The making of masculinities: gender performances and reimagined sexual decision-making among heterosexual men in Northern Thailand

© 2019 Cassie Nichole DeFillipoResearch has found that gender is not biological; rather, it is a social construction (Butler, 1993; Connell, 1995); gender performances are thus continuously constructed through everyday interactions, discourses, and institutions. Drawing on one year of ethnographic fieldwork, this thesis analyses men’s constructions of manhood through sexual decision-making within the backdrop of Northern Thailand, a vibrant and emerging socio-scape where the traditional interlaces with the transnational. First, this research describes the various means through which men assert sexuality to perform hegemonic and non-hegemonic masculinities. Next, this thesis shows that men negotiate their gender identities through homosociality, often emphasizing sexuality to perform manhood within and for homosocial circles. This thesis then discusses women’s complex roles in enabling and challenging men’s performances of masculinities, arguing that relationality is a vital aspect of masculine performances. Finally, this research demonstrates that digital technologies have enabled Thai individuals to negotiate their gender performances in accordance with a range of global gender ideologies. Through an examination of these factors, this research contends that gender equality can be improved by Thai men and women through reconstructing gender performances; thus, one-on-one sexual interactions serve as sites where gendered relationships are re-imagined