The Playboy Rabbit Is Soft Furry and Cute Is This

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The Playboy Rabbit Is Soft, Furry, and Cute: Is This Really the Symbol of
Masculine Dominance of Women?
Article in The Journal of Men s Studies · April 2001

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THE JOURNAL OF MEN’S STUDIES
VOLUME 9 NUMBER 3 SPRING 2001
CONTENTS
ARTICLES
Reconstructing Masculinity and Sexuality

ANDREAS G. PHILARETOU AND KATHERINE R. ALLEN 301
Pessimism, Paralysis, and Possibility: Crisis-Points in Profeminism

AMANDA GOLDRICK-JONES
323
The Playboy Rabbit is Soft, Furry, and Cute: Is This Really the Symbol
of Masculine Dominance of Women?
JAMES K. BEGGAN AND SCOTT T. ALLISON 341
Negotiating Masculinities in American Drinking Subcultures

LOIS A. WEST
371
The (Un)Emotional Male: Physiological, Verbal, and Written Correlates
of Expressiveness
JOHN M. ROBERTSON, CHI-WEI LIN, JOYCE WOODFORD,
KIMBERLY K. DANOS, AND MARK A. HURST 393
An Exploration of Perceptions of Masculinity among Gay Men

Living with HIV
PERRY N. HALKITIS 413
BOOK REVIEWS
Reflections on Anger: Women and Men in a Changing Society

by Christa Reiser.
Reviewed by ROY FISH 431
Treating Emotional Disorder in Gay Men by Martin Kantor.

Reviewed by BLYE FRANK 433
Body Image: Understanding Body Dissatisfaction in Men, Women

and Children by Sarah Grogan.
Reviewed by STU JOHNSON 435
Sentimental Men: Masculinity and the Politics of Affect in American Culture
edited by Mary Chapman and Glenn Hendler.
Reviewed by JON PHELOUNG 437
Taking Care of Men: Sexual Politics In The Public Mind

by Anthony McMahon.
Reviewed by GERRY COULTER 439
END MATTERS
Contributors 442
Acknowledgment of Reviewers 445
Index for Volume 9 446

ANDREAS G. PHILARETOU AND KATHERINE R. ALLEN
Department of Human Development
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Blacksburg, Virginia
This paper attempts to synthesize general issues pertaining to

masculinity and male sexuality using essentialist and postmod-
ern theoretical ideologies. According to essentialist ideologies,
the construction of male gender requires one’s molding into a
masculine role, which presupposes autonomy, competition,
and aggressiveness, and the suppression of the innate human
needs for connectedness, intimacy, and self-disclosure, which
have been traditionally devalued as feminine traits. Alterna-
tively, postmodern ideologies call for the deconstruction of
essentialist notions of male sexuality and the reconstruction of
a more balanced androgynous ideology drawing from the his-
torical, social, and cultural determinants of sexuality and cher-
ishing both masculine and feminine traits. The historical,
social, and cultural perspective may be viewed as an overarch-
ing umbrella encompassing economic and power issues, an
arena where the inequality wars are being waged, primarily
those of gender, sexual orientation, age, physical ability, race,
and social stratification. The reconstruction process is attained
by helping one re-narrate his/her lifelong sexual narrative.
Key Words: masculinity, male sexuality, essentialism, con-

structionism, sexual narrative
In this paper, we argue that contemporary men need to negotiate a reconstruction of

their sexuality, given the clash between the old and new paradigms of essentialist
and postmodernist ideologies, respectively (Hare-Mustin & Marecek, 1988; Levant,
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Andreas G. Philaretou, P.O. Box 690,
Blacksburg VA 24063 or [email protected].
The Journal of Men’s Studies, Volume 9, Number 3, Spring 2001, pp. 301-321.
© 2001 by the Men’s Studies Press, LLC. All rights reserved.
301
1995). Essentialist ideology defines and distributes gender roles and identities across
traditional masculine and feminine boundaries, elevating masculine identity to a
superior status in the social hierarchy (White, 1996). Postmodernist ideology pro-
motes egalitarianism in human relationships and avoids the preferential construction
of gender roles and identities based on socio-biological theories of patriarchal deter-
minism (Hare-Mustin & Marecek, 1990). Postmodernists move away from essential-
ist notions of differentiated and preferred male vs. female ways of being and acting
(Kerr & Bowen, 1988), advocating, instead, an androgynous way of being and acting
(Gilbert, 1993; Hare-Mustin & Marecek, 1988).
A social constructionist perspective has emerged amidst the present-day AIDS
pandemic and the multitude of socioeconomic ills affecting everyday lives, espe-
cially the heightened awareness for issues regarding gender, sexual orientation, and
racial, religious, and ethnic inequality. This perspective is ecologically oriented and
moves the focus of concern from the sexual actions of specific bodies—male or
female, heterosexual or homosexual, white or black, Christian or Muslim, Hispanic
or Caucasian—to the greater cultural, social, and historical contexts in which sexual-
ity occurs (Gagnon & Parker, 1995; Weeks, 1995; White, 1996). The social con-
structionist perspective, as applied to human sexuality, refers to the construction of
gender identities and roles from the raw core substance provided by ever-present
social, cultural, and historical forces (Hare-Mustin & Marecek, 1990; Kessler, 1990;
Weeks, 1995; White, 1996). These forces create particular kinds of environments,
which offer individuals alternative and equally feasible sexual, ethical, moral, politi-
cal, and economic actions.
Essentialist ideology advocates for the immutability of social constructions (such
as gender and sexuality) based on core assumptions made about the natural order of
things (Gagne & Tewksbury, 1998; White, 1996). Therefore, biology is sexual des-
tiny; that is, human heterosexual sexual relations are considered as inherently natural
and biologically determined (Gross, 1992; White, 1993). Such views constitute only a
small part of postmodern social constructionist notions, which tend to move away
from traditional assumptions of essentialist sexual ideology, and advocate for the his-
torical, social, and cultural complexity and contextual totality of human sexual expe-
rience as it is exemplified in the personal sexual narrative (Gagnon & Parker, 1995;
Hare-Mustin & Marecek, 1988; Weeks, 1995; White, 1996).
DECONSTRUCTION AND RECONSTRUCTION
To illustrate the deconstruction process, consider the following analogy. Deconstruc-

tion resembles the demolition of an old, unstable, and outdated building (that of
patriarchal heterosexualism) ravaged by the passage of time (historical time) and the
ever-present eroding elements of the surrounding physical environment (the socio-
cultural environment).
Continuing the analogy, the old building will be replaced by reconstructing new
buildings that enhance sexual agency. Their blueprints will be based on the eclectic
selection of theoretical conceptualizations set forth by various sexual ideologies.
While essentialist formulations will help create their strong structural foundations,
paralleling those of the ancestral counterpart, social-constructionist and postmod-
302
RECONSTRUCTING MASCULINITY AND SEXUALITY
ernist ones will supplement these reconstructed buildings with all kinds of innova-
tive and aesthetically pleasing styles and accommodations to fit the varying needs
and preferences—the sexual ideologies—of its residents. Even though these new
buildings will have the monolithic stability and functionality of the ancestral coun-
terpart, they will ultimately allow for competition, plurality, and multiplicity of alter-
native styles, formations, and accommodations.
SEXUALITY AND POWER
Essentialist ideology has accorded considerable power to human sexuality, thereby

viewing it as an integral part of an individual’s micro system (Gagnon & Parker,
1995; Lancaster, 1995). Throughout the centuries, this has served as a means to an
end, mainly the domination of other micro systemic constituencies, such as those of
gender, sexual orientation, race, class, social stratification, age, and physical ability
(Pleck, 1992; Weeks, 1995). For essentialists, sexuality becomes an overarching
umbrella within which such constituencies are being defined and organized (Epstein,
1994). The following section is an attempt to show how and under what circum-
stances essentialists have utilized human sexuality as a vehicle to propagate their
taken-for-granted repressive realities surrounding these micro systemic areas.
GENDER
There is a strong association between sexuality and gender (Bullough & Bullough,
1993; Epstein, 1994; Gagne & Tewksbury, 1998; Hare-Mustin & Marecek, 1988;
Schwartz & Rutter, 1998). Traditional gender-role socialization requires that boys be
nurtured to become dominant, goal-oriented, independent, and aggressive, traits,
which ultimately come to define the masculine role (Gilmore, 1990; Gross, 1992;
Pittman, 1993; Real, 1997). Girls are socialized to embrace the feminine role requir-
ing submissiveness, interdependence, interconnectedness, and emotional expressive-
ness. In general, they are told to put their goals and needs secondary to those of their
husbands and families (Pipher, 1994; Thompson, 1995). As a result of such differen-
tial and preferential gender-role socialization, an essentialist ideological framework
of sexuality has developed which has led to the social construction of an unrealisti-
cally high standard of male sexual performance and satisfaction (Gagnon & Parker,
1995; Kessler, 1990; Pittman, 1993; Zilbergeld, 1999).
The essentialist/masculine sexual scripting signifies the beginning of the hetero-
sexual sexual act with male erection, and its end, with ejaculation (Gross, 1992;
White, 1993). Under these essentialist premises, sexual satisfaction is defined in
terms of the frequency of male ejaculations with very little importance being paid to
female orgasms (Gagnon & Parker, 1995; Robinson, 1976; White, 1993). Even
though an increasing number of young children are raised androgynously, in an envi-
ronment where both male and female gender-role attitudinal characteristics are pur-
ported to be equally cherished, most children continue to be indirectly influenced
into adopting traditional societal gender roles, attitudes, and beliefs through essen-
tialist sexual scripting (Gerson, 1993; Gilbert, 1993; Real, 1997).
Essentialist gender-role ideology tends to impact on the interrelationship
303
between sexuality and gender in such a way as to alienate males from their interper-
sonal surroundings, by equating maleness with competition, autonomy, and occupa-
tional success (Gilmore, 1990; Gross, 1992; Pittman, 1993; Real, 1997; Smith,
1996). Accordingly, the successful and competent male is measured with the yard-
stick of power and material acquisition (Pleck, 1992). This is most profoundly
reflected in the area of heterosexual sexuality (Epstein, 1994; Gross, 1992; White,
1993). The essentialist perspective places males in a double bind and in diametri-
cally opposite positions to females, resulting in the disadvantaging of both. Whereas
for females the sexual encounter becomes emotionally laden and tends to have inter-
personal overtures, for males, it becomes an act of power, dominance, and an oppor-
tunity for the release of deeply seated aggressive feelings (Gross, 1992; Pleck, 1992;
Zilbergeld, 1999). Some argue that these feelings represent nothing more than a cry
for connectedness, bondedness, and intimacy, reflecting men’s lifetime frustration
with the unattainable masculine standard for competitiveness and material success
advocated by the essentialist paradigm (McLean, 1996; Real, 1997; Rubin, 1992;
Sattel, 1992).
However, that does not mean that females do not desire aggressive, power-laden
(instead of emotionally laden) sex. It only means that traditional constructions of
appropriate gender-role socialization have given rise to female expectations for emo-
tionally laden sex. This is the primary reason why females (especially young, teenage
girls) who decide to ignore essentialist prescriptions concerning their sexuality, by
having (or aspiring to have) as many diverse sexual encounters as possible and by
being sexually uninhibited in bed, frequently find themselves experiencing consider-
able guilt, anxiety, depression, and a general sense of emptiness in the aftermath of
their sexual escapades (Fine, 1992; Pipher, 1994; Thompson, 1995). Essentialist sex-
ual scripting has interpenetrated the structural composition of the sociocultural envi-
ronment so profoundly that it has led to the covert (and not so long ago overt) sup-
pression of female sexuality with essentialists ascribing such scripting to some
naturally ordained reality that is supposed to naturally exist out there (D’Emilio &
Freedman, 1997; Gross, 1992; White, 1996).
Conversely, the imprinting of an aggressive power laden sexual orientation in
males tends to covertly lead to the experiencing of feelings of sexual inadequacy,
dissatisfaction, and impotence (Fracher & Kimmel, 1992). This is because the major-
ity of males are either unable or unwilling to live up to the premises set forth by the
demanding masculine ethos supported by the essentialist ideological sexual scripting
(McLean, 1996; Pittman, 1993; Pleck, 1992; Real, 1997). The term masculine depri-
vation is introduced here to denote the situation characterizing such males who fail
to live up to the essentialist masculine expectations and, as a result, become
engrossed in a state of perpetual male sexual anxiety with clinical or non-clinical
consequences (Fracher & Kimmel, 1992).
Essentialist sexual scripting is responsible for generating considerable sexual
anxiety in those men who pursue the idealized and unrealistic masculine standard of
ultimate male sexual performance and satisfaction—only to find themselves rele-
gated to constant sexual anxiety and deprivation. This also affects those females who
actualize their sexual desires by going against essentialist female prescriptions for
sexual prudence and containment.
304
SEXUAL ORIENTATION
Sexuality and sexual orientation are related in a manner that closely follows the
association between sexuality and gender (Bullough & Bullough, 1993; Epstein,
1994; Lorber, 1994). The heterosexual sexual act, involving penile erection, vaginal
penetration, and subsequent ejaculation, has been traditionally constructed as the
ultimate form of human sexual expression (Gross, 1992; White, 1993). Traditional
gender-role socialization directly accords more power to men in the economic, polit-
ical, religious, and educational realms—through preferential treatment, admission to
key positions, and the psychological and socio-emotional encouragement of boys to
be competitive, domineering, and successful—and also, indirectly, through the sex-
ual realm (Bly, 1991; Brod, 1987; Pleck, 1992). Men tend to display a great deal of
control during the unfolding of heterosexual sex, from its start to its end and what
goes on in between, making it a promising and viable field for the domination and
subordination of women (Gagnon & Parker, 1995; Gross, 1992; Pleck, 1992; White,
1993).
Under this psychosocial environment of heterosexual dictatorship, gay and
bisexual sexual orientations tend to be ridiculed and considerably denigrated by
being relegated to inferior pathological statuses because they fail to provide opportu-
nities for male dominance and female submission during the enactment of their asso-
ciated sexual acts (Epstein, 1994; Lancaster, 1995; Lehne, 1992). Even though the
sexual behaviors involved in such orientations closely resemble those enacted during
heterosexual sex, the power dynamics are different. That is, male-male and female-
female sexual acts closely resemble heterosexual sexual acts, short of the dominant
male, submissive female power interplays that usually characterize the latter as a
result of the exercise of male patriarchal domination (Pleck, 1992). Traditional gen-
der attitudes and power dynamics cannot be expressed during the enactment of
homosexual acts, although a minority of gay and lesbian partners abides by the
premises of traditional gender roles and attitudes (Bullough & Bullough, 1993;
Gagne & Tewksbury, 1998; Lancaster, 1995; Lorber, 1994).
Concerning bisexual sexual orientation, it should be noted that although bisex-
ual people are sexually attracted to both males and females, many of them tend to
have a somewhat stronger attraction to one gender than the other (Weinberg,
Williams, & Pryor, 1994). Some gay people (and some heterosexual people) believe
that claims to bisexuality are a cop-out that people use to deny being gay. Others
view bisexuality as a form of sexual experimentation with people of one’s own gen-
der by people who are predominantly heterosexual. However, the majority of bisex-
ual people report that they can maintain erotic interests in, and romantic relation-
ships with, members of both genders. Garber (1995) and Weinberg et al. (1994)
insist that bisexuality is an authentic sexual orientation and not simply a cover for a
gay male or lesbian sexual orientation.
Some evidence exists that gay male and lesbian sexual orientations run in fami-
lies (Bailey, Pillard, Neale, & Agyei, 1993; Pillard, 1990). However, most genetic
researchers caution that they have not yet found a particular gene linked to sexual
orientation, nor do they know how such a gene, or combination of genes, might
account for sexual orientation. Sexologist John Money (1994) agrees that genetic
305
factors might play a role in the development of sexual orientation but that they do
not fully govern it. Most researchers believe that sexual orientation is affected by a
complex interplay of biological and psychosocial influences (Barlow & Durand,
1995).
Researchers have also looked into possible hormonal factors in determining sex-
ual orientation. Once again, they failed to connect sexual orientation in either gender
with differences in the levels of either male or female sex hormones in adulthood
(Friedman & Downey, 1994). Although testosterone tends to have activating effects
in adulthood, such effects are limited only to sexual desire but not the preference for
partners of the same or the other gender (Whalen, Geary, & Johnson, 1990).
AGE
Sexuality is also associated with age, in the sense that although most individuals
marry within their own age, it is not unusual for middle-aged men to divorce their
lifelong partners and marry someone 10 or even 20 years their junior, during a crisis
period commonly known as the midlife crisis (McAdams, 1985). However, it is a
rarity for women to divorce their husbands in order to marry younger men.
In general, with increasing age, married individuals, men more so than women,
tend to enhance their exchange capacity in terms of being able to trade money,
power, and status for sexual favors, thereby enhancing their reflected sense of sexual
prowess and virility. However, the marital market value of married women tends to
decrease with age because although such women tend to gain more money, power,
and status as they age, the degree of their physical attractiveness—which constitutes
their most valued commodity in the everyday field of sexual trading in a patriarchal
society—decreases. Conversely, the marital market value of married men tends to
increase with age since traditionally, such value has been largely determined by the
amount of money, status, and power they have, all of which increase with age (Zal-
duondo & Bernard, 1995).
As long as marital relationships continue to be based on men being instrumental
resource providers and on women being emotional and sexual providers (overtly or
covertly), sexual exploitation will continue unabated. This is not to say that consider-
able changes haven’t already taken place in the direction toward women’s sexual
emancipation. In fact, postmodernist sexual ideology, with its emphasis on androg-
yny, has created a centrifugal force that is slowly, but steadily, taking women away
from the centripetal forces of sexual exploitation purported by essentialist ideology
(Hare-Mustin & Marecek, 1988).
PHYSICAL ABILITY
Sexuality is also related to physical ability through the marginalization and the asex-
ualization of physically disabled individuals. Physically disabled men are considered
asexual because, according to the traditional heterosexual sexual standard of male
domination and female subordination (Gross, 1992), such men, as a result of their
disabilities, have lost their masculine ability to assert themselves by perpetrating the
necessary domineering sexual acts, deemed necessary by the machismo culture, to
306
fully satisfy and control a woman (Pleck, 1992; White, 1993). In essence, physically
disabled men are considered and treated as half men who have lost their manliness,
sexual virility, and prowess, and, by extension, their membership status in the
restricted club of male heterosexualism.
RACE
The association between sexuality and race seems to have emerged from the power
dynamics and interplays of heterosexual sexual relations (Gross, 1992) specifically,
in the ability of one group, men, to dominate another, women (Pleck, 1992; White,
1993). In this case, such power dynamics are played across racial lines of relative
oppression and privilege.
Although human biology does not prevent interracial reproduction, nevertheless,
White Anglo-Saxon Protestant ideology has traditionally imposed strong proscrip-
tions against it. Since heterosexual sexuality is being viewed as a vehicle for domi-
nation and subordination by the traditional status quo (Gross, 1992), it will be to the
latter’s disadvantage to freely allow sexual relations to take place between the races
(Pleck, 1992). This is because uncontrolled and uncensored multiracial sexual rela-
tionships will inevitably result in the loss of power by the dominant group, mainly
White-European men, at the gain of minority groups, mainly African-American men
(Gibbs, 1992; Pleck, 1992).
SOCIAL STRATIFICATION
Sexuality is also intersected with race and social stratification in the sense that sex-
ual behaviors, mainly heterosexual ones, are being frequently exchanged for per-
sonal gain, such as money, goods and services, and rewards, including preferential
treatment and promotions (White, 1993). However, the sexual trading that takes
place between men and women is not only restricted to the direct calculative forms
of exchange between the two parties, such as between a man and a prostitute. In fact,
it takes place on an everyday basis between husbands, wives, boyfriends and girl-
friends.
According to the essentialist paradigm, sex is instrumentally defined as an
expectation men tend to have from their wives or girlfriends in return for providing
material and monetary rewards (Parsons & Bales, 1955). Therefore, within the con-
text of intimate marital relationships, the exchange basis of the sexual trade can be
well camouflaged, as during marital sex, or, widely exposed, as during instances of
male or female prostitution (Zalduondo & Bernard, 1995).
PERSPECTIVES ON HUMAN SEXUALITY
The essentialist view on research and theorizing about sexuality in Euro-American

cultures has traditionally revolved around the notion that heterosexual sex is a natu-
rally ordained and instinctive driving force (Gagnon & Parker, 1995). Since Freud’s
(1905, 1935) early writings and extensive theorizing on human sexuality, the field of
modern sexology has been gaining considerable prominence, particularly as it is
307
exemplified in the work of such figures as Masters and Johnson, Kinsey and his
associates, Ellis, Malinowski, Sanger, Guyon, and Mead (see Robinson, 1976).
These perspectives presuppose that the individual is exclusively responsible for his
or her sexual impulses and drives—a mere puppet to his/her physiological needs,
tendencies, and psychological desires—while the overarching historical, social, and
cultural forces, which engulf the person’s total functioning (social and individual),
are considered as merely responding to the universal, innate forces of sexuality
(Gagnon & Parker, 1995; Weeks, 1995; White, 1996). Such historical, social, and
cultural forces are viewed as being shaped by the accumulation of individual
responses to innate sexual instincts, traits, and impulses.
THE BIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE
The biological perspective focuses on the roles of genes, hormones, the nervous sys-
tem, and other biological factors in human sexuality. Humans are biologically
endowed with anatomic structures and physiological capabilities that make sexual
behavior possible and, for most people, pleasurable. However, to what extent does
biology govern sexual behavior? Is sex controlled by biological instincts? Or are his-
torical and psychosocial factors such as culture, experience, and decision-making
ability more important? Although biological processes largely govern the sexuality
of other species, culture and experience play vital roles, and in many cases, the key
roles, in human sexuality. Human sexuality involves a complex interaction of bio-
logical and psychosocial factors. Biology indicates what is possible and, often, what
is pleasurable or painful. However, biology is not destiny. It does not imply what is
proper and improper or determine the sexual decisions that we make. Religious tra-
dition, cultural and personal values, and lifelong learning and experience guide these
decisions.
THE HISTORICAL, SOCIAL, AND CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE
Viewing sexuality from social, cultural, and historical perspectives requires adopting
a social constructionist view, which postulates that sexual reality is socially con-
structed and privately experienced (Allen & Baber, 1992a; Allen & Baber, 1992b;
Baber & Allen, 1992; Hare-Mustin & Marecek, 1990; Kessler, 1990; Vance, 1984;
Weeks, 1995; White, 1996). Indeed, such perspectives act as powerful overarching
determinants, or macro-level blueprints, of a person’s sexual scripting, which ulti-
mately help shape the mental, emotional, and interpersonal aspects, or micro-level
constituencies, of his or her sexuality (Gagnon & Parker, 1995).
Cultural rules, values, norms, attitudes, beliefs, and ideologies have been contin-
ually developed, maintained, and altered throughout the history of human civiliza-
tion, in such a way that they give rise to various dominant meaning contexts within
which most sexual practices occur (White, 1996). Throughout the years, within such
predominant contexts, complex relations between meaning and power in the consti-
tution of sexual experience have become solidified. In fact, meaning emerges from
power differentials among competing groups, which use their power as a rule-setting
device to impose meaning in all areas of human behavior, including sexuality. As a
308
result of the social construction of such power differentials between men and women
(Hare-Mustin & Marecek, 1990), the multibillion dollar sexual industry of pornogra-
phy has evolved, which objectifies the anatomy of the female body for the sheer gen-
eration of revenue, resulting in the devaluation and humiliation of women (Dank &
Refinetti, 1999; Ronai, Feagin, & Zsembik, 1997; Ussher, 1997; Vance, 1984;
Williams, 1989).
Gender constitutes one of the organizing principles of social life, a mechanism
by which power and resources are distributed (Hare-Mustin & Marecek, 1990; Kim-
mel & Messner, 1992; Pleck, 1992). The social cultural context advocating mas-
culinity accords considerable importance to male power, essentially, power over
women, other men, and children (Bly, 1991; Brod, 1987; Gilmore, 1990; Pittman,
1993; Pleck, 1992; Thompson & Pleck, 1995; White, 1996). In fact, men are social-
ized to think of themselves as all mighty and powerful, and, consequently, to feel
entitled to such illusionary feelings (Pleck, 1992). These feelings are illusionary
because, in reality, most men tend to enjoy only limited amounts of power. Instead,
they use dominance, authority, and emotional distancing to socially construct and
maintain images of themselves as powerful. However, such sociocultural construc-
tions of male power (Pleck, 1992) tend to hurt men by blocking their access to vital
social support networks, withholding their nurturing and giving support to others,
and limiting and perverting the various forms of their sexual expression, through,
primarily, the inducement of sexual anxiety and the perpetration of sexual abuse
(Gilbert, 1993).
Human sexual behavior acquires meaning and essence primarily within the
social, cultural, and economic contexts and their transformations through time. For
example, heterosexual sexual ideology is tightly interwoven with the concept of
masculinity, which in turn results from the social and cultural evolution of norms,
roles, rules, and practices advocating a strict adherence to a differentiated set of gen-
der rules and roles, with the male ones being elevated to a far more preferred status
than the female ones (Bly, 1991; Gilmore, 1990; Gross, 1992; Pittman, 1993; Smith,
1996; Thompson & Pleck, 1995; White, 1993).
The accordance of preferential status to the male gender rules and roles has
come about as a result of the sweeping economic changes of the industrial revolu-
tion. These changes have relegated women to the undervalued domestic domain and
men to the considerably more valued paid occupational domain (Coontz, 1992). As
the economic organization of production shifted from barter exchange (pre-industrial
era) to earning wages (industrial era), the privileged bread-winning male role—as
actual behavior and a cherished ideal for young men to aspire to—was constructed
through considerable political struggle. In their initial attempts to improve their bar-
gaining power (Pleck, 1992) with employers and their leverage over women, male
wageworkers colluded with their employers to help create occupational sex segrega-
tion. At the same time, women who could afford to stay home preferred to do so in
light of the poor working conditions that characterized the public workplace, as well
as the considerable difficulty they faced trying to balance home- and child-care
needs with those of paid work (Gerson, 1993).
309
MASCULINITY FROM A HISTORICAL, SOCIAL,

AND CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE
Masculinity ought to be viewed from a historical, social, and cultural perspective

(Clatterbaugh, 1997; Gilmore, 1990; Weeks, 1995; White, 1996). Throughout the
history of human civilization, different social groups, cultures, and subcultures have
evolved that developed their own male standards according to the specific needs and
circumstances of their people. Such standards were, and still are, geared toward serv-
ing the needs, and sometimes caprices, of the elite male ruling class. It is erroneous
to refer to a single male ideology or male standard, or, for that matter, a single mode
of masculinity (Carey, 1996; Clatterbaugh, 1997).
To take account of the wide range of conceptions surrounding the overarching
concept of masculinity, it is preferable to use terms such as male ideologies, male
standards, and masculinities (Thompson & Pleck, 1995). At the same time, the vari-
ous social forces that come to constitute the multiplicity of masculinities are
expected to be differentially applicable to men of various ages, cohorts, classes,
races, sexual orientations, and regional backgrounds. It should be noted, however,
that the essentializing principles behind these multi-faceted driving forces of mas-
culinity are equally affecting men’s lives (Clatterbaugh, 1997; Carey, 1996;
Gilmore, 1990). Typical masculine values include (a) increased importance on inde-
pendence, rationality, and aggression; (b) the exercise of emotional control at the
expense of emotional attachment (c) the overt externalization of inner feelings and
desires; and (c) the celebration of physical strength as well as the glorification of
violence (Gerson, 1993; Kaufman, 1992). In fact, such cultural values, beliefs, and
expectations help create the generic guidelines for male behavior, which are being
written and re-written according to the specific time, place, and socioeconomic cir-
cumstances (White, 1996).
In modern western culture, sexuality has always been viewed as central to male
power. Equating masculinity with sexual power, dominance, and violence has
unequivocally led to the development of a powerful, predatory, and aggressive male
sexuality (Bly, 1991; Brod, 1987; Epstein, 1994; Kaufman, 1992; Weeks, 1995), one
that lies at the core of becoming a full-fledged male. After all, men must be big
where it counts—mainly in the area of sexual prowess and virility—and capable, at
any time, to sexually dominate and successfully take charge of their women. As a
result, men often have the illusionary feeling of having privileged access to or own-
ership of women’s bodies (Brod, 1987). One dire consequence of such a mispercep-
tion of male sexual power is the relatively high incidence of acquaintance rape and
sexual harassment (Gilbert, 1993).
ESSENTIALIZING MASCULINITY
In general, masculinity refers to all those qualities and activities that impart a sense
of maleness to a human being (Bly, 1991; Brod, 1987; Carey, 1996; Gilmore, 1990;
Pittman, 1993; Thompson & Pleck, 1995). It is all those qualities, those preferred
male social constructions, that distinguish so-called real men from everybody else,
such as women, children, the elderly, the physically/mentally disabled, men of dif-
310
ferent racial/ethnic identity, and bisexual or gay men (Lancaster, 1995; Lehne, 1992;
Pollack, 1998; Schwartz & Rutter). According to traditional beliefs and socialization
practices, males need to be molded into the masculine role; hence, masculinity is not
ascribed at birth but achieved through a social construction process:
[T]here is a constantly recurring notion that real manhood is differ-

ent from simple anatomical maleness that it is not a neutral condi-
tion that comes about spontaneously through biological maturation
but rather is a precarious or artificial state that boys must win
against powerful odds. (Gilmore, 1990, p. 11)
Viewing masculinity as an achieved state (Brod, 1987; Gilbert, 1993; Gilmore

1990; Pittman, 1993; Thompson, & Pleck, 1995) places it under the rubric of essen-
tialist notions of polarized and preferential gender-role expectations which are con-
sidered to be a natural and integral part of any social group’s system of power rela-
tions (Pleck, 1992; Thompson & Pleck, 1995; White, 1996). The essentializing of
the social construction of masculinity and femininity, as culturally based ideologies
necessary for the scripting of gender relations, attitudes, and beliefs, constitutes a
powerful force entrenched in the pillars of social institutions (Brod, 1987; Clatter-
baugh, 1997; Fracher & Kimmel, 1992; Gilmore, 1990; Hare-Mustin & Marecek,
1990; White, 1996). This force systematically and methodically dichotomizes male
and female gender differences and attributes such qualities as good or bad, positive
or negative, strong or weak, respectively (Smith, 1996). Oftentimes, such essentializ-
ing takes the extreme position of attributing trait characteristics to masculinity and
femininity, thereby viewing them as psychologically and/or biologically based mas-
ter characteristics (Brod, 1987; Kimmel, 1996; Thompson & Pleck, 1995; White,
1996).
THE PROPAGATORS OF MASCULINE IDEOLOGY
Masculinity tends to be activated through a continuous group activity subject to the

constant supervision and scrutiny of all the significant males in the man’s immediate
social environment (Bly, 1991; Ford, 1992; Pittman, 1993). Such activity begins
with a series of rites of passage headed by the father, or a predominant father figure
in the son’s life, who is responsible for indoctrinating his son into the mysterious
inner world of machismo culture: “[a culture characterized by] an ideal of masculin-
ity defined by assertiveness, aggression, and competition; relatively privileged
access to space and mobility; disproportionate control over resources; and a willing-
ness to take risks” (Lancaster, 1995, p. 140). For this reason:
[m]any societies have evolved elaborate rituals and rites of

passage to help induct young men into manhood. Some involve
brutal hazings and tests of courage while others require endurance,
aptitude and skill. They all share the underlying premise that real
311
men are made, not born. This feeds into men’s gender insecurity.
(Heise, 1995, p. 129)
Masculine ideology relegates women to the secondary but much arduous role of
having to supervise and maintain their son’s masculinity (Brod, 1987; McLean,
1996). Traditional mothers, who had spent all their lives abiding by the rules of a
patriarchal system, tend to endlessly agonize over their son’s masculinity (Carey,
1996; Lancaster, 1995). In order to elicit the cooperation of these women, the male
power elite advertise the merits of masculinity as supposedly for the general good
and protection of the family, in other words, for mothers’ and children’s sake (Clat-
terbaugh, 1997; Thompson & Pleck, 1995). In reality, it comes to accomplish exactly
the opposite, namely the domination and subordination of women and the snatching
away of legitimate power from them and their children (Pittman, 1993; Pleck, 1992).
In addition to their mothers’ constant admonitions, young boys are also being
scrutinized by their significant others, as well as the various macro-agents of social
control, such as teachers, counselors, police officers, and judges, for possible devia-
tions from the prescribed recipe of manhood (Kimmel, 1996). Behaviors that are
deemed as girlish or feminine, such as showing excessive feelings and emotions,
crying, being passive, and acting dependent, tend not to be tolerated, and, in fact,
they loom over the young boy’s life like ghosts from the past created from thousands
of years of historical, social, and cultural gender wars and traditional male gender
role socialization:
Men in many cultures wage daily battle to prove to themselves and

others that they qualify for inclusion in the esteemed category
male. To be not male, is to be reduced to the status of woman, or
worse, to be queer. (Heise, 1995, p. 129)
However, some societies permit or require some form of male-male sexual activ-
ity as between older and younger males, or between adolescents, but not between
adult men. The underlying characteristic of male-male sexual activity rites in most
preliterate societies is the marking of the young male’s initiation into manhood. For
instance, among the Sambian people of New Guinea, nine- to 12-year-old males
undergo several sexual rites of passage whereby it is believed that in order to acquire
the fierce manhood of the headhunter, they perform fellatio on older males and drink
men’s milk (ingest semen, which is believed to give rise to puberty) (Money, 1990;
Stoller & Herdt, 1985). However, by the age of 19, these young men are expected to
take brides and enter exclusively male-female heterosexual relationships.
MASCULINE RECONSTRUCTIONS
Having deconstructed essentialist masculinity from a social constructionist perspec-

tive, we now turn to the reconstruction process. Such a process begins by acknowl-
edging and responding positively toward the feminist critique of patriarchy while at
the same time maintaining empathy toward the predicament of men (Carey, 1996;
Levant, 1995). The reconstruction process involves the painstaking examination and
312
selective collection of the organizing principle elements of masculinity (Clatter-

baugh, 1997; Gilmore, 1990) from the general pool of constituent elements resulting
from the breaking down of the overarching core concept of masculinity. Levant
(1995) argues that taking apart the traditional model of masculinity yields such traits
as the extensive sacrifices men typically make for their families; the consistent use
of their logic and problem-solving skills; their overall tendency to be self-reliant,
risk-takers, and self-assertive; and their general attitude for maintaining calmness in
the face of danger (Carey, 1996; Gilmore, 1990).
There are, however, a number of traits that tend to take away from the general
egalitarianism, happiness, balance, and harmony in men’s relationships and interac-
tions with their loved ones (Levant, 1995). Such include (a) their relative inability to
experience intimacy, closeness, and emotional connectedness with their significant
others (Rubin, 1992; Sattel, 1992), (b) their general inclination to resort to anger and
violence when faced with frustrating situations (Kaufman, 1992), (c) their consistent
and persistent refraining from house-care and childcare work, and (d) their tendency
to consider sexuality and emotionality as two separate and distinct entities to be pur-
sued for their own sake.
MALE HEALTH CONSEQUENCES:

