Shifting discourses from boy preference to boy crisis: educating boys and nation building in neoliberal China

ABSTRACT

It is well established that China has emerged as a major economic power, resulting from the nation’s neoliberal modernization. What is less understood is the socio-cultural and educational impact of this change on public institutions. This article focuses on the education system, which is currently seen as central to delivering the nation’s modernization project, particularly through suzhi jiaoyu (education for quality). More specifically, we engage with a pervasive public discourse of a boy crisis. We suggest the need critically to explore the local (national) meanings within a contemporary Chinese context of this assumed projected crisis that appears to be established as a western phenomenon. We argue that the discourse of a boy crisis can be read as a strategic move to re-inscribe an earlier discourse, that of the boy preference, that in turn is discursively linked to nation building at a time of globally inflected socio-economic transformations.     

Identifying Health Beliefs Influencing Hispanic College Men's Willingness to Vaccinate against HPV

This study identifies health beliefs influencing Hispanic college men's human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine uptake decision making processes. Hispanic college men were interviewed about their HPV vaccine knowledge, and information seeking behaviors. Overall, participants did not view HPV infection or vaccination as an immediate concern or priority; belief that it was a virus that only affected women, and a sense of invulnerability informed their positions. Despite these issues, most men were willing to consider getting the HPV vaccine if they received more education from health care providers, and cost concerns were addressed. These findings pointed to gaps in our understandings of Hispanic college men's HPV vaccination beliefs and provided insight into the importance of integrating this population's unique beliefs into campus health providers efforts aimed at increasing vaccination rates.     

Young working-class men do not read: or do they? Challenging the dominant discourse of reading

ABSTRACT

In the majority of the research on boys’ and young men’s relation to reading, it is argued that boys and young men read too little, read poorly and in all the wrong ways. However, few studies focus on how boys and young men read the texts they do encounter. In particular, there is a lack of research on young men of working-class background, whose relationship to reading is stressed as particularly problematic in many studies. In this article, we approach the reader histories of three young working-class men from a life story perspective, on the basis of a broad definition of text and reading, to capture how reading and texts are used in their identity construction. Our analysis shows that the young men engage in reading in different ways, from listening to audio books and reading aloud to watching films. We argue that our approach makes it possible to re-envision working-class men as readers who, among other things, use reading to construct softer masculinities, thus challenging the dominant narrative of working-class masculinity and working-class men’s relationship to reading and texts.     

Trans*forming college masculinities: carving out trans*masculine pathways through the threshold of dominance

Abstract

Men and masculinities studies are gaining prominence in higher education literature, illuminating how cisgender college men understand and grapple with masculinity. Additionally, the increased visibility of trans* students has fueled the expanding scholarship and attention to their experiences, often however centering on white gender-conforming trans* students with little if any focus on their multiple and intersecting identities. The gap between these two strands of literature risks reifying hegemonic masculinity and genderism, as masculinities continue to be theorized as exclusively shaped and embodied by cisgender men. Through post-intentional and queer phenomenologies, this study seeks to fill that gap by investigating how trans*masculine students conceptualize masculinity/ies, and how that conception is informed by various intersecting and salient identities. Through a multifaceted conceptual framework and disruptive phenomenologies, the study positions trans*masculine students as agentic worldmakers, constructing trans*masculine pathways, with implications for building toward gender liberation for themselves and others.     

‘I’m Strong for Her’ versus ‘I Rely on Him’: male and female victims’ reasons for staying reflect sex-gender conflations

Male and female victims’ communication of intimate partner violence to others in the face of potential repercussions shows how language reflects/is reflected by relational identities when deciding to stay/leave abusive relationships. In this study, a non-clinical sample (N?=?484), self-identified as male (n?=?156) or female (n?=?331) victims, indicated reason-messages used with self and/or others for why they stayed in these violent relationships. Analyses of both independent messages and grouped themes showed victims’ communication as inherently (and perhaps, falsely) gendered. Viewed through a gender- (versus sex-) lens, victims’ reasons for staying suggest barriers to support may be communicated as gendered.     

Beyond bad behaving brothers: productive performances of masculinities among college fraternity men

Research on fraternity men focuses almost exclusively on problematic behaviors such as homophobia and sexism, alcohol abuse, violence against women, sexual promiscuity, and the overrepresentation of members among campus judicial offenders. Consequently, little is known about those who perform masculinities in healthy and productive ways. Presented in this article are findings from a qualitative study of productive masculinities and behaviors among 50 undergraduate fraternity men from 44 chapters across the US and Canada. Findings offer insights into participants’ steadfast commitments to the fraternity’s espoused values; their acceptance and appreciation of members from a range of diverse backgrounds; strategies they employed to address bad behaviors (including sexism, racism, and homophobia) among chapter brothers; and the conditions that enabled them to behave in ways that contradict stereotypes concerning men in collegiate fraternities.     

