Masculinity Crisis Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

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- Ethnic Studies, The Novel, Masculinity Studies, Asian American Studies

"In this paper we argue that the commercials of the 2010 Super Bowl, a preeminent national advertising showcase, provide a stinging contribution to the contemporary discourse of masculinity in the US. Using a combination of discourse and semiotic analysis, we draw on and expand Messner and
Montez de Oca's 2005 examination of the trope of the "happy loser" in beer commercials. Conducting a close reading of five illustrative Super Bowl Commercials, three from 2010 and two from 2009, we find that the 2010 Super Bowl commercials turn their back on the happy loser. Rather than being humorous
and endearing, these losers are portrayed as lost and pathetic figures who are oblivious to the supposed decline in their social standing. We argue that these messages build on broader anxieties about the economy and the empowerment of social minorities in attempt to mass market the discourse of a crisis of masculinity. Men's bodies are the semiotic link in these commercials, and as the viewers are bombarded with soft and aging male bodies, men are called upon to "wear the pants" and take their "last stand" through consumption."

- by kyle green
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- Discourse Analysis, Semiotics, Popular Culture, Advertising

The plight of male migrant workers in China needs greater critical attention from scholars. A notable aspect of the lives of these single, marginalized adult migrants is the high incidence of purchasing low-end commercial sex as a means of coping with diminished opportunity and life outlook for success. There is a dearth of scholarship linking urban migration with the purchase of commercial sex. This article extends Connell’s hegemonic masculinity to address a rampant ‘masculinity crisis’ engulfing single migrant men. This crisis constitutes a public health issue because the risks associated with this group include emotional despair, hopelessness, and risky lifestyles involving sex and drugs.
There are three tensions driving this crisis; one tension is due to low wages and a patriarchal family norm that expects certain income level before a man is socially approved to marry and have children. A second, related tension reflects the dominant discourse in urban China, which marks male migrants as failures in a society that equates success and status to those having wealth. The third tension arises from the culturally marginalizing behavior of soliciting prostitutes for sexual pleasure and physical release.
Because of these tensions, single-adult migrants express their masculinity using combinations of five archetypes to help them cope with their emasculated reality. They are deeply aware they are the losers in China’s economic reforms of the past ten years, yet cling to the notion that somehow, one day, they may be deemed successful enough to be married and form a family. Meanwhile, they must face the daily reality of emotional and physical needs. This study interviewed 100 single-adult male migrants who admitted to regularly buying commercial sex in the low-end and mid-tier bars. This article fills a gap in the understanding of China’s masculinity crisis and in turn links it to the backdrop of the nation’s post-socialist transition in a wider social, cultural, and historical structure.

- by Eileen Tsang
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- Masculinity, China, Migrant workers, Commercial Sex Workers

ÖZET Günümüzde, toplumsal alanda ataerkil bir iktidar odağı olarak kurgulanan geleneksel erkeklik tanımlarının kriz içerisinde olduğu sıkça dile getirilmektedir. Diğer sanat türlerinde olduğu gibi sinemanın da bir biçimde toplumsal bilinci yansıttığı düşünülürse sözü edilen erkeklik krizinin sinemasal eserlere de yansımış olması olasıdır. Bu yüzden, bu çalışma, 1990 sonrası Türk Sine-masında ne tür erkeklik tanımlarının üretildiğini ve perdeye yansıyan erkeklik temsillerinin bir tür eril krize işaret edip etmediğini sorgulamaktadır. Bu bağlamda " erkeklik krizi " ni çarpıcı bir bi-çimde yansıttığı düşünülen Yazı Tura adlı film çalışmanın örneklemi olarak seçilmiş ve bu film üzerinden sosyolojik bir çözümleme yapılmıştır. ABSTRACT Nowadays, it has been quite frequently connoted that the definitions of traditional masculinity, constructed as the patriarchal focus of power in the social field, are in crisis. As in the other branches of arts, if it is thought that cinema reflects the social conscious in a way it can also be possible that the mentioned masculinity crisis may be existed in the works of the cinema. Therefore ,, this study has questioned what kind of masculinity definitions were produced in the Turkish Cinema after 1990s, whether these definitions, reflected to the cinema, mark any kind of masculine crisis or not. In this context, the film called Yazı Tura which is thought to reflect the " masculinity crisis " in a very striking form was chosen as sample of this study and a sociological analysis was made based on the film.

- by Ahmet Oktan
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- Masculinity Studies, Turkish Cinema, Masculinity, Masculinities

Drawing the framework of the hierarchies among masculinities and elaborating on the theory of hegemonic masculinity, this study attempts to analyze the journey and the transformation from hegemonic masculinity into masculinity crisis of the protagonists of two crucial films of two distinct cultures, The Game (1997) and Mustafa Hakkında Her Şey (Everything About Mustafa) (2004). Within this study through a close exploration of the troublesome and curios stories of both Nicholas and Mustafa, their failure of the idealized masculinity models, that is, the modes of the hegemonic masculinity and their specific masculinity crisis will be attempted to be analyzed.
Keywords: hegemonic masculinity, masculinity crisis, film studies, The Game, Everything About Mustafa.

- by Görkem Neşe ŞENEL
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- Gender Studies, Film Studies, Violence, Masculinity Studies