ANXIETY AND DEPRESSION
Abiding by the premises of traditional masculinity may prove hazardous to men’s

physical and psychological health (Bly, 1991; Goldberg, 1976; Harrison, Chin, &
Ficarrotto, 1992; McLean, 1996; Pittman, 1993). Male sexual anxiety ultimately
becomes manifested in the form of substance or object addictions and depression
(Fracher & Kimmel, 1992; Real, 1997). Family members, friends, and the entire net-
work of a man’s social support group often collude with the cultural expectations of
masculinity (Carey, 1996; Gilmore, 1990) to minimize the seriousness of male
depression and object addictions, brushing them off as just men’s ways of being and
acting (McLean, 1996; Thompson & Pleck, 1995).
Contemporary perspectives dealing with men’s issues deny that men are in an
advantageous position compared to women (Goldberg, 1976). Rather, they see men
as oppressed and burdened by their provider role, viewed as necessitating their emo-
tional cut-off, not only from their inner selves, but, most important, from bonding
with and obtaining nurturance from other men (Bly, 1991; Clatterbaugh, 1997; Gold-
berg, 1976).
Masculine identity development is not a process of developing traits, tendencies,
and roles. Rather, it constitutes a process of eliminating natural traits and tendencies
for bondedness, connectedness, expressiveness, and intimacy (McAdams, 1985;
Rubin, 1992; Sattel, 1992). This elimination lays the foundation for the development
of depression later on in adult men’s lives (Real, 1997). Unequal gender-role social-
ization, necessitated by the doctrine of masculinity (Carey, 1996; Gilmore, 1990),
advocates males’ dissociation from their feeling states (McLean, 1996), necessary
for enhancing their relational world, in addition to downplaying and discouraging
female aspirations to competitiveness, toughness, and success in the market econ-
omy (Bly, 1991; Brod, 1987; Gilmore, 1990; Thompson & Pleck, 1995).
313
This gives rise to the emergence of two kinds of abuse, disempowering abuse
and the falsely empowering variety. From a young age, boys tend to be falsely
empowered with feelings of grandiosity, thereby being set up, as adult men, to
become offensive. In the long run, this causes them to have too little shame, thus
contributing to their covert depression—too little shame because in order to be able
to attain and maintain their superior status over others, especially women, they have
to dominate them instead of cooperating with them. Therefore, young boys tend to
experience depression not only because of the uncomfortable feelings that are usu-
ally associated with the imposition of dominant actions over others, but also because
of their overall inability to attain and maintain the idealized superior masculine sta-
tus (Pollack, 1998). In addition, men are subject to alterations between disempower-
ing abuse and the falsely empowering variety. This switching back and forth from a
one-down to a one-up position tends to induce them with a perpetual state of anxiety
and depression (Real, 1997).
Covertly depressed men usually turn to any substance, person, or action to regu-
late their self-esteem. In this addictive process, they hope to replenish their basic
sense of self as valuable and important, in other words, their from-within self-
esteem. As long as their connection to the object of their addiction, be it any tangible
substance or intangible ideal, is undisturbed, they tend to feel good about them-
selves. However, when such connection is disrupted, their basic sense of self-worth
and self-esteem decreases considerably, with the result that their covert depression
comes to the surface. The main difference between non-depressed and depressed
men is that the latter use substances, persons, or actions as their basic sources of self-
worth and self-esteem and not as healthy supplements to it (Real, 1997).
RECONSTRUCTING PERSONAL NARRATIVES
Abiding by the premises of existing sexual narratives is inherently limiting because

such narratives fall under the auspices of age-old social prescriptions and proscrip-
tions advocated by the status quo (McAdams, 1993). In turn, abiding by such gen-
der- and class-based prescriptions and proscriptions tends to lock individuals into
never-ending vicious and inflexible patterned cycles of thinking and acting, which
eventually lead to the generation of powerful restraining forces. Such forces tend to
have a limiting effect on an individual’s free will, and, ultimately, on his or her
capacity to initiate acts geared toward sexual emancipation and the reduction of sex-
ual anxiety.
Gender reconstruction starts with acknowledging and rewriting one’s personal
narrative, which is, by definition, socially, culturally, and historically determined
(Freedman & Combs, 1996; McAdams, 1985, 1993; Weeks, 1995; White & Epston,
1990). The person engaged in the process of narrating his or her sexual life (past,
present, and future) tends to assume the role of a sexual activist. The individual
processes of self-reflection, self-activity, and self-making, which are indispensable
for the unearthing, rearrangement, construction, and establishment of an emanci-
pated sexual identity, tend to assume an important position in the personal repertoire
of such an activist (Freedman & Combs, 1996; McAdams, 1985, 1993; White &
Epston, 1990). By prioritizing these processes, an individual actor places himself or
314
herself at the center of attention. He or she is, in effect, engaged in a process of

becoming sexually emancipated and then resurrected from the deep-seated struc-
turally determined and sexually limiting influences of patriarchy.
Re-narrating existing sexual narratives is liberating in the sense that it provides
the individual with the necessary means, through autobiographical self-reflection and
reconstruction of one’s sexual identity, to rid the shackles of the confining essential-
ist ideology set forth by biological determinism (Freedman & Combs, 1996;
Guidano, 1991; White & Epston, 1990). Through the process of re-narration an indi-
vidual can, instead, redirect his or her energies and potentialities toward the arduous
ongoing project of sexual reconstruction and development in order to achieve sexual
liberation, fulfillment, and efficacy. Freedman and Combs (1996) describe the power
of the narrative metaphor to transform and transcend oppressing realities (such as
male sexual realities):
Listening to White [a key figure in the development and therapeu-

tic use of the narrative approach], we no longer tried to solve prob-
lems [such as male sexual anxiety, depression, and addiction].
Instead, we became interested in working with people to bring
forth and “thicken” (Geertz, 1978) stories [newly reconstructed
and sexually liberating] that did not support or sustain problems.
We discovered that, as people began to inhabit and live out these
alternative stories, the results went beyond solving problems.
Within the new stories, people could live out new [sexual] self-
images, new possibilities for [sexual] relationship, and new
futures. (Freedman & Combs, 1996, pp. 15-16)
Most narrative therapists expose subjugated dominant discourses, such as essen-

tialist sexual discourses, by asking about the contextual influences on the problem,
for example:
What feeds the problem of male sexual anxiety? The essen-

tialist masculine ideology for appropriate male gender-role social-
ization.
What starves male sexual anxiety? Postmodernist androgy-
nous gender-role socialization.
Who benefits from male sexual anxiety? Male-dominated
patriarchal institutions.
In what settings might the problematic attitude be useful? In
providing men with illusionary power over women.
What sorts of people would proudly advocate for the prob-
lem? The stakeholders in the perpetuation of patriarchy.
What groups of people would definitely be opposed to it and
its intentions? Ordinary men and women who are directly or indi-
rectly affected by male sexual anxiety, object addictions, and
depression.
315
The construction of preferred sexual stories almost always goes hand-in-hand

with the process of unmasking or deconstruction. When men, through the unmasking
process of relating their sexual anxiety to essentialist societal sexual discourses, see
their local problems as particular instances of political problems (such as essentialist
gender-role ideology) in the larger society, they can become motivated to deal with
them differently (Freedman & Combs, 1996). The entryway for inviting men to
author and live new empowering sexual stories is through enabling them to search
and identify unique outcomes, that is, anything that would not have been predicted in
light of the problem-saturated sexual story. In fact, unique outcomes constitute open-
ings that, through questions and reflective discussion, can be developed into new
sexual stories.
As Guidano (1991) suggests, the goal of re-narrating deep-seated, structured
sexual stories is not so much to correct false or distorted world-views as it is to assist
individuals “to become aware of, examine, and modify tacit core self-structures and
definitions of identity that may once have been [or seemed] adaptive but are no
longer so” (p. 9). A key to re-narrating men’s subjugated sexual stories is to bring
previously un-storied events to the surface. This is because in any life there are
always more events that don’t get storied than there are ones than do. Therefore,
when the lifelong sexual narratives of men carry hurtful meanings or seem to offer
only unpleasant choices, they can be changed by highlighting different, previously
un-storied events or by taking new meaning from already storied events, thereby
constructing new empowering sexual narratives.
Even though reconstructing sexual narratives operates at the micro-level, collec-
tive change at the macro-level can take place if a sufficient number of individuals—
especially powerful individuals, such as politicians, actors, financiers, and media
stars—acknowledge, agree upon, and support a new androgynous reality. For
instance, an androgynous reality, substituting dominance for equality, could emerge
from the power elite’s additive effect of their newly reconstructed agentic, emanci-
pated, and egalitarian sexual selves; the aggregate of their personal emancipated sex-
ual selves would bring about a politically emancipated androgynous reality
(Guidano, 1991). On a macro level, the premises on which newly reconstructed
androgynous sexual narratives are based are in fact synonymous to those set forth by
social constructionism (McAdams, 1985, 1993).
Societal and cultural change can take place swiftly and easily by urging such
powerful and influential men to revisit, and ultimately re-narrate, the sexual scripts
characterizing their sexual narratives (Guidano, 1991). This is no easy task, however,
because these deep-seated essentialist, ideological sexual scripts are usually hard to
locate and bring to the surface, let alone alter. Sexual scripts tend to become one with
the psyche and total personality of such men and indistinguishable from it (McAdams,
1985, 1993). It is as if all those years of traditional masculine socialization and differ-
ential gender scripting have finally caught up with such men, hardening their very
hearts and souls (Fracher & Kimmel, 1992; McLean, 1996). Once such issues are
brought into consciousness and to the forefront, once these decade-old stories of pain,
suffering, frustration, and shame are externalized, these men typically feel a sense of
personal relief and sometimes even release (Carey, 1996; McAdams, 1985, 1993;
Rosen, 1996). They have been trapped in their subjugated stories so that the simple act
316
of telling such stories to others brings new meaning and perspective to their lives, and,
ultimately, gives rise to the creation of an androgynous-based sexual reality.
The particularized historical, social, and cultural contexts are paramount in the
interactive, collaborative, and evolutionary process of androgynous gender-based
knowledge construction (Gerson, 1993; Lorber, 1994). Commenting on the long-
term nature of the process of knowledge construction and reconstruction, Rosen
(1996) suggests that androgynous knowledge and meaning are continually being
socially defined and redefined accordingly depending on the historical, social, and
cultural forces operating within the given social matrix at a particular point in time.
There exist no universal and immutable essences or objective truths on which such
androgynous knowledge is based:
That is, societies construct the “lenses” [such as sexual lenses]

through which their members interpret the world. The [sexual]
realities that each of us take for granted are the [essentialist] reali-
ties that our societies have surrounded [socialized] us with since
birth. These realities provide the [sexual] beliefs, practices, words,
and experiences from which we make up our lives, or, as we
would say in postmodernist jargon, “constitute our selves.” (Freed-
man & Combs, 1996, p. 16)
We are suggesting creating and establishing a less oppressing reality, namely an

androgynous reality, by considering, as a starting point, the demolition of the exist-
ing masculine ethos, re-constructing, re-narrating, in its place, more equitable, func-
tional, and less limiting gender and sexual male scripts (Gerson, 1993; Gilbert,
1993). Watzlawick, Weakland, and Fisch (1974) suggest that when a sufficient num-
ber of individuals reach agreement regarding the definition of some entity, then that
entity tends to be viewed as an objective reality. In order to help construct the
knowledge base of androgyny, changes have to be implemented in the everyday
playing field of social exchange—such as in the field of close interpersonal relation-
ships where most of the gender wars are being waged—particularly, in how tradi-
tional conceptions of female/male sexuality and masculinity are intertwined (Vance,
1984; Zalduondo & Bernard, 1995; Zilbergeld, 1999).
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321
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Pessimism, Paralysis, and Possibility:
Crisis-Points in Profeminism
Centre for Academic Writing and Women’s Studies
University of Winnipeg
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Has men’s anti-sexist or profeminist activism been following

“a path from optimism to pessimism,” as Lynne Segal claims?
An examination of documents produced by profeminist groups
in North America and Britain suggests that “crisis” (a state of
change) may be a more helpful description of profeminism
today. Within these documents, certain key or resonant terms
illustrate conflicts that challenge idealized concepts of group
“unity” and provide insights into attitudes surrounding these
conflicts. These conflicts and crises can destabilize “unity” to
the point where attempts to sustain centralized, politically
motivated profeminist organizations like NOMAS are jeopar-
dized. While this may be cause for pessimism, the crises expe-
rienced by such groups may also be transformative, opening
up possibilities for other forms of profeminist activism.
Key Words: rhetoric of profeminism/pro-feminism, profemi-

nist discourse, anti-sexist men, Achilles Heel, NOMAS, British
and American men’s movement
Lynne Segal, who has extensively documented men’s attempts to change them-
selves, describes the history of work on masculinity “as following a path from opti-
mism to pessimism” (quoted in Wetherell & Griffin, 1991, p. 387). At first glance,
this bleak metaphor seems aptly to describe the history of men’s anti-sexist or pro-
feminist1 activism within and outside North America. In the 1970s, women’s libera-
tion was an inspiration for many men. Intrigued by the possibilities feminism offered
for personal and political transformation, driven by a sense of justice to redress gen-
Correspondence concerning this article should be sent to Amanda Goldrick-Jones, Centre for Academic
Writing and Women’s Studies, University of Winnipeg, 515 Portage Avenue, Winnipeg, Manitoba,
Canada R3B 2E9 or [email protected].
323
PESSIMISM, PARALYSIS, AND POSSIBILITY
der inequities, and maybe even a little jealous of women’s new-found sense of
excitement and solidarity, profeminist men in the 1970s took on “the male sex role”
as a major project. Documents produced by some of these newly fledged profeminist
groups create a very strong impression of thriving and energetic anti-sexist activity:
discussion groups, conferences, marches, events, newsletters, and performances with
an anti-sexist theme—and strikingly, a sense of excitement, optimism, and “fun.”
Yet the same documents recording anti-sexist men’s “exciting” gatherings, dis-
cussions, and activism emit early warning signs of ideological differences. In
Britain, the optimism of the early 1970s soon gave way to fractious arguments
between anti-sexist and liberationist men’s groups, which by the early 1980s had
become sundered. In North America, the rhetoric of optimism and unity dominated
conference and organizational literature in the 1970s and early- to mid-1980s, but
the mood was fractured by discontent—by those wondering, for example, about the
role of gay men, men of color, and working-class men in men’s anti-sexist organiza-
tions. By the 1990s, the North American documents were speaking less of unity and
more of diffusion, or even of the disbanding of anti-sexist men’s groups or projects.
While all this may indeed justify pessimism, I suggest that “crisis” is a more
helpful concept for understanding where profeminism is now and where it may be
going. For the past several years, I have been analyzing documents produced by
“Second Wave” profeminist groups in North America, Britain, and Australia, from
the early 1970s to the end of the 1990s. Among the questions I’ve been asking are:
Why and how do profeminist men identify with feminism? What motivates men to
do feminist work? How do they build productive relations with feminist women’s
groups? My analysis confirms the larger sense that profeminist men’s groups are in
jeopardy, and that many profeminists are more pessimistic now than they were in the
1980s. But it’s also important to remember that “crisis” means a vitally important
stage in the progress of anything, a state of affairs in which a decisive change for
better or worse is imminent. From that standpoint, it would be surprising if profemi-
nism as a mass movement hadn’t experienced a variety of crises by now.
Britain and the United States saw a great deal of profeminist activism in the
early 1970s, motivated largely by feminism and discontent with traditional mascu-
line roles. In both these countries (as well as in Canada and Australia), profeminist
groups have experienced major crises: challenging the concept that anti-sexist men
must rally under unified discourses, as well as changing the shape of profeminist
politics and activism. My main purpose here is to illustrate some of these crisis-
points by presenting highlights of an ongoing rhetorical analysis of selected docu-
ments produced by and about primarily British and American profeminist groups.
“Rhetoric” is a broad term, but the central concept I am working with here is that
texts convey not only the ideas but the social values of the writer or group, and that
certain rhetorical structures issue a powerful invitation to the reader to identify with
and share those values (most documents I use were created by groups or collectives
acting as a single writer).
The rhetorical structures I have found most useful for gaining insights into
group values are not classical lines of argument but resonant terms or phrases. These
terms are never considered in isolation; their meanings depend on particular histori-
cal, social, or cultural contexts. For example, if you were speaking to a group of
324
Canadian feminists, you need only mention the term “December 6” to evoke power-
ful images of the 1989 Montreal massacre. Resonant terms are more likely to create
identification when they recur over a range of documents, or act as “magnets” that
attract other value-laden concepts, or are juxtaposed with a negative counterpart sig-
nifying conflict with or opposition to a concept. Far from being mere words that
“signify nothing,” language is a form of symbolic action that can and does motivate
practical action.2
Because so many profeminist organizations have experienced internal conflict, I
found it useful to focus on documents and excerpts that use or indirectly evoke the
concept of “unity” as an invitation and motive to do profeminist work. I selected
documents by looking for key terms and relationships suggesting attitudes, either
positive or negative, about the concept of a group having a “unified” profeminist
mandate or identity.3 While a detailed analysis of specific terms and interrelation-
ships is useful for rhetorical critics, my emphasis here is on placing the “unity” terms
in broader social and historical contexts to highlight changing attitudes about pro-
feminist goals and activism. In effect, the “unity” terms tell stories about crisis and
change.
I should say something about my own motives for analyzing profeminist dis-
course. As a woman who has enjoyed good professional and personal relationships
with men, I have long believed—as do many feminists—that women and men can
work together, and that fighting gender injustice isn’t only women’s work. Indeed, in
the Western world, men have been engaging with feminist projects for over 200
years (for American perspectives, see Kimmel & Mossmiller, 1992), and there is
every reason in the world for that tradition to continue. As Gloria Steinem (1992)
puts it, “Make no mistake about it. Women want a men’s movement. We are literally
dying for it” (p. v). Yet it’s equally important to view strategies of men “in” femi-
nism through a critical feminist lens. In academic circles, the idea of men “in” femi-
nism has been increasingly problematized since Jardine and Smith (1987), but
whether men are “in” or “with” feminism, it is clear that men’s involvement must go
far beyond lip service: the fact that more men nowadays agree that feminism is a
good thing does not mean that social and behavioral transformation has been
achieved (also see Gilding, 1997).
THE EARLY 1970s:

“THE MALE RESPONSE TO WOMEN’S LIBERATION”
Among the most resonant terms in writings by early Second-Wave liberationist and
anti-sexist men are “excitement, fun, joy, liberation, women’s movement, and
change.” Taking on what was then considered “the interesting and exciting question
of the male response to women’s liberation…” (“Men’s,” 1971), a number of men’s
groups formed in Britain, the U.S., Canada, and Australia by the early 1970s. All
these groups encouraged discussion, and many also took part in demonstrations,
published radical newsletters, or organized conferences to explore what women’s
liberation meant for men. In Britain, the first men’s groups had formed by 1971 as
325
… a response to feminism. Women were developing, and as they

fought to change their roles, some men felt pressure to change too
…. There was liberation in the air and men wanted a part of that.
(“What future?”, 1990)
Across the pond, the first of many Chicago Men’s Gatherings took place in 1973,
emphasizing the liberatory possibilities of positive and healthy masculinities. Indeed,
the 1974 Gathering was billed as a “Men’s Celebration” to forefront “the joy and fun
of uniting as men in new and exciting ways” (“Chicago,” 1974, p. 2). There was
great interest, articulated notably by Joseph Pleck (1974), in whether the new “sex
role theory” could help dismantle traditional concepts of masculinity. Pleck was an
invited speaker at what may have been the first Canadian profeminist conference at
the University of Waterloo in 1975. Taking their cue from women’s consciousness-
raising (CR) practices, the conference authorized men-only sessions, reasoning: “We
believe that the task ahead will be one of sex role liberation for both men and
women, but that men talking with men plays an important part in this” (Waterloo,
1975).
This energetic and generally positive outlook for profeminism in the early ’70s
is expressed poignantly by a contributor to the newsletter Brother: A Forum for Men
Against Sexism, who wrote, “I don’t believe I have ever felt so affected by a move-
ment or a social development before in my life . . .” (“Men’s,” 1971). The sense of
dedication to a good cause was captured by a newsletter published jointly by the
Men’s Awareness Network and the Chicago Men’s Gathering, which was “dedicated
to eliminating sexism, supporting the women’s movement, and changing men’s
roles” (Editorial, 1976, p. i).
The frequent use of terms like “liberation” and “change”—often in the same
breath as concepts like “eliminating sexism” and “the women’s movement”—indi-
cates that many interested men were unified around the concept that feminism was
beneficial for re-examining masculinity. References to “the women’s movement” not
only occur frequently but also are often linked to “men” and “the male sex role.” The
terms suggesting that feminism could also be a joyful and liberating experience for
men are significant too, partly because they represent the zeitgeist of social change
and freedom, and partly because feminism served many men’s groups in the early
1970s as motivator, inspiration, and unifying principle.
BRITAIN IN THE ’70s:

THE ANTI-SEXIST/MEN’S LIBERATION WARS
While many men’s groups initially united around feminist concepts of “liberation”
from sexism, in Britain the principle of building action-platforms around anti-sexism
quickly became contested. Though many men’s groups had formed and several
national conferences had taken place in Britain by the mid-1970s, not all groups
were equally supportive of feminism. John Rowan (1987), Mick Cooper (1991a),
and Jonathan Rutherford (1992) all describe growing divisions among anti-sexist,
liberationist, and pro-gay men at this time. The anti-sexist movement consisted
mainly of men whose female partners or friends were active in the Women’s Libera-
326
tion Movement (Cooper, 1991a, p. 6; and D. Sheil, in a draft essay from the Achilles
Heel archives, 1990). Some of these men’s groups attempted to integrate therapeutic
and CR approaches with anti-sexist, often socialist discussions and conferences
(Cooper, 1991a, p. 6). One notable example, a group called Red Therapy, flourished
from 1974 to 1977 with the goal of connecting personal with socialist and political
issues (Rowan, 1987, p. 21). Also relying on CR models were “liberationist” men’s
groups, but they were less interested in anti-sexist activism and more intent on
understanding masculinity, working toward self-improvement, and forging better
relationships with other men.
Initially, British “anti-sexist” and “liberationist” men tried to work together,
attempting unity through their common concern with understanding men’s lives. But
in 1980, differences in perspective over the personal and the political, creating ten-
sions over the past several years, came dramatically to a head and eventually drove
these groups apart. This crisis was precipitated by a proposal drafted by anti-sexist
men for presentation and adoption at that year’s national men’s conference in Man-
chester. This proposal asked delegates to endorse a set of “Ten Commitments” repre-
senting men’s willingness to adopt feminist principles in their daily lives. To the
anti-sexists, the Commitments4 represented an endorsement of the women’s move-
ment as well as a call for men to change themselves. But many of the delegates felt
that adopting the Commitments would amount to an admission of male guilt. Even
John Rowan, who had been a member of Red Therapy, found the admonishing (and
it must be admitted, occasionally self-righteous) tone of the Commitments very off-
putting, comparing it to “a giant superego sitting on my shoulders shouting in my ear
. . .” (as cited in Cooper, 1991a, p. 9l; also see Rowan, 1987, pp. 48-53). To make a
long story short, the motion to adopt the Commitments was defeated.
According to Cooper, after this conference the British anti-sexist/profeminist
movement began to lose enthusiasm and clout, going into “a steep decline” after
1982 (1991a, pp. 9-10), while the liberationist movement gained momentum. Rowan
believes that the “Ten Commitments” event did some damage, but he argues that a
more serious clash occurred in 1983 over whether anti-sexist men should explicitly
spell out their accountability to feminism. This conflict also precipitated a crisis of
male guilt, which Rowan argues played a large role in paralyzing British profemi-
nism (1987, pp. 50-53).
Looking at the key terms arising out of these discourses provides some insights
into the major area of difference that so quickly fragmented the “unity” of the British
men’s movement in the 1970s: men’s relations with feminism. For the anti-sexists,
terms like “commitment,” “challenge,” “women’s movement,” and “giving up
power” represented necessary points of personal and political engagement. However,
liberationist men equated “commitment,” “accountable [to women],” and “giving up
power” with guilt, which, as Rowan argues, “simply paralyses men” (1987, p. 53);
for Rowan, “paralysis” is a powerfully negative term. Essentially, if you were an
anti-sexist man, “feminism” was a powerful motivator, a catalyst for action. But if
you were a liberationist, “feminism” had the opposite effect. The same term had rad-
ically different persuasive outcomes.
Gay liberation was another movement that also profoundly influenced and chal-
lenged the unifying discourses of 1970s British profeminism. Gay men who “had
327
quite suddenly discovered their energy, their voice, their ability to fight back against
the oppression which they felt they had for so long endured” (Sheil in an unpub-
lished essay, 1990) looked toward the American Black Liberation movement as their
model. While these men considered themselves anti-sexist, it is perhaps not surpris-
ing that many took a highly radical stance toward masculinity, including calling into
question men’s relationships with women. A piece in a magazine called Brothers
Against Sexism took a 1974 national men’s conference by storm. Entitled “Coming
Out is the Only Way Forward,” the article argued
If men are serious about being antisexist, then they must sacrifice
the privileges they obtain from women and relate on a sexual level
exclusively with men . . . . Only when men are prepared to risk
their masculinity to the extent of becoming homosexual can a
men’s movement challenge sexism in the way gay liberation has
(as cited in Cooper, 1991a, p. 7).
At the 1974 conference, conflict over this position was intense. From a rhetorical
standpoint, these gay activists’ emphasis on “sacrifice” was not a unifying term—in
fact may have been frightening—for many straight anti-sexist men. According to
Cooper’s history (1991a), several gay men walked out of the conference after accus-
ing their straight counterparts of homophobia (p. 7). Cooper also notes that this event
set off a round of self-criticism among anti-sexist men, halting profeminist confer-
ences and publications until the late 1970s. But in his analysis, the gay men’s criti-
cisms were not far off-target. Cooper argues that by the late 1970s, British anti-sex-
ism/profeminism
… was not challenging sexism…. The belief that in changing our-

selves through consciousness-raising [men] were liberating women
was delegitimized through an intense attack from an oppressed
group. (p. 7)
Cooper’s choice of the word “challenge” is significant, for, as suggested above, the
term can be seen as an ongoing area of contention for British anti-sexist men. “Chal-
lenge” asks the question: Are you trying hard enough to eliminate sexism? Instead of
engendering action, this question has brought many men back around to the issue of
guilt.
On the other hand, some men tried too hard and went madly off in all directions.
At one point, British anti-sexist men’s relations with feminists were seriously
strained after a men’s group began two projects in 1980 designed to support feminist
women’s campaigns through raising money and providing childcare (Cooper, 1991a,
p. 9). In late 1981, both projects came into conflict with the women’s movement
over a question of funding. According to Cooper’s account, the men withdrew funds
and volunteer childcare they had been willing to donate to a feminist conference
when the women said they preferred to use paid childcare workers. “This move infu-
riated many women who felt that the men were using the money to control the
women’s movement …” (Cooper, 1991a, p. 9). The men were stung by the women’s
328
criticism, and the projects soon “ground to a halt” (p. 9).

This crisis illuminates another key concept, control, and the tensions surround-
ing it. In this case, “men’s control” is implicitly linked with the phrase “over
women.” At what point does a set of profeminist actions or strategies become a
means of controlling feminism? Should men be offended if feminist women do not
agree with their methods? It seems evident in this case that if any communication
took place between the anti-sexist and feminist groups in 1980 and 1981, questions
of appropriate action, control, or power were not clearly addressed. This particular
British crisis intimates how the question of men’s power in relation to women would
increasingly complicate debate about men’s place in relation to feminism.5
ACHILLES HEEL:
LESSONS FROM THE PAST?
In 1978, Victor Seidler and other British anti-sexist men began publishing Achilles
Heel, a self-described “radical men’s magazine” with a profeminist and socialist bent
(Segal, 1997, p. 287; Seidler, 1991). Seidler’s description of the multiple goals of
this magazine implies that a major purpose was to create a forum for dialogue among
men and women, and to avoid the schisms among liberationist, gay, and straight
anti-sexist men that were effectively fragmenting profeminism at organizational lev-
els (1991, pp. 10-11).
Today, AH’s editorial stance reflects the fact that most British men’s groups
have shifted from anti-sexist activism to a broad-based concern with men’s “social,
political or sexual” lives. For example, the magazine is one of the few men’s forums
giving “equal time” to anti-sexist and mythopoetic perspectives. Often, writers try to
balance criticisms of mythopoetic groups with an exploration of their advantages
(see notably Cooper, 1991b, pp. 30-31; Wolf-Light, 1994, pp. 16-17), and even their
“value and beauty” (Wolf-Light, 1994, p. 17). However, other contributors to AH
believe that British men’s groups need to adopt more strongly activist stances in sup-
port of feminist principles. As one writer noted in a 1993 article on men’s groups,
… both the men’s groups I’ve been in have certainly spent some
time looking at sexism as an issue—how we’ve learnt it, how we
act it out, how it makes us feel—but virtually no time doing any-
thing practical about it …. When it comes to consistent and effec-
tive challenges to my sexism, my experience is that these have
invariably come from women rather from other men, inside or out-
side of a men’s group …. (Baker, 1993, pp. 25-27)
Surveying the landscape of British men’s movements today, one can find dozens of
men’s support groups, discussion groups, co-counseling groups, and resource centers
(many of which are part of Britain’s Men for Change Network). But there is no pro-
feminist/anti-sexist organization, at least not in the sense of an explicitly self-identi-
fied group or campaign with a feminist agenda, such as Canada’s White Ribbon
Campaign or Australia’s Men Against Sexual Assault. In some respects, it looks as if
the “liberationists” have taken over. Or, as Mick Cooper (personal communication,
329
January 21, 1998) thinks could be the case, profeminist men are “just getting on with
it,” listening to and supporting women in a “quieter” way, without grandiose
attempts to persuade the masses, and with less risk of conflict. It remains to be seen
whether this “quiet” approach will be more successful than political activism in
achieving gender justice.
AMERICAN PROFEMINISM IN THE 1970s AND ’80s:

REPRESENTATION AND CONTRADICTION
As in Britain, profeminist groups in the U.S. also found it difficult to unite and find
common cause simply because they were all men. A major issue troubling American
profeminist groups from the 1970s well into the 1990s was how profeminism could
be adequately represented by mainly white, middle-class, and predominantly straight
men. The idea that profeminists were a privileged group clearly created dissonance
among those enjoying the privileges. In some cases, this discomfort or guilt loomed
larger than the original goals of ending sexism and patriarchy. As a Berkeley men’s
newsletter noted in the early 1970s,
It seems to us that the so-called men’s movement has not been able
to sustain very much organized activity or energy because of the
knotty contradictions in its base (mostly white, middle-class
straight men) and its process (how critically or supportively these
men relate to each other). (Berkeley, 1973)
In their efforts to create and sustain a national U.S. profeminist organization that
would fairly represent a wide range of men, profeminists have experienced crises
around the concept of “unity.” The idea of a national group had been approved unan-
imously at the 1977 Men & Masculinity conference. Yet, though the motion was
reaffirmed in 1978, the initial plenary sessions and task force meetings of this proto-
organization were, according to a draft 1992 report by Tom Mossmiller, “wrecked
with dissension and ended in shambles.” It would be four more years until American
profeminists agreed on the structure and goals of a national profeminist organization,
signaled publicly by the official launch of the National Organization for Men in
1982. Media and other commentators’ descriptions of NOM’s 1983 Open Forum in
New York create uplifting images of a unified and optimistic profeminist movement
in the U.S. The organization’s press conference statement, presented by NOM presi-
dent Bob Brannon and later printed in the NOM newsletter Brother, featured this
sentence in large type:
. . . there has never before been an organized national movement

of men with the breadth of concern, and the determination to bring
about social change, as the one we are launching today. (Brannon,
1983, p. 5)
According to another press release issued after the Open Forum, “Feminist groups
were well-represented, and expressed their warm support for the new men’s organi-
330
zation. The National Organization for Women was represented . . .” (Anti-Sexist,

1983, p. 1). Topics of the forum included gay politics and links to anti-sexist groups;
black men against sexism and racism; and pressures to be a Real Man. According to
an article in Brother published after the Forum:
As each of the men and women spoke, the sense of excitement and
underlying unity grew stronger and clearer, the ideological breadth
and strength of the movement increasingly more apparent. . . . Sel-
dom if ever had the growing men’s movement been so unified in
spirit and purpose, or its goals so clearly and eloquently described.
(“Anti-Sexist,” 1983, p. 2)
Terms like “excitement,” “unity/unified,” “strength,” “spirit,” and “purpose” evoke

the shared sense of inspiration and possibilities arising out of the early 1970s docu-
ments. Indeed, many documents describing the aims and projects of NOM (which in
1984 changed its name to the National Organization for Changing Men—NOCM)
implicitly reinforce the concept that the membership was unified around the transfor-
mative goal of ending sexism. One major effect of this evangelical language—and
particularly the explicit references to “unity”—is to evoke the zeitgeist of the 1960s
and 70s. Such language intends to persuade readers to remember their original social
activist motives for forming profeminist groups.
The language of unity might also be seen as an attempt to defuse conflicts around
organizational structures and goals. The NOCM’s governance was fairly centralized
around a core group of executive member-activists. This is hardly an unusual occur-
rence in volunteer-run organizations, where the dedicated few often take on an inordi-
nate number of tasks. In theory, NOCM had a variety of goals and recognized many
different constituencies, and these became the responsibility of various “task groups,”
each headed by its own coordinator, who in turn reported to the executive. Task
groups focused on groups such as black, gay, disabled, and Chicano men, and on
issues such as violence against women and pornography. NOCM also had complex
decision-making policies based on feminist principles of dismantling hierarchy and
achieving consensus.6 But throughout the 1980s, members and other commentators
frequently criticized NOCM’s organizational structure for failing to represent more
men. According to a memo written by one former executive member,
I am firm in the belief that the structure of our organization (as

detailed in the by-laws) is seriously flawed by … the omission of
any provisions for the creation of local chapters …. [T]he failure
to have local chapters … doesn’t give us much in the way of a
mass, democratic organization. All we have is a highly-concen-
trated elite of 18 National Council members without a representa-
tive constituency talking to ourselves, and claiming to be leaders
of a few hundred non-based members.7
Many conflicting accounts can be found about whether NOCM—which in 1990

changed its name a second time to the National Organization of Men Against Sexism
331
(NOMAS)—was an inclusive, let alone unified, profeminist organization. Michael

Messner maintains that by the mid-1990s, the organization had integrated anti-racist
work to the point where it became “part of the political discourse of NOMAS,” such
that more men of color were taking leadership roles in the organization (1997, p. 101).
However, a major crisis of representation focusing on race occurred with the
organization’s decision in 1991 to go ahead and hold the annual Men & Masculinity
conference in Arizona after the Reverend Jesse Jackson and civil rights groups had
called for a tourism boycott of Arizona. That state had rescinded the new national
holiday in memory of Martin Luther King. In response to NOMAS’s decision, noted
radical profeminist John Stoltenberg (author of Refusing to Be a Man) resigned his
long-standing position as chair of the Ending Men’s Violence task group
(Stoltenberg, 1997). Similarly, another former member saw NOMAS’s decision as a
sign of the organization’s “internal racism” as well as its “lack of commitment . . . to
combatting racism” (Parrish, 1992).
Shortly after this show of non-confidence, the image of NOMAS as committed
to inclusivity and profeminism was again challenged by negative reactions to an arti-
cle written by one of NOMAS’s founders, Jeff Beane. Published in the magazine
Changing Men in August 1992, the article outlined Beane’s experiences as a gay
male teen in the late 1950s and early ’60s, and described a sexual encounter with a
younger boy. In that same issue was a discreet ad for the North American Man-Boy
Love Association as well as an ad for an “exotic” magazine. The criticisms and
debates following immediately after (see Craft, 1993, pp. 18-23) called into question
NOMAS’s commitment to feminist principles. The bitterest critics accused the
NOMAS leadership, which had initially defended this controversial Changing Men
issue,8 not only of sanctioning pedophilia (Craft, 1993) but of using “Old Boy Net-
work tactics” (Parrish, 1992) to avoid taking responsibility. In an attempt at damage-
control, Changing Men published in its next issue a range of critical letters (“Letters,”
1993) as well as “A Statement from the Editors and Publishers,” which among other
things included an indictment of Beane’s article and an apology to those it offended:
… we now understand [Beane’s article] to be a first-degree sexual

assault of a child by an older adolescent male (according to our
state’s . . . and other states’ laws) …. We are very sorry that these
materials in our last issue hurt or betrayed some of our readers,
especially those who are survivors of sexual assault. (“Statement,”
1993, p. 7)
And overly optimistically, as it turned out, that same “Statement” argued confidently
that “Changing Men will emerge stronger for having accepted the challenge to
change our practices—in order to become more fully responsible to … the pro-femi-
nist movement that sustains us and that we in turn hopefully nurture” (p. 8). But too
much damage had been done to the credibility both of NOMAS and of Changing
Men, at least in the eyes of the Beane controversy critics. Indeed, by 1994, beset
with financial and other problems, Changing Men had ceased publication.
In the discourse surrounding this crisis, the term “commitment,” associated with
profeminist goals, arises frequently as a unifying and perhaps even idealized concept
332
that NOMAS lacked or had failed to maintain. Without strong signals of “commit-
ment” beyond apologies or editorials, the ability of NOMAS to represent profeminist
interests was called into question. For profeminist groups ranging from Canada’s
White Ribbon Campaign to Australia’s Men Against Sexual Assault, “commitment”
is a positive term, often synonymous with men taking responsibility for their actions.
In the much earlier struggle over “the Ten Commitments” in Britain, “commitment”
acted partly as a positive motivator, but for many men the term was also synony-
mous with guilt, anger, and paralysis. In Britain, a perceived demand for “commit-
ment”—implying an impossibly high standard of behavior—scared many men away
from taking overtly feminist stances on various issues. Contrarily, the Beane-
NOMAS critics considered Beane’s article and the NAMBLA ad not only a celebra-
tion of pedophilia and sexual exploitation but a sign of a profound lack of “commit-
ment” to feminist values—even more seriously, a sign of disunity, of foundations
crumbling. The perceived lack of commitment and unity was considered a sufficient
cause (and perhaps also excuse) for many feminist and profeminist supporters to
abandon the organization.
Kenneth Clatterbaugh (1997), a historian of men’s movements, strongly implies
that NOMAS’s crisis has also served to undermine the unity of American profemi-
nism. The decline in NOMAS membership since the mid-1990s and the refusal of
some members to run for NOMAS office indicates, in his view, “a weakening of the
profeminist movement” (p. 56). Effective 1996, delegates to the yearly Men & Mas-
culinity conference, which NOMAS had sponsored, were given the option of not
having to join NOMAS. Indeed, NOMAS in the late 1990s appeared to be an organi-
zation in name only. In the year 2000, though, the outlook appeared to be improving.
With a new website, a slightly revised organizational structure, the resurrection of
the newsletter Brother, and its continuing involvement with Men & Masculinities,
the Ending Men’s Violence Network, and the Men’s Studies Association, NOMAS
shows signs of rebounding.
FROM PESSIMISM TO POSSIBILITY:

