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.     

Gender Role and Sport Competition Anxiety: A Re-examination

Abstract

The present study tested whether there were significant sport competition anxiety differences among sex-typed, androgynous, and cross sex-typed subjects and whether these differences were consistent with gender schema theory (Bem, 1981b).

Approximately 700 subjects were administered the Bem Sex-Role Inventory (BSRI) and, using two methods of scoring, 216 subjects were selected because of being either sex-typed (masculine males, feminine females), cross sex-typed (masculine females, feminine males) or androgynous (males and females who have strong masculine and feminine dimensions). Each subject was tested for competition anxiety using the Sport Competition Anxiety Test (SCAT). A one-way ANOVA of SCAT scores by group was significant, F(5,210) = 6.52, p < .001. Post-hoc analysis revealed that feminine females had significantly more competitive trait anxiety than all other groups and androgynous females were more anxious than masculine males (p < .05). The results are discussed in terms of gender schema theory.     

‘What's next for masculinity?’ Reflexive directions for theory and research on masculinity and education

Research on masculinity has become an important area of gender and education that includes a wide range of empirical concerns and theoretical approaches. This article identifies a number of studies that are asking questions about the conceptual usefulness of masculinity within educational contexts. The first section explores how educational researchers are beginning to suggest alternative ways that hegemonic masculinity may be configured. The second section draws upon work that interrogates the disconnection of gender from sex. Such work considers the importance of understanding schooling worlds through an untethering of gender categories from physical bodies. The third section suggests the possibility of a post-masculinity position by exploring research that questions the viability of masculinity as a conceptual frame to understand gender. In conclusion, the paper argues that such developments can be used heuristically to inform the critical reflexiveness of future research in the area.     

Learning crafts as practices of masculinity. Finnish male trainee teachers' reflections and experiences

Craft education in Finland has long gendered traditions that effect the present situation. The aim of this paper is to analyse the processes of learning the interlinking of crafts and gender. The analysis concentrates on male trainee teachers' experiences of craft education in comprehensive schools in Finland. Data were collected through memory work and autobiographical writing. The analysis revealed how the boys had linked the term ‘technical crafts’ with masculinity, (1) as part of their upbringing at home surrounded by the gender order of their childhood families; (2) following the school model that technical crafts are a masculine sphere for boys; and (3) the importance and pressures of the boys' peer culture. Through learning crafts, the boys were learning the masculinities of their local ‘communities of practices’. The prospective teachers' reflections revealed the importance of studying gender issues in teacher education.     

Having the balls,having it all? Sport and constructions of undergraduate laddishness

This article investigates the role of sport in framing and communicating hegemonic masculinity among male undergraduates within one British university. The data were collected through questionnaires and one‐to‐one interviews with 24 male students who were asked to consider their relationship with laddish masculinities. The evidence indicates that sport was important in framing hegemonic masculinities within this milieu. While participants recognised the importance of sport in constructing masculinity, they were also critical of sportsmen’s ‘laddish’ practices and attempted to distance themselves from these behaviours. Nevertheless, they remained complicit to the more general attributes of hegemonic masculinity – particularly notions of strength and independence. The article discusses the implications of this finding for how researchers might conceptualise hegemonic masculinity, and offers a suggestion on how they might harness these attributes to challenge the more negative practices associated with manhood.     

The productive effect of power: (dis)pleasurable bodies materialising in and through the discursive practices of boys’ physical education

Background: Pleasure is often a key feature of school physical education (PE) and, indeed, a lot of students find pleasure in and through PE while others do not. However, pleasure is rarely considered to be of educational value in the subject [Pringle, R. (2010). “Finding Pleasure in Physical Education: A Critical Examination of the Educative Value of Positive Movement Affects.” Quest 62: 119–134]. Further, since pleasure is linked to power [Foucault, M. (1980). Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings, 1972–1977. New York: Pantheon; Gerdin, G., and R. Pringle. (2015). “The Politics of Pleasure: An Ethnographic Examination Exploring the Dominance of the Multi-Activity Sport-Based Physical Education Model.” Sport, Education and Society. doi:10.1080/13573322.2015.1019448] it is in fact not entirely straightforward to legitimise the educational value of PE in relation to pleasure.

Purpose: In this paper, we explore how a group of boys derive pleasures from their involvement in PE, but also how these power-induced pleasures are integral to gender normalisation processes. The findings presented are particularly discussed in terms of inclusive/exclusive pedagogical practices related to gender, bodies and pleasures.

