Constructing Masculinity

Constructing Masculinity questions society's normative standards of the masculine and contemplates the extent to which men and women can transcend these stereotypes, examining the ways in which representations of masculinity and maleness in the media and the arts produce, challenge and ultimately shape notions of the masculine.

Masculinity in relationship to science and law, two dominant social institutions that play a vital role in constructing stereotypes and establishing gendered power relationships are also considered.

Constructing Masculinity takes us beyond the status of masculinity itself, arguing that men must begin to rethink the very boundaries that shape and define what it means to be a man.

Conversely, women must play an important role in this reevaluation, an idea suggested by Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick's admonition that "when something is about masculinity,it isn't always about men ."