ALTERNATIVE PATHWAYS FOR PROFEMINISM?
Through examining how certain resonant terms convey attitudes to unity and conflict
in various profeminist documents, it is possible to see how complex and contested
are the deceptively simple goals of eliminating sexism and liberating men. The crises
discussed here raise questions about the effectiveness and desirability of constructing
dominant profeminist discourses—and indeed, even entire organizations—around
“unifying” notions of what profeminism is or entails for men. Terms like commit-
ment, accountability, and challenge, for example, are so likely to be contested that
they are not always effective motivators of social action.
This analysis also raises questions about the effectiveness of another kind of
unity: that imposed by “national” or centralized organizations. Certainly by the end
of the 1990s, NOMAS had ventured far down the path of pessimism. Other 1990s
organizational casualties include the Ontario-based Men’s Network for Change, once
a powerful sponsor of conferences and men’s anti-violence activities in central
Canada; Australia’s network of Men Against Sexual Assault (MASA) chapters—
333
now extant only in Melbourne; and Australia’s XY magazine, whose publication was
suspended in 1998. Countless other smaller profeminist groups have formed, flour-
ished, and fallen since the 1970s.
Perhaps profeminists have been over-ambitious in expecting to change the atti-
tudes of men across nations by creating organizations, setting up elaborate executive
structures, staging marches, and trying to sort out the best or worst ideologies by
fighting intraorganizational political battles. Nor are activist feminists unfamiliar
with such conflicts: women’s groups from the U.S.’s NOW to Canada’s National
Action Committee on the Status of Women have experienced similar ideological dif-
ferences. It’s helpful to remember that feminist movements also have a history riven
with conflict and crisis, from the political schisms between conservative and liberal
First Wave feminists, to the “sex wars” of the 1980s, to fractures or near-fractures
over charges that feminism’s predominantly white and middle-class perspective has
been highly exclusionary. The effort to work through these conflicts has resulted in
some organizational casualties, but this does not mean that feminists around the
world have ceased struggling to end women’s oppression. Similarly, the shrinking or
disbanding of larger profeminist organizations does not necessarily indicate that pro-
feminists are a dying breed or that profeminist work is not being done.
And, indeed, when some projects die, others are born. At almost the same time
NOMAS was experiencing its upheavals, Canada’s White Ribbon Campaign was
gaining momentum as a national (and now global) vehicle for men protesting vio-
lence against women. The WRC also experienced internal conflicts over issues of
centralization and organizational structure; now, while still headquartered in
Toronto, much of the campaign’s work against male violence is done locally,
through semi-autonomous chapters. In fact, as Robert Connell (1995) has argued,
anti-sexist or profeminist work arguably should not be channeled through large, cen-
trally organized groups. Rather than a “mass” men’s movement, Connell sees more
promise in what he calls “alliance politics,” in which “the project of social justice
depends on the overlapping of interests between different groups (rather than mobi-
lization of one group around its common interest)” (p. 238). Bob Pease (1996), long-
time profeminist activist and co-founder of MASA, also notes that “proposing a pro-
feminist political strategy will not in itself politicize men.” Instead, he believes
profeminist men need to “talk to ‘ordinary’ men” and locate moral and ethical rea-
sons for being profeminist within men’s “enlightened self-interests” (p. 306); in
other words, work to ground profeminism within men’s daily experiences, as femi-
nism is grounded (or should be) within women’s experiences. I interpret Pease’s
argument as, among other things, a call for profeminists to rediscover for themselves
and other men the personal motivation and excitement that will make the work easier
and the benefits more visible.
In this light, the near-death experiences of groups like NOMAS, the Men’s Net-
work for Change, and MASA could represent transformation—a movement toward
other possibilities. Men involved in these or similar organizations might see such
crises as opportunities to rethink how profeminist work gets done. Indeed, many pos-
itive models for men working against gender oppression exist worldwide. Here are
only a few examples:
334
• the Everyman Centre in Devon, U.K., which relies on feminist

principles to treat male violence. The Centre helps men and sup-
ports their female partners through therapy and co-counseling,
publishes articles and educational materials, and participates in
political events like International Women’s Week (Everyman,
1997; Calvin Bell, personal communication, January 29, 1998;
and Paul Wolf-Light, personal communication, January 30,
1998).
• the Halifax-based group Men for Change, which was first formed
as a male response to the massacre of 14 young women in Mon-
treal in 1989. It seeks to combine “political accountability” to
feminism with “consciousness raising amongst members about
the dynamics of traditional ‘male culture.’” Members share their
feelings and reflect on their experiences as men in small support-
ive groups and on retreats (“Men,” 1991). At the same time,
members hold public meetings, speak at schools and community
centers, and have created a “Healthy Relationships Violence-Pre-
vention Curriculum” package, now being piloted in some Cana-
dian high schools.
• the Men’s Resources Connection of Massachusetts, which cele-
brated its 15th anniversary in 1998. Founded in 1983, the MRC
sought to raise men’s awareness of male violence and related
issues through consciousness-raising and political events. While
not as overtly political as Men for Change, the MRC continues to
work against violence with a combination of men’s support
groups and community events—including a youth education pro-
gram designed to raise awareness of gender stereotyping and
encourage mutual respect.
• the White Ribbon Campaign, which began in Toronto in 1991
and, like Men for Change, took as its catalyst the Montreal mas-
sacre of 1989. Through its yearly “white ribbon week” each
November, this charitable group raises funds for organizations
like the Canadian Women’s Foundation; has cooperated with the
YWCA of Canada’s anti-violence campaign; works with busi-
nesses and unions to distribute white ribbons and solicit dona-
tions; and creates and distributes educational resources.
• Australia’s Men Against Sexual Assault, which initiated the first
White Ribbon Campaign outside of Canada in 1992. While all
but one chapter has folded since then, the Melbourne group con-
tinues to meet and work on profeminist projects, including an
anti-violence educational package completed in 1999.
• Achilles Heel: the radical men’s magazine, which continues to
publish articles exploring masculinities from a variety of non-
sexist perspectives, and to encourage dialogue between women
and men.
335
• The World Wide Web, also a promising environment. Its dozens

of profeminist or related sites are a bit reminiscent of the original
small men’s gatherings. Unlike the little newsletters of the ’ 70s,
these sites are instantly available to an increasing number of
researchers and activists worldwide. While computer access is still
mainly the province of white, educated English-speakers, the Web
offers some potential for new forms of grassroots profeminism.
Though there are no guarantees these particular projects and organizations will still
exist by the time you are reading this article, I see some cause for optimism that pro-
feminist work will continue to be done in a variety of different ways and in many
different locations: schools, community centres, workplaces and union shops, gro-
cery and clothing stores, in living rooms, and, of course, through conferences and
publications—whether live, in print, or virtual. Little of this work will be reported in
the papers, and none of it (I predict, though I hope to be wrong) will persuade tens of
thousands of men to gather in football stadiums—a feat accomplished by the evan-
gelical Promise Keepers. While many profeminist efforts will remain unsung, men
who believe in feminism need to ensure that, as much as possible, others know about
and benefit from their work.
My brief analysis of “unity” terms arising in some profeminist writings has
highlighted only a few of the many tensions between an idealistic, unified vision of
gender equality and the enormous differences among activist men’s ideologies and
experiences that problematize this seemingly simple concept. Yet the resulting con-
flicts, serious though they are, do not justify a pessimistic conclusion about the death
of profeminism. If “crisis” means “change,” then these crises might—and perhaps
should—be seen as opportunities for profeminist men to explore other, more creative
ways of doing this work and motivating others to participate. What symbolic and
practical acts might be involved? Any and all that integrate profeminist ideas into
daily life and make them accessible. Any that nurture dialogue and critical self-
reflection about gender issues; encourage men and boys to talk and think about how
feminism can benefit them; recognize and respect differences among men’s experi-
ences and perspectives; encourage men to listen to and learn from women, other
men, and children; maintain men’s levels of energy and excitement about profemi-
nist work; acknowledge men’s role in perpetrating sexism but move beyond guilt
toward action; and support the practical, everyday work women do, moving us all a
few steps closer toward equality.
NOTES
1. Many (though not all) men who ground their personal lives or political acts
on feminist principles prefer to call themselves “pro(-)feminists,” spelled with or
without a hyphen, rather than “feminists.” Australian profeminist Michael Flood
explains: “The term ‘pro-feminist’ is almost equivalent to ‘anti-sexist,’ and I often
use the two terms interchangeably. But I like the term pro-feminism because it sug-
gests an explicit and ongoing commitment to support feminism. Without this, men
may drift towards an understanding of sexism that neglects men’s power over
336
women” (1993-94). According to American profeminist Harry Brod, the hyphenated

term is favored by supportive men “who believe feminism to be essentially of, by,
and for women” (1998, p. 207). While Brod respects this viewpoint, he himself
prefers “profeminism,” which speaks of “a developing feminist politics of, by, and
for men” and a willingness to “fully commit ourselves to eliminating patriarchy” (p.
208). Although I don’t think supportive men should go out of their way to avoid call-
ing themselves “feminist,” I acknowledge these arguments and preferences and use
the term “profeminist” (without the hyphen for simplicity’s sake).
2. I derive this principle from the work of Kenneth Burke, literary critic and
philosopher of language. Burke acknowledged there are differences between “sym-
bolic” and “practical” acts, but argued that the actions and emotions evoked by dis-
course are “the dancing of an attitude” in which “the whole body may finally
become involved” (1941, p. 9). Complementing the principle that language is sym-
bolic action is Burke’s method of finding and “clustering” key terms in discourses
(for details, see Burke [1937] as well as Rueckert [1982] and Foss [1996]). I found
this method of clustering terms very helpful for analyzing the strategies used by
Canada’s profeminist White Ribbon Campaign in building good relations with femi-
nist activist groups (Goldrick-Jones, 1996).
3. I have also interviewed some profeminists as part of a larger project than this
one. Interestingly, though the interviewees often corroborated the “official” docu-
ments, at times they also suggested a different story, or counter-discourse.
4. “Notes and riders” forming the Ten Commitments can be found in Rowan
(1987, p. 49).
5. By the mid-1980s, feminists and profeminists in Britain, North America, and
Australia were raising serious concerns about men’s actions, motives, and even their
right to be “in” a form of transformative social activism rooted in women’s, not
men’s, lived experience. As Michael Kimmel argues, “to be a feminist requires . . .
the felt experience of oppression” on the basis of gender (Kimmel & Mossmiller,
1992, p. 3). Though I will not be discussing the details of this debate, which
extended well into the 1990s, the issues are well represented in such diverse sources
as Jardine and Smith (Eds.), Men in Feminism (1987); Marcus, “Australian women
and feminist men” (1988); Williams, “Men in feminism” (1990); and Porter (Ed.),
Between Men and Feminism (1992).
6. One NOCM document (undated) proposes a “consensus decision making
process” represented by a four-level flowchart. There are detailed analyses of levels
of concerns that could arise in decision-making: “minor concerns,” “reservations,”
“non-support,” and “blocking concerns.” While consensus is emphasized, some
readers might be forgiven (I hope I will be) for interpreting the various stages and
levels as convoluted and hard to access.
7. A number of NOCM memos and documents discuss the executive members’
workload and problems with the organizational structure. These and many other doc-
uments, some of which are unpublished or in draft form, were donated by former
members to the Changing Men’s Collection, part of the Michigan State University’s
Special Collections Division. I am profoundly grateful to Ed Barton, curator of this
collection, for all his help and support during and after my visit to this collection in
July1998.
337
8. Changing Men was an independent magazine, not an organ of NOMAS; how-

ever, articles about NOMAS or written by NOMAS members appeared frequently.
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339
Doing the Work of Love
Men & Commitment in Same-Sex Couples
by J. Michael Clark
Doing the Work of Love is a groundbreaking book that creates an important bridge between
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Table of Contents Men &

Foreword by James B. Nelson
commitment
in same-sex
1. Discerning the Ethical Landscape: A Theological couples
Introduction
2. Deghettoizing Gay Men’s Lives: Phenomenology
& Prophecy
3. Doing Gay Ethics: Sexuality & Relationships
4. Doing Men’s Studies: A Gay Perspective
Doing
the
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5. Doing Our Homework: A Conversational Intermission
6. Doing the Work of Love: An Extended Case Study
7. Being In-Relation: Epilogue
Appendix: In Celebration of our Tenth Anniversary
Notes, Selected Bibliography, Subject/Name Index
of
J. Michael Clark is an academic “migrant worker,”
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in Atlanta, where he lives with his spouse, Bob
love by J. Michael Clark
McNeir. Credited with pioneering truly unapologetic Foreword by James B. Nelson,

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P.O. Box 32, Harriman, TN 37748
Phone 423/369-2375 • Fax 423/369-1125 • Email: [email protected]
Publication date: October 1999
The Playboy Rabbit Is Soft, Furry, and Cute:
Is This Really the Symbol of Masculine
Dominance of Women?
JAMES K. BEGGAN
Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences
University of Louisville
AND
SCOTT T. ALLISON
Department of Psychology
University of Richmond
Images presented in the mass media often contain subtexts

that perpetuate gender stereotypes. We suggest that in some
instances, underlying messages in mass media can operate to
oppose, rather than reinforce, gender stereotypes. To examine
this hypothesis, we used the first ten years of Playboy magazine
as our data source. We provide evidence that the magazine
attempted to broaden the conceptualization of masculinity by
defining as the ideal an identity that incorporated a number of
characteristics traditionally associated with women. We iden-
tify several processes by which Playboy accomplished this goal.
These processes included co-opting the meaning of the word
“playboy,” associating sexual success with the possession of
traditionally feminine traits, and using a rabbit as Playboy’s
symbol.
Key Words: masculinity, gender stereotypes, feminine traits,

media symbols, mass media, Playboy magazine
The authors acknowledge the assistance of the staff of the Special Collections: Rare Books, University of
Louisville. In addition, the present work would not have been possible without access to the Playboy col-
lection held by the University of Louisville.
Correspondence concerning this paper should be addressed to James K. Beggan, Department of Psycholog-
ical and Brain Sciences, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY 40292 or [email protected].
341
JAMES K. BEGGAN AND SCOTT T. ALLISON
Mass media provide consumers with messages that convey meaning on a number
of levels (Hall, 1997; Kates & Shaw-Garlock, 1999; Mick & Buhl, 1992). An
assumption of work in this area is that, because they are unexpected and convey sub-
tle bias, certain meanings are difficult to detect or refute. These subtexts have been
shown to exert an influence on judgment and behavior (e.g., Rudman & Borgida,
1995; Signorielli, 1989), even when invalid. For example, it has been shown (e.g.,
Bordo, 1993; Cash & Henry, 1995; Wiseman, Gray, Mosimann, & Ahrens, 1992)
that unrealistic media images of female beauty can cause women to develop
unhealthy expectations about their own and others’ bodies.
One underlying meaning involves the reinforcement of stereotype-based expec-
tations about men and women (Bordo, 1993; Douglas, 1994; Hirschman & Thomp-
son, 1997; Richins, 1991; Wolf, 1991). Even when media do not appear to have a
clear reason for the reinforcement of stereotypes, there is evidence that such instanti-
ations occur. For example, teen magazines tend to portray female characters who
require assistance in order to solve their problems (Peirce, 1993). In music videos,
women display subservient behaviors and men display aggressive, dominant behav-
iors (Sommer-Flanagan, Sommer-Flanagan, & Davis, 1993). A greater proportion of
men relative to women are presented in television commercials as possessing identi-
fiable occupations (Allan & Coltrane, 1996).
In our analysis, we would like to consider the extent to which a medium may
present messages that undermine, rather than reinforce, stereotypes about men and
women. Moreover, we would like to entertain the possibility that even in a medium
with a seemingly simple agenda regarding the behavior of men and women, there
may appear seditious messages that oppose the apparent agenda. We feel that with
rare exception (e.g., Beggan, Gagné, & Allison, 2000), this perspective has been
ignored by social scientists.
CONCEPTUALIZATIONS OF GENDER STEREOTYPES IN PLAYBOY
Most social critics would agree that Playboy magazine has had an important influ-
ence on societal processes in the latter half of the twentieth century (e.g., Talese,
1980). Much of the critical analysis Playboy magazine has received can be conceptu-
alized in terms of the analysis of power dynamics between men and women
(D’Emilio & Freedman, 1997). Ehrenreich (1983) suggested that the magazine
encouraged the males’ flight from responsibility by implying that men and women
had incompatible goals with regard to commitment and marriage. According to femi-
nist and pro-feminist writers (e.g., Brod, 1988; Brooks, 1995; Dworkin, 1988; May,
1969), the visual and written images of women presented in Playboy degrade
women. By this argument, then, exposure to these images encourages men to per-
ceive themselves as superior to women. Other authors (e.g., Brownmiller, 1991;
Ewing, 1995; MacKinnon, 1986) have extended power dynamics to the point of sug-
gesting that the written and visual images in Playboy promote a rape culture that is
both misogynistic and violent.
Empirical analyses of Playboy magazine have failed to provide clear evidence
of these dominance themes. For example, an analysis (Scott & Cuvelier, 1987) of
violence in cartoons and pictorials in Playboy from 1954 to 1983 indicated that
342
THE PLAYBOY RABBIT IS SOFT, FURRY, AND CUTE
depictions of violence were rare. Only 2.86 violent cartoons and .78 violent pictori-
als appeared per 1000 pages. Malamuth and Spinner (1980) reported a similar low
proportion of violent imagery. Moreover, in an empirical analysis of the relationship
between pornography and rape, Gentry (1991) found no effect between consumption
of Playboy and rape rates, as reported in the Uniform Crime Reports.
In keeping with these latter studies, our analysis of Playboy magazine begins
with a simple observation. We note that one curious fact, apparently ignored by
social scientists who have critically analyzed Playboy, is that the world-famous sym-
bol of the magazine is a white rabbit. The Rabbit symbol is a stylized rabbit head in
profile, wearing a bow tie, most likely a tie that is part of a tuxedo. A Playboy tradi-
tion that began in the second issue of the magazine is to include, in some form, an
image of the Rabbit on the cover. The dominant incarnation in the early issues was
as a human-size, apparently sentient entity that often interacted with women in a
romantic manner. The Rabbit has also appeared in a variety of other forms such as a
bend in a telephone cord or a reflection in a woman’s eye. Over the years, finding
the Rabbit symbol has become a contest for the readers. In some cases, the Rabbit
was so well hidden, as a knot in a bikini bottom or as a curl in a woman’s hair, that
readers complained that they could not find the image.
In explaining the choice of a white rabbit, Hugh Hefner, founder of Playboy,
was quoted (Brady, 1974, p. 74), “Rabbits are the playboys of the animal world and
they have a sexy reputation.” A justification based on reproductive rates makes only
limited sense in that the means to reproduction rather than actual reproduction itself
appears more consistent with the editorial focus of the magazine. The Playboy web-
site (http://www.playboy.com) features a slightly different and more detailed expla-
nation, “I selected a rabbit ... because of the humorous sexual connotation, and
because he offered an image that was frisky and playful. I put him in a tuxedo to add
the idea of sophistication.... The notion of a rabbit dressed up in formal evening
attire struck me as charming, amusing and right.”
The synthesis of Playboy and the Rabbit is surprising when one recognizes that
the dominant characteristics of a white rabbit are: soft, furry, cute, peaceful, fearful,
and a prey rather than a predator. These are not the attributes expected as the symbol
of a magazine with an ideology of the oppression of women. It is surprising that a
rabbit would be chosen as the symbol for a magazine geared toward men, given that
stereotypes about men (Bem, 1974; De Lisi & Soundranayagam, 1990; Street, Kim-
mel, & Kromrey, 1995) revolve around themes such as power (achievement,
assertiveness), sexuality (sexual aggression and skill), and intellect (logic and diffi-
culty in expressing emotions). In fact, justified purely on the basis of stereotypes, a
white rabbit would be a more appropriate symbol of women rather than men. More-
over, a number of the adjectives used by Hefner to describe the rabbit seem consis-
tent with stereotypes about women. Terms such as “frisky,” “playful,” “charming,”
and “amusing” could be just as readily used to describe how critics of Playboy have
characterized the women who pose for Playboy as how Hugh Hefner has character-
ized the Rabbit.
The goal of the present paper is to critically explore the observed inconsistency
between the assumed ideology of Playboy and the image of the white Rabbit. If
Playboy should be conceptualized as a media icon that reifies male values and prop-
343
agates male stereotypes, including among them the domination of women, in the
construction of a masculine identity, then how can these processes be reconciled
with the choice and consequences of a white rabbit as the primary symbol of the
magazine? In the process of addressing this apparent inconsistency, we provide an
interpretation of Playboy at odds with prior critical analyses.
Our thesis is that, despite the attention paid to the presence of nude pictorials,
Playboy’s central ideological focus was to sanction men’s attempts to expand the
boundaries of legitimate self-conceptualization rather than to subjugate or control
women. Thus, the magazine should be viewed as a lens to better understand how
men think or would like to think about themselves, not how they think about and
create identities for women. Playboy defined an identity for men, i.e., a masculine
ideal, which contained a component that went beyond stereotypes about the appro-
priate characteristics of men. More specifically, this component depended heavily on
the contribution of attributes and interests more stereotypically associated with
women than men. At a symbolic level, the merger of feminine attributes with the
male identity was accomplished by the representation of the archetypal playboy as a
white rabbit. At an instrumental level, the merger occurred through the editorial
material presented in the magazine. Thus, the central gender theme in Playboy maga-
zine was the integration, rather than polarization, of masculine and feminine repre-
sentations.
Our analysis represents three potentially important contributions to the men’s
studies literature. The first contribution is to elaborate on the gender role strain para-
digm (Pleck, 1981, 1995) in a way that might be viewed as counterintuitive. Accord-
ing to this perspective, a significant proportion of men violate gender roles and expe-
rience negative psychological consequences as a result (Levant, 1997). In our
analysis, we propose a novel interpretation of the way Playboy may have shaped the
male consciousness with regard to masculine identity. We suggest that the images of
the male presented in Playboy reduced gender role strain by legitimizing a broader
definition of masculinity than would be encapsulated by stereotypic images of men.
Moreover, this influence began in the early 1950s, prior to the occurrence of social
and political events (e.g., the women’s movement) that might have called into ques-
tion the construction of a masculine ideal based on stereotypic representations.
A second contribution of our analysis is to promote a conceptualization of Play-
boy magazine at odds with much of the existing scholarly work. Playboy has been
viewed as a mechanism of fraternal bonding which reinforces a stereotypic represen-
tation of women as subservient, highly sexualized objects of pleasure (e.g., Ehrenre-
ich, 1983). Because Playboy is read by a great many men, it is assumed that these
men adopt an attitude toward women that is consistent with the theme of sexuality
and dominance. Our analysis undercuts this conclusion by invalidating the premise
that Playboy degrades women. Rather than degrade women, Playboy emphasized the
importance of women and their values in defining a masculine identity. Thus, we
assert that reading Playboy should not be viewed as synonymous with possessing a
negative attitude toward women.
A final contribution of our analysis is to reinforce the idea that the values and
attributes stereotypically associated with each gender may afford both benefits and
costs to the individuals who possess them (Brooks, 1990; Messner, 1992). When
344
Playboy elaborated on the definition of masculinity, it did so by drawing on certain

attributes traditionally associated with women. The lesson to be learned from this
fact is that the optimal definition of a human being may be an androgynous one
(Bem, 1974) that borrows freely from the best attributes of both men and women.
We use the theme of identity construction as our primary tool to interpret the
formative years of Playboy magazine, which we operationally define as its first ten
years of existence. This initial period reflects the time during which Playboy was
most active in defining a unique niche for itself and its readers.
It has been said that one of the great fibs of modern times, in relation to Playboy
magazine, is the statement, “I buy it for the articles.” This statement is ironic
because the unstated but implied truth is that the speaker buys the magazine to see
pictures of naked women but uses the articles to disguise his true intentions. We rec-
oncile the tension between text and pictures with the assertion of a third perspective
(Ehrenreich, 1983). The presence of nude photographs of women served as the justi-
fication for purchasing the magazine, which, in reality, had been acquired to rein-
force a preferred identity, one at odds with many existing beliefs about the nature of
masculinity, i.e., that the correct mode of operation for a man was to be strong,
unemotional, and confident. According to the philosophy articulated in the maga-
zine, a playboy was free to be much more colorful and broadly defined. Part of the
Playboy identity implied the freedom to admit weakness and vulnerabilities. This
freedom was especially prevalent in the “Playboy Advisor,” an advice column which
required men to reveal their soft underbellies of personal doubts as a prerequisite to
obtaining assistance (Beggan et al., 2000).
In our analysis, we will explore the identity toward which Playboy suggested its
readers should strive. We suggest that in addition to stereotypically masculine attrib-
utes, the identity Playboy instantiated in men incorporated a number of traditionally
feminine attributes. Thus, according to Playboy, a man achieved the masculine ideal,
i.e., became a playboy, by becoming somewhat feminine. We recognize that this
proposition deviates from many of the prior analyses of Playboy magazine that have
appeared in the scholarly arena and contradicts notions about Playboy that have
appeared in American popular culture.
Playboy encouraged men to adopt stereotypically feminine abilities, such as
becoming a better conversationalist and learning how to cook sometimes elaborate
meals, through editorial features of the magazine. Other skills the magazine touted
included how to decorate one’s office or apartment and how to dress more fashion-
ably. We suggest that the display of these skills would have caused men to appear to
possess traits such as supportiveness, commitment, and sensitivity. Men were also
directly encouraged to develop feminine traits, such as compassion and sensitivity,
through features such as the “Playboy Advisor” column.
We argue that Playboy portrayed women as having a great deal of control over
men’s lives. The magazine encouraged men to adopt attributes and learn skills that
women would find desirable so that women would find them more attractive. There
is evidence (e.g., Clark & Reis, 1988) that an individual’s perceived attractiveness is
positively correlated with the extent to which he or she can contribute benefits to a
relationship. Recent investigations (e.g., Buss, 1989; Feingold, 1990; Sprecher, Sul-
livan, & Hatfield, 1994) of women’s preferences for sexual and marital partners have
345
found that women desire men who have potential for resource acquisition. As such,
women prefer men who are intelligent, strong, and ambitious, i.e., men with stereo-
typically masculine attributes. In addition, however, women also express a prefer-
ence for men who are supportive, expressive, sensitive, and committed, i.e., possess
stereotypically feminine attributes. Thus, adopting these latter attributes would allow
men to be seen as more attractive to women. Although the intention of this approach
was to change to become more attractive to women, the implication, however, was
that men should surrender sovereignty to women over how men should choose to
define themselves.
How did the assertion of a feminine component to a masculine identity come
about in the pages of Playboy magazine? We identify several aspects of the maga-
zine that contributed to this process. One means was to adopt the name Playboy and
then use several editorial features to carefully construct a meaning for the word. A
second method was the choice of a rabbit as the symbol for the magazine. The third
aspect was to promote a complex identity for the Rabbit through the way he was pre-
sented on the magazines’ covers. A final aspect was to link sexual success with the
possession of the feminine traits advocated by the magazine.
ON BECOMING A PLAYBOY
The goal of identity construction appeared as early as Hugh Hefner’s initial editorial
statement in the first issue of Playboy in which he referred to the magazine as a
“primer.” Thus, the intention to educate and socialize the reader was established
from the very beginning. Previous authors have recognized Playboy’s efforts to
define a masculine identity for its readers. For example, in an early analysis, Cox
(1965) argued that the success of the magazine was due less to its emphasis on sex
than to its emphasis on identity construction. Ehrenreich (1983) suggested that Play-
boy represented an “attack” on the traditional male role. Readers recognized the
magazine’s efforts in articulating an identity for them. Consider, for example, a letter
published in the September 1959 issue. Reader Scott Mason, from Minot, North
Dakota, commented, “I like your voice. It’s my voice.” The unique contribution of
our analysis is to describe the seemingly paradoxical way in which Playboy assisted
men in the construction of a new and better masculine identity by suggesting that
they adopt characteristics traditionally associated with women.
The name Playboy had implications for identity construction. The magazine was
about being the particular kind of person referenced in the title. Playboy magazine,
then, was a multi-dimensional snapshot that conveyed the essential features of the
playboy. The magazine established the directions along which the reader, a potential
playboy, could develop and actualize the Playboy aspect of his self. Playboy inter-
vened at the level of the individual and established the premise of a one-to-one rela-
tionship with each reader. As such, the magazine acted as a surrogate older brother
who took the reader under the collective wing of the magazine’s editorial staff and
taught him to become a playboy. The magazine, rather than other men, socialized the
reader by providing advice on how to construct an identity as a playboy.
There is a classic story associated with the name Playboy. The initial title Hugh
Hefner chose was Stag Party. Shortly prior to publication, Hefner received a threat-
346
ening letter from the attorney representing the publishers of Stag, suggesting
infringement. Rather than run the risk of a legal battle, Hefner decided to change the
name of his magazine. It is useful to speculate about the implications of the name
Playboy in comparison to the name Stag Party with regard to the construction of a
masculine ideal. A stag party is a group process. With its homogeneous male compo-
sition, a stag party becomes a possible site of male fraternal bonding (Curry, 1991;
Hood, 1995; Katz, 1995). Fraternal bonding refers to the high degree of group cohe-
sion that can result when men interact together and is often characterized by a strong
reliance on stereotypes about both in-group and out-group members (Curry, 1991;
Harrison, Chin, & Ficarrotto, 1995; Satel, 1976). In a stag party, identities are cre-
ated and maintained as the result of a social interactionist process in the mutual
negotiation of identity. Fear of ostracism that accompanies fraternal bonding tends to
promote a defensive posture with regard to the affirmation of identities. Thus, the
process of identity negotiation is self-protective, conservative, and, as a result, builds
on the safest common denominator, i.e., stereotypes. The dynamics of fraternal
bonding promote group differentiation along gender lines and subsequent in-group
favoritism (Tajfel, 1982). Women are unwelcome at stag parties, except in the lim-
ited role as sex objects. They are incorporated into stag parties as strippers and pros-
titutes. They may appear as images in pornographic movies. But the presence of a
woman as a co-participant in a stag party contradicts its core concept. As such, a stag
party becomes an environment and process that reifies, for both men and women,
identity as a stereotype.
The dynamics of the Playboy identity focused on each potential reader’s capac-
ity for evolution and change toward a Playboy-defined masculine ideal. There is evi-
dence (e.g., Tajfel, 1982; Turner, 1987) that people possess both a personal identity
and a social identity. Social identity is derived from membership in various groups.
A focus on an individual playboy rather than a stag party isolated the individual from
the group and emphasized individual identity construction over group stereotype
promulgation. As such, pre-existing group norms, values, and beliefs became less
central in the definition of an identity. Once readers were distanced from these other
anchors, the magazine was free to impose a new reference, which it did through a
number of editorial features. To become a playboy required that the potential reader
become exposed to and accept the messages conveyed by the magazine’s editorial
content. Presumably, with more exposure to the magazine, each reader became better
schooled in the requirements of being a playboy. From this point of view, then, the
success of Playboy was based on its ability to short-circuit and undercut traditional
processes of fraternal bonding that promoted a social identity based on stereotypes.
How did someone become a playboy? How did the transformation occur? And
what was the role of women and their values in facilitating this transformation? At
the most basic level, a person became a playboy by reading or, better yet, subscrib-
ing to Playboy. More generally, then, a reader became a playboy by incorporating
the Playboy philosophy into his own belief system. Although Hugh Hefner ulti-
mately wrote a long tome, called the “Playboy Philosophy,” that was published in
installments in the magazine, we suggest that there already existed an underlying
philosophy embedded in the magazine. This implicit philosophy served as a guide
for the reader in the quest for a better, more playboy-like identity. Symbolically, as
347
we discuss later, the transformation into a playboy was accomplished by becoming

