 8, 1925.
26.
FoucaultMichel1978. The History of Sexuality. New York: Pantheon.
27.
GilTroy2013. “The Tzipi-Bibi ‘Adloyada’ Coalition Follies.” Jerusalem Post, February 27, 2013.
28.
GilmanSander L.1990. Jewish Self-Hatred: Anti-Semitism and the Hidden Language of the Jews. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
29.
GoodsteinDavid B.1975. “Our Challenge.” The Advocate, January 29, 1975.
30.
GoellYosef.1999. “‘Galut’ Justice.” Jerusalem Post, March 1, 1999.
31.
GoffmanErving1963. Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
32.
GouldDeborah B.2009. Moving Politics: Emotion and ACT UP’s Fight against AIDS. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
33.
HaasJacob de.1899. “Die kindheit der massen.” Die Welt, 1899.
34.
HalfmannDrew2003. “Historical Priorities and the Responses of Doctors’ Associations to Abortion Reform Proposals in Britain and the United States, 1960-1973.” Social Problems50 (4): 567–91.
35.
HalkitisPerry N.2000. “Masculinity in the Age of AIDS: HIV-Seropositive Gay Men and the ‘Buff Agenda.” In Gay Masculinities, edited by NardiPeter M., 130–151. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
36.
HalutzAvshalom2014. “At Home with Eliad Cohen, Israel’s Top Gay Icon.” Haaretz, June 8, 2014.
37.
HanChong-suk2007. “They Don't Want To Cruise Your Type: Gay Men of Color and the Racial Politics of Exclusion.” Social Identities13 (1): 51–67.
38.
HarrisDaniel1999. The Rise and Fall of Gay Culture. New York: Ballantine.
39.
HerzlTheodor1960. The Complete Diaries of Theodor Herzl. New York: Herzl Press. Translated by ZohnHarry.
40.
HewittAndrew1996. Political Inversions: Homosexuality, Fascism, and the Modernist Imaginary. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
41.
HirschJulius1916. “Die Schicksalsfragen der Ostjuden.” Allgemeine Zeitung des Judentums, January 14, 1916.
42.
IngallMarjorie2003. “Yidishe Hotties, Unite!” The Forward. May 23, 2003.
43.
JohnsonCorey W.SamdahlDiane M.2005. “‘The Night They Took Over’: Misogyny in a Country-Western Gay Bar.” Leisure Sciences27 (4): 331–48.
44.
KarpelesGustav1892. “Aus Dem Karlsbade.” Allgemeine Zeitung des Judenthums, July 8, 1892.
45.
KlineIrv1992. “Galut Mentality.” Jerusalem Post, September 16, 1992.
46.
KransonRachel2017. Ambivalent Embrace: Jewish Upward Mobility in Postwar America. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
47.
Lainer-VosDan2014. “Masculinities in Interaction: The Coproduction of Israeli and American Jewish Men in Philanthropic Fund-Raising Events.” Men and Masculinities17 (1): 43–66.
48.
LamontMichèle2000. The Dignity of Working Men: Morality and the Boundaries of Race, Class, and Immigration. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
49.
LamontMichèleMolnárVirág. 2002. “The Study of Boundaries in the Social Sciences.” Annual Review of Sociology28 (1): 167–95.
50.
LamontMichèleGraziella Moraes Dias da SilvaWelburnJessica S.GuetzkowJoshua A.MizrachiNissimHertsogJanahReisElisa P.2016. Getting Respect: Responding to Stigma and Discrimination in the United States, Brazil, and Israel. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
51.
LederhendlerEli2001. New York Jews and the Decline of Urban Ethnicity, 1950-1970. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press.
52.
LoftinCraig M2007. “Unacceptable Mannerisms: Gender Anxieties, Homosexual Activism, and Swish in the United States, 1945-1965.” Journal of Social History40 (3): 577–96.
53.
MahoneyJames1999. “Nominal, Ordinal, and Narrative Appraisal in Macrocausal Analysis.” American Journal of Sociology104 (4): 1154–196.
54.
MartelElise2001. “From Mensch to Macho?: The Social Construction of a Jewish Masculinity.” Men and Masculinities3 (4): 347–69.
55.
MarxRobert J2014. The People in Between: The Paradox of Jewish Interstitiality. New York: Cover to Cover.
MessnerMichael A.1997. Politics of Masculinities: Men in Movements. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
58.
MontegaryLiz2015. “Militarizing US Homonormativities: The Making of “Ready, Willing, and Able” Gay Citizens.” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society40 (4): 891–15.
59.
MosseGeorge L.1996. The Image of Man: The Creation of Modern Masculinity. New York: Oxford University Press.
60.
MrG.1961a. “Letters.” ONE, February 1961
61.
MrX.1961b. “Letters.” ONE, April 1961
62.
MurrellKimberly2016. ‘Call Me Daddy’: The Politics and Rhetoric of Donald Trump’s Homonationalist Discourse in the Wake of Orlando. MSc dissertation. Bristol: University of Bristol.
63.
