Male Bodies in Manhood Acts: The Role of Body‐Talk and Embodied Practice in Signifying Culturally Dominant Notions of Manhood

Abstract

New developments in the critical study of men and masculinity, known as the manhood acts perspective, have focused attention on the ways that males collectively and individually engage in identity work to present themselves as men (Schrock and Schwalbe 2009). This review unpacks two central processes through which males use the body to put on a convincing manhood act. First, I review research on institutions and culture in order to explain how various discourses on male bodies provide resources to signify manhood. Second, I demonstrate how males are socialized to use their bodies to symbolize manhood. Overall, I demonstrate how the manhood acts perspective provides a potentially fruitful theoretical framework for understanding previous research on manhood and the body.

Assessing online misogyny: Perspectives from sociology and feminist media studies

“…(Sumerau, Barringer, & Cragun, 2014;Sumerau, Cragun, & Smith, 2017). However, the bulk of research has focused on exploring manhood acts in in-person interactions (for review, see Vaccaro, 2011). Morris's (2012) work found that young boys practice physical violence and emotion suppression to establish their masculine selves.…”

“…The so‐called “crisis of masculinity” serves as a timely example (Kimmel, ). Put briefly, the “displacement” of men and boys by women and girls in education, occupations, and other social realms has led to men seeking new means to display and reclaim the more deeply entrenched tenets of manhood—strength, sexual prowess, domination, aggression, and so forth (Katz, ; Morris, ; Vaccaro, ). Scholars have documented these efforts and their outcomes, in various realms including crime (Messerschmidt, ), education (Morris, ), and sports (Messner, ).…”

Cutting, Driving, Digging, and Harvesting: Re-masculinizing the Working-Class Heroic

“…Not giving in to pain and injury is an important signifier that the workers are real men. This is similar to men dealing with pain and injury in sport (Vaccaro, 2011;Young, White, & McTeer, 1994). As Young et al (1994) point out, "[a]thletes who demonstrate pain or remove themselves from competition because of injury run the risk of being stigmatized by peers as less than fully masculine, particularly if the injury is not perceived as serious" (p. 190).…”

Losing Manhood Like a Man

“…Following Terry and Braun (2012), the few studies that have focused on gendered aspects of vasectomy experience have typically utilized interviews-or accounts-after the fact, which conceptualize the experience in relation to the ways it bolsters masculine identity claims and privilege (see also Terry and Braun 2011b). While such studies support observations of the ways men use their bodies to signify manhood (Vaccarro 2011), they leave unexplored ''crisis'' (Connell 1987) experiences males may experience in relation to vasectomies as well as the ways gender may influence vasectomy experiences in the moment.…”