Measuring Hybrid Masculinities: Examining Masculine Disinvestment as Behavioral Component of Hybrid Masculinities at the Population Level

• In Event: 40820 - Section on Sociology of Sex and Gender Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 12: Femininities and Masculinities

Abstract

The hybrid masculinities framework developed by Bridges and Pascoe (2014) has been instrumental in theorizing and empirically documenting contemporary transformations of masculinity. In particular, the literature associated with this framework illustrates emergent forms of masculine practice that are seemingly at odds with traditional configurations of masculinity. While there is now a substantial base of qualitative research that showcases the complex, micro-level dynamics involved in hybrid constructions of masculinity, we know little about how hybrid masculinities manifest at the population level. In this chapter, we address this gap by disaggregating and conceptualizing masculine disinvestment – a concerted process of acting less “manly” – as one measurable behavioral component of the multifaceted construct of hybrid masculinity. Within this conceptualization, we explore two key aspects of masculine disinvestment: who engages in this practice and why, given ongoing debates about the role of privilege and varying motivations underlying the renegotiation of masculinity. Drawing on original, nationally representative data of men in the United States, we present findings associated with our novel measure of masculine disinvestment that reveal both theoretical consistencies and new insights into contemporary transformations of masculinity. Complicating extant theory and research on hybrid configurations of masculinity, we find that masculine disinvestment is not necessarily unique to unilaterally privileged men. While masculine disinvestment is more common among young and college-educated men, it does not vary by race, income, or other common indicators of privilege. Further, men’s rationales for masculine disinvestment vary substantially according to concerns about status, ideology, and interpersonal relationships. We conclude the chapter with a discussion of the theoretical implications of these findings as well as insights gleaned from this project for future survey research on hybrid masculinities, including strategies for measuring other components of hybrid masculinities beyond behavior.

Authors

• Jessica Pfaffendorf, North Carolina State University

• Jonny Webber, North Carolina State University

• Terrence D. Hill