MutchlerMatt G.2000. “Seeking Sexual Lives: Gay Youth and Masculinity Tensions.” In Gay Masculinities, edited by NardiPeter M., 28–43. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
64.
NordauMax S.1903. “Achad-Haam Über ‘Altneuland.’” Die Welt.
65.
NordauMax S.1995. “Jewry of Muscle.” In The Jew in the Modern World, edited by Mendes-FlohrPaul R.ReinharzJehuda, 547–48. New York: Oxford University Press.
66.
OosterhuisHarry1991. Homosexuality and Male Bonding in Pre-Nazi Germany: The Youth Movement, the Gay Movement, and Male Bonding before Hitler’s Rise. Binghamton, NY: Haworth Press.
67.
OselinSharon S.BarberKristen. 2019. “Borrowing Privilege: Status Maneuvering among Marginalized Men.” Gender & Society33 (2): 201–23.
68.
PérezHiram2015. A Taste for Brown Bodies. New York: New York University Press.
69.
PhilipsonLudwig1845. “Literarische Nachrichten.” Allgemeine Zeitung des Judenthums, March 10, 1845.
70.
PresnerTodd S.2007. Muscular Judaism: The Jewish Body and the Politics of Regeneration. New York: Routledge.
71.
PuarJasbir K.2007. Terrorist Assemblages: Homonationalism in Queer Times. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
72.
PuarJasbir K.2017. The Right to Maim: Debility, Capacity, Disability. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
73.
PykeKaren D.1996. “Class-Based Masculinities: The Interdependence of Gender, Class, and Interpersonal Power.” Gender & Society10 (5): 527–49.
74.
RichardsonDiane2007. “Patterned Fluidities: (Re)Imagining the Relationship between Gender and Sexuality.” Sociology41 (3): 457–74.
75.
RicharzM.1975. “Jewish Social Mobility in Germany during the Time of Emancipation (1790-1871).” Leo Baeck Institute Yearbook20 (1): 69–77.
76.
RiveraSylvia2013. “Y’all Better Quiet Down.” In Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries: Survival, Revolt, and Queer Antagonist Struggle, 30–31. Bloomington: Ehn NothingUntorelli.
77.
RobersonJames E2005. “Japanese Working-Class Masculinities: Marginalized Complicity.” In Men and Masculinities in Contemporary Japan, edited by RobersonJames E.SuzukiNobue, 144–61. New York: Routledge.
78.
RodriguezAlexander2019. “Eliad Cohen: The Perfect Man.” GEDmagazine, September 23, 2019
79.
RoseJacqueline2007. The Question of Zion. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
80.
RosenMichael2006. No One to Talk To?Jerusalem Post. November 7, 2006.
81.
RosenbergRae2017. “The Whiteness of Gay Urban Belonging: Criminalizing LGBTQ Youth of Color in Queer Spaces of Care.” Urban Geography38 (1): 137–48.
82.
RosenbergerErwin1899. “Die Woche.” Die Welt, 1899.
83.
SaidEdward W.1978. Orientalism. New York: Pantheon.
84.
Sasson-LevyOrna2002. “Constructing Identities at the Margins: Masculinities and Citizenship in the Israeli Army.” Sociological Quarterly43 (3): 357–63.
85.
SegevTom2000. The Seventh Million: The Israelis and the Holocaust. New York: Picador.
86.
SeidmanStevenFrankAlan. 2018. Psychoanalysis and Contemporary American Men: Gender Identity in a Time of Uncertainty. New York: Routledge.
87.
ShapiraAnita1999. Land and Power: The Zionist Resort to Force, 1881-1948. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
88.
ShiltsRandy2005. Conduct Unbecoming: Gays and Lesbians in the U.S. Military. New York: St. Martin’s Griffin.
89.
SkocpolTheda1979. States and Social Revolutions: A Comparative Analysis of France, Russia and China. New York: Cambridge University Press.
90.
SlootmaeckersKoen2019. “Nationalism as Competing Masculinities: Homophobia as a Technology of Othering for Hetero- and Homonationalism.” Theory and Society48: 239–65.
91.
SteuartJames R.1961. “A Step Forward.” ONE, May 1961.
92.
ThorneBarrie1993. Gender Play: Girls and Boys in School. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
93.
TraversoEnzo2016. The End of Jewish Modernity. Translated by FernbachDavid. London: Pluto.
94.
TreitlerVilna Bashi2013. The Ethnic Project: Transforming Racial Fiction into Ethnic Factions. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
95.
WalkerLisa L.EllerJackie L.2016. “Raising Capital: Claims of Masculinity among Men on Match.com.” Men and Masculinities19, 1: 42–63.
96.
WardJane2000. “Queer Sexism: Rethinking Gay Men and Masculinity.” In Gay Masculinities, edited by NardiPeter M., 152–75. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
ZuckermannMoshe2002. “Towards a Critical Analysis of Israeli Political Culture.” In Psychoanalysis, Identity, and Ideology, edited by BunzlJohn.Beit-HallahmiBenjamin., 59–70. Boston: Kluwer.