Research setting and participants: The research setting was a single-sex, boys’ secondary school in Auckland, New Zealand. Participants in this study were 60 Year 10 (age 14–15) students from two PE classes.

Data collection and analysis: Using a visual ethnographic approach [Pink, S. (2007). Doing Visual Ethnography. London: Sage] involving observations and video recordings of boys participating in PE, the boys’ representations and interpretations of the visual data were explored during both focus groups and individual interviews. The data were analysed using (a visually oriented) discourse analysis [Foucault, M. (1998). “Foucault.” In Michel Foucault. Aesthetics, Method and Epistemology, edited by J. D. Faubion, 459–463. New York: The New Press; Rose, G. (2007). Visual Methodologies: An Introduction to the Interpretation of Visual Materials. London: Sage].

Findings: By elucidating the discursive practices of PE in this setting and employing (Butler, J. (1993). Bodies that Matter: On the Discursive Limits of ‘Sex’. New York: Routledge] concept of ‘materialisation’, we suggest that boy’s bodies materialise as productive and pleasurable or displeasurable bodies through submitting/subjecting to certain bodily regimes, developing embodied mastery when it comes to certain sports, and displaying bodies in particular ways. The analysis indicate that the discursive practices of PE contribute to boys’ bodies materialising as pleasurable or displeasurable and the (re)production of gender in the subject as shaped by discourse and the productive effect of power.

Discussion and conclusions: In line with [Gard, M. (2008). “When a Boy’s Gotta Dance: New Masculinities, Old Pleasures.” Sport, Education and Society 13 (2): 181–193], we conclude that the focus on certain discursively constructed bodily practices at the same time continues to restrict the production of a diversity of bodily movement pleasures. Hence, traditional gender patterns are reproduced through a selection of particular sports/physical activities that all the students are expected to participate in. We propose that the ongoing constitution of privileged forms of masculinity, masculine bodies and masculine pleasures as related to fitness, health and sport and (certain) boys’ subsequent exercise of power in PE needs further critical examination.     

That’s so homophobic? Australian young people’s perspectives on homophobic language use in secondary schools

Abstract

It is generally accepted that hearing homophobic language can be detrimental to the well-being of same-sex attracted young people. Writing Themselves In 3, a survey of Australian same-sex attracted young people, found that almost half of the respondents reported hearing such language on a regular basis, and considered it offensive. Less is known however about heterosexual young people’s experiences. Homophobic language use is often assumed to be motivated by prejudice, but this topic has not been well studied. Using interviews and an online discussion with young people aged 16–21 years, this study explored heterosexual young people’s perspectives on homophobic language use at school. Contrary to the framing often used in anti-homophobia education, the meaning of this form of language was seen to largely depend on the context in which it was employed, frequently functioning to reinforce masculine gender norms, particularly for popular male students. Furthermore, while many heterosexual participants in this study used homophobic language regularly, they did not see themselves as homophobic and viewed school policies against the use of homophobic language as largely ineffective. Findings suggest that heterosexual young people may respond more favourably to anti-homophobia education if these programmes acknowledge the variety of meanings and functions of language commonly understood to be homophobic in character.     

《伤逝》爱情悲剧的重新审视

从女性的阅读视角重新解读《伤逝》，从对子君新女性外衣下的旧传统思想的揭示，对涓生的男权思想批判、揭露，来分析爱情悲剧的根源。从而更好的领会鲁迅的性别文化批判以及作者探索女性解放的正确道路。     

Underperformance or ‘getting it right’? Constructions of gender and achievement in the Australian inquiry into boys’ education

The underachievement of boys has been a focus of intense concern in Australia for over 15 years. Historical analyses suggest that male students’ poor performance has traditionally been attributed to factors external to boys themselves (methods, teachers, texts), deflecting attention from the relationship between masculinity construction and successful engagement with school. This paper turns the focus back, addressing the ways in which gender itself was constructed within hearings held for the Australian Parliamentary Inquiry into Boys’ Education. Discursive analysis demonstrates that witnesses to the Inquiry drew upon a series of gender binaries in representing male and female students, and accounting for their relative attainment. These binaries worked to associate masculinity with ‘authentic’ learning, such that the success of male students was naturalised even in the absence of achievement. Conversely, the association of femininity and ‘inauthentic learning’ worked to undermine female students’ demonstrated success. The role of these binaries in the reproduction of a paradoxical relationship between gender and achievement is discussed.