Politics of Masculinity

‘For Black women as well as Black men, it is axiomatic that if we do not define ourselves for ourselves, we will be defined by others – for their use and our detriment’ – Lorde, 1984

Masculinity can be seen as a form of constructed ideology that presents a set of cultural ideas that prescribe to appropriate roles, values and expectations for and of men. Created and maintained through stressing a distinct opposition towards femininity, this emerges as a very limited and oppressive performance. However, like femininity, masculinity operates politically at different levels and is often separated into three overarching categories: (widely as) perception, expectation, and representation or (locally as) subjectivity, power and resistance. 

Blackness – with its legacy of double commodification – is much like embodied masculinity which remains susceptible to a disembodied market-value.

But while capitalism has defined the labouring body as male, race placed black men at the intersection of male privilege and racial exclusion. In this respect, Stuart Hall illustrated the contradictions of black masculinity as ‘situated at the intersection of masculine entitlement and devalued blackness’ through adapting Gramsci’s theory of ‘identity construction’ to ultimately define identity as ‘permanent fortifications’ of ideological struggle; however more often than not, where various aspects of identity do not always align, this often results in generating ‘contradictory forms of ‘common sense’. Patriarchy then as ‘common-sense’ ideology is, therefore, a powerful incentive for black men to remain committed to the tenets of masculine worth, rooted in economic value — even when their devalued participation in the labour market means they are unable to achieve dominant masculinities themselves (Malton, 2019). 

In Western culture where masculinity is implicated in structures of power as a whole, the polarising image of Black masculinity evolves an already a gender-troubling condition of Blackness into meta-identificatory Blackness. Celebrated, exocitised [and feared] by white men and women alike, the racialised epithet has embedded within it a history of Black men as comprised of ‘layered fictions produced by others’ against dominant (and dominating) discourse of masculinity and race (specifically whiteness) in the public sphere’ argues Professor Herman Gray in ‘Black Masculinity and Visual Culture’ (2002); making it impossible to define Black masculinity without addressing the stereotypes that are attributed to it.

It is imperative for Black men to create their own perception of Black masculinity in order to stop being misunderstood and mislabeled or exiled to the (cultural) margins of blackness (Callaloo, 1995, p.401-05) as that very specific coerced gendered performance that consolidates into an inviolable fleshy embodiment (Alexander, 74).

Topics for this ToR may include, but are not limited to:

• New World Politics
• Cultural Politics of Masculinity
• Historical and Geographical Specificity
• Hegemonic Masculinity and ‘compliant’ (subordinate) femininity
• Feminist critique of patriarchial relations
• Emancipated forms of Masculinity
• Media-sponsored stereotyping
• Gender-conscious politics

Bibliography:

• Ashe, F. (2006) The New Politics of Masculinity: Men, Power and Resistance. Routledge Innovations in Political Theory
• Alexander. B.K (2006) Performing Black Masculinity: Race, Culture and Queer Identity. AltaMira Press.
• Gray, H. (2002). Black Masculinity and Visual Culture in Callaloo, Vol. 18, No. 2 (Spring, 1995), pp. 401-405. Available form: http://sites.middlebury.edu/soan191/files/2013/08/hermangray.pdf
• Ashe, F. (2007). The new politics of masculinity: Men, power and resistance. 1-178.
• Fidelma, F. (2007). The New Politics of Masculinity: Men, Power and Resistance, 1-178.
• Segal L. (2007) Competing Masculinities (III) : Black Masculinity and the White Man’s Black Man. In: Slow Motion. Palgrave Macmillan, London
• Sexton, J. (2018). Black Men, Black Feminism.
• hooks, b. (2003/4) We Real Cool: Black Men and Masculinity. Routledge
• Boakye. J, (2017) Hold Tight: Black Masculinity, Millennials and the Meaning of Grime. Influx Press
• Kopano, R. (2003). We black men. International Journal of Intercultural Relations. 27, pp.237-249. 
• MacMillan, M. (2004). ‘What happened to you today that reminded you that you are a black man?’ The process of exploring black masculinities in performance, Great Britain.
• Tate. G, (2003) Everything But the Burden. Penguin Random House: London.
• Robinson, C (1983) Black Marxism. The University of North Carolina Press. First published 1983by Zed Press, 57 Caledonian Road, London. Available from: https://libcom.org/files/Black%20Marxism-Cedric%20J.%20Robinson.pdf

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