Rabbit-like.
THE ARCHITECTURE OF IDENTITY CONSTRUCTION
Playboy magazine developed a self-referential quality that served as the means by

which it defined a masculine ideal. In the first ten years of publication, the editorial
staff showed remarkable ingenuity in finding different ways to weave a definitional
component into the magazine. The earliest method was in an unsigned editorial pub-
lished in the first issue in which Hefner laid out his vision for the magazine.
Several regular features of the magazine were routinely used to prescribe images
to readers of how they should appear. One way in which the magazine defined a
playboy was the full-page subscription ads that appeared starting in the second issue.
These ads, usually placed on the inside back cover, were creative and did much to
help the magazine achieve its self-appointed task of developing a consistent identity
for its readers.
A second regular feature with a self-defining component was the series of
advertisements for the magazine that appeared under the heading “What Sort of Man
Reads Playboy?” This breed of ad first appeared in the February 1958 issue and fol-
lowed a standard formula. The ads always depicted a man engaged in a pursuit con-
sistent with the image of a playboy. Another aspect of the ads was the presence of a
woman, either interacting directly with the playboy or watching from a distance. In
either case, the ads communicated that the woman was romantically involved with
the playboy or would like to be. Thus, the ads suggested that adopting the Playboy
perspective would yield sexual success. In later years, there was often a second
woman whose presence indicated that the playboy was sufficiently attractive so as to
be the subject of rivalry among women. Advertising copy reflected the theme con-
veyed in the photograph, but always included information regarding the extent to
which Playboy readers were educated, had expensive tastes in liquor and clothing,
traveled for business, and so on.
The covers were a source of definitional messages for readers. As we discuss in
more detail below, the Rabbit images sent important messages about the nature of a
playboy. Perhaps the clearest example of how Playboy, the magazine, co-opted con-
trol over the definition of playboy, the word, was the cover of the June 1961 issue.
The cover appeared to be a page from a dictionary where the word “playboy” was
defined.
The magazine also found other ways to include definitions of a playboy. The
results of a reader survey conducted in the April 1955 issue painted a handsome pic-
ture of the prototypical Playboy reader. In two different “Playboy Advisor” columns,
definitions of a “gentleman” were presented. Certain cartoons provided a humorous,
but still ideologically consistent, message that following the prescriptions of Playboy
magazine would permit a reader to enhance his standing with women. For example,
the August 1955 issue contained a cartoon with the theme of marital infidelity in
which an issue of Playboy magazine was featured.
348
ASPECTS OF MASCULINE AND FEMININE IDENTITY
To justify the argument that Playboy encouraged adopting feminine attributes, it is

necessary to clearly identify those attributes that are considered masculine or femi-
nine. Deaux and Lewis (1983) suggested that the breadth of gender stereotypes is
quite large. They showed that gender stereotypes have four separate components:
traits, role-defined behaviors, occupations, and physical characteristics. In our analy-
sis, we focus on traits and role-defined behaviors. In an extensive investigation of
the traits associated with men and women, Street et al. (1995) found that women
were viewed as possessing traits associated with compassion, whereas men were
viewed as possessing traits associated with power, sexuality, and intellect. Other
researchers (e.g., Bem, 1974) have reported similar patterns of results. Bem (1974)
found, for example, that men are seen as strong, assertive, and self-reliant. Women,
in contrast, are seen as affectionate, gentle, sensitive to the needs of others, and
understanding.
Men and women are also thought to engage in different roles (Deaux, Winton,
Crowley, & Lewis, 1985; Eckes, 1994; Edwards, 1992; England, 1992). Edwards
(1992) found evidence for several distinct stereotyped roles for men: businessman,
blue-collar worker, athlete, family man, and womanizer. Other researchers (e.g.,
Deaux et al., 1985; England, 1992) found similar categories. Women’s role stereo-
types included five separate categories (Deaux et al., 1985; Eckes, 1994): housewife/
mother, sexy woman, career woman, athlete, and feminist.
Gender-based stereotypes are generally stable. Comparisons between 1972 and
1988 (Bergen & Williams, 1991) and between 1957 and 1978 (Werner & LaRussa,
1985) showed consistency in the way that men and women are perceived across
time. A large-scale study among 30 nations showed common characteristics even in
very different cultural contexts (Williams & Best, 1990). Moreover, evidence (e.g.,
Swim, 1994) also suggests that stereotypes about men and women do, in fact, con-
tain a kernel of truth. Thus, it seems reasonable to assume that the stereotypes identi-
fied in studies conducted across different time periods would reflect stereotypes that
operated in the early 1950s, when Playboy was founded.
THE IRONIC MEANING OF PLAYBOY
When Hugh Hefner found out that he could not use the name Stag Party, he spent a
weekend with his wife, Millie, and friend Eldon Sellers trying to decide on a replace-
ment (Brady, 1974). According to Brady, Eldon Sellers suggested Playboy because
he recalled an old automobile with that name. Hefner liked the name and the fact that
the word “playboy” was obsolete. “That way we can make it suggest whatever the
magazine becomes,” Hefner is reported to have said (Brady, 1974, p. 73).
The dictionary (e.g., Webster’s New Universal Unabridged Dictionary, 1983)
defines a “playboy” as “a man who is carefree, gay, and fond of playing; specifi-
cally, a well-to-do man who spends much time and energy to pleasure-seeking and
dissipation.” It is worth noting that “dissipation” includes among its meanings the
idea of squandering one’s life on excessive pleasure-seeking. A playboy, therefore,
is someone who allows hedonism to consume too great a proportion of life. A play-
349
boy is harmless essentially but not taken seriously. In sum, then, being a playboy
carries a somewhat negative connotation.
The magazine’s editorial staff elaborated freely in crafting a much more positive
meaning of the word. The negative connotation was excised and the range of posi-
tive attributes increased to where the magazine’s definition of a playboy was the
opposite of the dictionary definition. The attributes included in the various defini-
tions of a playboy presented by the magazine were often consistent with stereotypes
about men and included characteristics such as strength, power, intellect, and
assertiveness. As we will show in more detail below, however, some characteristics
attributed to playboys were consistent with stereotypes about women.
Subscription ads described Playboy and playboys in a variety of ways. A repre-
sentative ad described Playboy as a “magazine that breaks the old taboos,” and
implied Playboy readers were free-thinkers and courageous. Early subscription ads
defined a playboy in relation to the characteristics of famous historic figures. In this
way, the magazine basked in the reflected glory (Cialdini, Borden, Thorne, Walker,
Freeman, & Sloan, 1976) of these figures. One early ad was titled “Poor Playboy’s
Almanac” and included a drawing of Ben Franklin. The accompanying text cited
Franklin’s “Advice on the Choice of a Mistress” and suggested that Playboy was
“published for fellows very much like Ben.” Another ad compared the Playboy
reader to Moliere and defined a Playboy reader as “a man of good humor, with a
broad mind and a great capacity for pleasure; a sophisticated man; an aware man; a
man of taste.” Other ads drew parallels between Playboy readers and Johann Sebast-
ian Bach and Izaak Walton. By comparing Playboy readers to these historic figures,
the magazine allowed its readers to feel more positive about themselves.
Perhaps the most important ad in terms of our analysis of identity construction
appeared in the April 1956 issue under the heading, “What is a Playboy?” A sketch
of a man in a tweed jacket, cap, and smoking a cigarette accompanied the descrip-
tion. The copy of the ad was:
What is a Playboy? Is he simply a wastrel, a ne’er-do-well, a fash-

ionable bum? Far from it: he can be a sharp-minded young business
executive, a worker in the arts, a university professor, an architect
or engineer. He can be many things, providing he possesses a cer-
tain point of view. He must see life not as a vale of tears, but as a
happy time; he must take joy in his work, without regarding it as
the end and all of living; he must be an alert man, an aware man, a
man of taste, a man sensitive to pleasure, a man who—without
acquiring the stigma of the voluptuary or dilettante—can live life to
the hilt. This is the sort of man we mean when we use the word
playboy.
The meaning of “playboy” conveyed in this ad directly challenged the dictio-

nary definition. The dictionary does in fact provide a meaning for “playboy” akin to
“wastrel” or “fashionable bum” and indicates the word has a stigmatizing connota-
tion. This ad asserted a radically different meaning for the word, and suggested that a
playboy was a highly skilled professional who successfully negotiated the thin line
350
between being a “lover of life” and a “waster of life.” According to the ad, a playboy
managed to avoid the negative slant endemic to the word.
Note that this ad, as well as others, associated a number of additional character-
istics with the playboy, such as alertness, good taste, and awareness, which are not
present in the dictionary definition. Equating being sophisticated with being a play-
boy, absent from the dictionary definition, made the goal of being a playboy more
attractive and desirable. In fact, one subscription ad, using the dictionary motif that
appeared repeatedly in Playboy, defined the word “sophistication” in terms of being
a Playboy reader. The June 1961 cover included the definition, “A sporty fellow bent
upon pleasure seeking; a man-about-town; a lover of life; a bon vivant.”
THE MASCULINE COMPONENT OF THE PLAYBOY IDENTITY
The masculine identity Playboy defined included a component that reflected existing
stereotypes about men. Editorial features included coverage of automobiles, busi-
ness, sports, and electronic equipment, standard topics of traditional interest to men.
The “Playboy Advisor” also published letters that sometimes reinforced the stereo-
typic sentiments of men (Beggan et al., 2000).
The “What Sort of Man Reads Playboy?” ads presented a great deal of informa-
tion about the appropriate masculine identity, as defined by Playboy. These ads often
echoed themes about masculinity consistent with stereotypes about men’s characters.
One ad described a Playboy reader as “A young man who knows where he’s going
and how to make the best time getting there.” Another ad described the Playboy
reader as “apt to make his move.” An ad set in a bookstore emphasized that Playboy
readers were educated and had broad interests beyond romance and dating, a theme
revisited by an ad that stressed Playboy readers were logical, adept thinkers. An ad
that showed a man being measured for a suit emphasized that Playboy readers had
the skills, drive, and ability to become social and business successes.
Most readers were no doubt pleased to see themselves associated with the
sophisticated images presented in the “What Sort of Man Reads Playboy” ads. One
exception was Wayne Peterson, from Enderlin, North Dakota, who wrote, “... your
readers are not always glamor-boy, cocktails-at-seven, gotta-beat-the-women-off-
with-a-stick types. I could be wrong, but it is possible that more young men would
buy PLAYBOY if you were to aim your campaign at Mr. Average a little more,
instead of directing it at the young executive group.” The editorial response was,
“There are plenty of magazines for Mr. Average, Wayne. PLAYBOY is edited for a
special sort of guy—a bit above average in taste, education and income.”
Two early covers implied that adopting the tenets of Playboy could make a man
more independent and stand out from the crowd. The November 1956 cover showed
several cartoon men and women in an elevator. Among them were the Rabbit and his
girlfriend. Only the Rabbit and his girlfriend had faces, and, by extension, identities.
The other people on the elevator were faceless. This image appeared again on the
May 1957 cover, where the Rabbit and his girlfriend were shown boarding a cruise
ship, surrounded by faceless others.
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INCORPORATING FEMININE ATTRIBUTES INTO THE MASCULINE IDEAL
As noted by Cox (1965), the editorial stance of Playboy implied that by adopting the
philosophy advocated by the magazine, one would become a playboy. As we will
argue in more detail below, Playboy successfully maintained that a portion of the
recommended philosophy involved developing interests, abilities, and attributes tra-
ditionally associated with women without ever explicitly describing them as
women’s attributes. Playboy’s accomplishment is surprising given the evidence
(e.g., McCreary, 1994; O’Neil, Helms, Gable, David, & Wrightsman, 1986) that
men reject gender-specific behaviors typically considered within the feminine
domain, such as emotionality and sensitivity.
Playboy’s success in advocating an identity for men that incorporated tradition-
ally feminine elements was due to framing these elements in terms of increasing
one’s ability to succeed with women. Thus, a key to understanding the influence of
Playboy is to recognize that the magazine suggested that the extremely heterosexual
goal of sexual relations with women could be best accomplished by developing a
decidedly feminine set of skills and attributes. In any context other than a glossy
magazine filled with pictures of naked women, advocating the adoption of feminine
ideals would be immediately suspect. The patina of female nudity, however, made
the message immediately palatable because it incorporated the adoption of feminine
values in the enactment of masculine values.
PLAYBOY’S INITIAL DIRECTION AND CONTENTS
Playboy magazine was founded on a shoestring budget. The contents of the first few
issues represented Hugh Hefner’s vision of what he wanted limited by the reality
that he had little money with which to purchase top-rate editorial material. Thus, the
first few issues are a cruder version of what the magazine would quickly become. At
the same time, however, the key elements appeared even in the first issue. Hefner’s
editorial in the first issue was the initial contribution to defining a playboy. His edi-
torial read:
IF YOU’RE A MAN between the ages of 18 and 80, PLAYBOY is

meant for you. If you like your entertainment served up with
humor, sophistication and spice, PLAYBOY will become a very
special favorite.
We want to make clear from the very start, we aren’t a “fam-
ily magazine.” If you’re somebody’s sister, wife or mother-in-law
and picked us up by mistake, please pass us along to the man in
your life and get back to your Ladies Home Companion.
Within the pages of Playboy you will find articles, fiction,
picture stories, cartoons, humor and special features culled from
many sources, past and present, to form a pleasure-primer styled to
the masculine taste.
Most of today’s “magazines for men” spend all their time out-
of-doors—thrashing through thorny thickets or splashing about in
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fast flowing streams. We’ll be out there too, occasionally, but we

don’t mind telling you in advance—we plan on spending most of
our time inside.
We like our apartment. We enjoy mixing up cocktails and an
hors d’oeuvre or two, putting a little mood music on the phono-
graph, and inviting in a female acquaintance for quiet discussion
on Picasso, Nietzsche, jazz, sex.
We believe, too, that we are filling a publishing need only
slightly less important than the one just taken care of by the Kin-
sey Report. The magazines now being produced for the city-bred
male (there are 2—count ’em—2) have, of late, placed so much
emphasis on fashion, travel, and “how-to-do-it” features on every-
thing from avoiding a hernia to building your own steam bath, that
entertainment has been all but pushed from their pages. PLAYBOY
will emphasize entertainment.
Affairs of state will be out of our province. We don’t expect to
solve any world problems or prove any great moral truths. If we
are able to give the American male a few extra laughs and a little
diversion from the anxieties of the Atomic Age, we’ll feel we’ve
justified our existence.
The tone set by this editorial positioned Playboy as distinct from other men’s
magazines and presented a view of men as indoor creatures who welcomed the com-
pany of women and sought to engage them in discourse on topics ranging from pop-
ular music to depressing and dark philosophy. The ideal setting for such interaction
was presented as a man’s apartment with the promise of somewhat exotic food wait-
ing in the background. The presumption was that the man, rather than the woman,
had prepared this food. Thus, from the initial issue, a tone was set to distance men
from the aggressive, hunter-gatherer image and push them toward a more nurturant
and homey, nest-building model.
In crafting his initial image of a playboy in his first issue editorial, Hugh Hefner
focused on several activities that would become staples of the magazine as it
evolved. Many of these activities a priori might be expected to appear in a women’s
magazine rather than a men’s magazine. It is interesting to note that the first issue
included a recipe for sob-sob rice and chicken and a layout on “desk design for the
modern office” written by a woman. Topics such as decorating and cooking might be
expected to appeal more to women than to men. They were interests consistent with
the woman’s traditional role as a wife and mother and could be viewed as reflecting
values such as sensitivity to style and nurturance.
An interest in conversation and an appreciation of the arts reflected the compas-
sion and sensitivity often associated with women. Moreover, the emphasis on the
importance of conversation focused on a skill that women are assumed to possess to
a greater degree than men (e.g., Tannen, 1990). In addition, the editorial implied that
a playboy would seek women who were intelligent and educated. It is interesting to
note that the physical appearance of the playboy’s female companions was left unde-
fined. Beauty, apparently, took a backseat to brains. These facets of Hugh Hefner’s
353
editorial and the magazine’s editorial content stand in stark contradiction to the view
of the magazine held by social scientists and the lay public with regard to the philos-
ophy of the publication.
An emphasis on cerebral, rather than physical, activity was reinforced in the
first issue by the inclusion of an excerpt of a Sherlock Holmes story called “Intro-
ducing Sherlock Holmes.” Just as Hugh Hefner was introducing his conception of
men to the world through his publication, the piece served to introduce Sherlock
Holmes. The theme of the story was the self-creation of an identity. It is clear that
Sherlock Holmes prides himself on his self-made identity as the world’s only “unof-
ficial consulting detective,” just as Playboy readers would come to pride themselves
on their playboy identities. Moreover, the reprint emphasized Sherlock Holmes’
prowess in mental rather than physical abilities. He is quoted as saying, “I cannot
live without brainwork. What else is there to live for?”
As early as the second issue, subscription ads also drew attention to those
aspects of the playboy that were inconsistent with stereotypes about men. In keeping
with Hefner’s initial editorial, one subscription ad defined Playboy as a magazine
styled for the tastes of the “city-bred male” who was concerned with “proper dress,
food and drink, art, literature....” The ad positioned Playboy against other men’s
magazines with “nothing on their minds but the great out-of-doors” and distanced
Playboy readers from existing conceptualizations of men.
The modern Playboy magazine evolved rather quickly. The third issue had a
humorous article on Brooks Brothers fashions. By the fifth issue, there was an article
by Thomas Mario on the “pleasures of the oyster.” Service articles on fashion and
cooking became regular features. On a surface level, these features were geared
toward the goal of educating men about the skills they needed to become playboys.
Some of the skills were decidedly masculine. Others, however, such as fashion and
cooking, reflected feminine interests.
CREATION OF THE “ADVISOR” COLUMN
In 1958, Playboy published an amusing parody of the advice columns of Ann Lan-
ders and Abigial Van Buren. The parody consisted of real letters taken from their
columns that were answered by a cold-hearted and insensitive bachelor. The
response to the parody was so favorable, Playboy initiated a real advice column in
the September 1960 issue. Its purpose was to answer “questions on a wide variety of
topics of interest to the urban man—from fashion, food and drink, hi-fi and sports
cars, to dating dilemmas, taste and etiquette.”
From its inception, the “Playboy Advisor” column promoted the values of sensi-
tivity, compassion, and understanding in dealing with the complexity of the emo-
tional components of sex and relationships (Beggan et al., 2000). A willingness and
ability to adopt this perspective in dealing with emotional issues are unusual for
men, given the influence of their gender-related role socialization (Levant &
Kopecky, 1995/96). Although the editorial voice of the Advisor was definitely mas-
culine, he personified a cluster of attributes more often associated with women rather
than men. The Advisor’s responses were characterized by sensitivity to women’s
perspectives. The Advisor argued against double-standards, encouraged men to be
354
thoughtful with regard to emotions, and published a significant number of letters

from women that further permitted women to voice their own concerns in the pages
of the magazine. In addition, the column’s anonymous nature promoted among male
readers a willingness to discuss personal problems and to admit weakness and igno-
rance about topics that were considered areas of traditional male expertise. In other
words, the Advisor prompted men to display the vulnerability that is more tradition-
ally associated with women.
THE CHARACTERIZATION OF THE RABBIT
In the first issue of Playboy, the Rabbit appeared on the party jokes page and as a
symbol to indicate the end of each article. In the second issue, he made his first
cover appearance, as a cartoon-like figure standing next to two beauty contestants. In
the eighth issue, his appearance on the party jokes page was changed so that he
looked more urbane. Although the Rabbit was initially created as a male symbol, he
has developed a complex identity that is highly interconnected with women.
The magazine’s covers document the many different ways in which the Rabbit
has been represented over the years. It is possible to speculate whether there is a sin-
gle Rabbit, with many facets to his character, or perhaps there are many Rabbits,
each with different properties. One characterization of the Rabbit is as the reification
of Playboy values in a non-human but corporeal form. In this identity, he served as a
romantic escort for women and modeled the ideal characteristics of the playboy. See
Figure 1 for an example of such a representation. The portrayal of the Rabbit as a
desirable date for women is repeated in a number of covers. The September 1955
cover showed a faux newspaper with a story on the Rabbit written up as a socialite.
The article described him as a bon vivant, sportsman, gourmet, raconteur, and play-
boy. The cover also showed two theatre tickets and gloves resting on the newspaper.
The overall impression was that the Rabbit was attending the theatre that evening
and had just seen, or was about to see, the newspaper article on himself. On the
November 1955 cover, a lovely co-ed had carved a Rabbit head into a tree trunk. She
was clearly in love with the Rabbit.
The September 1956 cover is especially useful in understanding the incarnation
of the Rabbit as a real entity. It suggested that there really was a Rabbit, named Play-
boy, who frequently dated human women and possessed the attributes of the perfect
playboy. The cover showed a photo album with pictures of the Rabbit engaged in
vacation activities, such as golfing and biking. One photograph showed the Rabbit
standing next to a beautiful woman. In the lower right-hand corner of the cover was
a letter in a woman’s handwriting that provided a context for the pictures. The salu-
tation implied that the Rabbit in the photograph was named “Playboy.” The text of
the letter made it clear that the woman had spent her vacation with Playboy and
thinks fondly about the pictures that document that vacation. In this context, it is
interesting to note that the Rabbit has never been represented as a real rabbit. We
feel the failure to present the Rabbit in this manner is because the Rabbit represents
an anthropomorphized construction of the masculine ideal.
In another conceptualization, the Rabbit acts like a “familiar,” a spirit often in
animal form charged to attend, serve, or guard a person. In this case, the guarded
355
Reproduced by Special Permission of Playboy magazine.

Copyright © 1954, 1982 by Playboy.
Figure 1. An example of the representation of the Rabbit as a real entity.
person is the Playboy reader. There is a dramatic tradition for a rabbit to act as a
supernatural conduit to a better, more special world. Consider, for example, the giant
white rabbit who is Jimmy Stewart’s companion in the movie Harvey. A white rab-
bit also served as the impetus for Alice to travel down the rabbit hole to Wonderland.
The association between a rabbit and Easter, a holiday that celebrates rebirth, is con-
sistent with the notion that the Rabbit served as a means to a better place.
In the role of familiar, the Rabbit’s identity manifests itself in a symbolic fash-
ion. He was an artful bend in a telephone cord on the March 1961 cover. On the July
1958 cover, the Rabbit appeared stylized in a woman’s bathing suit. In June 1962,
the Rabbit appeared as a knot in a bikini bottom. In February 1963, the Rabbit
appeared as a glint in a champagne glass. In these covers, the Rabbit’s spirit exists
even without a bodily manifestation. He is a guardian angel whose presence guaran-
tees that festivities will transpire in a fashion consistent with the Playboy lifestyle.
Another identity illustrated by covers is the Rabbit as the outgrowth of women.
The idea that women should contribute to the manifestation of the Rabbit is consis-
356

Figure 2. An example of a transformational cover.
tent with the biological reality that women give birth, and, as a result, men do owe
their existence to women. Moreover, the theme of a woman as earth mother and cre-
ator runs through the mythologies of many modern and ancient cultures (Campbell,
1968). Covers that highlight the contributions of women in the display of the Rabbit
take at least two forms: transformational and creational. In transformational covers, a
woman creates the Rabbit by presenting his key features. The most striking example
of this category is the May 1964 cover that showed Playmate of the Year Donna
Michelle in a white leotard, her body twisted into the shape of the Rabbit. Her legs
formed the Rabbit’s ears and her torso formed his head (see Figure 2). On the August
1962 cover, a woman in a bathing cap is shown in a pool of water. Her reflection in
the water forms the shape of the Rabbit. In the July 1955 issue, the Rabbit appeared
as a non-suntanned portion of a woman’s back. These transformational covers imply
that women have strongly contributed to the make-up of the Rabbit characterization.
357

Figure 3. An example of a creation-oriented cover.
The importance of women in defining the Rabbit is also revealed in covers that
show women creating the Rabbit with a conscious effort to invoke his presence. As
early as February 1955, the Rabbit was shown as being crafted by women, in this
instance from snow. In April 1955 the creation theme was revisited in a cover show-
ing a woman making Rabbit paper dolls. This cover is reproduced as Figure 3. The
Rabbit has been incarnated as a clay sculpture shaped by a woman artist on the
March 1959 cover. Janet Pilgrim drew him in a steamed window on the December
1955 cover. A similar cover appeared in October 1963. The Rabbit has been shown
as a shadow created from the arrangement of a woman’s fingers on the May 1959
cover and the September 1963 cover. On the October 1959 cover, a woman was
shown playing connect-the-dots. The dots, of course, create the Rabbit. Thus, the
Rabbit was often shown owing his existence to the effort of women to craft him.
On the creation-oriented and transformational covers, the Rabbit—the symbol
of Playboy—merged the masculine identity with the feminine identity and reinforced
the magazine’s underlying message that the masculine ideal should contain a femi-
nine component. Given that the Rabbit has been created by or from the essence of
358
women, it would follow that his character would be consistent with women’s desires
in a companion. These attributes would be expected to include both stereotypic male
characteristics, as well as non-stereotypic attributes such as gentleness and support-
iveness (e.g., Buss, 1989; Sprecher et al., 1994). In other words, removed from the
metaphor of the Rabbit, women were consistently shown contributing to the devel-
opment of the masculine identity. The portrayal of the Rabbit on the covers was
therefore consistent with service features of the magazine that emphasized the
importance of learning to behave in a manner congruent with the desires and values
of women. Moreover, covers that demonstrated the Rabbit’s success with women
sent a clear message concerning the utility of the Rabbit’s strategy. By adopting the
magazine’s recommendations, the reader chiseled an identity as a playboy, in the
process, became Rabbit-like, and was granted the opportunity to emulate the Rab-
bit’s achievements with women.
WHY THE RABBIT WAS THE PERFECT CHOICE
There are several reasons why the Rabbit was the perfect choice as the symbol for
Playboy magazine. First, on a pragmatic level, a cute, furry, and defenseless animal
served as a suitable foil to many critics who charged that the magazine was too sexu-
ally explicit. Although tame by today’s standards, the early issues of Playboy occa-
sionally pushed into the forefront of First Amendment issues. The Post Office, for
example, tried to prevent Hugh Hefner from having a preferred mailing status on the
grounds that the magazine was pornographic. The Rabbit symbol most likely soft-
ened the impression conveyed by the magazine.
Because the Rabbit is non-human, his presence and success with women, as typ-
ified by contexts created on the covers, did not represent a threat to the male readers
of the magazine. The reader was not competing directly with the Rabbit for the
affection of women. Rather, the Rabbit served as a mirror in which each reader was
able to see his own reflection. In addition, the use of the Rabbit may have diverted
some attention from Hugh Hefner as an object of invidious comparison. The typical
reader, without the money, the magazine, or the mansion would be unable to attain
Hefner’s playboy status.
The idea that the Rabbit permitted male readers to imagine themselves
immersed in the Playboy lifestyle is reinforced by noting the minimal role played by
men on cover illustrations. When men did appear, they did so as cartoon figures and
body parts. The first instance of a man’s appearance on a cover was the July 1956
issue. The picture showed a cartoon drawing of a man’s wrist and hand carrying a
suitcase. The implication was that he was going on an extensive world tour and
intended to visit a number of beautiful women along the way. The Rabbit was mani-
fested as an image on his cuff link. On the April 1958 cover, a man’s hand, again
with a Rabbit head cuff link, placed a bet on a roulette table. In September 1958, the
Rabbit appeared as a tie tack against the background of a man’s shirt. On the Decem-
ber 1959 cover, a man’s arm, wearing a Rabbit cuff link, was shown, along with two
women’s arms, toasting the New Year. On the May 1960 issue, a woman was shown
putting a flower in a man’s jacket lapel. On the May 1961 cover, a man’s hands
359
appeared, with the Rabbit shown as a ring on the man’s hands. On the October 1961
cover, a man’s legs were shown. In July 1962, a man’s leg in pajamas was shown.
We have conceptualized the Rabbit as a means by which men were encouraged
to adopt traditionally feminine values. The Rabbit also served as a way in which men
were able to imagine themselves within the drape of the Playboy lifestyle. By associ-
ating the Rabbit with the outward signs of masculine success, the magazine was able
to deftly sidestep the incongruity associated with representing masculinity by so
obviously feminine a symbol. In doing so, the magazine was able to embed a mes-
sage concerning the importance of adopting feminine values.
THE CREATION OF THE FEMALE RABBIT:

THE BIRTH OF THE BUNNY
The idea that Playboy merged masculine with feminine identities in the construction
of a male ideal is perhaps best represented by invention of the Playboy Bunny to
work in the Playboy Clubs. In a manifestation as cocktail waitresses, the Rabbit
icon—a masculine symbol with feminine attributes—metamorphosed into a female
icon with masculine attributes.
A number of the most important features of the Playboy mythology evolved by
the operation of fortuitous circumstances. The initiation of the Advisor column
resulted from the positive response that a parody of advice columns received. Like-
wise, development of the Playboy Clubs occurred as the direct result of a story the
magazine ran on “Gaslight” clubs in the November 1956 issue. In these clubs, wait-
resses wearing bust-enhancing costumes said to be inspired by gay nineties fashions
served members food and drinks. According to Miller (1984), when over three thou-
sand readers wrote in asking about how they could join a gaslight club, Playboy
employee Victor Lownes hypothesized that many more readers would be willing to
join a Playboy Club.
The Playboy Club was first mentioned in the January 1960 issue. The Club was
described in glowing terms as “an attempt to project the plush and romantic mood of
the magazine into a private club of good fellows interested in the better, more plea-
surable aspects of life.... It will have the warmth, the intimacy, and the fun of a pri-
vate cocktail party....” The article also implied that membership would be selective.
“The limited membership will be drawn from the most aware and affluent group in
each community,” the article stated. Of course, in reality, members were accepted as
long as they paid their fee.
An immediate problem was deciding what the cocktail waitresses would wear
(Miller, 1984). Initially, the idea of dressing the waitresses to represent the Rabbit
symbol was rejected on the grounds that the Rabbit was male and the cocktail wait-
resses would be female. But after seeing how attractive a woman could look in a pro-
totype costume, the decision to use the Rabbit image was made. In an attempt to dis-
tinguish the masculine and feminine constructions of the Rabbit, the cocktail
waitresses were dubbed “bunnies” whereas the symbol that appeared on covers was
typically referred to as a “rabbit.” In the March 1986 issue, “The World of Playboy”
described Playboy’s Empire Club and noted that it would be staffed by both Bunnies
and Rabbits (“boy Bunnies”), but the Empire Club appears to have been a short-lived
360
phenomenon, and the Rabbits had a short life-span.

A story on the first Playboy Club, which opened in Chicago, appeared in the
August 1960 issue. Bunnies were introduced as “invitingly attired in brightly colored
rabbit costumes, complete to the ears and white cottontails.” The initial costume was
essentially a one-piece bathing suit made of a satin-like material with a built-in
corset but did not include the bow tie or French cuffs that became a part of the clas-
sic Playboy Bunny outfit. The bow tie and cuffs further integrated and blended the
male and female aspects of the Rabbit identity. By April 1963, when a Bunny
appeared on the cover of Playboy with tie and cuffs, the merger of male and female
was completed.
It is important to note a conceptual relationship between the Playboy Club and
the magazine’s brief but initial incarnation as Stag Party. In terms of identity con-
struction, the shift in name from Stag Party to Playboy carried with it a shift in focus
from a collectivity of men interacting in a homosocial environment to an individual,
that is, a single playboy. Less than ten years after Playboy was conceived, the Play-
boy Club represented a shift from the individual back to the collective. Having care-
fully defined a masculine ideal, it was only logical that this army of playboys should
be free to interact with each other in an environment sanctioned by Playboy. The
Playboy Club was a place where men sympathetic to Playboy ideals would be able
to interact. In other words, having created a new kind of man—the playboy—Hefner
attempted to create a site where they could engage in fraternal bonding. The bonding
would not haphazardly reflect the naturally occurring processes that take place in
homosocial settings. Rather, it would be regulated carefully and reflect the motives
of the magazine. In the August 1960 article, there was a stern warning about one’s
membership entitlements. The fifty-dollar initial fee would provide lifetime member-
ship as long as the member “broke none of the club rules.” Courtesy of Playboy,
there was a party going on, only now it was a Playboy party, and one that was laid
out according to the parameters developed in the magazine.
Readers’ responses to the article on the Chicago Playboy Club were printed in
the November 1960 issue of the magazine. Not surprisingly, the tone of the pub-
lished letters was highly favorable and enthusiastic. One letter, from Lt. Leon M.
Costanten, of the 4th Psychological Warfare Co., Fort Bragg North Carolina, was
particularly insightful. He wrote, “It is, I feel, the inner desire of all males to be of a
‘playboy nature.’” He added that the creation of the Playboy Club permitted modern
men to express this playboy nature.
WOMEN IN CONTROL OF THE RABBIT:

WHO’S IN CHARGE HERE?
Although most critics of Playboy (e.g., D’Emilio & Freedman, 1997; Dworkin,
1988; Ehrenreich, 1983; May, 1969; MacKinnon, 1986) have suggested or implied
that Playboy presents an image of women as subservient to men, we have argued
that some imagery in the magazine actually reversed this power relationship.
According to our interpretation, the magazine was a guidebook for the reader about
how to develop an arsenal of skills and attributes that would make him attractive to
women. Thus, the needs, desires, and demands of women serve as the underlying
361
and primary motivator of men reading the magazine. This perspective on the con-
struction of the masculine ideal indicates that women in the Playboy world were
afforded significantly more power than is generally recognized by social critics.
Playboy is seen by social critics (e.g., Brownmiller, 1991; Ewing, 1995) as anti-
thetical to the interests of women as a whole. In this paper, we have argued in favor
of an alternative perspective. We suggest that Playboy has advanced the goals of
women by encouraging men to adopt a masculine ideal that incorporates some of the
values and desires of women. Despite the overt emphasis on the nude pictorials, the
subtext contained within Playboy magazine was in favor of blending the characters
of men and women.
The magazines’ covers often showed images of women as creators of the Rab-
bit. Just as women can be seen as creators of the Rabbit, they can also be seen as cre-
ators of Playboy and the playboys it spawned. To the extent that the Rabbit symbol-
ized the masculine ideal of the playboy, the message was that men owed their
identity to the values of women, just as the Rabbit owed his existence to the inter-
vention of women. In the world of Playboy, the goodwill of women is the primary
reinforcer for men. Rather than serve as trophies, as critics (e.g., May, 1969) have
suggested, however, women serve as arbiters of taste.
The thesis of the present paper is that Playboy encouraged men to adopt the
characteristics, traits, and abilities of women. Although outside the scope of the pre-
sent article, it is interesting to examine the degree to which the magazine also
encouraged women to expand the boundaries of their self-conceptions. Scholars
(e.g., Bordo, 1993; Wolf, 1991) have considered the way in which unrealistic media
images have a deleterious effect on women’s body images. We have shown (Beggan
et al., 2000) that women’s letters published in the “Advisor” column contained infor-
mation that was inconsistent with stereotypes about women. Were stereotypes about
women contradicted in other features of the magazine? If so, could this stereotype-
inconsistent information help women develop more complex and favorable represen-
tations of themselves and other women? Such questions could serve as the basis for
future scholarly efforts with regard to Playboy magazine.
CONCLUSIONS
Mass media are one way in which stereotypes about men and women are maintained
in our culture (e.g., Bordo, 1993; Hirschman & Thompson, 1997; Richins, 1991;
Wolf, 1991). These stereotypes are often deeply ingrained in the assumptive frame-
work that provides a backdrop for communications within a medium. Stereotype-
consistent images can be expected to have a reliable influence on perceivers (Cash &
Henry, 1995; Signorielli, 1989; Rudman & Borgia, 1995; Wiseman et al., 1992).
Our analysis is premised on an alternative perspective. We have suggested that a
medium that appears to transmit a message consistent with a stereotype may, in fact,
generate meanings that advocate renunciation of that stereotype. Playboy magazine
is often presented as the prototype of a mass medium that has contributed to the
maintenance of stereotypes about men and women (e.g., Ehrenreich, 1983). A num-
ber of scholars (e.g., Brod, 1988; Dworkin, 1988; May, 1969) have further argued
that Playboy maintains misogynistic views of women. In our analysis, we have pre-
362
sented and provided support for an antithetical position. Playboy magazine opposed
stereotyping by encouraging men to adopt a masculine identity that incorporated a
number of attributes more strongly associated with women than with men. This per-
spective is provocative given the assertion by scholars (e.g., Blazina, 1997) that men
fear and attempt to disown the feminine component of their own identities.
We have found that the magazine did not relegate women to a subordinate sta-
tus. Rather, it actually gave them a significant amount of authority by advocating
their values, by suggesting that men incorporate key feminine attributes into their
own identities, and by implying that men should conform to women’s preferences.
We do not deny that some material contained in Playboy could be construed as sexist
(e.g., Brooks, 1995). Rather, we are asserting a complementary perspective. That is,
at least some material contained in the magazine was actively non-sexist and
opposed, rather than affirmed, stereotypes about both men and women (e.g., Beggan
et al., 2000). Moreover, we suggest that Playboy’s ability to effect change in the
beliefs of its male readers may stem in part from its appearance as a stronghold of
masculine values.
We can reconcile our perspective with the contradictory positions of other
scholars by recognizing certain facts about scholarship with regard to Playboy maga-
zine. First, other work on Playboy has not always found results consistent with
expected sex stereotyping. For example, an analysis of centerfolds failed to reveal
evidence of objectification of women (Bogaert, Turkovich, & Hafer, 1993). Second,
much of the scholarly work on Playboy has focused on graphics, such as the center-
folds (e.g., Harris, Fine, & Hood, 1992; Rich & Cash, 1993) and cartoons (e.g.,
Bradly, Boles, & Jones, 1979). It is not clear how conclusions drawn from analyses
of graphics might relate to conclusions drawn from text features. Finally, scholarship
focused on the editorial content of the magazine (e.g., Ehrenreich, 1983; Knuf, 1994;
Matacin & Burger, 1987) has tended to examine only a small subset of available
data. We know of no other researchers who have used as much of the editorial con-
tent of the magazine as the basis for their analysis as we have in the present work.
There is evidence that a minority perspective may be able to sway a majority
opinion (Moscovici & Zavalloni, 1969). Minorities are most successful as influence
agents if their messages are varied in content but consistent in ideology. It may
prove insightful to interpret Playboy magazine in terms of an analysis based on how
minorities can be influential (Moscovici, 1985). The magazine presented an ideolog-
ically consistent message to men to adopt the values of women from multiple per-
spectives. Features such as the “Advisor” column permitted both men and women to
provide their views on a wide range of issues relevant to stereotype disconfirmation
(Beggan et al., 2000). The complex message sent by the Rabbit symbol and the Rab-
bit’s role in defining the relationship between men and women contradicted stereo-
types about men. Hugh Hefner’s installments of the “Playboy Philosophy” that
appeared in the early 1960s and the Playboy “Forum” promoted central processing
(Petty & Cacioppo, 1981) about social and political issues. In sum, then, a number of
distinct voices in the magazine promoted a coherent and unified message with a
theme that affirmed the importance of the values of women. It is reasonable to
assume that at least some readers found this perspective challenging to their belief
systems and processed the information systematically. Their attempts to assimilate it,
363
and the fact that it originated from Playboy magazine, might have led to permanent
attitude change on the parts of these readers, with a general softening of reliance on
stereotypic representations as the basis for self-definitions.
It would be interesting to explore the extent to which the magazine’s content
might have had a lasting influence on its readers. On the basis of our analysis, we
would expect that men who read Playboy consistently would differ in their self-con-
cepts relative to men who did not. Specifically, Playboy readers would be expected
to score differently than non-readers on assessments of their degree of masculinity
and femininity. Playboy readers might be more likely to score as “androgynous”
(Bem, 1974), that is, score high on both masculine and feminine personality charac-
teristics, rather than sex-typed as masculine. In addition to differences in personality
characteristics, differences might be obtained with regard to Playboy readers being
more “pro-feminine” than non-readers, both in terms of expressed attitudes about
and behaviors toward women. A third prediction is based on evidence that women
desire attributes in a mate that relate to nurturance and kindness (e.g., Buss, 1989;
Sprecher et al., 1994), that is, what would typically be considered feminine traits. It
is possible, then, that the wives of Playboy readers might view their spouses as better
husbands, relative to the wives of Playboy non-readers.
Typically, in research on minority influence (e.g., Clark, & Maass, 1990), the
majority and minority opinions are represented by distinct groups. What is unique
about interpreting Playboy from the literature on minority influence is that in this
instance, Playboy served dual roles as the majority opinion and a minority perspec-
tive embedded within that majority opinion. A minority’s influence may be derived
from its ability to promote systematic information processing (Mackie, 1987) and
subsequent creative thinking (Mucchi-Faina, Maass, & Volpato, 1991) among major-
ity members. Given Playboy’s status as representative of the majority, i.e., masculine,
opinion, the magazine might be expected to be an especially effective change agent
for stereotyping because anti-sexist statements would appear to run counter to the
magazine’s dominant viewpoint and be likely to promote cognitive processing. In
other words, from an attributional perspective (e.g., Kelley, 1967), the magazine
would be a credible source (Clark & Maass, 1988) and its messages would be espe-
cially influential in altering the attitudes of majority group members, i.e., men.
The spirit of our argument is consistent with much of the work on the reduction
of prejudice (Allport, 1954; Amir, 1969; Stephan, 1987), which is based on the
premise that stereotyping becomes less likely as in-group members learn more about
out-group members. In our analysis, we suggest that, although women may be lower
in power and status in our culture compared to men, through the male-dominated
communication medium of Playboy magazine, the interests and values of women
were given expression. In this instance, selected representatives, i.e., the editorial
staff, articulated a position sympathetic to the interests of women, even in an envi-
ronment that would appear primed to develop a high degree of group cohesion
within the context of male fraternal bonding (Curry, 1991; Hood, 1995; Katz, 1995).
The questions raised by the present work serve as intriguing hypotheses that
could be tested using experimental or quasi-experimental methods. Evidence sup-
portive of these hypotheses would be very interesting, given the arguments (e.g.,
Brooks, 1995; Dworkin, 1988; Hill, 1987) that the consumption of Playboy maga-
364
zine should contribute to the development of negative attitudes toward women.

