Journal of Gender Studies

ISSN: 0958-9236 (Print) 1465-3869 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/cjgs20

Generational masculinities

Eric Anderson

To cite this article: Eric Anderson (2017): Generational masculinities, Journal of Gender Studies,
DOI: 10.1080/09589236.2017.1406088

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/09589236.2017.1406088

Published online: 30 Nov 2017.

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 Journal of Gender Studies, 2017
https://doi.org/10.1080/09589236.2017.1406088

INTRODUCTION

Generational masculinities
Eric Anderson
Department of Sport and Exercise, University of Winchester, Winchester, UK
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Although masculinity has been systematically studied since the early twentieth century (O’shea 1909),
the study of masculinities grew rapidly across the social sciences throughout the second-half of the
century. Much of the research on men and masculinities in the later twentieth century focused either
on what was missing from male lives, compared to women’s lives, or the social problems associated
with masculinity (Pleck, 1975). David and Brannon (1976), for example, argued that the central tenets
of masculinity were: ‘no sissy stuff; be a big wheel; be sturdy as an oak; and give ’em hell’. Thus, in order
to be thought masculine, boys and men were required to show no fear or weakness and to hide all
trace of inadequacy and anxiety. Morin and Garfinkle soon after established that homophobia was a
driving mechanism of gendered boundaries (1978) in the west.
In 1987, Connell first influenced the field of study by suggesting that there were multiple types of
masculinities, each existing in a social web where one maintained a hegemonic and dominating effect
on the others (Connell, 1987). It was this social process of hegemonic masculinity that necessitated
the emotional stoicism, willingness to accept and inflict violence on other men, and participation in
masculinized endeavours like sport, the military and other fraternal organizations. Connell later (2005)
examined how men benefit from patriarchy, arguing that not all men gain equally: those who failed
to meet both the achieved and ascribed requisites of hegemonic masculinity were subordinated by
those who did.
The 1990s saw a systematic exploration of homophobia within institutional settings. Nayak and
Kehily (1996) highlighted the role that homophobia played in male hierarchies in schools, and Plummer
(1999) showed the number of ways homophobia was central to adolescent boys’ lives. In (2009), I argued
this is the effect of heterosexual men’s fear of being socially perceived as gay; highlighting that the
last decades of the twentieth century combined heightened cultural awareness that homosexuality
existed alongside extreme antipathy towards it. Accordingly, I theorized that men whom feared being
perceived as gay, aligned their behaviours with anything socially coded as the ‘opposite’ in order to
cast off suspicion from others that they might be gay. This, I argued, promoted both a binary of gender
and sexuality, erasing bisexuality in the processes (Anderson & McCormack, 2016; Magrath, Cleland,
& Anderson, 2017).
Research in the twenty-first century, however, shows how the situation has changed in the West;
particularly among youth. This body of research shows that, for millennials in almost all locations studied
in the West, homophobia has transitioned from a necessary part of youth masculinities to a stigma-
tized social attitude (e.g. Magrath, 2017a; McCormack, 2011). This is because broad changes in laws
and cultural attitudes (Weeks 2007) have resulted in decreased homohysteria. This is to say that young
people are far less concerned about whether others perceive them as heterosexual (Anderson, Adams,
& Rivers, 2012).

