Considering Men, the Evolving Discourse on Masculinities: Reflections on Masculinities: Violences, Variations, and Visions

It has been twenty-five or so years since scholars first took up the mantle of critically examining masculinities in what are now considered classic works by Jack Sawyer, Joe Pleck and Harry Brod. These scholars made persuasive arguments for considering men in the equation of understanding gender. Drawing on a feminist analysis they called into question the perception that biology explains all and that the oppression of women was a de-facto result of how men and women are made, either by God or by nature. Today there is little support for the early essentialist arguments. Men, it turns out, do have a gender that is more than the sum of their physical parts. Indeed, how boys become men and the meanings society associates with masculinity are not only constructed, but highly regulated, broadly interpreted, and situationally located