Sensuality as Subversion: Doing Masculinity with Chinese Australian Professionals

Abstract

Within western gender structures, dominant discourses of Asian men as weak, feminized and asexual continue to render Asian masculinities subordinate to white hegemonic ideals. Although research of gender in organization studies has revealed important insights into how gender might be redone or undone, non‐white voices remain marginalized in this critical project. This article explores through in‐depth interviews the ways by which Chinese cis‐male professionals in Australia attempt to coopt desexualizing discourses and ‘do’ masculinity through sensuality. Specifically, the findings show how their sensuality is practised across various dimensions at work and beyond, including via the presentation of the self, relationships with others and representations in social texts. In presenting the voices of Asian men, this article seeks to illuminate their individual and collective pursuits for decolonization, agency and pleasure.

The hegemony of men in global value chains: Why it matters for labour governance

“…An intersectional analysis (Crenshaw, 1989) is therefore key in surfacing assumptions related to men and masculinities. Understanding how masculinities are enacted in particular contexts, cognisant of the historical impact of global trade and colonisation, as well as the ongoing effects of globalisation and racialised capitalism (Liu, 2017(Liu, , 2018, will provide a more nuanced account of how GVCs are structured, organised and governed by and for the social category of men.…”

“…This is crucial for research on GVCs and labour rights, in contexts imbued with many levels of practice and dark histories of racist trade and racialised colonisation. Feminist and intersectional methodologies ensure that we reject a 'eurocentric' or overly simplistic view on men and power (Liu, 2017(Liu, , 2018, acknowledging the complexities of privilege and marginalisation within the social category of men in GVCs.…”

“…This enables a quite different understanding of GVCs, focusing on 'multiple differentiated patriarchies' (Hearn, 2004: 66) and inequalities that are 'the outcome of intersections of different social locations, power relations and experiences' (Hankivsky, 2014: 1; see also Mohanty, 2003). This approach to men and masculinities clearly shows how the experiences of less-privileged group members can be erased (Crenshaw, 1989;Liu, 2017). To put it more simply, some men benefit from their assumed gender, while others do not, but dominant forms of patriarchal, racialised masculinity continue to drive exploitative conditions with differentiated intersectional effects within most GVCs.…”

La resistencia en los estudios organizacionales: una revisión de literatura

“…• Otras investigaciones estudian el vínculo que existe entre las relaciones de género, las prácticas de control y la resistencia en las organizaciones (Thomas, Mills, & Mills, 2004). Así, se encuentran trabajos sobre el aporte del feminismo a la comprensión de la resistencia organizacional (Thomas & Davies, 2005b), sobre los efectos y modos de resistir a los tradicionales roles de género (Griffin et al, 2017) y a comportamientos sexistas (McKie & Jyrkinen, 2017) y violentos (Alvinius & Holmberg, 2019), y, de manera más general, sobre la forma como la identidad de género (Hodgson, 2003), el cuerpo (Ball, 2005) y la sexualidad (Liu, 2017) constituyen recursos valiosos para la resistencia.…”

On the coloniality of work: Commercial surrogacy in India

“…Mcdowell, Rootham, & Hardgrove, 2016;Tomlinson, 2008;Wyatt & Silvester, 2015), and the ways in which marginalized peoples become compelled to 'do' race and gender in their working contexts (cf. Bruni, Gherardi, & Poggio, 2004;Liu, 2017;McDonald, 2013). More recently, studies have appropriated the analytic of 'intersectionality' (Crenshaw, 1989) to demonstrate how relations of inequality and experiences of difference become intensified in the instance of multiply marginalized identities (cf.…”