Using critical and post-critical pedagogies to pick at the seams of patriarchy from ‘the inside’

ABSTRACT

This article explores the use of critical and post-critical pedagogies in a rural Australian high school for the purposes of unsettling life-limiting gender beliefs and practices. The paper problematises two examples whereby site-specific knowledges, curriculum dictates, media texts and critical pedagogies were enmeshed to create politically charged spaces for re-seeing, re-thinking and re-doing gender. The first example involves a unit of work in which students were required to critically analyse and evaluate a well-known Australian documentary film for the particular version of hypermasculinity that it was valorising. The second example involves the collaborative critiquing of a well-known local text. At the conclusion of the paper, I turn a critically reflexive eye upon myself as a way of considering the ethics and issues for educators of challenging power asymmetries from ‘the inside’. It is at this point that I discover it is possibly I who have been disrupted most of all.     

Conformity to masculinity ideology,a predictor of academic‐related attitudes and behaviors

Masculinity ideology is argued to be associated with academic outcomes. However, relatively few studies have examined these associations. This study examines the associations between masculinity ideology and academic skepticism, self‐presentation of low achievement, academic engagement, academic initiative, and self‐regulation, above and beyond academic self‐efficacy, among a diverse sample of urban youth. With a sample of 135 eighth‐grade students from a Northeastern middle school, 5 separate multiple hierarchical regression analyses were used to examine whether students’ endorsement of masculinity ideology predicted the criterion variables above and beyond academic self‐efficacy. The sample was comprised of 54 girls and 74 boys ages 12–14 years (M = 13.14; SD = .37). Results showed academic self‐efficacy significantly predicted academic engagement (B = 1.26; β = .53, p < .001; f² = .39), academic initiative (B = .98; β = .37; p < .001, f² = .16), and behavioral regulation (B = .61; β = .24; p < .05; f² = .09) and explained an additional 8 and 10% of the variance in self‐presentation of low achievement (B = .54; β = .33; p = .001; f² = .14) and academic skepticism (B = .56; β = .35; p < .001; f² = .15), respectively, over and above academic self‐efficacy. Gender, which was dummy coded and entered as a covariate, only predicted self‐presentation of low achievement. Findings from this study point to the need to foster positive academic outcomes through bolstering academic self‐efficacy and, perhaps more important, addressing masculinity ideology.     

体育是培养青少年“阳刚之气”的良好途径——与《体育是防止“男性青少年女性化”的良方？》一文商榷

一个时期以来,男性青少年阴柔化成为一种社会现象,引起了公众、媒体和政府的普遍关注。体育学界应对这一关乎体育的议题给予理论回应,研究提出培养青少年阳刚之气的体育对策和实施途径。采用文献资料和逻辑分析方法,对《体育是防止‘男性青少年女性化’的良方？》一文的几个观点提出商榷;探讨了"阳刚之气"的传统文化内涵和现代社会意义;分析了体育何以能够培养青少年"阳刚之气"的缘由和具体培养途径。研究认为：体育所追求的性别平等应是一种基于性别差异的在权利、人格、机会上的平等。当代社会性别气质已趋于多元化,但当青少年群体出现过于"柔弱化"和男性青少年群体出现过于"阴柔化"现象时,就需要给予特别重视并采取相应措施。青少年"柔弱化"的重要特征之一是体质的弱化,而体育的本质功能就是"以健化人",体育既是增强体质的重要手段,也是培养刚毅、坚强、果敢、担当等阳刚气质的良好途径。在国际竞争不断加剧的当下,培养提升青少年的"阳刚之气"具有重要意义。     

The influence of fear appeals,message design,and masculinity on men's motivation to perform the testicular self‐exam

Despite the significant threat men face for contracting testicular cancer, most men remain completely unaware of this risk. Moreover, men are not regularly performing the testicular self‐exam (TSE) in order to detect this form of cancer in their bodies. The current study attempted to assess whether fear appeals targeted at men will motivate them to begin regular performance of the TSE. Additionally, the influence of message design and masculinity was also tested. Results indicate messages that follow the direction of Witte's (1992, 1994) Extended Parallel Process Model and promote both high threat and high efficacy are successful in increasing men's intentions to perform the TSE. Implications of these findings are discussed.