The Aesthetics of Masculinity: Adolescent African American Males' Critical Consciousness and Identity Formation

• In Event: 18.024 - #StayWoke: Cultivating Critical Consciousness With Differently Positioned Youth

Abstract

Research on African-American males’ development and identity has contributed to both a broad and nuanced understanding of the conditions and context in which these constructs occur and are socialized. Their development and identities have been and continue to be a significant focus across various disciplines (e.g., ethnic/race studies, gender studies, education). Further, this research has spanned the developmental spectrum with concern for the ways in which African-American males’ development and identities are experienced, negotiated, and enacted or performed from early childhood to adulthood. For many adolescent African-American males the negotiation, performance, and embodiment of masculinity are shaped by and contribute to popular discourse and culture including music, fashion and sports.

Informed by theories of critical consciousness, race/ethnic and gender socialization, this paper examines these mutually-informing socializing spheres and the agents within, and considers the ways adolescent African-American males are presenting and making sense of their masculine identity(ies). Critical consciousness involves thinking critically about class, race/ethnicity and gender and the assumptions informing hegemonic ideas about each (Hopper, 1999); whereas, theories of race and gender socialization concern the mechanisms and experiences through which identity is shaped (Hughes, et al, 2006; Ruble, Martin, & Berenbaum, 2006). Together, these theories provide a frame to understand adolescent African-American males’ engagement with, and critique and acceptance of, socio-culturally-informed ideas of black masculinity.

Document analysis is used to systematically and critically review and evaluate public images, discourses, and commentaries found in print and online media (e.g., Complex Magazine, Vibe, and Hip Hop Weekly), and select social media sites that youth access and/or generate (e.g., Instagram, Facebook) (Bowen, 2009). Further, qualitative content analysis is used to examine “the relationship between the [documents] and its likely audience…[and] to determine the likely meaning of [these documents] to audiences” (Macnamara, 2005, p. 3). These data sources (documents) are bounded to a period of 5 years, 2011-2016, to support a contemporary understanding, given the rapid pace with which these data sources change and/or shift in foci. Key word identification (e.g., masculinity, gender, manhood) also informs the sampling frame, such that relevant data is privileged in the analysis.

Preliminary analyses suggest that adolescent African-American males are challenging one-dimensional and culturally-bounded ideas and perceptions of Black masculinity/maleness; are active agents in the construction of their identities; and, that identity development/formation is dynamic and contextually situated. The study findings add to the extant research on African-American males, broadly, and adolescent males in particular by providing insight into how identity is constructed and performed. Lastly, the study findings have implications for youth development and programming, as well as future research in the generation of new and focused research questions to be explored both in-depth and empirically.

Author

• Lionel Howard, The George Washington University