There is some reason to expect our hypothesized pattern of results, given that recent
investigations (e.g., Barak, Fisher, Belfry, & Lastambe, 1999; Davies, 1997; Jansma,
Linz, Mulac, & Imrich, 1997) have failed to find evidence of a negative relationship
between consumption of pornography and attitudes toward women. Evidence that
reading Playboy magazine contributes to the development of more favorable atti-
tudes toward women would reinforce the need to develop a better understanding of
the potentially very complex effects of sexually explicit material on thoughts, feel-
ings, and behavior.
Although potentially very interesting, it is important to note that any research
that attempted to test for relationships between reading Playboy and psychological
attributes of Playboy readers would be correlational in nature and subject to interpre-
tive difficulties. For example, even if Playboy readers are shown to possess less
stereotyped views of women, it would be impossible to determine whether reading
Playboy was a cause of these views. It is possible, for instance, that a third variable
might be responsible for both the tendency to read Playboy and to possess less
stereotyped views of women. At the same time, however, beginning such a line of
inquiry could prove fruitful in better understanding how men come to see them-
selves, and women, as a function of the media to which they are exposed.
We have restricted our analysis of Playboy magazine to its first ten years of pub-
lication. Our reason for imposing this limitation is that in its early incarnations, the
magazine was an unknown quantity. As a result, the editorial staff was free to define
the magazine as it chose. This identification process was novel and less subject to a
self-consciousness that would have developed as the magazine came under greater
and greater scrutiny from sources such as the press, scholars, and the lay public.
It is interesting to speculate about the influence of Playboy magazine on men in
our current society. On the one hand, Playboy magazine, although viewed as the
grandfather of men’s magazines, may be seen as less influential. By current stan-
dards set by other men’s publications, such as Penthouse or Hustler, Playboy is
rather tame. At the same time, however, it is important to note that by remaining
aloof from other men’s magazines, Playboy may be able to maintain its position as a
source of identity definition for men.
The central mission of Playboy is not to present sexual images. Rather, its mis-
sion is to present images of a masculine ideal. This goal remains in force even in the
year 2000. In a recent analysis of Playboy’s attempt to become a presence on the
Internet, company spokeswoman Martha Lindeman was quoted describing the Play-
boy site as, “... a lifestyle and entertainment site” (Koerner, 2000, p. 42). The main
focus of the Internet site was described as concerned with “travel and nightlife and
gaming and what’s going on on campus, rather than pure sex-slash-erotica”
(Koerner, 2000, p. 42). Given the greater ambiguity about appropriate roles that can
be adopted by both men and women in our modern culture, it seems as if the need
for some assistance in ways to best define the masculine ideal still exists.
It is possible to argue that although Playboy was in some ways sympathetic to
the position of women, its attempts to become the defenders of women represented
an unnecessarily paternalistic approach that would have reinforced stereotypes of
women as the helpless, weaker sex. We disagree with this position because the mag-
365
azine did not only attempt to give value to a feminine perspective, it also gave
women the opportunity to speak in their own voices. It is important to recognize that
outlets for women developed relatively early in the history of the magazine in what
appears to be a natural, evolutionary process. The “Playboy Advisor” column regu-
larly published letters from women. A great many of these letters asserted positions
that contradicted stereotypes about women (Beggan et al., 2000). Moreover, the
magazine has published many articles and stories by women. Thus, in sum, it can be
argued that Playboy achieved an ironic and unexpected goal that has been ignored by
prior social critics of the magazine. The magazine should actually be conceptualized
as a source for women’s perspectives.
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370
Negotiating Masculinities
in American Drinking Subcultures
LOIS A. WEST
Department of Sociology and Anthropology
Florida International University
Drinking cultures are the means by which men negotiate mas-

culinities in leisure activities. This exploratory article examines
similarities and differences between two American male drink-
ing subcultures—the fraternity and the U.S. Navy. It shows
that in their leisure alcohol use, men negotiate subordinate and
dominant masculinities within real-life everyday experiences
of increasing cultural diversity. Alcohol use facilitates the cre-
ation of masculine homosociality by developing a sense of com-
munity and trust, and perpetuates certain kinds of American
masculine traditions. It facilitates and inhibits negotiations
over social boundaries and hierarchies of class, race/ethnicity,
and sexuality. Status hierarchies get negotiated through com-
petitive drinking games, humor, and heterosexual significa-
tions. Male alcohol subcultures enact, contradict, negotiate,
and challenge a society’s masculinities in complex and diverse
ways in this ethnography done on the West Coast.
Key Words: alcohol subcultures, masculinity negotiations,

homosocial leisure cultures, male alcohol use, college fraterni-
ties, U.S. Navy men.
The author acknowledges support for this research from a post-doctoral fellowship from the National
Institute for Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse through the Prevention Research Center, Berkeley, Califor-
nia. She thanks Robert Saltz, Peggy McClure of the Military Family Institute, and panel participants at the
1997 American Sociological Association Toronto convention for their helpful comments on earlier drafts.
Correspondence concerning this article should be sent to Lois A. West, Department of Sociology and
Anthropology, Florida International University, Miami, FL 33199 or [email protected].
371
LOIS A. WEST
Alcohol drinking behaviors are important sites for understanding how masculinities
get socially constructed and negotiated. Men’s studies scholars such as Connell
(1995) and Kimmel (1996) argue that there are multiple masculinities in which dom-
inant (or what Connell calls “hegemonic”) masculinities get socially constructed and
worked out in relationship to non-dominant, subordinated masculinities. Masculini-
ties are beliefs, attitudes, values, and behaviors associated with what it means to be
male in a society. Dominant masculinities are those elements of males that a society
views as most important to being male which work in relationship to elements soci-
ety views as being antithetical to maleness. For example, dominant maleness in
American society consists of values of achievement, aggression, toughness, and
hardness. Since achievement in American society means making a great deal of
money and being “successful” at a career, these meanings get attached to what it
means to be an American man.
This article demonstrates that drinking cultures are places where a variety of
masculinities get worked out in homosocial leisure activities associated with drink-
ing. These activities include drinking games, particular forms of male joking and
bantering, watching or playing sports, sexual encounters with women, and the act of
“being drunk.” In male homosocial alcohol subcultures, social hierarchies and
boundaries that create masculinities get discussed, reinforced, or breached during
leisure activities. Two American subcultures, the fraternity and U.S. Navy, are note-
worthy for alcohol use, for how men say they use alcohol and what it means to them
in relation to their masculinity, and for their alcohol-related behaviors. While the
gendered division of labor in formal organizations such as the workplace has some
history of analysis (see Alvesson & Due Billing, 1997), less has been written about
the creation of gendered divisions of leisure as seen in alcohol use from the actors
themselves (Sulkunen, Alasuutari, Natkin, & Kinnunen, 1997).
“Drinking with the boys” enables men to segregate by gender and by choice.
Drinking males create a masculine “in-group” that defines what masculinity means
to the group based on the meanings of dominant masculinities of the subgroup and
of the society. This act of definition also defines the “out-group” as those who are
not included in the gender- and age-segregated drinking group (e.g., not male, not
young, not heterosexual). Reskin (2000) argues that the act of defining in-group and
out-group behaviors sets conditions for gender and race discrimination but that the
processes are intrapsychic—conscious and unconscious. Alcohol use facilitates or
exacerbates unconscious behaviors as individuals can lose control over their bodies
when they drink to excess. It also contributes to male bonding behaviors and to
group cohesion. Same-sex groupings come to define gender for the group through
individuals’ interactions. The group also develops a “groupthink” that gets rein-
forced and replicated over time through social institutions and contributes to gender
segregation (for the nature of gender segregation, see Maccoby, 1998).
The college fraternity and the U.S. Navy are noteworthy sites for gender segre-
gation and alcohol use. During the 1990s, the college fraternity and U.S. Navy com-
bat units shared certain social characteristics: they were all-male (the fraternity by
choice, certain Navy combat units by edict); and they shared a leisure culture reputa-
tion for heavy drinking and casual, non-relational sex with women.1 They have been
sites of social problems including hazing and alcohol-related deaths and date rape.
372
NEGOTIATING MASCULINITIES IN AMERICAN DRINKING SUBCULTURES
Both the fraternity rush and U.S. Navy boot camp have had initiation rites of passage
for young men that serve to build homosocial communities and reinforce gender seg-
regation (see Raphael, 1988; for terrible outcomes of hazing, see Nuwer, 1980,
1999). There is evidence that problems of aggression against women get facilitated
by male alcohol use in particular kinds of fraternities: those which demonstrate cer-
tain characteristics that make them “high risk” compared to fraternities considered
safer for women, or “low risk” (Boswell & Spade, 1998). These high-risk character-
istics include greater alcohol use, more demonstrations of male aggression, and a
greater degree of gender segregation. The U.S. Navy has been particularly notewor-
thy for charges of sexual improprieties against women involving both enlisted men
and officers. The U.S. Navy’s 1991 Tailhook scandal linked sexual aggression
against women to male alcohol use (West 1994; for an account of the scandal, see
Zimmerman, 1995).
While gender-related social problems were prevalent in the 1990s, U.S. Navy
enlisted ranks were becoming increasingly racially and ethnically diverse (Fuentes &
Pexton, 1994), and college undergraduates were encouraged and given many choices
of living in ethnically and gender diverse environments (Herszenhorn, 1999). By
1999, universities such as Dartmouth, which were trying to make their cultures less
dominated by weekend fraternity alcohol cultures and more socially diversified,
were having mixed results. Yet many fraternities and U.S. Navy men still seek to
maintain gender segregation. But in their use of alcohol in everyday life, men negoti-
ate both dominant and subordinated masculinities within real-life everyday experi-
ences of increasing cultural diversity. Some researchers suggest that increasing
diversity in fraternities and the military gets reflected in more integration in drinking
subcultures and leisure activities. Murdock (1998, p. 8) speculates that the gender
integration of drinking rituals “speaks of the elimination of a masculine subculture
based on exclusivity, inebriety, and violence within the United States” (see also Gut-
mann, 1996, on gender integration in drinking in Mexico). The argument that greater
gender integration leads to a lessening of male-dominant, status-seeking behaviors is
still open to question. But the point here is that masculinities are complex and what it
means to be a man in a society gets worked out in male alcohol use.
American culture has linked “being a man” (dominant masculinities) with alco-
hol use. Toughness means being able to “hold your liquor” or drink vast quantities
(binge drinking) without serious social consequences. Cultural themes of being able
to fight if challenged play out daily in the media and in bars as a man seeks to main-
tain his sense of his masculinity. Alcohol use enables non-relational sexuality—
being able “to get a girl” for sex, homosociality, and “having fun” where drinking
with the boys is very different from drinking with the girls. These cultural themes
have become a part of fraternity and U.S. Naval homosocial traditions that get
passed down through generations. For example as we shall see, drinking games are
part of cultural folklore that American males share whether they are in the military
or in fraternities.
Yet masculinities can be contradictory, challenged, paradoxical, and, in other
words, quite complex. For example, men can express deeply felt emotions when
drunk (“crying in your beer”) even to their buddies (homosocial love with sexual
373
LOIS A. WEST
undertones or threats, and the social construction of fictive “brotherhood”). They can
challenge racial, sexual or class stereotypes, and opt out of a capitalist work ethic (as
Kimmel, 1996, has described the theme of the American “self-made man”). A domi-
nant American masculinity requires self-control, efficiency, and a work ethic for
economic and social achievement, yet alcohol can undermine these behaviors.
From the founding of the United States, alcohol use has been a definer of Amer-
ican masculinity. Kimmel (1996) states that “[I]n the first decades of the nineteenth
century, American men went on a national bender” (p. 49). By 1830, hard liquor
consumption averaged 9.5 gallons a year for every American male over fourteen,
and by 1894, New York City had one saloon for every 200 residents. However, for a
“self-made man” to become a successful capitalist, he needed an ethic of self-control
that alcohol use undermined. Murdock argues that the male alcohol leisure culture
only developed in the early 19th century with the saloon. Earlier, male alcohol use
was commonplace in the workplace where alcohol was sometimes cheaper and
cleaner than water and even given to men by their employers. Men would imbibe
during work breaks until the split between work and leisure developed. This split
appears to coincide with the 19th century separate-spheres split in the public from
the private that placed women in the home and men in the workplace.
As women became the keepers of the family, women reformers organized
against male alcohol use because of its threat to the male wage earner and family
man. As Ginsburg (1998) has noted, “[B]y the early nineteenth century ... alcohol
increasingly was identified with saloons, a social space designated as a male world
where wages were spent on liquor, gambling and prostitution” (p. 206). Women’s
organized moral reform efforts (e.g., the American Female Moral Reform Society)
against alcohol and prostitution eventually led to an era of alcohol prohibition (1920-
1933). Consequently, American male “drinking became an expression of masculine
protest against feminization at the same time as it was an artisanal protest against
proletarianization” (Kimmel, 1996, p. 50). Kimmel calls this “masculinism,” which
was an effort to restore “manly vigor and revirilize American men by promoting sep-
arate homosocial preserves where men can be men without female interference” (p.
384). Even with women’s entrance into the bars and the “domestication of drink” in
the home in the “cocktail hour” (Murdock, 1998), two arenas—the male fraternity
and military on-base and off-base clubs—continued a tradition of homosocial envi-
ronments where males could “drink with their buddies.” No preserves of male
leisure culture were better established than fraternities and the American bar.
METHOD
The data for this study are based on in-depth ethnographic fieldwork at a large U.S.
West Coast public university and at a U.S. Navy installation in the 1990s following
the Navy Tailhook scandal but before the move to gender-integrate the military. The
study consisted of interviews, focus groups, and participant observation at five of the
university’s fraternities and with enlisted men from an all-male U.S. Navy air combat
unit. Eight fraternity men (age 19-21) and nine low-ranking enlisted U.S. Navy men
(age 21-28) were interviewed on average for an hour and a half. Both groups were
racially and ethnically diverse (two Chinese-American men and one Native American
374
fraternity man among the fraternity white men; two African American, one Panaman-
ian, one Filipino of the enlisted men), although racial diversity differed in the frater-
nities with some being more diverse than others. In one of the houses where I did a
focus group, I was struck by its diversity including disabled and minority men.
What distinguished fraternity from U.S. Navy men was class: while all the fra-
ternity men identified themselves as middle or upper middle/upper class, only one of
the enlisted men said he was upper-middle class. The U.S. Navy men were middle,
working class or defined themselves as lower class.
Marital/relationship status also differed: while the fraternity men I interviewed
reported they had no children; of the enlisted men, four reported they had children.
One of the enlisted men said that he felt men joined the Navy because “They think
they are going to get in the military and childbirth is going to be that much less
expensive than it would be on the outside.” Most of the enlisted men were clerks or
secretaries, and two were aviation electricians, while college men said they were in
fraternities to look for, as men in one fraternity put it, future “business connections.”
At the university, interviews were conducted in the residential fraternity houses
on “Fraternity Row” close to campus. Interviews were also conducted with on-cam-
pus student affairs’ officers, intrafraternity council officers (fraternity presidents who
coordinate fraternity affairs with the university) and alcohol studies’ specialists.
Focus groups were held in the fraternities with groups of fraternity men. Two upper-
division college women did participant observation of alcohol parties at the houses,
and I observed house meetings. In the military, daytime interviews were conducted
at a steak house adjacent to the military base when the men were off-duty. Addi-
tional interviews were done with a ROTC colonel at the university and alcohol and
drug specialists at an Army base and at the U.S. Navy installation. I observed an
officers’ club bar and several off-base bars. I had also done participant observation at
off-base bars at Subic Naval Base, the Philippines, in the late 1980s.
I secured clearance from the university’s human subjects committee and
adhered to protocols and signed consents. In both cases, I went the informal route to
getting interviews that allowed me to avoid formal social control mechanisms. The
university fraternities had been subjects of previous studies that had made their
alumni wary of policy outcomes from such studies (see Wittman, 1989, for the
nature of the problems). At the university, several alcohol-related deaths of fraternity
men and date rape charges led the Vice Chancellor to meet with the Greek commu-
nity in 1991. The university’s response was to eliminate Thursday night parties,
develop education programs on alcohol, date rape, and sexual harassment awareness,
and outlaw mixed drinks at beer-only parties. Fraternities were required to have a
licensed security person, a trained bartender, food available at parties, and identifica-
tion wristbands for party attendees who were now invited by guest list only. Several
fraternity chapters mandated no keg policies and educational programs like “My
Brother’s Keeper.” By the late 1990s, universities such as Dartmouth were trying to
make their cultures less dominated by weekend fraternity alcohol cultures and more
socially diversified (see Herszenhorn, 1999), yet alcohol-related deaths still occurred
(Nuwer, 1999).
For the U.S. Navy, I was told my request for interviews had gone as far as the
Admiral, but because of the Tailhook scandal there was no optimism about my
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LOIS A. WEST
chances for access (see Department of Defense Inspector General, 1993). My sample
referred to Tailhook as “the big stink.” During the last 30 years, the U.S. Navy has
generated greater social controls over alcohol and drugs. “Top down” directives
instruct all personnel on what they must do to receive an honorable discharge and
stay out of trouble. The U.S. Navy has an alcohol and drug program that moved from
providing social services to increasingly “zero-tolerance” including random manda-
tory drug checks and “command sweeps” for everybody. Being busted for an inci-
dent would mean mandatory alcohol education (NADSAP—Navy Alcohol/Drug
Safety Action Program), and all personnel have mandatory sexual harassment train-
ing and must carry identification cards at all times.
These ethnographic methods, while suggestive and not representative of a large
sample, enable themes to emerge from two very different samples that shared little
except social characteristics like masculinity and alcohol use. The links between
dominant masculinities and alcohol use are seen in references to the media and
through the perpetuation of gender segregated and hierarchical traditions. Subordi-
nate masculinities or challenges to what is dominant get worked out in alcohol-
related behaviors like drinking games, humor, and sexuality.
CREATING MASCULINE HOMOSOCIALITY
Men talked about self-selecting to keep part of their lives exclusively male. As one
Chinese-American fraternity member said of his living arrangement:
What makes a fraternity? It’s more like hanging out with the guys.
Sports, things guys like to do most of the time, sports. Girls don’t
like to play football and sports in general. It’s hard to get girls out
at ten o’clock at night to play basketball.
An upper-middle-class fraternity president who considered himself in one of the

“top” houses argued:
Our fraternity is one of the leaders in keeping fraternities all male.

Right now we’ve got a couple of lawsuits against the universities
around the country. All guys wouldn’t feel comfortable living with
women in a group setting. It lets people be more themselves to be
around just males. Because everything you have is in common and
you don’t have the sexual pressure there. There’s no problem with
the fact that there’s gotta be separate bathrooms and separate this
and separate that. I mean everything’s together. I think people
should have the choice to live within the kind of setting they
wanna live. That’s what our country was based on is the fact that
you can choose. This fraternity’s choice is to be single-sex.
For another Jewish upper-class man, becoming co-ed would:
376
take away from the brotherhood, the male bonding. It’s a group of
guys that have been through the same treacherous experience that I
went through, which is pledging. There are secretive things like
the handshake and the Chapter Room where no one else has been.
It’s a place to live, a place to come back to once you’re alumni, a
place to meet people for business opportunities.
Much of what goes on in the recreation of fraternity culture is taken for granted.
One man described fraternity life as:
… watching TV. Maybe drinking a couple of beers. Talk about

sports. Talk about women. Talk about everything. Hanging out
together. Playing sports together. Living together. Eating dinner
together. Cleaning together. I’ve never thought about why we
choose to do it all as guys together.
Alcohol use provides the social glue for fraternities and provides community in
a social environment where there may be none. As one man put it:
We were supposed to have a party at another fraternity and at the

last minute they canceled it, so we just had like our own party at
our house like spontaneous and everyone just sitting around, and
that’s bonding. Things like that I think you have to basically bond
through adversity because there’s not really too much, not many
people you know, in our house, would be friends other than the
fact that they’re in the same fraternity. Everyone is so different.
What did “difference” mean? Many things, but certainly increasing cultural
diversity. One young Anglo man provided a break down of the cultural diversity of
his fraternity which he said was 85 percent Caucasian—with guys from Bolivia,
Peru, five Asian Americans, two Mexican Americans and one African American.
What the men could share was not their ethnicity, but their masculinity that would be
reinforced in the fraternity environment. He also noted that what they learn in the
fraternity is their future in a male-dominated workplace:
When you join the house, you also take part in the leadership of
that house. You learn a lot about how to deal with all kinds of dif-
ferent people, different backgrounds. I think it’s great for the
future, just because it’s gonna be the same thing you’re doing in
business. It really teaches you how to work with big groups of peo-
ple and how to get your views across without, you know, putting
down other people’s views. It really teaches you [how to] work all
together. There’s a lot of goals. A lot of people overlook the fact
that fraternities are just as much a business as they are a social cul-
ture. Your bills have to get paid and you’ve gotta be running a bal-
anced budget or you’re not gonna be around for very long.
377
LOIS A. WEST
Through alcohol and partying behaviors, social bonding goes on in an informal way,
just as taking care of the business of the fraternity provides the formal structures
within which diverse men can come together for common goals. In this sense, alco-
hol is one informal “glue” to assist in developing social cohesion.
During the 1990s, U.S. Naval units which had women were called “rag outfits”
by the men interviewed here (the first woman to command a combat ship happened
only in 2000, Thompson, 2000). Masculinity creates its own kind of in-group. An
African-American aviation electrician saw both women and homosexuals as not
belonging in the military because of the problems they cause:
I worked in a squadron before where they had women. Women

cause a lot of problems. If you’re hitting on a woman she can call
it sexual harassment. You know, you probably slept with her occa-
sionally and she can call rape or whatever. I feel in the Navy
they’re gonna start letting females on carrier ships now. I’ll work
with women, but you’re gonna have to separate the ship into three
different levels because women have to wash up and clean and
tidy up, you know. For the same reason you’re gonna have to have
a floor for homosexuals. They’re gonna have to put another
amendment in the Constitution whereas if you’re in the military,
you can’t sleep with your workers. How do I feel about gays in the
military? P-L-E-A-S-E! First of all, you eat with men, go out
drinking with men, party with men. You work and sleep with men,
you know indirectly. I don’t want no homosexual in my quarters
watching me undress and change.
An Anglo personnel clerk who had spent a lot of time on ships echoed these
remarks:
I really don’t feel like a woman should fight as far as go to war. I

think that’s more of a man’s job. If there was [sic] women on more
ships there’d be a lot of pregnant women and a lot of court mar-
tials going on for that. In a confined area on a ship out at sea for
months at a time you could run into a problem.
When I was on this ship there was a female pilot landed on our car-
rier, a helicopter pilot. She come down through the hanger bay. We’d
been out to sea for three months, hadn’t seen no woman. She come
walking through the hanger bay and a guy down there was doing his
stretches gonna jog around the hangar bay. He looked at her, and she
said some pretty vulgar things to him. She said, “Do you want some
of this?” Just ’cause he looked at her. So he wrote her up and she got
in trouble. She got real, real vulgar with him on that subject because
he was looking at her. He looked at her and said, “Hey, what’s a girl
doing on here?” And she took it the wrong way.
378
By the turn of the century the military was moving toward increasing gender
integration, yet informal attitudes of men resisted females and homosexuals because
these groups challenge the dominant masculinities ensconced in traditional Ameri-
can manhood.
CONTINUING MASCULINE TRADITION
Tradition was cited by both samples as an important reason for maintaining gender
segregation in part because of the nature of the institution as a masculine rite of pas-
sage. As a Chinese-American biology major said:
I don’t think [co-ed fraternities] would work out very well because
it would just break tradition. These people are really conservative.
I wouldn’t mind living in a co-ed fraternity, but I wouldn’t want
the frat members to teach the women all the teachings. Because
how would you say “brotherhood?” What do you say like
brother—“sisterhood?” You have to change all the traditions
around. It just wouldn’t work out very well.
For Navy men, the drinking culture has been an important part of its tradition.
As an Anglo enlisted men put it:
My granddad was in the Navy before me. As an enlisted man he

was stationed in Okinawa on a PT boat and he said those guys in
the larger ships would be just wild and he said, “Watch out for it
when you join the Navy!” And it’s [still] true.
For a 22-year-old Navy secretary, “anywhere there’s a Navy installation” there will
be a male drinking culture.
I go to this fort in Louisiana and it’s like out in the woods. You
take this road and all of a sudden there’s like a little town and it’s
all bars. I think that’s pretty much how it is in every place because
I mean it’s like a tradition. You know the sailor goes out, been at
sea for this many months, and he goes out and he goes gets drunk.
These American men gender segregate their drinking patterns: they drink differ-
ently with men than with women. How much this has to do with men’s greater con-
sumption tolerance was left unresolved by this sample, but in both groups, men would
“pre-party.” They would drink with other men before they would go to a party, a bar,
or a sporting event where there were women. Fraternity men were not allowed to drink
at football games, so they would drink before. Enlisted men would drink before going
to a club to save money since drinks at clubs could be costly. In one case, an enlisted
man passed “a bottle of Cisco” around before he began clubbing, but the extensive
drinking led to a black-out and he had no idea how he landed in jail, what happened to
him or to his drinking friend who had also disappeared that weekend.
A fraternity man explained gender-segregated drinking:
379
LOIS A. WEST
With guys hanging around, you let your inhibitions more go away.
They just kinda do what they want to do like male bonding kind of
stuff, just getting wild and crazy. We feel that you have to be a lit-
tle more careful and watch what we do and you don’t want to look
like a total idiot with women. With your close guy friends, they
don’t really care what you do. They respect you as a friend and
you can do whatever you want. With women you have to always
watch out.
What “watch out” means was not entirely clear. But it certainly had the connota-
tions of women as the moral agents of men echoing the 19th century separate
spheres doctrines of women as the social control agents of men. Alternatively, it
reflects a notion of a loss of control sexually as is seen in various media portrayals of
what happens when men drink and let loose.
REFLECTING THE MEDIA’S MASCULINITIES
Media images of beer-drinking men watching sports dominate television sports

shows that are geared to male audiences (see Postman, 1987). In this sample, men
referred to specific films and alcohol advertisements when asked about their alcohol
use (see also Schreiber, 1993). But they challenged the alcohol stereotypes while
they reinforced their homosociality. One Chinese-American fraternity man thought
that “The previous stereotype of fraternities of like ‘Animal House’ sort of types—
the hazing, drinking, screwing around—gives a bad image. We learn good things
about trusting other people, having good friends, being interested in people.”
Another Anglo said his fraternity was “not like a stereotypical fraternity like ‘Ani-
mal House.’ It’s more of a fraternity that has a structure based not on alcohol or just
partying, more based on a diverse house. A group of guys with different goals but
working together to achieve these goals.”
A disappointed enlisted Navy personnel clerk said that he joined the Navy
because
I watched “Top Gun” too many times. I thought I was gonna be an

F-15 pilot. I liked airplanes. I got a big thrill out of watching air-
planes, seeing airplanes on TV. I pictured myself beside those air-
planes, working on those airplanes, flying those airplanes. I
thought that’s what the Navy was all about. Learned different.
Motivated by media portrayals of gender segregation and homosocial brother-

hood, masculine in-group behaviors develop around dominant cultural masculinity
themes that get passed on through the structures of the college fraternity and the U.S.
Navy. But cultural diversity and subordinate masculinities get negotiated.
380
NEGOTIATING SOCIAL DIFFERENCES AND HIERARCHIES
Masculinism gets created and negotiated through social hierarchies, and these hierar-
chies are fundamental to gender segregation. Hierarchies are created institutionally
on both formal and informal levels. Formally, social structures institutionalize hier-
archy, but social hierarchies are re-created and negotiated informally in leisure
choices and cultures and through in-group/out-group behaviors. The fraternity distin-
guishes between its formal regular members of the fraternity, the “actives,” from its
potential new members, its “pledges” who must go through “rush” in order to be
selected to join the fraternity. Once selected, they experience a male rite of passage
(traditionally known as “hazing”) in order to become an active. Once in the frater-
nity, there is a status hierarchy of rank and position—president, vice president, rush
chair, etc.
There are also informal hierarchies, and these hierarchies hold sway over behav-
iors of members. Young men express feelings of anxiety over peer and social pres-
sures related to competition. The negotiations that go on between males are deeply
rooted in racial, ethnic, class, sexuality, and ability divisions. These factors mirror
and replicate greater societal tensions. In the fraternities, the “cool” houses are the
“top” houses that get their labeling depending on their racial make-up (“Most of the
top houses are completely white”), wealth, or the kinds of parties they have (“fun” or
not—that is related to wealth in the sense that more money pays for greater enter-
tainment, better alcohol, etc.). Lesser houses are “dweeb” or losers that do not mea-
sure up to the “standards” of these informal hierarchies. A 21-year-old Jewish engi-
neering student described it:
I consider us a top house. We do things with other sororities. I

think it’s more important for us to have a good reputation among a
lot of people. I don’t think anybody badmouths our house. I mean
people badmouth a lot of fraternities for saying “That house is
complete losers. They got one pledge this semester.” We’ve
always had strong rush. We’ve always had a good reputation. A
good house depends on your perspective. From the Greek system
point of view a good house is a rich white house with Blair and
Biff and Tad. That’s a good Greek house. And the terrible ones are
the more racially integrated. You’ll find the more racially inte-
grated usually the lower the house goes down the scale, I think.
A Chinese-American frat member said that a third or a quarter of men who had
gone through rush that year were Asian American. But:
The amount of Asians that stayed in rush and stayed in the houses
were like ten percent. So it’s a big difference. In the top houses
there are fifteen pledges and one Asian in there. It’s still racially
isolated. What I expect is the houses that are already somewhat
racially diverse will attract certain minorities more and those
houses will grow in number. Like our house has grown from like
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LOIS A. WEST
five percent Asian to a quarter Asian. Those houses will grow even
more, might even be half Asian, half minorities. Whereas the other
houses will stay like maybe five percent Asian or minorities or
whatever.
The level of choice young men exercise in joining fraternities contrasts sharply
with the U.S. military, where a lack of choice is related to discipline, social control,
and socioeconomic differences. Militaries maintain strict hierarchies in order to pro-
vide societies with a ready fighting force. Fighters must be able to follow orders
quickly and without question because the danger of war situations necessitates an
ability to act without negotiations and counterarguments: human lives and the suc-
cess of the mission are at stake. Recruits enter and go through basic training as a rite
of passage, and one’s ability to move up the ranks is based on ability to conform to
the formal rules and structures that strictly demarcate the enlisted person from the
officer. Such a strict system begins as exclusionary. Military logic argues that homo-
sexuals, those with medical disabilities, and women in combat are kept out in order
to maintain discipline and social order.
Military men create informal hierarchies that are based on jobs and drinking
behaviors. In the Navy, “brown shoe” jobs are jobs of airmen who “work for the
maintenance of the aircraft or actually on the bird.” “Black shoe” jobs are “being a
seaman that’s kind of like administrative or anything that would deal with the main-
tenance of a boat.”
Sailors who drink and party too much are “squids.”
When I was on a ship out of Newport, Rhode Island, before I came

here, most of the machinist mates, all the engineering people were
the squids. They were the ones that always, always got in trouble.
They were always drinking, always getting busted for something.
The U.S. military mandates racial and increasingly gender integration, although
women are numerically a minority. Yet it is in leisure spaces where segregation
reappears: alcohol social behaviors are gender and racially segregated for both
groups. A Chinese-American man distinguished between drinking in Taiwan and
drinking in the U.S. with his Chinese-American friends who are “Chinese on the out-
side, basically Asian American like me, but raised with American values.”
My Chinese friends in Taiwan are basically the same as my white

friends here. Basically [they share] the same idea of drinking and
having fun. But Chinese are a lot more disciplined and drink a lot
less, and a lot more goal oriented like the future. They’re not as
engrossed in having immediate fun.
For one 22-year-old married African-American Navy man who is “the only
black in my office,” the other Navy men “treat me just like one of the guys, you
know. We got a nice little system up there.” But clubbing is a different matter, as
another African-American enlisted man said:
382
I’ll tell you like how the enlisted club is. For a black person to go
to the club on Fridays and Saturdays, you wear a baseball cap
inside the E club, you get kicked out. But these white people, o.k.
They can go to the club on Thursday night, cowboy night, country
night. They can wear ten-gallon hats with the big buckle and they
don’t get charged to go into the club. The blacks have to pay three
dollars as a cover charge just to go in. The on-base club, they’re
very prejudiced. If it’s free, I’m in the Navy, why get charged?
Actually I boycott it. I don’t even go there.
He goes to “hip-hop” clubs instead. But his perception of discrimination was real
and clearly angered him. The structured inequalities were perpetuated in more subtle
ways such as these and can be unconscious according to Reskin (2000).
CONSTRUCTING LEISURE PLAY BEHAVIORS
Men negotiate subordinate masculinities and differences through particular play

