Hegemonic Masculinity and Mass Murder in the United States

• In Event: Masculinities and Gendered Identities

Abstract

The motivations for mass murders are numerous and complex. There is no psychological profile unique to mass murderers and many authors have speculated on their motivations. This paper examines the act of mass murder as an attempt by the perpetrators to lay claim to a hegemonic masculine identity that has been damaged or denied them, yet that they feel entitled to as males in American culture. Biographical information was gathered for 28 men who have committed mass murder in the United States since 1970 and examined for evidence of stressors to the perpetrators’ masculine identities. The majority of the sample demonstrated financial, social, romantic, and psychological stressors that indicated a failure to attain the hegemonic masculine ideal in American culture.

Author

• Deniese Kennedy-Kollar, Molloy College