CONTACT  Eric Anderson  eric.anderson@winchester.ac.uk

© 2017 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
 2    E. ANDERSON

Although not a gender utopia, a plethora of research shows that young men are now able to express
themselves through a diverse spectrum of behaviours and emotions that are socially coded, tradition-
ally, as feminine and feminizing. Emotions and behaviours that would have previously branded them
as gay; without judgement from others. This includes the ability for young heterosexual males to kiss,
cuddle and express love for one another (Robinson, Anderson, & White, 2017); to wear tight trousers,
pink clothes, work in feminized occupational sectors, and to expand their notions of heterosexuality
(McCormack 2017; Scoats, 2017).
My Inclusive Masculinity Theory (2009), and its heuristic notion of homohysteria, explains this
shift in practices of masculinity. The theory, further developed in conjunction with Mark McCormack
(McCormack & Anderson, 2014a, 2014b) and again two years later (Anderson & McCormack, 2016) is
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grounded in ample empirical evidence of young, mostly undergraduate men in both the United States
and the United Kingdom. Here, we showed that the driving mechanism of inclusive masculinities was
that straight male youth were inclusive of what used to be so taboo – homosexuality. We suggested that
the decline of cultural homophobia has provided the conditions in which heterosexual men can relin-
quish the burden of policing their gendered behaviours: that is to say that homohysteria has declined.
This has been particularly in evident in sporting research: Magrath’s (2017a, 2017b) work on young
elite soccer players has indicated almost unanimous acceptance of openly gay teammates – irrespective
of whether there were gay players on the team (see also Magrath, Anderson, & Roberts, 2015; Roberts,
Anderson, & Magrath, 2017). The lack of policing of gendered behaviours has led to a complete renego-
tiation of the old masculine script in many other settings, too. This is evidenced in the work of Roberts
(2013), who has shown how contemporary young men now willingly and enthusiastically engage with
employment previously coded as ‘feminine’, and that these same attitudes extend into the domestic
sphere where young men contribute significantly to childcare and housework (Roberts, 2017). Similarly,
inclusive attitudes and expanded repertoires of gender behaviour have been identified in digital spaces,
ranging from men’s body positivity blogs (Caruso & Roberts, 2017), to YouTube gaming vlogs (Maloney,
Roberts, & Caruso, 2017).
However, the social trend of decreasing homophobia across the West is not limited to young people.
Research shows that there is attitudinal change among older cohorts of men as well (Keleher & Smith,
2012; Twenge, Sherman, & Wells, 2016); research seems to indicate that there is both a generational and
a cohort effect simultaneously. Cashmore and Cleland’s (2011, 2012) research, for example, illustrates a
significant decline of homophobia in British sports fandom. Their large-scale survey research revealed
that 93% of 3500 soccer fans were acceptant of the presence of homosexuality in football – as well as
on internet fan forums (Cleland, 2015; Cleland, Magrath, & Kian, 2016).
Despite evidence of attitudinal change across age cohorts, there is an absence of contemporary
research that examines the performance of masculinity among men who had their adolescence in
the 1960s, 1970s or 1980s; men who today are in their 40s or older. There is also a lack of understand-
ing among Western scholars about what cultural shifts in masculinities may be occurring outside the
Anglo-American world.
This special edition of the Journal of Gender Studies is designed to address these two absences in the
masculinities literature. First, it includes articles that examine inclusive masculinities among western
heterosexuals within age ranges that have not previously been accounted for: religious 14–17 year-
olds in America; 14–15 year-old footballers in England; as well as new methods of examining inclusive
masculinities of university-aged athletes. It also examines the not-so-inclusive masculinities among
English men aged 65 and over. Contributing to our knowledge of changing masculinities across the
globe, this special edition not only features research on masculinities in China, Bangladesh and India,
but this research uses a comparative cohort design, showing variance between traditional and con-
temporary adolescent masculinities.
More specifically: in, The impact of gay friendly cultures on religious expression: A study of inclusive atti-
tudes and behaviours among religious adolescent American male athletes, Morales suggests that decreas-
ing homophobia opens the 14–17 year-old American students up to the manifestation of inclusive
masculinities in the forms of emotional and tactile intimacy; although their behaviours are thwarted
 JOURNAL OF GENDER STUDIES   3

