Course:WMST307:Student Pages: Laura (Kate) Bodnar Balazs

The term Hegemonic Masculinity is a difficult term to pin down under definition due to the shifting nature of its subject. R. W. Connell, has given the most balanced and current understanding of the term as: “the configuration of gender practice which embodies the currently accepted answer to the problem of the legitimacy of patriarchy, which guarantees (or is taken to guarantee) the dominant position of men and the subordination of women”. Particularly, that Hegemonic Masculinity is the set of practices and performances, which are enacted as the most pervasive and dominant of men specific to their particular period, which enforces not only male dominance over women but also a class structure within masculinity. Hegemonic Masculinity, does not necessarily entail that it is the most commonly practiced form of masculinity in its particular time period but that it is the one which maintains the most power over others. It is also a shifting entity, what would be considered the hegemonic masculinity in one culture would be different from that of another. What is particular to it cross-culturally is the emphasis on structured performance and for males to enact the correct codes of the Hegemonic Masculinity of their culture. M. Donaldson suggests the power of Hegemonic Masculinity resides in its reliance on dominant binaries such Heterosexual/Homosexual and Masculine/Feminine and works to reinforce these. Yet this understanding tends to rely heavily on ideas of dominance and subordination due to their basis in current western Hegemonic Masculinity and lack an understanding of the plurality of masculinity. What is more evident is that whilst in our current culture this is the shape of Hegemonic Masculinity, it is more simply that Hegemonic Masculinity it just the most social endorsed and normalized form of masculinity in any culture.

 1 Connell, R. W. Masculinities. St. Leonards: Allen & Unwin, 1995. p. 77
 2 Connell, R. W. Masculinities. 1995. p. 77
 3 Blye, Frank. "Hegemonic Heterosexual Masculinity." Studies in Political Economy 24 (1987): 159-70. p. 161.
 4 Donaldson, Mike. "What Is Hegemonic Masculinity?" Theory and society 20, no. 5 (1993): 643-57. p. 645
 5 McCormack, Mark. "Hierarchy without Hegemony: Locating Boys in an Inclusive School Setting." Sociological Perspectives 54, no. 1 (2011): 83-101. p. 85
 6 Connell, R. W. Masculinities. 1995. p. 81