“Masculine capital” and men's health-related behaviour

Visser, Richard de; McDonnell, Liz

doi:10.1016/j.jomh.2011.08.079

Cited by 66 publications

(147 citation statements)

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“…This is highly relevant since the disruption and transformation of specific fields of employment has had significant effects on male hegemony, and important implications for viewing the workplace as a potentially healthy setting for addressing inequalities. We have further exemplified the relevance of Bourdieu's approach to men's health promotion with reference to football leisure settings, which unlike service employment fields, preserve a space of 'exchange' (De Visser et al, 2009) for a predominantly masculine habitus. We have said less about the central field of family relations, although the examples (above) in Gibson's study (2007) and Hall et al, (2007) remind us that dislocations and tensions within and between the gendered fields of family and work have powerful implications for reshaping dispositions (habitus) and reflexivity.…”

Section: Problematic Issuesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Involving trusted community advocates has proved important to the success of men's health projects (Johal et al, 2012;Conrad and White, 2007), while training community facilitators has proved an effective component of systematic, multi-component suicide prevention programmes elsewhere (Hegerl et al, 2006). Previous men's health research (De Visser et al, 2009) has suggested some ways that competence in traditional masculine domains (e.g. sport, drinking, muscular physique) can be deployed socially among males to compensate for non-masculine or less traditionally masculine behaviours in other domains; and this has been conceptualised as 'trading' masculine capital, considered as symbolic capital, in social discourse and practice.…”

Section: Applications To Men's Healthmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…sport, drinking, muscular physique) can be deployed socially among males to compensate for non-masculine or less traditionally masculine behaviours in other domains; and this has been conceptualised as 'trading' masculine capital, considered as symbolic capital, in social discourse and practice. However, the potentially positive health value of this 'exchange', (for example continuing to be engaged in sport insures, or is traded, against giving up alcohol) is limited because of the higher value set on more hegemonic forms of masculine capital behaviour (De Visser et al, 2009). This limit, structurally reproduced across fields, partially accounts for enduring ambivalences of identification and practice.…”

Section: Applications To Men's Healthmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Challenging the field: Bourdieu and men’s health

Robinson

Robertson

2014

Soc Theory Health

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This paper considers how understandings of health promotion with men may be assisted by engagement with Bourdieu's theoretical work. The paper outlines leading concepts within Bourdieu's work on 'field' 'habitus' and 'capital', considers subsequent critical debates among gender, feminist and sociological theorists around structure and agency, and links these to discussions within men's health. A particular focus concerns structural disruption of, and movement of social actors between, 'fields' such as family, work and leisure settings. The paper examines, through Bourdieu's critical legacy, whether such disruption establishes conditions for transformative reflexivity among men in relation to previously held dispositions (habitus), including those inflected by masculinities, that affect men's health practices. Recent work within Bourdieu's heritage potentially facilitates a re-framing of understandings of men's health practices. The paper specifically explores masculine ambivalence within accounts of reflexivity, identities, and practice, and considers how social and symbolic ('masculine') capital are in play. Implications of Bourdieu's leading concepts for theorising settings-focused approaches to men's health promotion are exemplified with reference to a men's health project in a football stadium leisure setting. The paper considers benefits and challenges of applying gendered critical insights drawing on Bourdieu's work to men's health promotion, and discusses emerging theoretical dilemmas. words

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Section: Problematic Issuesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Applications To Men's Healthmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Applications To Men's Healthmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Challenging the field: Bourdieu and men’s health

Robinson

Robertson

2014

Soc Theory Health

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“…For example, help-seeking for medical concerns -often seen as contrary to the prescription that men be tough and autonomous -was justified by some men 4 as a wise use of healthcare services, in contrast to the less-informed behaviour of 'weaker' men (Noone & Stephens, 2008). Likewise, while alcohol use is a way for men to demonstrate masculinity, some men justified abstinence by positioning it as a manifestation of other masculine norms such as independence from the herd (de Visser, Smith, & McDonnell, 2009). Similarly, Sloan et al (2010) studied men who engaged in regular exercise, and found they eschewed speaking directly about health -presenting health concerns as feminine -but justified their behaviour by invoking traditionally masculine discourses of action, success, and autonomy.…”

Section: Gender and Healthmentioning

confidence: 99%

Engagement with meditation as a positive health trajectory: Divergent narratives of progress in male meditators

Lomas

Ridge

Cartwright

et al. 2013

Psychology & Health

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“…Recently a small amount of empirical work has, however, suggested that 'doing' masculinity relative to health behaviors is more dynamic and contradictory than previously thought. For example, de Visser, Smith, and McDonnell (2009), and Robertson, Sheikh, and Morre (2010) argued that some men might both subscribe to hegemonic masculinity and legitimately engage in healthy behaviors (e.g. exercising or avoiding alcohol).…”

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confidence: 99%

Disability, sport and men's narratives of health: A qualitative study.

Smith¹

2013

Health Psychology

109

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Objective: Very little research has been conducted that examines men, sport, masculinities, and disability in the context of health. Readdressing this absence, this paper examines the health narratives told by spinal injured men and the work narratives do on, in, and for them.Methods: In-depth life history interviews and fieldwork observations with men (n=17) who sustained a spinal injury through playing sport and are now disabled were conducted. Qualitative data were analyzed using a dialogical narrative analysis.Results: Stories told about health characterized a style of embodied actions choices that anticipated a certain type of narrative, that is, an emergent narrative. The men's narrative habitus, fashioned through the process rehabilitation, predisposed them to be interpellated to care about health. To uphold hegemonic masculinities the men also did not care too much about health. The analysis also reveals the work narratives do on, in, and for health behavior, masculine identities, resilience, leisure time physical activity, and body-self relationships. Implications for health promotion work are highlighted.Conclusions: The paper advances knowledge by revealing the emergent narrative of health. It reveals too for the first time the way certain contexts and masculine identities create a new subject of health that cares about doing health work, but not too much. Building on the theoretical knowledge advanced here, this paper contributes to practical understandings of men's health and disability by highlighting the potential of narrative for changing human lives and behavior.Keywords: Disability; men's health; resilience; narrative; physical activity Running head: DISABLED MEN'S UNDERSTANDINGS OF HEALTH 3 Disability, sport and men's narratives of health: A qualitative study There are numerous health benefits to playing competitive or leisure time sport. But, in some instances, and more often to men than women, it can also result in disability and long-term health problems. The purpose of this paper is to examine the type of health narrative(s) told by a group of men who sustained a spinal cord injury (SCI) through engaging in leisure time physical activity and are now disabled. It too examines the work these narratives, as 'actors' in Frank's (2010) terms, do in shaping the men's health behavior.Examining disabled men's narratives of health is significant and timely. First, as Frank (2010) argued, the narratives that circulate outside us in culture inform our sense of health and what we know about it. Hence, a person's understanding of health comprises which narratives they take on board from what is available in the cultural menu. Moreover, these narratives shape our health behaviors. They have the capacity to do things. That is, narratives act on, in, and for people: they tell people who they ought to be, who they might like to be and who they can be, "affecting what people are able to see as real, as possible, and as worth doing or best avoided" (p.3). This is not to deny that health has a biologi...

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“Masculine capital” and men's health-related behaviour

Cited by 66 publications

References 0 publications

Challenging the field: Bourdieu and men’s health

Challenging the field: Bourdieu and men’s health

Engagement with meditation as a positive health trajectory: Divergent narratives of progress in male meditators

Disability, sport and men's narratives of health: A qualitative study.

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