Managing Emotional Manhood

Abstract

Based on two years of fieldwork and over 100 interviews, we analyze mixed martial arts fighters' fears, how they managed them, and how they adopted intimidating personas to evoke fear in opponents. We conceptualize this process as ''managing emotional manhood,'' which refers to emotion management that signifies, in the dramaturgical sense, masculine selves. Our study aims to deepen our understanding of how men's emotion work is gendered and, more generally, to bring together two lines of research: studies of gendered emotion management and studies of emotional identity work. We further propose that managing emotional manhood is a dynamic and trans-situational process that can be explored in diverse settings.While fighters in the locker room prepared for combat in the cage, two men from the previous fight staggered in. Juan 1 -the victor-had shiny contusions under both eyes and made it to a folding chair where he sat staring into space. As two paramedics tried to keep him conscious, he cracked a smile with swollen lips and tried unsuccessfully to communicate meaningfully. As the paramedics carried Juan off on a stretcher, Mikehis opponent-leaned against a wall and talked with his trainer. As blood flowed from his nose and mouth, Mike began to sob. His trainer handed him a towel, which he brought to his face with shaking hands. When asked if he was upset about Juan, he pulled away the bloodied towel and said, ''I don't like losing.'' Juan and Mike's post-fight experiences highlight what competitors of mixed martial arts (MMA) most often say they fear: injury and losing. Competitions generally occur in a locked cage and fighters wear thin, open-fingered gloves and are allowed to punch, kick, wrestle, and use martial arts techniques. Fights are broken into rounds and end when one fighter submits

Estrategias Metodológicas e Instrumentos de Abordaje sobre Estudios de Emociones en Hombres: Revisión Narrativa

“…Por otra parte, se encontraron estudios sobre las emociones como construcción social (Walton, Coyle, & Lyons, 2004;Brenton & Elliott, 2017), en relación con la construcción de la masculinidad (Buzzanell & Turner, 2003;Emslie, et al, 2006;Evers, 2009;Canham, 2009;Montes, 2013;White, 2014;Mann, Tarrant, & Lesson, 2016), relaciones de poder (Meth, 2009), conocimientos, significados emocionales y subjetividades relacionados con el género (Cruz, 2011;Lively, 2008;Wilkins, 2012;Waitt & Stanes, 2015), como la paternidad (Evans, 2012), el sexo opuesto (Duncombe & Marsden, 1993;Wyatt & Ehrhardt, 2003;Morales de Castro, 2010), vínculos afectivos (Jackson, 2012), expresión, experiencias y regulación emocional en diferentes contextos (Barrientos Delgado., et al, 2011;Zackariasson, 2009;Vaccaro, Schrock, & McCabe, 2011;Bennett & Gough, 2013;Randell, et al, 2015;Apesoa-Varano, Barker, & Hinton, 2015;Nash, 2012), en relación con la salud, cuidado y autocuidado (Lomas, Cartwright Edginton, & Ridge, 2012;Wentzell, 2014;Wu, Oliffe, Bungay, & Johnson, 2015;Thomeer, Reczek, & Umberson, 2015), el cuerpo (Villa, 2015;Waitt & Stanes, 2015) y la violencia, perdón, paz y reconciliación (Conejero, Etxebarria, & Montero, 2014).…”

“…Este estudio logró evidenciar que la calidad de la investigación cualitativa de los estudios de emociones en los hombres se ve afectada, en tanto que no siempre se presenta la articulación coherente entre: epistemología, metodología y método (Carter & Little, 2007). Además, se identificó la etnografía como el diseño más utilizado (Barrientos Delgado, et al, 2011;Vaccaro, et al, 2011;Jackson, 2012;Montes, 2013;Villa, 2015;Wilkins, 2012;Wentzell, 2014). Se encontraron estudios realizados con base en la etnografía y geografía emocional (Meth, 2009), así como otros que vinculan la etnografía y autoetnografía (Nash, 2012).…”

Mood states and self-rated health of Brazilian jiu-jitsu fighters in competition

“…In mixed martial arts, an injured athlete cannot train and compete at a high level, making this one of their main fears in combat sports. (Vaccaro, Schrock, & McCabe, 2011). Considering the incidence of injuries in BJJ, it is questioned that the practice of hurting your opponent until he or she is unconscious and forcing joints to almost rupture bones or ligaments, can be detrimental to the physical and mental health of athletes and practitioners who choose combat sports as physical activity (White, 2007).…”

Negotiating violence: Mixed martial arts as a spectacle and sport

“…Regardless of how MMA has been classified and conceptualized, the sport has entered the mainstream sport context. Researchers have also paid an increasing attention to the sport in relation to gender and embodiment (Uhlmann and Uhlmann 2005;Stenius 2015;Vaccaro and Swauger 2015;Channon and Matthews 2015;Channon et al 2017;Green 2016), body techniques (Spencer 2009), and emotional management (Vaccaro et al 2011), as well as violence, pain and injuries (Stenius and Dziwenka 2015;Jensen et al 2016). One highly influential study was conducted by Spencer (2012a; see also 2014), who ethnographically followed the everyday life at an MMA club (see also Green 2011).…”