SEXTANT: masculinities, sexualities & decolonialities

ABSTRACT

Given the current ambivalent links between the increased respectability of caring masculinities and the pervasive discourse of the crisis of masculinity, this article reflects on the paradoxes of masculinities when examined from the perspective of care and intimate life. First, it argues that it is in the private sphere that long-standing inequalities are reproduced. Secondly, it highlights how care and emotionality can be embodied as elements of complicity with the ideal of a respectable but still quite dominant masculinity. The main thesis emphasises how caring and nurturing masculinities have become central to contemporary backlashes against gender equality, as the feminisation of men is distorted to perpetuate a patriarchal gender order. The paradoxical nature of masculinity in the private sphere is clearly a sign of the times, requiring a critical eye alert to all the pitfalls of the status quo in protecting traditional male privilege.

KEY WOrDS

caring masculinities; crisis of masculinity; patriarchy; public and private; gender power

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