From Ephemeral to Everyday Costuming Negotiations in Masculine Identities at the Burning Man Project

(Re)Fashioning Masculinity: Social Identity and Context in Men’s Hybrid Masculinities through Dress

“…Contemporary research suggests that men continue to shift their gender performances through dress according to their social identities and contexts because fashion still creates an ambiguous space for them. Green and Kaiser (2011, 8) observed that both gay and straight men experimented with feminine dress styles at Burning Man because the festival environment acted as an “enlarged safety zone.” After the festival, however, these men limited the extent to which they crossed gender dress norms because they felt restricted by their everyday locations. Casanova (2015) found that men of color and gay men had more positive views about fashion than did white and straight men but nevertheless conformed to gender dress norms in their white-collar offices.…”

“…For example, Casanova (2015) explored how middle-to-upper-class Black and gay men do hybrid masculinities through dress but only examined white-collar offices. Similarly, Green and Kaiser (2011) studied gay and straight men who wore more expressive feminine dress but focused on the non-quotidian context of the Burning Man festival and ignored social identities beyond sexuality. Therefore, studies to date do not capture the nuances of how men do hybrid masculinities according to their complex social identities and throughout all facets of their lives.…”

“…This dynamic interplay between men’s social identities and fashion helps produce different configurations of masculinity. To date, however, research on men, masculinity, and fashion has been limited to specific social identities and contexts in which clothing is worn (e.g., Casanova 2015; Green and Kaiser 2011). Missing from these studies is an understanding of how men from a range of identities do masculinities through dress in various everyday contexts.…”

Mind-Body Transformations: Appearance and Yoga in the Hot Room

“…Study participants often mentioned the role of the mirror in the yoga room as aiding their perceptual transformation. The yoga studio is a kind of "transformational space" (Green & Kaiser 2011) that affects how people feel in their bodies. Transformation was often discussed in terms of body surface-that is, the skin (e.g., "It feels like I've shed my (old) skin!"…”

Knitting Takes Balls: Masculinity and the Practice of Knitting

“…Although Arxer's findings confirm and build upon Connell's theory of masculinity, the methodological choices are similar to those employed by other masculinity researchers. For instance, an abundance of literature is dedicated to participant observation of masculinity, whether in real-life settings (Anderson, 2008;Green & Kaiser, 2011;Nicholas, 2012;Rivers-Moore, 2012) or through discourse analysis of media representations (Benwell, 2003;Craine & Aitken, 2004;Friday, 2003;Leit et al, 2001;Lindgren & Lelievre, 2009;McKay et al, 2005).…”