behaviors related to alcohol use: physical aggression (barroom brawls and fights),
game playing, joking and labeling, and sexual negotiations (most frequently in recre-
ational, non-relational sexual contacts—see Levant and Brooks, 1997 for a discus-
sion of non-relational sex).
In leisure activities, competitive and aggressive behaviors get escalated and
worked out in drinking through ritual behaviors manifested in drinking games (see
Douglas, 1987; Newman et al., 1991; Pederson, 1990), drinking songs, or sexual
competition. As one enlisted man put it: “It’s part of the competition. They get to
where they want to just outdo the other, whether it be drinking a lot or trying to
impress the girls.”
College and enlisted men reported playing similar competitive drinking games
where the game would be played in concert with shared drinking behaviors. Winners
or losers had to take a drink upon completion of a task. Beer Pong included drinking
beer when a person would win or lose a round of ping-pong. Quarters involved
shooting pool, making plays, and then drinking to earn quarters. Both college and
enlisted men reported playing card games called Hearts, poker, Kings, Cardsharks,
Three Men (a dice game), Viking, Thumper, or Multiples of Three.
Nicknames are important to certain male groupings. In one drinking game, guys
would have to remember insulting slang nicknames as they drank: “Bullshit” entailed
guys giving themselves insulting slang names like “ridshit,” “dogshit,” etc., while
others had to remember and repeat the insult as they went around the circle. One
enlisted man reported playing a game daring men to drink alcohol from a gas funnel.
Fights were reported in both groups as an escalation of competitive behaviors.
The university outlawed Thursday night parties because of the numbers of outsiders
who would crash frat parties and start fights. One frat member in a rowdier house
reported at least one fight per party. Another reported “thrashing” private property
when drunk: “There were fights. It was my pledge semester. There was a fight. It
was broken up. It was over pretty quickly when they saw our whole house was
383
LOIS A. WEST
there.” Houses with fights are subject to “social probation,” as portrayed in the “Ani-
mal House” film. A fraternity president explained it:
Guys tend to be more a lot more aggressive when they are drunk
and, at least myself, I try to avoid being all that aggressive. You
know women tend to walk away from violence. They really dislike
guys fighting in their presence. When guys get together when it’s
just guys, you tend to wrestle around. You know, not fist fights but
just fun wrestling around. When guys are together they act like
kids basically.
An aviation electrician said he would not go to clubs for enlisted men because “I
really don’t like it. There have been a lot of fights at the enlisted club. Barstools fly-
ing through the air. Everybody just fighting. It was ridiculous.”
Competitive behaviors get worked out through joking and the use of humor.
Walker (1998) argues that men use jokes to construct their masculinity because jokes
reaffirm male values of friendship and generosity, affirm heterosexuality in situa-
tions where levels of physical or emotional intimacy are culturally regarded as
unmasculine, and to mediate disputes. In other words, jokes help to negotiate social
boundaries and subordinate masculinities. Jokes and labeling can also sustain gender
differences and segregation especially when they denigrate women. In a study of fra-
ternity humor, Lyman (1998) argued that
Male bonding in everyday life frequently takes the form of a group

joking relationship by which men create a serial kind of intimacy
to “negotiate” the tension and aggression they feel toward each
other. The humor of male bonding relationships generally is sexual
and aggressive and frequently consists of sexist or racist jokes.
The women in Lyman’s sample did not like the sexual jokes that they felt denigrated
them, but men negotiate status hierarchy tensions through their jokes that get facili-
tated with alcohol use.
One of the Chinese-American fraternity members responded to a question about
what kinds of things men do together that they would not do with women, “We’re
just wrestling on the floor. I don’t know, just cracking jokes and stuff.” I asked if the
joking would mostly be about women. He responded, “Just derogatory jokes in gen-
eral.” Examples? “It’s like racial jokes, jokes about women, stuff like that that guys
just don’t talk about when they aren’t drunk.” I asked, “When you say racial jokes,
do they make jokes about Chinese?” He replied, “Yeah,” and I asked how he felt
about that. He said, “Sometimes I get offended, but usually I’m not, usually I just
take it in light humor in good humor because they’re just my friends. We’re just jok-
ing around. I get made fun of a lot because I make fun of a lot of people, too, like in
a party way.” I asked what would offend him, and he replied jokes about “what I can
and what I can’t do.”
Social hierarchies over race and ability are ever present and frequently at the
taken-for-granted or unconscious levels. The way they get negotiated is through how
384
males treat each other, which includes put-downs and challenges over “what you can
or can’t do.” The put-downs and racist/sexist comments address attitudes and stereo-
typing directly. But being able to demonstrate through basketball and through alco-
hol consumption that a man “can do” something undercuts the negative labeling and
stereotyping, for it is negotiated as it gets literally acted out.
An Anglo enlisted man said that when they wanted to relate to each other, “a lot
of times we get to work and say, ‘Hey did you hear such and such a joke?’” I asked
for an example of a joke that one would not ordinarily tell a female. He asked me not
to be embarrassed by it, and he recounted the following:
It’s kind of disgusting, but I’ll share it with you. This Marine
walks into the bathroom. He walks in in his dress blues, all proud,
strutting around, got his hat on, goes into the bathroom. This little
kid walks in and says, “Gosh mister, are you a real Marine?” The
Marine looks down and says, “Yes, sure am, son. Want to wear
my hat?” “Yeah,” says the kid. Puts on the hat, checks himself out
in the mirror, and walks around all proud. This drunk sailor comes
in and starts pissing all over the walls. Little kid looks up and says,
“Gosh, mister, are you a real sailor?” Sailor says, “Yeah kid, you
want to suck my dick?” Kid replies, “No, I’m not a real Marine;
I’m just wearing the hat.” So that’s the kind of jokes we tell, you
know.
CONSTRUCTING HETEROSEXUALITY
Male alcohol use gets linked to sexuality both in portrayals in the media and in
men’s explained behaviors and sexual competition. Studies demonstrate how alcohol
use influences the measurement of “attractiveness” for both sexes (George &
McAfee, 1987; Gladue & Delaney, 1990). Both college men and women say they
use alcohol to loosen up, “relax,” as a “disinhibiter” and “social lubricant”
(Schreiber, 1993, p. 126). Most frequently, however, alcohol in bar and party behav-
iors gets linked to recreational, non-relational sex.
Both my samples reported getting “beer courage” or “liquid courage” from
drinking alcohol that allowed them to initiate conversations with women. Alcohol
use constructs emotions of bravery and overcomes fears and insecurities young men
have toward women. A 21-year-old fraternity vice president put it like so:
It’s just you feel really social when you drink. You feel part of,
you feel accepted because everyone else is drinking so you’re
drinking. It loosens your inhibitions. You have what they call beer
courage. You can talk to people easier [even] people you never
met before.
In other words, one can dampen feelings of competition, in-group/out-group differ-

ence and status hierarchies, and sexual tension through alcohol. An aviation electri-
cian said:
385
LOIS A. WEST
You’ve probably heard the slogan “liquid courage?” Most of the

guys I know don’t like to dance. I don’t really like to dance. So
they probably feel if you drink some you’ll have enough courage
to get there on the dance floor and not worry about what other peo-
ple are thinking. ’Cause a lot of times that’s what guys are worried
about. I know I am sometimes. Like I don’t want anybody laugh-
ing at me or saying, “Hey, look at the way he’s dancing.” I haven’t
really been worried about that in the past. I really wasn’t worried
about that last night. I didn’t have to drink anything or not much of
anything to prove that I could dance. I think a lot of guys like to
impress the girls just by drinking and kind of like a macho image
with the guy asking, “Yeah, come on and drink some beer.”
Alcohol use also is seen as a disinhibiter to having sex, but the sex is of a non-
relational kind. Neither group of men looks for relationships in the alcohol use con-
text. In her study of fraternities, Schreiber found fraternity party themes linked alco-
hol use to the availability of sex—“An ‘Hawaiian Social’ is billed as a ‘chance to get
‘leid’” (Schreiber, 1993, p. 119). She describes another party where the advertise-
ment was:
“Bad drinks in Hell and better drinks in Heaven.”...You start

upstairs ... the first drink will be something like a Jell-O shot ...
and the alcohol gets stronger and stronger as you go down to the
basement ... and that is like the “Red-light area.” (p. 118)
Fraternities have long linked alcohol use with getting sex as seen in their drinking
songs. In a 1968 fraternity song book of drinking songs and “gross songs,” the Quar-
termaster’s Song refrain goes “Sherry makes you feel up Mary, Gin makes you want
to win, Booze makes you want to lose, Hay makes you want to lay” (White, 1968).
In this sample, a Chinese-American fraternity man joked that, “Shakespeare said
something that it increases the urge and lessens the performance” for men.
Research links alcohol use to sexual aggression and predatory sexuality by men
(particularly date rape on campuses, see Copenhaver & Grauerholz, 1991; Sanday,
1991). This means that sex in an age of deadly sexually transmitted diseases involves
feelings of danger that reinforce insecurities for both males and females. Even in this
small sample, a fraternity senior explained his feelings over the rape of his younger,
college-aged sister after an alcohol party at her university:
My little sister was raped last year, and it wasn’t by a fraternity

member. She met the guy that night. She went to bed, and the guy
broke into her room and forced himself on her. She was in a
friend’s house. She didn’t know the guy’s last name, so they
couldn’t find him. I’ve known several people to whom that’s hap-
pened, and I think the statistics that they come out with are proba-
bly thirty percent low. It happens a lot. It’s very difficult because
the stigma that a woman has on her if she presses charges is very,
386
very hard to deal with. My sister had a lot of problems with that
stigma. She didn’t want that stigma placed on her. It’s just unfortu-
nately women are seen as dirty or that sort of thing after that type
of activity happening to them. I had a lot of anger and mixed feel-
ings of wanting to go down there and hunt the guy down and a lot
of revenge factor like plastering the guy’s name all over school
saying this guy’s a rapist. But see that puts my sister in danger
because the guy will definitely come after her. I mean, that’s kind
of slandering the guy’s name. She did report it. She went to the
police and everything. But you know, she had been drinking and
she was underage and you know that right there you’d get killed in
the courts for it.
Discrimination against women is linked to alcohol behaviors in relation to sexu-

ality: both sets of men said that the sexual double standard was very much in evi-
dence in relation to alcohol use—women who drink too much and are sexually avail-
able are still viewed as the “hos” (whores) to be distinguished from women who are
one’s “good friends.” Both men and women perpetuate these stereotypes even when
they are confronted with the dangers of this labeling on their own sisters or their own
racial group. One Chinese-American frat man explained the tensions he felt when he
saw Chinese-American women dating Anglo men on his campus:
You see a Caucasian male going out with an Asian female more so
than an Asian male going out with a Caucasian female. I person-
ally know a lot of girls who have that reputation of being “ho” that
are Asian and hang out with white guys, and that really bothers me
a lot.
I asked if this was just because they hang out with white guys or because they have a
bad reputation. His response was that “It’s sexual. [Asian women say,] ‘He’s in so
and so house.’ They are social climbing.” In his rendition, Asian American women
were using sex with Anglo men in “top houses” to gain in the social hierarchies.
Alcohol use provided the means by which inhibitions could be loosened so that sex-
ual predation (or sexual liberation or experimentation depending on your point of
view) could be enacted by both sexes. But even who one had sex with defined one’s
social status within the fraternity world as it did in the military world where prosti-
tutes were found in off-military base bars and women are less in control of sexual
predation by drinking military men.
DISCUSSION
Drinking cultures are the means by which American men negotiate masculinities in a
culture of leisure. Men create gender-segregated spaces of leisure for a variety of
reasons. According to this sample, they want to develop a sense of community and
social trust; they have a need for a level of comfort and lack of danger that they find
with some men and not with women or other men; they have a desire to perpetuate a
387
LOIS A. WEST
masculinized tradition, and a desire to control one’s space and sexuality; they want
to develop experience for adulthood. American dominant masculinities include gen-
der-segregated spaces where negotiations take place over social hierarchies based on
economic class, race/ethnicity, and what it means to be masculine and not feminine.
Lower status people in society represent subordinate masculinities or non-masculini-
ties. Status hierarchies get negotiated through competitive games, humor, and het-
erosexual significations—what one can or cannot do, with whom one can or cannot
drink and play or have sex. Alcohol use associated with humor and competitive
behaviors are forms of leisure and play that allow differences in status to be worked
out. Men don’t drink with women and then play sports or certain drinking games.
Certain men drink in bars of country music, others drink differently and listen to hip-
hop. From the styles of interaction to one’s living spaces, men reinforce American
masculinities of the fraternity and U.S. Navy that become a part of tradition.
How much this has to do with biologically innate male needs that take certain
kinds of social forms and how much of these behaviors are socially constructed is
still open to question. Certainly a critical element in the negotiation of dominant and
subordinate masculinities may be the level of gender segregation found in alcohol
subcultures. Murdock (1998) found late 20th century alcohol behaviors more gender
integrated than in the 19th century, but she suggests that a more relevant contempo-
rary factor may be age more than gender:
The historic connection between drink and masculinity, while still

present, has blessedly eased.... The abusive drinking of underage
and legal-age Americans in many ways parallels men’s abusive
drinking in the nineteenth century. Just as males historically have
used drinking to define their manhood, these drinkers use alcohol
to define their adulthood. While women make up a third of AA
membership, the number of younger women and men alcoholics is
almost equal. This parity seems to stem not from gender anxiety
but from a desperate search by teens and twenty-somethings for
some mantle of adult identity. (p. 173)
In spite of the claim that age may be more relevant than gender, this study has
sought to demonstrate that masculinities are still being defined through alcohol behav-
iors and subcultures. Age and life course experience may be equally relevant to factors
of gender and ethnicity, but masculinity is still defined by hard drinking, casual sex,
aggression, and competition. Fraternity men said they joined their fraternity with an
eye to their career future. U.S. Navy men as well had career aspirations that they
wanted to fulfill. In both samples, males were of that age where abusive drinking is
most linked to sexual predation and aggression and where more problems seem to
arise from abusive drinking than with other age groups. Alcohol subcultures are still
highly gendered, and gender is important to understanding social behaviors such as
negotiations over competition and status hierarchies. In fact gender may be a more
salient or primal evolutionary reason for the creation of status hierarchies than capital-
ism or ethnicity. But cross-cultural work would need to be done to test this hypothesis.
388
Male alcohol subcultures enact, contradict, negotiate, and challenge a society’s

masculinities in complex and diverse ways while these cultures reinforce certain
kinds of dominant masculinities: from the social segregation of the sexes (drinking
with boys versus drinking with girls) to traditional sexuality definitions (good girls
and whores, the sexually predatory male). The Chinese-American fraternity man was
uncomfortable with jokes about Chinese but was more uncomfortable over mas-
culinity challenges of what he could or could not do—and these were linked for him.
Maccoby (1998) argues that when women must negotiate with men in groups
rather than as individuals “male groups tend to be stronger in a number of respects
than female groups, and the power differential between the sexes is greater when
males have formed cohesive groups, as they usually do in the workplace” (p. 302).
Cohesive male leisure groups exclude women and out-group men. There is nothing
inherently problematic with hierarchy or segregation until the structures cause or
create social behaviors that disadvantage and threaten—as when alcohol use or
abuse is a factor in sexual aggression and gay bashing. I would argue that the use of
alcohol is less relevant than the characteristics of masculinity associated with male
group behaviors. Alcohol may disinhibit men from acting on unconscious emotions,
but those emotions of sexual aggression are created within a social context in which
heterosexuality is accepted and homosexuality is not—where men are still privileged
in sexual relations with women (they can sleep around but women can’t) or where
women find they cannot or do not negotiate on equal terms. It is not always about
power, but when the negotiations over masculinities and competition are so uncon-
scious and lead to social problem behaviors (whether because of age/ethnicity/gen-
der), American society needs to address the taken-for-granted behaviors and struc-
tures as well as the problem behaviors. In an increasingly diverse society, leisure
behaviors of choice may be the sites where dominant and subordinate masculinities
get played out in revealing ways for gender studies, and this article suggests themes
of certain kinds of American masculinities in the late 20th century.
NOTE
1. See the 1994 Harvard School of Public Health survey that reported that 44
percent of college students engage in binge drinking (Wechler et al., 1994; also,
Berkowitz & Perkins 1987; Perkins 1992); see worldwide military survey for inci-
dence (Bray et al., 1992). See Levant and Brooks (1997) for a definition and discus-
sion of non-relational sex for men.
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392
The (Un)Emotional Male:
Physiological, Verbal, and Written
Correlates of Expressiveness
JOHN M. ROBERTSON CHI-WEI LIN

University Counseling Services Chung Yuan Christian University
Kansas State University Chung-Li, Tao Yuan Hsien, Taiwan
JOYCE WOODFORD KIMBERLY K. DANOS

University Counseling Services Department of Counseling and
Kansas State University Educational Psychology
Kansas State University
AND
MARK A. HURST
Independent Practice
Olympia, Washington
The purpose of this study was to explore possible associations

between two variables of the male experience: what men report
about their emotions, and what they actually experience physio-
logically. Men from traditionally male occupations (N = 69)
were presented with three emotion-inducing stressors (i.e., a
video, a math test, and a cold pressor). Their responses to the
stressors were evaluated using physiological, verbal, and struc-
tured measures. They were also given a measure of gender-role
stress. Results indicated that all the men experienced physiolog-
ical arousal from the emotion-inducing stimuli, and that the
level of arousal was not associated with the degree of gender-
role stress. Also, men who reported the highest levels of gender-
role stress (often regarded as more traditionally masculine)
were more expressive of emotions when asked to use a struc-
tured exercise than when asked to talk about their responses.
The authors wish to acknowledge the contributions of Arthur J. Rathbun, Cheryl Harper, Ann Johnson,
and Linda L. Gaffney for their technical and editorial assistance; and of Wendy Grove, Zaneta Barte, and
Cheryl Harper in collecting the data.
Correspondence concerning this article should be sent to John M. Robertson, University Counseling
Services, Lafene 238, Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas 66502 or [email protected].
©2001 by the Men’s Studies Press, LLC. All rights reserved.
393
ROBERTSON, LIN, WOODFORD, DANOS, AND HURST
Conversely, men who reported less gender-role stress were

more emotionally expressive when they talked about their
responses than when they used a structured exercise.
Key Words: men’s emotions, physiological arousal, gender

role stress, emotional expressiveness, emotion-inducing
stressors
In North American culture, it frequently is asserted that men find it difficult to talk
about their emotions. For more than 25 years, this topic has been the subject of both
theoretical exploration (David & Brannon, 1976; Friedman & Lerner, 1986; Gold-
berg, 1976; Pleck, 1981) and social science research. Most scholarly observers in
this area have described men as having considerable difficulty in verbally expressing
their emotions to others (e.g., Brooks & Gilbert, 1995; Sher, 1993; Wilcox & For-
rest, 1992). Based on this theoretical work, clinicians have been encouraged to de-
emphasize the focus on talking about feelings in therapy and to offer men more
opportunities to be active. Examples of such activities include workshops, consulta-
tions, self-help reading, classes, or other behavioral approaches (Bernstein, 1995;
Hurst, 1997; Kelly & Hall, 1992; Miller, 1995; Robertson, 1989; Shay, 1996; Wani-
garatne & Barker, 1995).
These studies seem to suggest that most men are hypoemotional. Repeatedly, it
is asserted that most men have great difficulty in identifying their own emotions, in
sending emotional messages, or in accurately interpreting the emotions of others.
The term alexithymia has been used to describe this inability to adequately express
affect (Levant, 1992). Studies that emphasize the hypoemotionality of men typically
compare men with women and then report significant gender differences. To illus-
trate, men have been reported to have lower levels of happiness, life satisfaction,
depression, fear, and sadness than women (Nolen-Hoeksema, 1987; Scherer, Wall-
bott, & Summerfield, 1986; Wood, Rhodes, & Whelan, 1989).
However, more recent work has questioned some of the empirical basis for this
perspective. For example, Heesacker and his colleagues have suggested that it may
be mostly a stereotype to suggest that men are hypoemotional (Heesacker, Wester,
Vogel, Wentzel, Mejia-Millan, & Goodholm, 1999). Although the view that men are
hypoemotional (and that women are hyperemotional) has a long history (cf., Parsons
& Bales, 1955), Heesacker cited several studies that show very little affective differ-
ence between men and women. Specifically, men and women have shown no signifi-
cant differences in their abilities to send or receive emotional messages from others
(Conner & Heesacker, 1999), in their expressions of anger (Burrowes & Halberstadt,
1987), in their private experiences of emotion (LaFrance & Banaji, 1992), or in the
facial expressions and visual behavior that they use to respond to emotional ques-
tions (Cherulink, 1979).
Other studies have found similar results. Eagly and Steffen (1986) found that
although typical women are judged to be more emotionally expressive than typical
men, when subjects were told that men and women were in identical roles, subjects
394
THE (UN)EMOTIONAL MALE
reported no differences in their expectations of men and women. Similarly, in a

study that required men to report on their own emotions (fear, joy, sadness, and
love), results indicated that when men report less intense emotional experiences,
they are more likely to hold stereotypical views about emotional differences between
men and women (Grossman & Wood, 1993). The Heesacker review concluded that
“research on emotion fails to support the perception of vast affective differences
between men and women” (Heesacker et al., 1999, p. 483, 484). This conclusion
echoes the findings of others who have reviewed the literature (Canary & Emmers-
Sommers, 1997; LaFrance & Banaji, 1992).
Although these two strands of literature may seem somewhat incompatible, it
also can be argued that they are complementary. Granted, many North American
men may have difficulty expressing their emotions verbally; this has been noted for
several decades. However, it may also be true that men do not necessarily have
fewer emotions or have any less capability than women of expressing them. It may
be that men are less verbally expressive of their emotions because they have been
socialized to say less, or because they have a limited capacity to express themselves,
not because they have little emotional arousal in their lives.
To explore this possibility, it would be useful to look for within-group differ-
ences among men, rather than to compare men with women. Two types of questions
can be asked. First, do all men experience significant emotional arousal to the events
in their lives? Are there significant differences in levels of arousal among men? If
so, can this be shown empirically? Second, are some men more verbally expressive
of their emotional arousal than other men? If so, what makes the difference? Do the
themes of traditional masculine socialization help us understand any within-group
differences on the emotional expressiveness of men?
In considering these questions, two clusters of studies seem helpful to review.
The first group suggests that high levels of emotional expressiveness in men are
unlikely because of the internal strain it creates. Pleck and his associates (1993)
developed a set of statements illustrating the “masculine ideology” of North Ameri-
can culture. Included were items involving respect from others, self-confidence,
physical toughness, reluctance to talk about problems, avoidance of feminine-like
behavior, low interest in housework, and readiness for sexual activity. Other
attempts to describe central masculine socialization themes have included such con-
structs as achievement/success/status; toughness/aggressiveness; dominance/control;
analysis/rationality; and avoidance of emotionality/femininity/homosexuality (David
& Brannon, 1976; O’Neil, 1981). Researchers have investigated the conflicts created
for men by these expectations, using such models as “gender-role conflict” (O’Neil,
Helms, Gable, David, & Wrightsman, 1986), “sex-role strain” (Pleck, 1981), and
“gender-role stress” (Eisler & Skidmore, 1987). A basic idea in this body of work is
that men have been socialized in ways that make the verbal expression of emotions
unlikely because of the “conflict,” “strain,” or “stress” that such expressions might
evoke.
The second group of relevant studies suggests that men are less emotionally
expressive as adults because they have fewer opportunities to develop those skills.
Cross-cultural studies have shown that the child-care role (requiring high levels of
emotional investment and expressiveness) are much less frequently held by men than
395
by women; Crano and Aronoff (1978) looked at 186 societies and found that young
boys through the age of five received much less emotional support from fathers than
from mothers. Similarly, personal and emotional care of the frail elderly is less fre-
quently a responsibility taken by men (Dwyer & Seecomb, 1991); men are expected
to provide less emotionally involving services, such as household maintenance and
repairs or transportation to appointments. Given the differentiation of these roles by
sex, men simply have fewer opportunities to develop and use skills of emotional
expressiveness.
Based on these two ideas (that traditional masculine ideology makes the verbal
expression of emotions stressful, and that men simply have few opportunities to
develop the skills of emotional expression), it is plausible to suggest that the problem
may not be the inherent hypoemotionality of men; it may rather be that men have
been socialized not to verbalize their feelings.
To empirically test this theory, two suppositions must be examined: that virtu-
ally all men are significantly physiologically aroused by emotion-inducing events;
and that men vary in how they wish to express this emotional arousal, based on (per-
haps) masculine idealogy. To date, these links have not appeared in the empirical lit-
erature. However, recent studies have examined physiological data in ways that
begin to explore this possibility. In brief, this body of research hints that many men
actually may be experiencing higher levels of emotional arousal than they are report-
ing verbally. For example, Grossman and Wood (1993) found that when men and
women were not given normative instructions about responding to emotion-inducing
slides, men verbally reported less emotional intensity than women (a finding consis-
tent with socialized expectations), but they also found that when the instructions nor-
malized emotional responsiveness, no sex differences were found in physiological
responses to the slides. Further, there is evidence that men are highly reactive physi-
ologically to stressful events. Gottman and Levenson (1988) reviewed a series of
studies showing that men do indeed experience physiological arousal when pre-
sented with emotion-inducing events (i.e., changes in blood pressure, basal skin con-
ductance, heart rate, release of hormones, and corticosteroid excretion).
The purpose of this study was to explore any associations between two variables
of the male experience: what men actually experience physiologically when emo-
tionally aroused, and how they report those experiences. To accomplish this, we pre-
sented men with three emotion-inducing events and then compared what they
reported about the experience with measures of their actual physiological responses.
We also were curious about the role of masculine gender-role issues in this equation.
Based on the literature (Bernstein, 1995; Hurst, 1997; Kelly & Hall, 1992; Miller,
1995; Robertson, 1989; Shay, 1996; Wanigaratne & Barker, 1995; Wilcox & For-
rest, 1992), we hypothesized that men with more traditional gender-role expectations
would not have lower levels of emotional arousal, but instead would be more reluc-
tant to express verbally their internal emotional arousal. At the same time we
expected that a more structured exercise would elicit more expressiveness from these
men than would invitations to simply speak about their experiences.
Because we were interested primarily in within-group differences, no compari-
son groups of women were used. That is, we were interested in examining the stereo-
type that most men are hypoemotional—that they do not experience significant lev-
396
els of emotional responsiveness or that they do not express their emotions effec-
tively. Further, we were interested in whether or not masculine socialization might
be a variable that would help explain any within-group differences among men with
regard to emotional expressiveness.
The importance of examining this question is illustrated by the variety of
intrapsychic, interpersonal, and physical health problems men experience (Cleary,
1987; Courtenay, 2000; Meinecke, 1981). In particular, emotional inexpressiveness
has been associated with marital problems, alcohol abuse, workplace stress, reluc-
tance to seek counseling, poor health habits, the use of violence, Type A behavior,
loneliness, low use of social support networks, and sexual difficulties for men (Eisler
& Blalock, 1991; Gordon & Meth, 1990; Pasick, Gordon, & Meth, 1990). If we can
begin to show that the problem is not a lack of emotional arousal or responsiveness
among men, but rather a lack of opportunity or a lack of social support for express-
ing themselves, then these latter factors might be directly addressed.
One final comment concerns the problem of defining basic emotions. Although
a review of this definitional problem is beyond the scope of this study (e.g., Ekman
& Davidson, 1994), it is appropriate to describe briefly the components of an emo-
tion as conceptualized for the present work: (a) an emotion requires an antecedent
event (intrapsychic, interpersonal, or environmental) that stimulates physiological
arousal; (b) the arousal functions to focus attention on life tasks that need to be
addressed and provides motivation to make appropriate adaptive responses (David-
son, 1994; Frijda, 1994; Gray, 1994; Levenson, 1994; Robertson & Freeman, 1995).
Put in real life terms, when a bear suddenly appears on a mountain pathway in front
of a man, physiological reactions occur (changes in heart rate, skin temperature,
etc.). The purpose of this arousal is to focus attention on the problem and energize
appropriate adaptive responses. The emotion includes the arousal, the appraisal, and
the motivation to make an adaptive response. For this particular illustration, the emo-
tion might be named fear or panic. Using this definition, most emotions can be
named with a single descriptive word, and these emotion words can be rated with
regard to intensity (e.g., Averill, 1975).
METHOD
RESEARCH PARTICIPANTS
Participants were recruited from several male-dominated occupations and were all
employed near a major university in the Midwest. Two themes consistent with tradi-
tional masculine socialization formed the selection criteria: the men were directly
responsible for the physical or emotional well-being of a fairly large number of peo-
ple; and they were required to respond immediately and act as problem-solvers to
persons in acute distress. Men theorized to have met these criteria included police
officers, sheriff deputies, jailers, fire fighters, members of the clergy, and men with
administrative responsibilities that included significant safety concerns. Generally,
they were recruited through the organizations in which they were employed (e.g.,
announcements in police departments, fire stations, and so forth). For participating in
a study of “Stress Management Factors,” the men were offered free admission to a
397
four-hour workshop on the management of stressful emotions at work.

The 69 participants had a mean age of 35.71 (SD=11.81). The response rate (the
proportion of actual participants to those invited to participate) was relatively high
(just over 80%); superior officers and supervisors strongly encouraged the men to
participate. The participants had completed an average of 4.25 years of education
beyond high school. They identified themselves ethnically by reporting that their
ancestors came mostly from Europe (85%), Africa (4%), or Hispanic countries (4%).
The rest (6%) reported mixed ancestry or left the question blank. They reported their
current relationship status as married (49%), single with no steady relationship
(32%), divorced (10%), and steady but unmarried relationship (9%).
Because traditional counseling invites men to be emotionally expressive, the
men were asked about their preferences or experiences with counseling. Most had
never talked with a professional helper for personal concerns (56%), and only a fifth
(21%) of the entire sample indicated that they would be more likely in the future to
seek help from a professional than from family members, relatives, or friends. Yet,
43% had sought help from a professional counselor or a member of the clergy, and
had attended an average of 5.93 sessions. This latter percentage is higher than we
expected, given the usual counseling utilization rates of men. Perhaps the higher lev-
els of risk and demand in these occupations made them more likely to seek help.
INSTRUMENTS
Instruments were selected to measure the following variables: (a) physiological

arousal during an emotion-inducing event; (b) verbal and structured emotional
expressiveness immediately following the emotion-inducing event; and (c) the pres-
ence of gender-role stress.
To measure psychophysiological responses to emotion-inducing events, partici-
pants were attached to the Focused Technology F1000 Instrumentation System (Bio-
Medical Instruments, 1994). A battery of responses was collected, including skin
temperature and electrodermal response (EDR) data at 7.2 samples per second, elec-
tromyographic (EMG) data at 10 samples per second, and heart rate with electrodes
on the upper body. Responses were measured during three emotion-inducing events,
involving visual/auditory experiencing (a nine-minute videotape), cognitive func-
tioning (a one-minute mental arithmetic task), and sensory functioning (a one-minute
cold pressor test).
Videotape Segment. Numerous studies have successfully induced emotional

responses with the use of film/videotape stories. Reviews of these studies (Gerrards-
Hesse, Spies, & Hesse, 1994; Martin, 1990) have noted that viewing videotaped
scenes does indeed induce physiological arousal. For example, segments of the
motion picture “The Champ” have been used to elicit sadness (Marston, Hart, Hile-
man, & Faunce, 1984), and the movie “Run” has been used to induce anxiety (Isen
& Gorgolione, 1983).
For the present study, segments of the movie “My Life” (Netter & Rubin, 1993)
were selected because the story deals with themes many theorists have indicated are
difficult for traditionally socialized men to express (father-son relationships, sadness,
398
and death). The father-adult son relationship in the story is a subplot of the larger
story about the terminally ill adult son who wanted to preserve his life story on
videotape for his own newly born son. The father-adult son interactions in the movie
were edited together to form a video that lasted nine minutes and 40 seconds.
Immediately following presentation of the videotape segment, participants were
asked “What words would you use to describe your reaction to the video?” Answers
were recorded on audiotape and then transcribed. Graduate students were employed
to count the number of emotion words used by participants and to indicate the emo-
tionality rating for each word using the model developed by Averill (1975). Previous
studies have used the words of research participants to evaluate the presence of emo-
tions (e.g., Greenwald, Cook, & Lang, 1989; Lang, 1984, 1985), drawn conclusions
based on the counting of English words (Breland, 1996; Thorndike, 1921), and used
response time as a measure of emotionality (Fitzgibbons & Simons, 1992; Hess,
Kappas, McHugo, Lanzetta, & Kleck, 1992; Lang, Greenwald, Bradley, & Hamm,
1993).
Mental Arithmetic Task. Earlier studies have shown that mental arithmetic proce-
dures can increase activity in muscle tension, skin temperature, heart rate, electroder-
mal response, and systolic blood pressure (e.g., Anderson, 1989; Arena, 1984). After
reviewing the protocols of several investigators (Carlson, Collins, Stewart, Porzelius,
Nitz, & Lind, 1989; Donat & McCullough, 1983; Subotnik & Shapiro, 1984), a one-
minute arithmetic task was devised for the present study: participants were given a
three digit number on a 4x6 card and asked to count aloud backwards by increments
of 13. They were instructed to work as rapidly as possible while the investigator
wrote down their responses.
Cold Pressor Test. Psychophysiological sensitivity has been found with the use of
the cold pressor procedure (e.g., Reeves & Shapiro, 1983; Subotnik & Shapiro,
1984). Participants in the present study were asked to immerse one hand in a three-
gallon tank filled with crushed ice and water for as long as they could withstand the
pain, up to a maximum of 60 seconds. Water was kept constant at a temperature of
less than .5 degrees Centigrade. Participants were informed that they could remove
their hand at any time the sensations became too painful.
Emotional Assessment Scale (EAS). After each administration of the three emotion-
inducing events, participants were given a structured pencil and paper assessment
that was generally completed in less than one minute. The EAS (Carlson et al., 1989)
consists of 24 words that describe eight emotional states (anger, anxiety, disgust,
fear, guilt, happiness, sadness, and surprise). The eight selected emotions were based
on the work of Izard and others (Ekman, 1972; Izard, 1977, 1991). Three descriptors
for each emotion were chosen using the work of Nunnally (1981), who developed a
factor-analytic list of words most often used for each emotion category.
To complete the exercise, participants used a visual analogue scale. Participants
were asked to measure the intensity of each emotional descriptor by drawing a slash
on a 100-millimeter line. The line ranged from points labeled “Least Possible” (zero)
to “Most Possible” (100 millimeters). The instrument has been used to measure
399
momentary and immediate changes in emotional states. The EAS was scored by
measuring the number of millimeters from the left endpoint up to the slash mark.
Scores for each emotion, therefore, ranged from 0-100.
Carlson et al. (1989) reported that reliability was measured using both inter-item
(.70 to .91) and split-half (.94) procedures. Because the EAS is designed to measure
an emotional state at a particular point in time, computing reliability over several
administrations was not appropriate. Validity was examined by comparing several of
the subscales with existing measures of emotions, such as the Profile of Mood States
(McNair, Lorr, & Doppleman, 1981), the Beck Depression Inventory (Beck, 1972),
and the State form of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (Speilberger, Gorsuch, &
Luschene, 1970). Results were supportive, with positive correlations found in the
expected directions for such subscales as sadness (.74), anxiety (.78), anger (.69),
and happiness (-.36).
Semantic Atlas of Emotional Concepts. Intended to be a complete list of emotional

terms in the English language, this instrument was used to measure both the fre-
quency and the intensity of the emotion words used by men in our study. Averill and
his colleagues (1975) first reviewed 18,000 psychological terms compiled by Allport
and Odbert (1936), as well as three other emotion word lists. If two of five judges
agreed that a term had emotional connotations, Averill kept the term on the list. A
total of 717 terms were thus retained. Further work using university undergraduates
as subjects eliminated non-emotional terms and reduced the list to 558 words.
For each word, an emotionality rating was developed. Several factors were com-
bined (activation/energy, evaluation/pleasantness, importance/depth of experience,
and degree of control). Estimates of reliability for these ratings were obtained by
randomly splitting the subject pool into halves. Correlations between the split-sam-
ple scores were ranged from .87 to .98 for the four factors. An overall emotional rat-
ing was calculated, based on a scale of -3 (less emotionality) to +3 (more emotional-
ity). To illustrate, the term “furious” had an emotionality rating of +2.25, and the
term “listless” had a rating of -1.65.
For the present study, a word used by a research participant was called an emo-
tion if it appeared in Averill’s atlas, and the word’s intensity was recorded using
Averill’s emotionality rating.
Masculine Gender-Role Stress (MGRS). Developed as a measure of male gender-

role stress (Eisler & Skidmore, 1987), the MGRS consists of 40 items factor ana-
lyzed into five subscales: Physical Inadequacy (not being competitive in sports or
sexual rivalries); Emotional Inexpressiveness (difficulties in expressing feelings or
responding to emotions in others); Subordination to Women (in athletic or sports set-
tings); Intellectual Inferiority (indecisiveness, inability to handle situations); and Per-
formance Behavior (work and sexual adequacy). The underlying theory is that men
will experience stress if they believe they are not behaving as men should behave or
if a situation forces them to act in ways others define as feminine.
Higher scores reflect comparatively higher levels of gender-role stress and have
been correlated positively with stress in expressing emotions, higher levels of anxi-
ety and anger, poorer health habits, and higher systolic blood pressure changes in a
400
cold pressor test (Eisler & Blalock, 1991; Eisler, Skidmore & Ward, 1988). The
scale has shown high internal consistency (alpha coefficients in .90s), and test-retest
reliability over two weeks was .93. Construct validity has been supported by com-
paring the MGRS with other traits theoretically linked with masculine stress, such as
inexpressiveness, anger, state anxiety, stress reactions, and adverse health habits
(Eisler et al., 1988; Saurer & Eisler, 1990).
PROTOCOL
Participants were scheduled for individual 90-minute sessions, with the entire data
set being collected during a four-week period to minimize the potential confound of
contemporary events. They came to a university health center where the project was
explained. The consent form was signed, and the men were instructed to thoroughly
wash their arms up to the elbow. Sensors were attached to the forefinger of the non-
dominant hand, the palm of the hand, the forearms, and clavicles. Participants were
then seated in a recliner chair, with a visual screen shielding the equipment, a video
monitor, and an audiotape recorder. They were connected to the F1000 system and
directed through the following sequence of events: a baseline rest period (10 min-
utes); viewing the videotape stimulus (9 minutes); rest and recovery (five minutes);
performing the arithmetic task (counting backwards by 13s for one minute); rest and
recovery (five minutes); completing the cold pressor task (placing hand in ice water
for up to one minute); final rest and recovery (sitting quietly and relaxing for five
minutes). They were then ushered into a separate room and given the MGRS.
Finally, they were debriefed by a licensed psychologist who inquired about any dis-
comfort the procedure might have induced.
RESULTS
PHYSIOLOGICAL AROUSAL
Table 1 shows the means and standard deviations of the physiological measures for
each event in the protocol. It is clear that each of the three stressors (videotape, math
test, and cold pressor) induced measurable physiological responses. Skin tempera-
ture was reduced, and significant changes were measured for EDR, EMG, and heart
rate. The widest range of responses occurred on the EMG, with more moderate
changes occurring with skin temperature, EDR, and heart rate.
It should also be noted from Table 1 that the simple request to report on their
responses to the stimuli also elicited measurable arousal. This held true for both
forms of expression (i.e., for both the open-ended verbal responses and the struc-
tured exercise [EAS]). Every time the men were asked to describe their reactions to
one of the stimuli, their bodies responded with measurable arousal.
These results were consistent throughout the sample. Men who scored high on
the MGRS (indicating higher levels of gender-role stress), for example, displayed
physiological arousal patterns virtually indistinguishable from men who scored
lower on the MGRS. A median split of MGRS scores divided the men into two
groups (high gender-role stress and low gender-role stress). There was no significant
401
Table 1
Physiological Measures of Responsiveness to Emotion-Inducing Stimuli
Temperature EDR (sweat) EMG (muscle) Heart Rate
Event M SD M SD M SD M SD
Baseline Rest 92.8 3.9 4.6 4.8 8.0 4.1 69.2 9.9
Video Stimulus 91.1 4.4** 6.2 5.2** 16.8 8.3** 68.3 9.2
Verbal Response 90.1 4.7** 8.8 7.1** 20.2 10.3** 78.0 12.0**
EAS—Video 89.9 4.7** 8.3 6.2** 30.2 8.3** 73.2 10.3**
Rest Period 90.8 4.8** 5.8 5.2** 9.8 6.2* 67.4 12.1
Math Stimulus 89.7 4.6** 9.1 6.9** 15.4 6.3** 78.5 12.8**
EAS—Math 89.0 5.6** 8.5 6.1** 30.1 9.3** 73.5 11.0**
Rest Period 90.4 5.1** 5.9 5.1** 8.2 3.9 68.5 10.2
Cold Pressor 89.3 5.0** 6.9 5.7** 30.4 11.2** 74.0 9.6**
EAS—Cold Pressor 88.4 5.0** 6.3 5.3** 29.8 9.3** 70.1 10.1
Rest Period 89.2 5.8** 5.5 4.9** 8.7 5.9 66.0 10.4**
** p <.01 * p <.05
Note: Temperature is reported in degrees Fahrenheit. EDR (electrodermal response) is reported in micro
ohms. EDR numbers express units of change in conductance, relative to an EDR reference value; higher
numbers reflect greater arousal. EMG (electromyographic) units are micro volts per event; higher num-
bers generally reflect greater arousal. Heart rate is reported in beats per minute. EAS refers to the Emo-
tional Assessment Scale (Carlson, et al., 1989). Each data point is compared to the baseline rest event.
difference between these two groups on any of the physiological measures for any
event in the entire protocol, with p-values ranging from .371 to .830.
A primary finding, then, was that all men responded physiologically to the emo-
tion-inducing stimuli, regardless of their scores on the gender-role stress measure.
Further, it should be noted that there were no significant differences within the sam-
ple by occupation.
VERBAL AND STRUCTURED EXPRESSIVENESS
Tables 2 and 3 report results regarding expressiveness. To measure verbal respon-

siveness, participants were asked to talk about the stimulus they had just experienced
(e.g., “What words would you use to describe your reactions to the video?”). Audio-
taped responses were analyzed with regard to response time, total number of words
used, number of emotion words used, and an emotionality rating of the emotion
words. In addition, after the men had completed their responses to all three stressors,
the participants were asked how they generally handled stress in their lives. Again,
audiotaped responses were analyzed, calculating both the response time and the
number of words used in responding to the question. These six elements are reported
in Table 2.
402
Table 2
Verbal Measures of Responsiveness to Emotion-Inducing Stimuli
Measure M SD
Response time in reacting to video stimulusa 6.0 4.5

