Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Palgrave Macmillan

Destabilising Masculinism

Men’s Friendships and Social Change

  • Book
  • © 2023

Overview

Authors:
  1. Brittany Ralph

    1. Department of Sociology, Social Policy and Criminology, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

  • Offers an alternative to conceptualization of what changing men’s relationships mean for “the gender order”
  • Integrates feminist poststructuralist theory with key scholarship from critical masculinity studies
  • Draws on in-depth empirical research with two generations of Australian men (14 pairs of fathers and sons)

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this book

Log in via an institution
eBook USD 89.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book USD 119.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access

Licence this eBook for your library

Institutional subscriptions

Table of contents (7 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xi
    Download chapter PDF

  2. The Significance of Men’s More Intimate Same-Gender Friendships

    • Brittany Ralph
    Pages 1-28

  3. Theory, Debates and a Feminist Poststructuralist Way Forward

    • Brittany Ralph
    Pages 29-55

  4. Friendship in the Fathers’ Early Lives

    • Brittany Ralph
    Pages 57-81

  5. Friendship in the Fathers’ Later Lives

    • Brittany Ralph
    Pages 83-112

  6. Friendship in the Sons’ Lives

    • Brittany Ralph
    Pages 113-138

  7. Overcoming Barriers to Intimacy Through Humour, Alcohol and the Disembodied Nature of Online Spaces

    • Brittany Ralph
    Pages 139-167

  8. Towards a Feminist Poststructuralist Account of Change in Men’s Friendships

    • Brittany Ralph
    Pages 169-191

  9. Back Matter

    Pages 193-198
    Download chapter PDF
Back to top

Keywords

About this book

This book explores how two generations of relatively privileged Australian men have navigated the complex terrain of same-gender friendship across their lives, to offer both empirically unique and theoretically significant insights into the mechanics of social change in masculinities. Applying a feminist poststructuralist lens to data from in-depth interviews with 14 pairs of fathers and sons, it details how masculinist discourses of emotion and intimacy have governed the participants’ friendship practices at three chronological timepoints: fathers’ early lives and later lives, and sons’ early lives. A clear but complicated shift emerges, such that the commitment to stoicism and self-reliance dominant in the fathers’ early lives has given way to a growing embrace of intimacy and emotional expression within their and their son's contemporary same-gender friendships. Engaging with key debates in the field of critical studies on men and masculinities (CSMM), this book offers an alternative to the conceptualisation of this positive change as either representative of a holistic disintegration of hegemonic structures, or a superficial behavioural shift that is largely inconsequential to the gender order. Rather, it illustrates that the increasing influence of feminist, queer-inclusion and therapeutic discourse has destabilised masculinism in the context of men’s friendships, offering men an alternative subject position that allows care, expressiveness and intimacy. This book will be of interest to scholars in Gender and Sexuality Studies, and Masculinity Studies.

Reviews

“Ralph engages with this fascinating data regarding socio-positive change in masculinities and men’s friendships with nuance, compassion and reflexivity. The work is intellectually sophisticated and complexifies established understandings of change and masculinities. Destabilising Masculinism provides significant practical conclusions for policy and practice regarding how masculinism may be challenged and dislodged.” (Lucy Nicholas, Associate Professor in Gender and Sexuality Studies, Anthropology & Sociology, Western Sydney University, Australia)

“In interviewing two generations of Australian men, Ralph eloquently unpacks how they navigate the complexities of same-gender friendship. Focusing on how men have been offered alternative subject positions that allow for care, expressiveness, and intimacy, the book sheds light on how men can now centralize their selves within their relationships with other men. In an engaging read, Ralph demonstrates how masculinities, as traditionally known, are becoming destabilized, reconstructed, and allowing for more feeling, beyond the bromance. Overall, the book provides a groundbreaking theoretical understanding of masculinities in their conceptualizations and a strong empirical argument for reinvigorating understandings of men’s relations with men.” (Rosemary Ricciardelli, Professor, Research Chair: Safety, Security, & Wellness, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada)

Authors and Affiliations

  • Department of Sociology, Social Policy and Criminology, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK

    Brittany Ralph

About the author

Brittany Ralph is Lecturer at the Department of Sociology, Social Policy and Criminology at The University of Liverpool, UK. She teaches, writes, and researches in the field of critical studies on men and masculinities, and has published in Men and Masculinities, British Journal of Sociology, Journal of Sociology and NORMA. She has also conducted research on men's risky drinking practices, ‘healthy masculinities’ intervention programmes and victim-survivors’ experiences of coercive control.

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Destabilising Masculinism

  • Book Subtitle: Men’s Friendships and Social Change

  • Authors: Brittany Ralph

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-39535-2

  • Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham

  • eBook Packages: Social Sciences, Social Sciences (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-031-39534-5Published: 20 December 2023

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-031-39537-6Due: 20 January 2024

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-031-39535-2Published: 19 December 2023

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XI, 198

  • Topics: Gender Studies, Queer Studies, Cultural Studies, Social Philosophy, Poststructuralism

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Back to top

Search

Navigation