by other, structural, factors compared to adolescents in the United Kingdom. In, Inclusive ideologies and
passive performances: Exploring masculinities and attitudes towards gay peers among boys in an elite youth
football academy, Adams and Kavanagh show that while the young athletes they studied espouse pro-
gay sentiment, not all of them contest homophobia when encountered. They argue that this is about
the reduced agency of males in the 14–15 year age group.
In two studies using longitudinal studies, using data on the same participants in the UK, the staying
power of inclusive masculinities and the bromance (Robinson, White, & Anderson, 2017) are established.
First, in Domestic labour, masculinity and social change: Insights from working-class young men’s transi-
tions to adulthood, Roberts interviews the same 18–24 year-old males that he interviewed seven years
earlier. Second, in Young men’s friendships: Inclusive masculinities in a post-university setting, Magrath and
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Scoats located some of the participants in Anderson’s original (2009) study of inclusive masculinities, a
decade out of their undergraduate years. They too find that their inclusive behaviours continue today.
Also researching adult participants long out of university age range, in, Age and changing masculinities
in gay-straight male workplace friendships, Rumens establishes that friendships in the workforce are not
blighted by sexual orientation boundaries.
Opposite these findings of British males, in a study I conducted with Fidler, Elderly British men:
Homohysteria and orthodox masculinities, English men aged 65 and older are found to not only have
avoided tactile or emotional intimacy with other men when they were young; but they do not do so
today. Three of the 30 were so upset upon learning about the physical intimacy between straight male
youths in England, that they stormed out of the interview.
This special addition also highlights significant cultural shifts occurring internationally. In The mak-
ings of a man: social generational masculinities in Bangladesh, Hasan, Aggleton and Persson use a cohort
analysis and qualitative interviews of males aged 19–75, seeking to understand how it is they understand
acceptable masculinity. This team of researchers highlight that, while all men subscribed to the view that
‘real’ men should be providers to their families, they differed sharply with respect to their perspectives
on work, religion and sexuality. In Caught In-Between: Social developments and young men in urban India.
Philip shows a generational divide in his ethnography of young Indian men, too. He finds that
Young Indian men express new practices of romantic and sexual expression, fashion and consumerism,
but that they largely try to hide these practices in light of how they are negatively viewed by older
gendered expectations and responsibilities on young men. Similarly, in Is masculinity ‘deteriorating’ in
China? Changes of masculinity representation in Chinese film posters from 1951 to 2016, Hu analyses of
hundreds of Chinese movie posters ranging from the years 1951 to 2016 and finds that Chinese men are
represented not only in more diverse ways, but that they are decreasingly depicted as manual workers
or soldiers, and increasingly depicted as gentle and civil men.
Collectively, these articles add to the breadth and depth of our understanding of the profound nature
of changes to masculinities in British and other cultures. When taken together with the already large
body or scholarship showing dramatic shifts (cf. Anderson, 2014); these articles help us understand
that the shifts being documented since the later part of the first decade of the twenty-first century
are both profound and enduring. The articles reflecting research outside the United Kingdom help us
understand that these shifts are not isolated to Anglo-American cultures: There is now a substantial
body of qualitative and quantitative research highlighting that masculinity is shifting in response to
both the awareness of and decreasing antipathy towards homosexuality (McCormack & Anderson,
2014a, 2014b); as well as other religious, cultural, economic and political factors at play.
This shift in masculinities is not in isolation. Whereas I once (2008) theorized that a ‘one-time rule of
homosexuality’ existed for men in the 1980s and 1990s, so that any sexual activity with another male
socially coded him as homosexual, a 2017 special edition of the journal Sexualities documents the ways in
which heterosexuality is also expanding to include a more expansive set of same-sex sexual behaviours
(McCormack, 2017). Heterosexual men are, for example, engaging in male-male-threesomes (Scoats,
Joseph, & Anderson, 2017), enjoying their own anal eroticism (Branfman, Stiritz, & Anderson, 2017)
and having sexual intercourse with other men without having it question their own sexual identity as
straight (Carrillo & Hoffman, 2017; Savin-Williams, 2017). Thus, it is evident that inclusive masculinities
 4    E. ANDERSON

are not just about how males act towards each other, or what artistic, athletic, aesthetic, entertainment,
occupational, or other aspects of social life they are culturally permitted or thwarted from engaging
with; it is also about what sexual and semi-sexual behaviours they are culturally permitted to engage
in. How this will play out in non-Anglo-American cultures has yet to be determined.

Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

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