Number of words used in reacting to video 51.2 51.7
Number of emotion words used in responding to videob 3.1 2.7
Emotionality rating of emotion words used for videoc 2.3 2.5
Response time in reporting stressful reactionsa 4.3 2.5
Number of words used in describing stressful reactions 109.8 86.1
a
Note: Response time was the number of seconds between the interviewer’s question and the participant’s
b
answer; faster responses times were interpreted as more expressive. Words were accepted as emotion
c
words if they appeared in the atlas of English emotion words compiled by Averill (1975). The Averill
(1975) atlas developed an emotionality rating based on a seven-point scale from -3 to +3, with higher
numbers indicating stronger emotionality.
The men tended to use rather few emotion words when reporting their reactions
to the video. However, the emotion words that they did use were quite intense (M =
+2.28, on a seven-point scale from -3 to +3, with higher numbers representing more
intense emotionality). Variability in verbosity was wide, as the average number of
total words used (emotion words plus all other words) was 51.16, with a standard
deviation of 51.65. Individual differences in overall wordiness were quite prominent.
The variability on the use of emotion words was much smaller.
Results on the structured measure of expressiveness (EAS) indicated that men
were quite willing to report emotional responses with the use of pencil and paper.
Table 3 indicates that all eight of the EAS emotions were reported as present at some
point during the protocol. Within a range of 1 to 100, the videotape (M = 22.8, SD =
22.3) and the math test (M = 21.9, SD = 23.2) evoked more intense overall ratings
than the cold pressor (M = 13.6, SD = 15.7). With regard to individual emotions, the
highest rankings across the three stressors were given to anxiety (M = 29.5, SD =
25.0) and surprise (M = 25.1, SD = 24.2), and the lowest ratings were given to dis-
gust (M = 13.9, SD = 18.4) and happiness (M = 13.4, SD = 16.4). These findings are
not surprising, given that none of the emotion-inducing events was designed to
induced happiness or disgust. The high standard deviations for all these ratings again
suggested wide individual variation.
For the videotape stimulus, the most intense ratings were for sadness (M = 33.1,
SD = 19.0), anxiety (M = 26.0, SD = 24.5), and anger (M = 25.3, SD = 25.8). The
math test elicited reports of anxiety (M = 39.5, SD = 29.3) and surprise (M = 28.3,
SD = 27.3). The cold pressor generated the most intense responses on the same two
dimensions as the math test, though in the reverse order: surprise (M = 29.4, SD =
25.4) and anxiety (M = 22.9, SD = 21.2).
It is noteworthy that the emotion with the highest rating in the EAS exercise was
anxiety, given the theoretical construct that traditional masculinity emphasizes suc-
cess, independence, and a reluctance to acknowledge fears. It may suggest that when
403
Table 3
Written Measures of Responsiveness to Emotion-Inducing Stimuli
Videotape Math Task Cold Pressor Average Score

by Emotion
Emotion M SD M SD M SD M SD
Anger 25.3 25.8 19.6 24.7 12.5 17.9 19.1 22.8
Anxiety 26.0 24.5 39.5 29.3 22.9 21.2 29.5 25.0
Disgust 17.8 20.6 15.6 21.6 8.4 13.1 13.9 18.4
Fear 19.0 20.7 20.0 22.0 10.4 14.9 16.5 19.2
Guilt 22.7 23.6 24.3 24.9 9.8 12.9 18.9 20.5
Happiness 20.6 23.9 11.2 13.8 8.4 11.4 13.4 16.4
Sadness 33.1 19.0 17.0 21.6 6.9 9.3 19.0 16.6
Surprise 17.6 19.9 28.3 27.3 29.4 25.4 25.1 24.2
Stimulus Totals 22.8 22.3 21.9 23.2 13.6 15.8 19.4 20.4
Note: Participants reported the intensity of each emotion by drawing a slash on a 100-millimeter line
(range = 1 to 100). Higher numbers indicate greater self-reported intensity for each emotion (Carlson et
al., 1989).
men are given a structured way of responding to emotional issues, they are willing to
respond, even if it means acknowledging emotional states generally minimized by
traditional masculine socialization. Supportive of this idea was the finding that men
scoring highest on the gender-role stress measure (upper half of the MGRS) actually
reported greater emotional intensity on the structured exercise (EAS) than did men in
the lower half of the MGRS, t(67) = -2.27, p <.02. In this sample, then, men with
higher levels of gender-role stress were quite willing to identify their emotional
states on paper in a structured exercise—even more willing to do so than men report-
ing less gender-role stress.
It is apparent that our measures of verbal and structured expressiveness were
tapping different dimensions. The correlation between verbal expressiveness and
scores on the EAS was rather low (r = .06). The implication is that other variables
may explain the difference. In the present study, masculine gender-role stress served
as the independent variable, revealing the preferred modes of emotional expressive-
ness (structured or verbal) in men.
GENDER-ROLE STRESS
The MGRS score for this sample of men (M = 80.16, SD = 20.88) was similar to
another sample of adult men reported in the literature: M = 83.2, SD = 21.0
(Watkins, Eisler, Carpenter, Schechtman, & Fisher, 1991). The mean age of both
groups was about 35. No significant differences were found by comparing MGRS
scores for the various occupational groups within the present sample.
The low overall correlation between verbal and structured expressiveness in the
404
entire sample leaves open the possibility that masculinity themes may be related to a
preference for either structured or verbal forms of expressiveness. To test this ques-
tion, a t-test for paired samples was performed, using gender-role stress as an inde-
pendent variable for verbal and structured expressiveness.
Verbal expressiveness scores were computed by transforming into z-scores the
different units of measurement (see Table 2) generated by the audiotaped responses
to the videotape. We combined the intensity of emotions rating with the response
time and the proportion of overall words that related to emotion; the result was a sin-
gle z-score measure of verbal expressiveness. Similarly, the structured exercise
scores (EAS) were transformed to z-scores. The t-test for paired samples compared
the value of verbal expressiveness of each participant with his overall EAS score,
and yielded a paired mean difference for each man. Two groups were formed by a
median split of scores on the MGRS, indicating high and low gender-role stress.
Results of the two-tailed t-test comparisons were consistent with theoretical
expectations (Table 4). In the high gender-role stress group, the mean z-score for
structured expressiveness (M = .3223) was higher than the mean score for verbal
expressiveness (M = -.1259). The paired difference (M = .4482) was significant,
t(34) = 2.17, p <.05. The low gender-role stress group had higher verbal expressive-
ness scores (M = .1335) than structured expressiveness scores (M = -.3525). The
paired difference (M = .4860) was significant, t(32) = -2.00, p <.05. This pattern
indicates that high verbal expressiveness was associated with low gender-role stress,
whereas high structured expressiveness was associated with high gender-role stress.
It seems appropriate to suggest that gender-role stress may predict the preferred
mode of emotional expressiveness. Men with more gender-role stress related to
views of traditional masculinity are more likely to be comfortable expressing them-
selves in structured ways, and men with less masculine gender-role stress are likely
to be more comfortable expressing themselves verbally.
DISCUSSION
What accounts for the belief that men do not easily express themselves emotionally?
Is it that many men experience very low levels of physiological arousal to emotional
stimuli? Is it primarily because men are socialized to say little about their emotions?
Or is it some combination of both?
Two findings in the present study seem relevant to this question. The first is that
all men in our sample were physiologically aroused by emotional stimuli; arousal
was not absent among men in traditionally masculine occupations or for men who
hold views of masculinity that lead to stress. The second finding is that regardless of
gender-role stress issues, men are aware of their emotional arousal and are willing to
report it; what varies are their preferences about the most comfortable format for
expressing those emotions. Men with higher levels of stress related to traditional
gender roles appear to prefer structured approaches, and men with less gender-role
stress appear to prefer verbal expressions.
The first finding that all the men in our sample were physiologically aroused
may not be especially surprising, as it is consistent with the summary findings of
Gottman and Levenson (1988), who pointed to a series of studies showing high lev-
405
Table 4
Masculine Gender Role Stress as a Predictor of Verbal versus Written
Expressiveness
Masculine Gender-Role Stress (MGRS) Verbal Written t p
High Masculine Stress -.1259 .3223 2.17 .018

Low Masculine Stress .1335 -.3525 -2.00 .027
Note: Values are expressed as combined z-scores, transformed from measures of

verbal expressiveness (response time, number of emotion words, and emotionality of
words) and from structured expressiveness (Emotional Assessment Scale, from Carl-
son et al., 1989). High and low masculine groups were formed by a median split of
the MGRS (Eisler & Skidmore, 1987).
els of physiological arousal in men. This finding speaks directly to the question
posed at the outset of the present study. The explanation for the emotional inexpres-
siveness of some men is not that they experience low physiological arousal and
therefore have little to report. Men do respond physiologically to emotional stimuli,
and the arousal does not appear to be related to any predictive variable in our sample
(gender-role stress, occupation, age, and so forth).
The second finding is consistent with the literature indicating that many men
prefer exercises and structured tasks more than open-ended talk about their inner
feelings (Hurst, 1997; Robertson, 1989). It is also consistent with findings from stud-
ies that show men still are far more likely in family settings to offer services such as
household maintenance, repairs, or transportation to appointments, and less likely to
be involved in family roles that require high levels of emotional investment (Dwyer
& Seecomb, 1991).
Perhaps the best answer to the question that prompted this study is that both
“nature” and “nurture” contribute to an understanding of men and emotions. With
regard to nature, we found that emotional inexpressiveness in men was not due to an
absence of emotional arousal. In fact, as Gottman and Levenson have argued (1988),
the fact that men have very high levels of physical arousal to stress may actually
contribute to less verbal expressiveness. They noted that while experiencing conflict
with their partners, many men report feeling flooded or overwhelmed and therefore
less able to be verbal. Physiological arousal may indeed be a factor contributing to
low levels of emotional expressiveness in men—not because the arousal levels are
low, but because they are comparatively high (Gottman & Levenson, 1988).
Regarding the nurture contribution, we found wide variability in the format pre-
ferred by men to express the emotions that they do have. Some men preferred to
express themselves in an activity, and others preferred words. These differences seem
more likely to be influenced by socialization. Given the differences between gender-
role expectations in this culture, many men simply have fewer opportunities to develop
their skills of emotional expressiveness. It is plausible to argue that many of these dif-
ferences among men are learned (Eagly & Steffen, 1986; Grossman & Wood, 1993).
406
It is tempting to speculate about implications for counseling that might stem

from these results. For example, when working with male clients struggling with
affect, therapists may be able to increase their effectiveness by giving attention to the
client’s gender role perspectives, and exploring any stress reactions related to those
expectations. Many men may freeze at versions of the question, “How do you feel?”
But those same men may cooperate willingly and effectively if given a structured
way of reporting their feelings. In the context of the present study, the task of identi-
fying the intensity of their emotions on 100-millimeter lines was effective; other cre-
ative ways may be equally as effective. This approach is certainly consistent with
theoretical expectations, considering the traditional male emphasis on problem-solv-
ing, task-completion, and structured activities. Given that more traditionally defined
men find talk therapy difficult, if not ineffective, it follows that the use of written
assessments, structured expressive modalities, and task direction may provide more
satisfying results to the client.
At the same time, it must be noted that men with lower levels of gender-role
stress actually prefer to express their emotions through words rather than a structured
exercise. Again, there are implications for therapists. Knowing something about the
gender-role views of a particular male client may be useful in treatment.
Another implication of these findings is related to the concept of stress for men.
The present study was described to the research participants as a study about
responses to stress; about 80% of the men who were invited actually participated.
Participants often volunteered comments to the experimenters about how pleased
they were to be able to participate in a study about how men respond to stress. Seek-
ing to reduce stress is one of the more common presenting complaints of men com-
ing to therapy. “Feeling stressed” covers a wide array of separate physical and emo-
tional problems. When men do not know how to identify or recognize underlying
issues, most symptoms can be described as stress. Stress generally arises for men
when they do not believe problem-solving options exist or when they are uncertain
about how to maximize healthy and productive responses that might be available.
One approach to men, then, may be to focus on physical and emotional self-aware-
ness and how these are indications of stress. When placed in this more socially
acceptable category of stress, men may be more willing to consider behavior and
attitude choices designed to reduce their stress.
This study underlines the need to explore the importance of gender-role issues
in thinking about the emotional components of specific presenting issues brought by
men to counseling—men with relationship concerns, men as parents, men with sex-
ual concerns, male friendship development, male interactions at work, and so forth.
Given that men who experience more stress related to traditional masculinity may
respond more readily to treatment that includes exercises or tasks, therapists can
approach these issues with a wider array of treatment options. For these men, psy-
chotherapy that emphasizes behavioral changes, activities, and exercises may be
more appealing.
Two potential limitations in this study must be noted. First, we selected working
men from a narrow set of male-dominated occupations (e.g., fire fighters, police offi-
cers, and safety officials). To what degree these findings generalize to men with
other occupational interests or personality styles is unknown. Further, because we
407
were primarily interested in within-group differences among men, no women were

included in the sample. Comparative observations are therefore restricted. A second
limitation is that the techniques used to induce stress (video, math test, and cold
pressor) are not in themselves tasks that men perform daily. Although they were
effective in meeting internal validity demands, they may not generalize to other
forms of stress which men encounter.
This study also raises questions for further reflection and study. Can the use of
biofeedback techniques facilitate successful self-recognition of unexpressed emo-
tionality in men? What motivates men to desire more effective verbal skills? The use
of physiological measures certainly can assist in uncovering more information about
the emotional content of various presenting issues. It may be that physiological
arousal patterns differ with regard to presenting issues. One way to test this would be
to invite male research participants to report their emotional responses (both verbally
and in written form) regarding a variety of presenting issues while measuring their
physiological arousal.
These and other questions remain. Nonetheless, for therapists working with the
emotional content of men in therapy, this study does suggest that virtually all men
experience physiological arousal as a response to emotional stimuli (there are no
unemotional men), and that given the right format, men are willing to share those
feelings.
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412
An Exploration of Perceptions of Masculinity
among Gay Men Living with HIV
PERRY N. HALKITIS
Department of Applied Psychology
New York University
An ethnographic investigation was undertaken to explore the

social construct of masculinity. Fifteen HIV seropositive gay
men in New York City were interviewed via electronic medium
in order to characterize behaviors and associated meanings
attached to the conception of masculinity as physicality. Struc-
tured interviews were utilized to ascertain these data in order
to illustrate how some men define masculinity in terms of their
physical appearance and sexual adventurism. The data indi-
cate that men who possess this ideological stance regarding
masculinity seek to remain healthy, appear physically strong,
and attract sexual partners. This hegemonic standard of mas-
culinity is a result of both the men’s HIV infection as well as
their perceptions of gay community norms. Emphasis on phys-
ical strength and sexual prowess as means of defining mas-
culinity has become a standard in the last two decades for
some seropositive gay men.
Key Words: masculinity, gay, homosexual, HIV, AIDS
Social scientists concur that cultural beliefs about gender behavior are socially con-
structed and self-perpetuating (Wood, 1997). Specifically, psychologists have identi-
fied social learning processes by which this transmission of beliefs may occur, as
well as the mechanisms which serve to enforce gender-appropriate behavior (Ban-
The author would like to thank David Bimbi for his intelligent insights regarding this project, Mala Hoff-
man and Cameron MacLean for their editorial assistance, and the 15 men who spoke so frankly about
their lives.
Correspondence concerning this article should be sent to Perry N. Halkitis, Department of Applied Psychol-
ogy, New York University, 239 Greene Street, East 537G, New York, NY 10003 or [email protected].
413
PERRY N. HALKITIS
dura & Walters, 1963; Lynn, 1969; Mischel, 1973). For gay men who struggle with
the conceptions of masculinity as they are raised in heterosexual environments, this
type of learning is undertaken through modeling of norms once they are immersed in
their own gay communities. As young gay men renounce their childhood to attain a
masculine status (Gilman, 1985; Gilmore, 1990), many enter into the gay commu-
nity, which functions to reinforce masculine socialization dynamics (Clark, 1997;
Connell, 1995). Consequently, they develop conceptions of masculinity separate
from the heterosexual world. The result, for many, is a gender negotiation process
that includes the construction of masculinities, including the dominant form of mas-
culinity as physicality evidenced in most gay communities in the United Sates
(Kurtz, 1999). Due to a variety of influences, the most recent of which is the devas-
tation of HIV/AIDS, the gay community itself has taken on the role of parent and
rewards conceptions of masculinity based on norms that involve an emphasis on the
physical (Halkitis, 1999a).
In part, this onset of the gay masculine man as the physical ideal was in reaction
to a construction of masculinity that failed to encompass same-sex desires, associat-
ing those feelings with femininity and in opposition to masculinity (Carrigan, Con-
nell, & Lee, 1987; Klein, 1993). Connell (1995) traces the struggle for the attainment
of masculinity for gay men to the 1950s where many were raised in a society where
the concept of the masculine male was reserved for heterosexual men. Thus, the gay
man was labeled by society as effeminate or deviant because Western society’s rules
of masculinity and homophobic attitudes (Connell, 1992; Lehne, 1976) could not
account for same-sex attraction. Such rules designated the appropriate behaviors and
characteristics for a male and masculine identity (Lehne, 1976). Since that time and
particularly in the 1970s, the emergence of the physically masculine male gained
momentum (Dowsett, 1993; Gough, 1989; Pronger, 1990; Signorile, 1997). In this
period right before the onset of AIDS, these seeds of masculinity gave root across
gay urban centers of the United States, where perceptions of masculinity became
associated with an ideal physical existence and on toughness (Harris, 1997; Plum-
mer, 1999). This one permutation of psychological construct of masculinity became
synonymous with physiological and the biological existence (Gough, 1989). In the
wake of the liberation of the 1970s, many gay men began to reinvent themselves in
an image of their own making, that of a physically masculine man.
The AIDS epidemic functioned as a further catalyst to this movement of mas-
culinity as physicality (Halkitis, 1999a). At first, the emphasis on physicality among
gay men in large urban centers like New York City and San Francisco was in reac-
tion to the health of men infected with the virus who experienced weight loss, mus-
cular wasting and deterioration, and eventual death (Shilts, 1987). Today, while
those phenomena exist, they are ameliorated by treatment advances, but also compli-
cated by debilitating physical side effects associated with antiretroviral therapy
(Halkitis & Kirton, 1999; Kaplan et al., 1995; Rodriguez-Rosado, Garcia-
Samaniego, & Soriano, 1998; Snijders et al., 1998). Steroid replacement therapy as a
medical intervention for controlling AIDS-related wasting (Grinspoon et al., 1998;
Nemecheck, Stolifer, & Sackuvich, 1998; Rabkin, Wagner, & Rabkin, 1999), and
resistance training to develop strength and endurance (Roubenoff, McDermott,
Wood, & Suir, 1998) have emerged. These health behaviors have become intimately
414
AN EXPLORATION OF PERCEPTIONS OF MASCULINITY
tied with notions of physicality, virility, and ideologically with masculinity (Signo-
rile, 1997). It is in this milieu that gay men have perpetuated this subculture that so
clearly associates masculinity with physicality, strength, virility, and sexual prowess.
Thus, to understand this manifestation of masculinity as physicality for gay men, it is
essential to orient oneself to both the sociological origins of this phenomenon as well
as to consider the impact of the HIV/AIDS epidemic on this construction of mas-
culinity (Halkitis, 1999a).
The purpose of our investigation was to explore the physical conception of mas-
culinity as defined by gay men. Specifically, we conducted this ethnographic investi-
gation to understand how the physical definition of masculinity manifests itself
among HIV seropositive men, whose self-concept may be undermined by HIV infec-
tion. In doing so, we sought to characterize the behaviors and meanings these men
attach to their understanding of this social construction.
METHODS
PARTICIPANTS AND PROCEDURES
To consider the behaviors and meanings associated with physical notions of mas-
culinity among seropositive men, we conducted structured interviews with HIV
seropositive men residing in New York City. The men were identified through use of
the Internet in the third quarter of 1998, using passive recruitment (postings on list-
serve accounts) as well as active methodologies by engaging conversations of partic-
ipants in “chat rooms.” Participants were screened on two criteria: a self-reported
HIV positive serostatus test result and a self-report of regular (three or more days per
week) exercise at a physical fitness center. Those exercising regularly were inten-
tionally selected to examine the interconnections between masculinity and physical
existence put forth above. Men who were willing to participate were scheduled for
an interview.
All communications between the researcher and the participants were conducted
via electronic medium (e-mail). Participants were sent the interview via electronic
medium and were asked to return the responses to the researcher within ten days.
Upon obtaining the responses, answers were reviewed for clarity. When answers
were ambiguous or unclear, follow-up questions were posed to the participants
regarding their responses. Communications continued until such point that partici-
pant responses were clarified. No identifying information was obtained to assure the
confidentiality of the individuals; all participants are identified through the use of
pseudonyms.
Within a two-month period, 22 participants indicated a willingness to participate
in the investigation. Of these 22, ten responded to a listserve posting and twelve
were recruited via chat room conversations. Twenty-one met screening eligibility. At
the conclusion of the date collection period, 15 electronic interviews had been con-
ducted. While the sample of 15 men was sufficient to obtain an initial understanding
of the constructs, the sample is limited in terms of making greater generalizations to
the population of HIV+ gay men.
415
PERRY N. HALKITIS
MEASURES
A set of ten questions guided the discussion; probes were used for each to obtain in-
depth data regarding the constructs that were assessed. Questions centered on defini-
tions of masculinity, the impact of HIV on definitions of masculinity, and the inter-
play of physical existence and masculinity among HIV seropositive men.
Participants were asked questions about steroid use, exercise, sexual behaviors,
descriptions of masculine men and masculine behavior, as well as sexual partner
preferences in the form of structured question interviews. Questions included the fol-
lowing: “How do you define masculinity;” “Give an example of a behavior which
you would consider masculine;” “To what extent is masculinity related to physical
appearance;” “How has being HIV seropositive affected your masculinity?”
The data were coded as per techniques outlined by Patton (1990) by the author
and one research associate along the structure of the questions, such that each ques-
tion was analyzed separately. Each question was coded for conceptions of masculin-
ity that included the physical definition as well as definitions that did not incorporate
this ideological stance. We developed and used codes that indicated direct defini-
tions provided by the participants regarding masculinity as physical self, and sepa-
rately behaviors that demonstrated that conception. Thus, a two-level codebook
emerged: (1) definitions of masculinity and (2) behaviors associated with masculin-
ity. Within each of the two main levels of coding, subdomains emerged regarding
physical appearance and sexual prowess. And within each of those subdomains, we
coded responses for specific concepts regarding appearance and sexual prowess.
After the codebook was developed, each set of responses was coded independently
by the two researchers; an interrater agreement of 89.6% was reached for these qual-
itative data.
In addition, participants were asked demographic questions through a brief
questionnaire that included age, year in which they first tested positive for HIV, bio-
logical indicators of their health (CD4 and serum viral load levels), HIV antiretrovi-
ral medication regimens, and sexual activity in the three months prior to the inter-
view. These data were analyzed via descriptive computations.
RESULTS
SAMPLE CHARACTERISTICS
The sample consisted of 15 men ranging in age from 29 to 56, with a mean age of 36
years and mean of eight years that they had been living with a seropositive test
result. The men reported a mean CD4 (t-cell) count of 625; of the ten men indicating
viral load testing, four reported a negligible load, five reported a load of less than
2000 copies/ml of blood, and one a load over 20,000. Approximately 77% of the
participants were currently taking medications to treat HIV. In terms of relation-
ships, 38% identified a main partner, although only one participant who was in a
relationship indicated sex only with that partner. When asked about the number of
sexual partners, the participants’ answers ranged from 1 to 81, with an average of
approximately 25 men in the three months prior to the assessment.
416
CONCEPTIONS OF MASCULINITY
In both their direct responses and descriptions of behaviors, the majority of the par-
ticipants clearly indicated their association of masculinity with physical appearance
and sexual adventurism. The associations were most direct when the participants
spoke of the idealized masculine male, when they described their sexual partners,
and when they indicated their own routines and behaviors. One participant summa-
rized these ideas as follows:
I do a significant amount to make myself more masculine looking.

My workout, diet, and grooming are all pointed toward maintain-
ing attractiveness and sexual opportunity.
Occasionally, although with no consistent pattern, the data revealed alternative defi-
nitions of masculinity including “honesty,” “standing up for one’s beliefs,” and
“integrity.” Statements in this regard were made clearly by the participants, although
none of their own behaviors or those of their idealized masculine man illustrated
these other definitions of masculinity. Overwhelmingly, the data revealed ideologies
reflected in the words of one participant, Paul, a 40-year-old HIV positive man, who
suggested: “Society makes masculinity and physical appearance go hand in hand.”
BODY IMAGE AND PHYSICAL APPEARANCE
Almost all of the participants described the emphasis that they placed on their physi-
cal appearances. The statements reflected the importance that the men placed on
“looking good” and “feeling strong,” and also on how these elements interacted
with their sense of masculinity:
By taking care of my body, my masculinity is affected in a posi-

tive way.
Physical appearance does define masculinity on the outer shell.
Masculinity celebrates male form and virility.
To me a masculine guy has a big body. He doesn’t have to have a

big cock, but a big frame, muscular and strong.
For some, the emphasis on physical appearance was related to the impressions
that they manifested when they were seen in social situations. A few of the partici-
pants expressed an ongoing concern that they be perceived as masculine by potential
sexual partners because such a perception would increase one’s probability of meet-
ing that sexual partner. This notion was related to what was revered by the gay com-
munity and what was sanctioned as appropriate masculine appearance. Tom, a 46-
year-old man who has been HIV positive for eleven years, summarized this reality:
417
PERRY N. HALKITIS
Initial perceptions of masculinity are strongly tied to physical

appearance. Well-built men usually give an initial feeling of mas-
culinity at first sight. Since I like this perception, since it matters a
lot to me to be masculine, I work out and watch my diet.
Similarly, Darcy, 32 years old, acknowledged:
The world likes hot bodies. And gay men do especially. If you
have a hot body that means you are strong, you’re a man. That’s
what’s expected of you so that’s what you do.
Some of the men verbalized the social pressures within the gay community to
conform to this hegemonic standard of masculinity. This ideal was related to the
appearance of toughness associated with masculinity and viewed as essential to the
appearance of a gay man. Philip, a 38-year-old, actively involved in the leather scene
and a recent contestant at International Male Leather Contest, unconditionally sup-
ported this concept of masculinity, suggesting that it is the core of what he is and
what he desires:
I am a man and want to be with men. Men are strong, muscular,

and tough. They roll around with each other. They have man sex,
masculine sex, the way two men are supposed to be with each
other.
Similarly, in describing this sanctioned ideology of masculinity by the gay commu-

nity, Mitchell, a 37-year-old man who has been HIV positive since 1986, suggested
the following:
Of course, you are told what to look like. When I first came out, I
had long hair and didn’t really work out. One trip to the Eagle [a
bar in New York City] and I knew that had to change. I cut my
hair real short and haven’t missed the gym for more than three
days in a row in years.
As noted earlier, several of the participants clearly outlined the steps that they
take to ensure the manifestation of their masculine as physical selves, including a
regimented exercise schedule and the use of nutritional supplements to enhance mus-
cularity and growth. However, some of the men did not view the undertaking of such
activities as directed solely toward their masculinity. Statements about body
enhancement efforts often were nested and intertwined with what the participants
believed to be essential elements of good health care. While some of the men sug-
gested that resistance exercise and the use of nutrition supplements do serve the pur-
pose of achieving the idealized masculine body, they also viewed these behaviors as
prerequisites to the overall physical and mental health of HIV positive gay men: “I
work out and bicycle to keep my body feeling healthy first and then looking good.”
Similarly, another participant commented as follows:
418
Some HIV positive men tend to overcompensate on the physical

aspects. Personally, I use a collection of weight-training enhance-
ments such as creatin, androstene, and HMB for the personal
choice to build muscle, not necessarily for my HIV. As a sec-
ondary consideration, by keeping my body as healthy as possible, I
can help stave off infections, and maintain my t-cells and low viral
load naturally.
Others were more direct in their commentary about the bodywork that they do to
enhance their masculinity:
Yes, I go to the gym five times a week and I know that probably
that’s a good thing for my health. But really, why I really go is to
look butch and pumped. You know I also do a testosterone shot
every two weeks; it just makes my pecs bigger.
My boyfriend and I work out together like almost every day.

Sometimes I wonder if it’s worth it; I mean we look buff and then
you go to the bars and there’s all this lard. So I guess I work out
for my health, but I think it’s more to look hot.
However, these body-enhancing behaviors were not always presented in a glam-

orized or idealized state. A few of the participants indicated their disdain of behaving
in this manner, as suggested by one 28-year-old who said the following:
Idiots like me go to the gym five times a week because we buy

into this conception of masculinity because we believe it and
incorporate it into defining ourselves.
Central to the discussion of physical appearance was the use of body-enhancing

substances, such as nutritional substances and anabolic-androgenic steroids. Some of
the participants indicated that use of these substances helped them to achieve their
desired masculine appearance. Reflecting on this reality, several respondents in this
study discussed the reasons behind their use of such substances. Albert, a 29-year-
old HIV positive limousine driver, stated:
I don’t think that overcompensation of masculinity through the use

of substances such as testosterone, steroids, etc. is one that is
exclusive to HIV positive men. I think this is something that
affects a large portion of the gay male population regardless of
HIV status.
For many of the participants, use of substances such as testosterone was described as
a treatment for the effects of HIV infection, including loss of muscle mass and
decreased libido. Among the 15 men, the use of body-enhancing substances such as
nutritional supplements and testosterone were seen as a necessity to counteract the
419
PERRY N. HALKITIS
ravages of the HIV virus rather than a step toward a fulfillment of what they per-
ceive to be masculine. Similarly, a few of the participants also indicated the use of
Viagra to counteract the penile dysfunction associated with their medication regi-
mens and HIV. In this regard the following comments were made:
HIV causes low testosterone levels and that can make a man feel
lethargic; meds can make getting an erection a challenging event.
Viagra alleviates that.
I see testosterone as maintenance of normal function in the face of

what appear to be side effects of the HIV medications I’m taking.
Others were more direct in their comments about steroid use for both aesthetic and
medicinal purposes. The use of the treatment to achieve both purposes is reflected in
this comment:
Testosterone and Viagra and stuff like that are related to masculin-
ity. If a man can’t perform, especially one that wants to but physi-
cally can’t, it’s a huge damper on one’s masculinity.
The notion that HIV may be the cause of this emphasis on physicality is an idea
with which every participant agreed. Several, in fact, suggested that they closely
monitor their health, the byproduct of which is a life oriented toward the physical,
and in turn physical appearance. Reflecting upon this idea that HIV is the cause of
this overemphasis on masculinity as physicality, Tony, 29 years old, summarized
these ideas as follows:
Some of the side effects of HIV can lessen the physical appearance
which seems to be a big part of a masculine image, which could be
threatening to you if you felt like it made you look less than mas-
culine.
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR
For many of the participants, sexual behavior, and more specifically sexual adven-
turism, were intimately tied to the constructs of masculinity as physicality. However,
comments regarding sexual behavior were made less frequently than those com-
ments about physical appearance and masculinity. Comments regarding sex were
often associated with both the frequency of the sexual behaviors as well as the
adventurism associated with sexual encounters: “I try to have sex as much as possi-
ble, with as many men as possible, and as anonymously as possible.”
For a few of the participants, the need for frequent and adventurous sex was
heightened by their seropositive status. This impact of serostatus on sexual behavior
was related by three of the men as an affirmation of their attractiveness, and, in
effect, their masculinity. In this regard, Philip, 28 years old, noted:
420
Sex is so important to me, maybe more important than before,

when I was negative. By being with men, I feel desired, I feel
wanted. When a man wants me it means that all my efforts to look
hot, to have a great body have paid off. Yeah, that makes me feel
more sure of my masculinity.
A few of the participants suggested the AIDS epidemic has forced gay men, col-
lectively, to reexamine their sexuality. One of the participants suggested that “sex
affirms strong physical needs as well as social needs,” as he attempts to form social
networks with his peers. He and others suggested that, in the age of AIDS, the con-
dom may have served to prevent the spread of the epidemic, but also served as an
emotional barrier, preventing the social needs from being fulfilled. About half the
men revealed their dislike of condom use and spoke of intentional anal sexual inter-
course without condoms (i.e., barebacking) with other HIV positive men as a means
of overcoming this emotional barrier associated with sex. Several men suggested that
sex was an affirmation of life, and by barebacking they could “share their manhood
with others.” To this point, one of the participants noted:
An HIV positive man is able to perform in the way a man is pre-

scribed to perform, to overcome the impact of the virus and prove
to oneself that one is still strong, sexual, virile, and masculine.
In this view, several men associated the attainment of the physical ideal with a
desire to achieve sexual prowess as a reaffirmation or demonstration of their mas-
culinity. One of the participants described the role of the masculine man as the
“hunter-gatherer who seeks his conquest in other men; the more he succeeds, the
more he is able to prove his manhood, his desirability, his masculinity.” Reflecting
upon the importance and meaning of sex as an affirmation of his masculinity in light
of his HIV status, Peter, a 36-year-old who has been HIV positive for five years,
commented:
HIV positive men take advantage of sexual opportunities more

than HIV negative men, perhaps because they feel due to their sta-
tus they may get less opportunities in total. For example, in a bar
you might strike up a conversation, which seems to be headed to
the bedroom. But it quickly dissipates when your positive status is
revealed. When your partner is willing, you move fast.
While comments about sexual behavior and masculinity were limited, the asso-
ciation between men’s behaviors and their conception of their masculinity was at
least partially suggested by their comments. More specifically, the association
between sex and masculinity appeared to be somewhat indirect and driven primarily
by the emphasis that HIV positive gay men place on their physical appearance. This
notion is mostly clearly reflected in the answer of one participant who said:
421
PERRY N. HALKITIS
Do men overcompensate for their masculinity through steroids and

sex? Are you kidding? Of course, they do. Free legal steroids?
Sure I want to look good. Barebacking parties? Where do I sign
up? I’m sure it has everything to do with masculinity and vitality.
DISCUSSION
Certainly, based solely on the words of these 15 gay HIV seropositive men, an argu-
ment can be made that for some, masculinity is defined by physical appearance, thus
giving further impetus to the “buff agenda” (Halkitis, 1999a; 1999b; Signorile,
1997). This perception is supported by the comments made by the participants in this
investigation and is demonstrated both by the behaviors and attitudes that this subset
of HIV positive men associate within this social construction.
The purposive sample used for this investigation was chosen to help illustrate
the hegemonic conception of masculinity and the extent to which this socially domi-
nant sexuality requires conformation to an abstract model in order to be attractive
and also to be attracted to others who possess it (Gough, 1989). Clark (1997) argues
that the gay male ghetto emphasizes these values, perhaps at the expense of prevent-
ing gay men from learning the “important lessons of life.” While this is one of many
permutations of masculinity (Plummer, 1999), the intent of this investigation was to
explore this social construction more fully among men who possess this ideological
orientation toward masculinity. Our data help to indicate, in a concrete way, the
behaviors and beliefs of these men as well as the emphasis they place on strong
physical appearance and bodies. The importance attributed to this reality is under-
scored by a desire to remain healthy and combat the HIV virus, but more importantly
to give the impression of virility and health to others with whom they come in con-
tact. It was suggested that such an appearance is expected within the gay community
and results in a greater acceptance by sexual partners.
A majority of the men in our investigation endorsed the importance of a strong
physical appearance as means of reflecting toughness, strength, power, and health.
Our data suggested that buff appearances are achieved through physical exercise and
the use of body enhancing substances. This look is characteristic of the masculine
male in the gay community and a requirement if one is to attract sexual partners and
succeed in the courting ritual of the gay community. While some of the participants
described this appearance as a natural byproduct of behaviors that they undertook to
maintain their overall health in light of HIV infection, others were more direct in
suggesting that such appearances were mandated by the social circles in which they
interacted and thus this was the impetus for undertaking these body enhancing
behaviors. While this conception of masculinity was described by men with whom
we spoke at the end of the twentieth century, this social construction has earlier his-
torical roots (Gough, 1989; Harris, 1997). Further, it has also been suggested that
this conception of masculinity is intimately tied to the experience of the male body
(Flannigan Saint-Aubin, 1994).
In addition, our participants indicated the use of anabolic-androgenic steroids as
a means of enhancing physical appearance. While some used these substances to
counteract the effects of HIV, others also perceived it as a “manhood supplement”
422
(Sullivan, 2000). This phenomenon has been noted elsewhere (Beel, 1998; Signorile,
1997). In one recent study of recreational drug use among men in New York City
(Halkitis & Parsons, 2000), the data indicated that 17% of seropositive men fre-
quenting bars, dance clubs, and commercial sex environments reported using
steroids to enhance physical appearance. This use of steroids may possibly be related
to gay men’s greater body dissatisfaction (Beren, Hayden, Wilfey, & Grilo, 1996;
Schneider, O’Leary, & Jenkins, 1995). Signorile (1997) relates body dissatisfaction
among gay men to the development of a rigid set of standards of physical beauty
within the community associating physical perfection with sexual and social desir-
ability and masculinity.
In recent years, this hegemonic standard of masculinity has also become
increasingly associated with other physical attributes that seek to enhance the “butch
appearance.” In particular, tattoos and body piercings are not uncommon among gay
men who seek this standard of masculinity. These are often complemented by “all-
year” tans and darkened hair. One participant in this investigation spoke of his physi-
cal preparation at the gym, tanning saloon, and in his bathroom dying his hair before
an evening at the bathhouse: his “twelve steps to beauty” (Halkitis, 1999a).
Finally, the emphasis on masculinity as physicality is also manifested in the sex-
ual behaviors demonstrated by our participants. Sexual adventurism and frequent
sexual contacts were suggested as mechanisms by which one could affirm masculin-
ity and ultimately one’s desirability and virility, even while living with HIV infec-
tion. For some of the participants, the need for unprotected sex was a means of
asserting their masculinity and also as mechanism by which they could achieve a
social and emotional connection with other seropositive men. In this regard, Clark
(1992) argues that sexuality for gay men is ultimately about the relationality that
yields intimacy and communion. For some of the participants, this affirmation of life
was associated with bareback sex, intentional unprotected anal intercourse. While
barebacking has not been associated directly with perceptions of masculinity, several
sources indicated that this type of sexual behavior is increasingly common among
gay men, especially those of positive serostatus (Halkitis & Parsons, 1998; Halkitis,
Parsons, & Bimbi, 2000). Unfortunately, such risky behaviors have been noted
across all sectors of the gay community throughout the last several years (Halkitis &
Wilton, 1999; Kelly, Hoffmann, Rompa, & Gray, 1998; Remien, Halkitis, O’Leary
& Hays, 1998; Vanable, Ostrow, McKirnan, Taywaditep, & Hope, 2000) and have
been associated with both new seroconversions with medication-resistant strains of
HIV (Hecht et al., 1998; Pomerantz, 1999; Shafer, Winters, Palmer, & Merigan,
1998) as well as reinfection of HIV+ men with different strains of the HIV virus
(Angel et al., 2000; Ramos et al., 1999). Barebacking has becoming increasingly
popular among HIV+ gay men as evidenced in the popular press and has developed
within a gay cultural context (Halkitis, Parsons, & Bimbi, 2000).
LIMITATIONS
Our findings should be viewed with caution in light of the small sample that was uti-
lized in this investigation. Thus, attempts to generalize these findings to all seroposi-
tive men would be inappropriate. These 15 men were selected to participate because
423
PERRY N. HALKITIS
their behaviors suggested an emphasis on physicality and a likely association of their

social construction of a masculine man with physical appearance. While there was
no attempt to prove or disprove hypotheses in this investigation, alternative defini-
tions of masculinity were not explored fully. Our goal was to define behaviors and
assign meanings among men who upheld this notion of masculinity. Second, all the
participants were drawn from the New York City metropolitan area, which includes
a large and openly vocal gay community, where manifestations of gay identity and
masculinity are expressed openly within the society. While such communities are
evident in other cities across the United States, the cultural, political, and ideological
nature of New York create an environment unlike any other in the country.
In addition, based on the self-reports of biological markers and medication regi-
mens, this sample appears to be receiving adequate care for their HIV and to be rela-
tively healthy. Maintaining one’s health may be related to the emphasis on the physi-
cal described by these men, but also the ability to be concerned about appearance
may be a privilege that only healthy HIV seropositive men can experience. Thus, it
is unclear from these data if HIV seropositive men who are less healthy maintain
similar beliefs and behaviors around masculinity.
While we recognize that our findings are based on a small sample of men, the
extensive data gathered from each of our 15 participants certainly reinforce the
notions put forth here and provide the basis of a larger and perhaps quantitative
investigation of the phenomena to examine quantitatively the perceptions and atti-
tudes toward masculinity and the relationship between these perceptions and sexual
and body-enhancing behaviors.
A note should also be made about the sampling and data collection methodolo-
gies. Use of the Internet represents a new form of data collection for psychologists.
As such, much remains to be learned about this methodology as the bias in recruiting
participants in this manner for sexually related studies is different from those of tra-
ditional methods (Binik, Mah, & Kiesler, 1999). One study of gay men in Los Ange-
les has found that those who tend to use the Internet tend to be unemployed, dis-
abled, and less educated (Koch & Shockman, 1998). In the general population,
Internet users in the United States tend to be male, college educated, middle class,
and in their late 30s (The New York Times, 2000). Because we intentionally did not
collect sociodemographic data so to further enhance the privacy of the participants,
we cannot comment on this matter. Nonetheless, the validity of the knowledge gen-
erated from this investigation appears to be high as men spoke frankly about the sub-
ject matter and were willing to communicate on an ongoing basis to clarify their
responses. Turner and his colleagues (1998) have suggested that this method of data
collection is advantageous as it allows us to gather sensitive information in a manner
that ensures confidentiality and a high level of anonymity.
CONCLUSIONS
Our investigation is an initial step to try to disentangle the relationships between gay,
masculine, and HIV identities. Certainly, more elaborate studies need to be under-
taken to further clarify these issues. However, we are left with the impression, based
on the responses of our participants, that the AIDS epidemic has complicated gay
424
men’s attempts to define their masculinity in a society that views masculinity and
homosexuality as two non-overlapping realities (Badinter, 1992). This emphasis on
surviving AIDS is one that has rested in the minds of gay men since the onset of the
AIDS epidemic. Thus, the adoption of behaviors that assure physical strength and
virility, such as resistance exercise and steroid use can be viewed as a natural reac-
tion of HIV positive men to counteract lean body mass and side effects of medica-
tions. As has been demonstrated in these data, the biological constraints (from the
disease) and social pressures to re-identify in a way that bows to the sexual restric-
tions that AIDS demands make it extremely challenging to balance sexual, safe,
masculine, gay lives today. The “buff agenda” makes it all simpler as gay men rest
their sense of masculinity on the physical, on the outward appearance, seemingly as
an essential element of remaining healthy (Halkitis, 1999a). It is as if the perception
of the masculine as buff self has moved from being a social construction to one that
is viewed as essential and life-affirming in this period of “the plague.”
While it has been argued elsewhere that the AIDS epidemic has helped to shift
the emphasis of gay men from the “narrow ethics of sexual freedom” to caregiving
(Clark, 1995), the recent advances in HIV treatments, coupled with decreases in
AIDS-related deaths appear to have counteracted this movement toward caregiving.
Instead, a sense of complacency seems to have permeated all aspects of our society
regarding HIV, and for some HIV+ gay men, this complacency has led to a refocus
on the sexual freedoms of the gay community.
The behaviors of HIV negative men have also been affected by this acceleration
toward masculine-as-physical ideal. In a sense, HIV positive men, in their struggle to
survive the epidemic and in reaching out to the community for support and affirma-
tion (Lewis, 1999), have modeled behaviors regarding body image and sexuality that
have been adopted by HIV negative men. Further, the gay community as a whole has
sanctioned these behaviors as appropriate, often rejecting those who fail to comply
with these norms (Greene, 1997; Signorile, 1997; Sullivan, 1998). As a collective,
gay men throughout the United States, partially due to the epidemic and partially due
to the desire to obtain a masculine identity, have applied the “buff agenda” as the
standard (Halkitis, 1999a).
Connell (1995) clearly depicts the dilemma of gay men for whom there is no
place in the social construction of masculinity. Since the 1950s, many gay men have
attempted to construct their own code of masculinity that encompasses the same-sex
attraction. Attempts to accomplish this task have been related in part to usurping the
appearance of the butch male in place of the limp-wristed, well-groomed aesthete
(Harris, 1997). To some extent this “buff agenda” has been in place among gay men
since the 1950s as gay men strove for this physical ideal but has gained acceptability
due to the reality of AIDS. The seeds for this movement were laid decades ago; the
AIDS epidemic was a catalyst that justified and accelerated it (Halkitis, 1999a). Men
were “dying to look healthy.” In this milieu, conceptions of masculinity and physi-
cality become even more indistinguishable.
425
PERRY N. HALKITIS
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Book Reviews
Reflections on Anger: Women and Men in a Changing Society. By Christa Reiser.

Westport, CT: Praeger, 1999, x + 157 pp.
I had difficulty reading Christa Reiser’s book without getting angry at times. Perhaps
I should have anticipated my anger given the emotional and political volatility of
gender in our present day society. Is it possible then to write a book on anger without
getting angry? In my opinion, Reiser wasn’t able to, and this is what I found difficult
to digest about her book. To illustrate this point, in her final chapter, “Toward Gen-
der Peace,” Reiser appears to assign disproportionate blame to men for both the cur-
rent and future states of gender relations:
What the women in all of these studies are saying repeatedly is

that they no longer accept and tolerate domineering, condescend-
ing, inequitable, and physically and sexually abusive or exploitive
behaviors and attitudes. It would [therefore] seem appropriate to
stop teaching men that they are superior or privileged in any way
in regard to women, that they have a right to hoist their sexual
desires on women, and that it is masculine to be either physically
or emotionally aggressive. Instead, let us teach men to be more
communicative, sensitive, and responsible. On the other hand, it
also behooves us to encourage women to be more competent,
secure, and sensitive, and less manipulative and deceitful. (p. 142)
On the occasions when I interpreted this tone in the book, besides feeling defensive I
was left wondering how such feedback would foster “gender peace” instead of frac-
turing it further? Fortunately, reading in a broader light and shelving my emotions, I
found Reflections on Anger to offer a valuable discourse to understanding and ame-
liorating gender conflict in our society.
As the book title implies, Reflections on Anger: Women and Men in a Changing
Society explores anger between the sexes within the context of changing societal
gender norms. The book is built around “Reiser’s analysis” and interpretation of 50
in-depth interviews of mostly middle-aged, middle-class women and men in semi-
Permission to reprint a book review printed in this section may be obtained from the reviewer.
431
BOOK REVIEWS
rural North Carolina. The ultimate purpose of the book is to uncover explanations for
anger between the sexes to create greater gender harmony.
Reiser contends anger is too often overlooked by researchers, perhaps as a result
of our personal discomfort with the emotion—with its intensity, its unpredictability,
its threat to our sense of control, and uncertain norms about displaying anger. Reiser
feels it’s essential to understand anger’s role in gender relations so the sexes can
“reduce it, manage it, and move forward to gender peace” (p. 6). Most prior research
on anger and gender has focused on only one sex’s experience of anger, and not nec-
essarily in relation to the opposite sex.
Reiser explores intergender anger at three levels of experience: personal, gen-
eral, and abstract. Respondents are asked about their anger toward the opposite sex
based on their close, personal experiences with members of the other sex; their gen-
eral experiences with or perceptions of the opposite sex; and finally, their personal
theories about why their own sex may be angry with members of the opposite sex. In
a clever move, Reiser goes a step further by asking respondents what angers them
about their own sex, and to theorize why the opposite sex may be angry at members
of the respondent’s sex. This multicontextual approach allows Reiser to compare
whether and how each sex’s anger complaints converge across the different contexts
of experiences, as well as to compare how close in agreement the sexes are on what
makes each other angry. That is, are behaviors that males attribute to making
females angry consistent with those behaviors females actually report, and vice
versa? The beauty of this information is it informs scholars of the nature of the gap
between the sexes; the closer the two sexes agree on what makes each other angry,
the less gap there remains to be bridged to harmonious relations.
The layout of Reiser’s book is divided into essentially three parts. Chapters 1-5
provide some overview of theories of anger and reasons why anger might arise in
gender relations. Chapter 5 also provides an informative background of respondents’
anger beliefs and experiences from their families of origin. Chapters 6 and 7 detail
Reiser’s thematic findings on men’s and women’s angers toward each other, as well
as toward their own genders, across personalized, generalized, and abstract levels of
experience. The findings, which progress across the different levels of experience
and alternate by sex, are a little difficult to follow. I found myself having to back up
to remind myself which experience level (personal, general, or abstract) the findings
were reflecting upon. However, a benefit of this format was it allowed for quick
comparisons between the sexes. Chapters 8 and 9 discuss each sex’s positive and
negative evaluations of the perceived impacts of societal changes on gender relations
and provide a helpful synthesis of the study’s findings as well as implications for
reducing gender conflicts.
So what angers men about women? And women about men? Curious readers
will need to see Reiser’s book for the whole story. A brief sample is given here. The
majority of both male and female respondents reported being angered by a lack of
respect as well as irresponsible behavior by the opposite sex. Both sexes also con-
curred that changing gender norms have in varying ways contributed to increased
gender conflict. In terms of gender distinctions, Reiser assessed female respondents
to be angrier and more specific and consistent about what made them angry. Male
respondents were more likely to believe other men were angry at women, rather than
432
BOOK REVIEWS
arriving at this evaluation from personal experiences. Unfortunately, both sexes’

appraisals of what angered the opposite sex about their own sex were incongruent
with the opposite sex’s actual reports, suggesting a gap in understanding.
I would have liked to have read more in-depth narratives in Reiser’s findings.
The author’s use of narrative was predominantly in the form of sentence fragments
or short sentences. Although this brevity makes for faster reading, I would have pre-
ferred a greater proportion of lengthier narratives (e.g., paragraphs), which offer
greater opportunities for interpretation by the reader. Narratives that are lacking in
sufficiency may leave the reader wondering if they’re getting the essence of what the
respondent said or what the interviewer heard, which may be different.
Reiser’s book should provide a stimulating springboard for further research. I
would be interested to know the meanings respondents attach to their reasons for
being angry. For example, when women and men identify “irresponsibility” as a
source of anger as they did in Reiser’s study, should we presume that their meanings
of “irresponsibility” are congruent? Or, are such explanations vulnerable to misinter-
pretation by one sex compared to how the other sex intends it? To help assess the
generalizability of Reiser’s findings, it would be useful to assess gendered anger
among men and women in other walks of life. Also, would interviewer gender affect
the tone of responses from same-sex versus opposite-sex respondents? Irrespective of
the focus of future research, researchers will do well to follow the precept of mutual
respect to both genders. The respondents in Reiser’s study have informed us so.
ROY FISH
The Ohio State University
Columbus, Ohio
Treating Emotional Disorder in Gay Men. By Martin Kantor. Westport, Connecti-

cut: Praeger Publishers, 1999, xi + 174pp.
I wasn’t expecting to like a book with “treating, emotional disorder, and gay men” in
the title. As a gay man who works with gay men in various settings, including as a
counsellor, I am often fearful of words like “treating” and “disorder” in the context
of gay men’s lives, particularly with the history of psychiatry of which we are famil-
iar. However, Martin Kantor, in writing Treating Emotional Disorder in Gay Men,
has produced a book that would benefit social workers, psychologists, psychiatrists,
counsellors, nurse-clinicians, and others who work with gay men experiencing emo-
tional difficulties. In fact, in the end I quite like this book and suspect that it would
be not only helpful, but might in fact re-frame some of the thinking and practice that
continues to go on in the counselling of gay men.
Kantor presents a discussion of the various types of psychotherapy used in treat-
ing psychopathologies in gay men. He identifies: (A) Affirmative: based on the
school of thought which supports that homophobia and heterosexism is the primary,
if not the sole, cause of psychopathology in gay men; (b) Reparative: which supports
the notion that homosexuality is a pathology in and of itself and can be repaired; and
(c) Supportive: which is, in general, “less concerned about the patients’ sexuality
than the patients’ intra psychic and interpersonal problems” (p. 7). Supportive psy-
433
BOOK REVIEWS
chotherapy is discussed more fully than the other two approaches and is used as the
framework for discussion of various DSM-IV disorders and psychopathologies.
In this initial discussion, Kantor identifies his professional and political beliefs
at the outset of the book, which I very much appreciated. For example, he says that
he supports a psychotherapy that incorporates a sociopolitical analysis as well as the
personal needs of the patient. Second, he supports a therapeutic approach that func-
tions within the constructs of the DSM-IV but is clear that this approach must be fil-
tered through the gauze of the homosexual lifestyle. And, although Kantor talks
pejoratively about affirmative psychotherapy, he recognizes the need for, and use of,
this approach in facilitating certain aspects of what he believes is the most beneficial
therapeutic approach: supportive psychotherapy. Kantor supplies his reasons why he
does not support any aspect of the reparative approach. He does, however, point out
that it has been, and continues to be, used as a means of therapy within some situa-
tions in therapeutic psychology and counselling.
With regard to supportive psychotherapists, Kantor says that they “recognize
that a gay man’s problems can be as much the product of his personal difficulties as
of society’s disapproval of his homosexual lifestyle” (p. 7). In addition, he says they
“are at once affirmative in their attitude toward, as well as traditionally psychologi-
cally minded about their patients” (p. 7). Finally, Kantor locates his philosophical
and practical positions within psychotherapy by saying: “The goal of supportive psy-
chotherapists is to make a dynamically based diagnosis the basis of a rational,
doable, treatment plan attuned to the special needs of gays as a group and to the
unique problems of the specific individuals undergoing therapy” (p. 9). In detailing
the techniques of making a diagnosis using a supportive therapeutic framework,
Kantor suggests therapists (1) determine the patient’s chief complaint, (2) take a past
history, (3) look for affective changes like depression, euphoria, or flattening affect,
(4) evaluate insight, and (5) identify motivation for treatment. In addition, he notes
that certain special parameters need to be considered when assessing prevalence or
existence of psychopathology. Kantor proposes “being gay can, and often does,
change the superficial presentation of familiar psychopathology” (p. 11).
Following his introductory chapter, Kantor proceeds to address the following
psychopathologies under the treatment paradigm of supportive psychotherapy, dis-
cussing each in terms of its effects and consequences for gay men: (1) paranoia, (2)
depression, (3) grief, (4) hypomania, (5) The Paraphilias, (6) disorders due to stress
and trauma, (7) The Personality Disorders—Cluster A—odd, eccentric, (8) The Per-
sonality Disorders—Cluster B—dramatic, emotional, erratic, (9) The Personality
Disorders—Cluster C—anxious, fearful, other and (10) Identity Disorder.
Kantor treats each of the above chapters in such a way as to maintain a level of
practical professionalism while at the same time capturing and holding the attention
of the reader through the use of stories and informative anecdotes. He begins his
concluding chapter, “Supportive Psychotherapy,” with “supportive psychotherapy
for gay men with emotional problems can eliminate a broad range of emotional diffi-
culties in gay men” (p. 141) and suggests that therapists treat the man in the context
of his homosexuality, not the homosexual man and his emotional problems. With
this in mind, Kantor believes that most gay men enter psychotherapy with the same
types of problems as straight men.
434
BOOK REVIEWS
Kantor manages a fine line, I would suggest, rather well. That is, he maintains
that gay men are both similar and different from their straight counterparts without
pathologizing their sexuality, or them because of their sexuality, while at the same
time recognizing the need to remember that the client is gay and may have lived, or
finds himself presently, in social contexts that are homophobic and/or heterosexist
and, therefore, needs a different therapeutic approach because of his sexuality.
So in the end, even though I might have some difficulty with the discourse that
frames the issue of gay men experiencing emotional difficulties, I do recommend
this book to therapists who work with men and gay men in particular.
BLYE FRANK
Mount Saint Vincent University
Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
Body Image: Understanding Body Dissatisfaction in Men, Women and Children.

By Sarah Grogan. London: Routledge, 1999, vi + 225 pp.
Chapter 1 of Body Image is a preview of the upcoming chapters. Grogan starts out
Chapter 2 looking at how we have moved toward seeing thinness as healthy. Grogan
reports that up until the 1920s thinness was not seen as an ideal. Slenderness, she
contends, is not an outcome of medical research, but results more from social pres-
sures to be slender, grounded in “culturally based esthetic preferences” and health
concerns. Grogan begins to introduce men into the arena of body image, indicating
that there has been movement away from the male body as an object having homo-
erotic connotations. She states that advertisers are using the naked male torso in
mainstream advertising on a regular basis.
Chapter 3 focuses on women and body satisfaction. Grogan references various
research studies that find women are in general dissatisfied with their bodies, specifi-
cally the lower portion. She also discusses how women are quick to identify what is
“wrong” with their bodies, but find it quite difficult to identify parts of their body
they find satisfactory. Grogan shares research done by Kevin Thompson that found
women tend to overestimate parts of their body size by approximately 25%. The
author also discusses gender differences when it comes to exercise. She sites
research by Furnham and Greaves that women were more likely than men to identify
exercising as a way to control weight, change body shape, and promote attractive-
ness and health. The author also looks at female bodybuilding, citing a broad spec-
trum of views: one view sees female bodybuilding as the “radical cutting-edge of
feminist resistance to cultural ideals” (p. 48); another as women’s attempt to con-
form their bodies into a culturally acceptable firm, toned, and solid form as a result
of cultural pressures. The reader will also find data about cosmetic surgery and gen-
der differences. Grogan cites, among others, Kathryn Morgan, who believes that
women may feel they are making a free choice about cosmetic surgery, but states
they are not free because of patriarchal, cultural pressures.
Chapter 4 looks at men and body satisfaction. Herein, there is a general agree-
ment that most men are interested in developing a mesomorphic shape, rather than
ectomorphic or endomorphic build. She cites research that men with the mesomor-
435
BOOK REVIEWS
phic shape are seen as “strong, happy, helpful and brave” (p. 58). The author reports
findings by Cash that 34% of men were dissatisfied with their looks, 41% with their
weight, and 32% with muscle tone. Grogan shares results from a study in which one
hundred men were given a body image questionnaire; whereas only 6.3% said they
were generally not happy with their body, 72% said they would feel better if they
became more muscular. Also, 23% of the men reported exercising for health and fit-
ness, 41% for weight/shape/appearance, 21% for stress relief, and 30% for social
reasons, and 40% said they had dieted at one point. It is also reported at the
Belvedere Clinic that male clients pursuing cosmetic surgery had risen from 10% in
1989 to 40% in 1994.
Chapter 5 introduces the reader to media effects on the body image of men and
women. The author indicates there is agreement that there is less pressure on men
than women to fit a particular shape or size. She does indicate a change in society’s
attitudes toward the male body, a change in the images we see of the “young, lean,
muscular male body” (p. 96), which has put greater pressure on men to look thinner
and more muscular. Grogan also cites various researchers who connect increasing
instances of body dissatisfaction and low self-esteem in men to a greater pressure to
conform to a body ideal. In general, the author contends, whereas women get their
body image cues from media representations, men do not:
most adult men we have interviewed report minimal effects of

media imagery on their body esteem. Adults and 16-year-olds
were more likely to report how they compared themselves with
male friends and wanted to match those who were more muscular.
An interesting difference between interviews with men and with
women is that adult men tended to see media images as realistic
goals. There was a general feeling that they could look like the
media images if they wanted to, but that they did not care enough
about the way they look to spend time weight training. Spending
time trying to look good was generally thought to be feminine—
and therefore inappropriate—behavior. (p. 111)
Chapter 6 addresses age, social class, ethnicity, and sexuality. Here the author
reports that girls as young as eight report dissatisfaction with their body weight and
shape and indicate a preference for the socially acceptable slender body. Although
Grogan indicates a lack of research about body satisfaction in boys, she cites one
study that found that 31% of nine-year-olds, 22% of 10-year-olds, 34% of 11-year-
olds, and 41% of 12-year-olds wanted to be thinner. She also states that boys are
aware of differences in body shape at approximately five years, when they indicate a
preference for mesomorphic build. Grogan says that when looking at pre-adolescent
boys and girls, both groups are fearful of becoming fat, and they therefore yield to
the slender ideal. When looking at changes in body satisfaction in females as they
age, Grogan found that there was no change from age 10 to over 60. She concluded
that social pressures to be thin impact women of all ages. She also found that “older
men are just as dissatisfied as younger men with their attractiveness, even though
they move further away from the slender, muscled societal ideal as they become
436
BOOK REVIEWS
older” (p. 131). When considering sexuality and body image, she cites a study com-
pleted at the University of Washington, which found that gay men and heterosexual
women had the highest levels of body dissatisfaction, to the point where gay men
were even less satisfied than heterosexual women were.
Grogan’s conclusions and implications are the focus of Chapter 7. She states that
race, gender, and sexuality are likely to predict body dissatisfaction and that age or
class is unlikely to have an impact. Men are likely to be more satisfied than women
are, but older, white, and gay men may be more dissatisfied. Grogan also reports that
self-esteem correlates highly with body satisfaction in men and women and that indi-
viduals with high self-esteem tend to feel good about their bodies. The author looks at
psychological techniques for improving body image. She believes that increasing per-
ception of control via group discussions may result in improved body image. She also
suggests that training in self-efficacy as well as assertiveness may increase body sat-
isfaction. The author also suggests that moderate exercise, for the purpose of “mas-
tery rather than aesthetics” (p. 184), can improve body satisfaction.
I found this book to be a well documented review of the research on body image
in the United States and the United Kingdom. This book’s greatest strength is its use
as a springboard into current research on body image; it provides the reader with suf-
ficient direction to pursue other areas of body satisfaction. As a counselor, I would
likely direct a client to a source with more first-person narratives related to body
image and satisfaction. I believe this book is an excellent reference point to begin a
research effort or to find supporting research for a class lecture on body satisfaction.
STU JOHNSON
Luther College
Decorah, Iowa
Sentimental Men: Masculinity and the Politics of Affect in American Culture.

Edited by Mary Chapman and Glenn Hendler. Berkeley: University of California,
1999, 288 pp.
Sentimental Men collects 13 essays examining the intersections of sentimentality and

masculinity in nineteenth-century texts and practices. Work with a predominantly lit-
erary/textual focus (concerned with canon formation and discursivity) and culturalist
work (interested more in social practices and power relations) brings welcome illumi-
nation to a neglected figure—the “sentimental man” erased from the critical account-
ing of nineteenth-century literature and society. As the scholarship of gender and race
has done, this recuperative work expands knowledge of certain blind spots of canon
formation. It also demonstrates the interesting cultural truth that purportedly marginal
figures (like the sentimental man) have always been a significant part of our cultural
landscape—in fiction, advice manuals, historical narrative, and the marketplace. In
this wide-ranging collection, the sentimental man emerges not as the social threat or
problem assumed by traditional criticism but as a liminal figure through which men’s
studies scholars are able both to problematize the critical binaries of the Western
canon and to enrich our historical understanding of American masculinity.
Chapman and Hendler introduce their volume with Time magazine’s jibe at
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BOOK REVIEWS
George Bush’s weeping (reported as “surprising”) during a performance by the Oak

Ridge Boys. Chapman and Hendler take Time’s “surprise” as a cue; Sentimental
Men, they write, is intended to “revise and complicate any understanding of senti-
mentality that occludes the meaning of such performances of masculine affect—to
make the history and cultural significance of an American president’s tears more leg-
ible” (p. 2). The fact that this linking of sentimentality and masculinity at the very
seat of white male power does nothing to threaten or destabilize that power invites
some questions: What do we gain politically by uncovering and explicating the senti-
mental man? Is he the transgressive figure his defiance of traditional categories sug-
gests? What does articulating public masculinity to a discourse previously “owned”
by others (women, gay men, the “private and personal”) add to resources for resist-
ing traditional male dominance? Could the recuperation of sentimentality from con-
notations of anti-intellectualism and banality by revealing its previously occluded
presence within the traditional American canon provide fodder for those wishing to
defend that canon as more inclusive (of “feminine” or marginal discourse, for
instance) than critics of gender and race have claimed?
Several essays here deploy the sentimental man to open up questions about cul-
tural practices. Karen Sanchez-Eppler’s “Then We Clutch Hardest: On the Death of
a Child and the Replication of an Image” and Glenn Hendler’s “Bloated Bodies and
Sober Sentiment: Masculinity in 1840s Temperance Narratives” identify the senti-
mental man as part of an extremely flexible and adaptable hegemony of white male
dominance. Their descriptions of post-mortem child photography and sobriety testi-
monials, respectively, illustrate that, rather than being a threat to status quo mas-
culinity, the nineteenth-century sentimental man was part of a more broad-reaching
male hegemony than that portrayed in either traditional historiography or its feminist
revisions. Even as this research expands our knowledge of nineteenth-century social
relations, it adds to the stores of resistance necessary for facing our current condi-
tions by reminding us of the length and breadth of male hegemony’s reach.
Bruce Burgett’s “Masochism and Male Sentimentalism: Charles Brockden
Brown’s Clara Howard” and Martin Berger’s “Sentimental Realism in Thomas
Eakin’s Late Portraits” hinge their arguments on ideas about affect and the body and
the importance of embodied emotion to any discussion of gendered/gendering prac-
tices. Berger reveals a discursive connection (a commitment to emotional truth and
psychological honesty) between sentimental portraiture and the later realism of
Eakin’s work that disrupts the masculine/feminine binary dividing (and mutually
defining) sentimentalism and realism in American art criticism. Burgett argues that
Clara Howard offers a critique of the logics of embodiment that came to dominate
nineteenth-century criticism by proposing the “counterpossibility of ungendered sen-
timental citizenship”(p. 220). This counterpossibility (that gender, sexual identity,
and citizenship are not “embodied” in any natural or simple way) provides a persua-
sive link between Brown’s novel and recent arguments over identity politics in femi-
nist and queer theory.
The ways in which critical readings of literature are continually re-inflected by
developments in theoretical perspectives can tend to make the social context of liter-
ary production seem rather too malleable, too easily recoupable to whatever terms
the critic brings to the textual object. The triumph of the literary critic (at revealing a
438
BOOK REVIEWS
suppressed figure, or identifying an exclusionary trope) sometimes belittles the real

social effects of binaries that align, for instance, masculinity and femininity into sep-
arate but unequal spheres. While the exertions of canonical exclusion can be undone
textually by the diligent critic, the ideological power of male hegemony and white
privilege that misreads and excludes in the first instance is not so easily countered.
Fortunately, the textually focussed essays here tend to discuss literature as a kind of
historical record, a guide to the structure of feeling of its time. Vincent J. Bertolini’s
“Fireside Chastity: The Erotics of Sentimental Bachelorhood in the 1850s” proposes
the bachelor of nineteenth-century fiction as a “purely conceptual entity … and not
… a practical (that is, activity-oriented) sexual identity” (p. 21). In this, Bertolini
notes the beginnings of a modern identity for the single male, one suspended
between boyhood and manhood, perpetually on a trajectory from the subversive
space of his lonely fireside to the domestic space of marriage and family. Kirsten
Silva Gruesz (in “Feeling for the Fireside: Longfellow, Lynch, and the Topography
of Poetic Power”) notes the way in which Longfellow worked the margins of intel-
lect/intuition, originality/sentimentality, and civic/domestic in his writing, to the
detriment of his standing in the canon. Gruesz discusses Longfellow’s “domestic”
poetry in the context of the social and discursive relations that, to an extent, dictated
its popular reception, subject matter, and critical evaluation.
The major accomplishment of this volume is that the transgressions and compli-
cations already present in the supposedly monolithic canon are brought to light,
adding texture and detail to the discourse of a nineteenth-century we think we
already know, but which, in some ways, we’ve been prevented from knowing at all.
In this way, Sentimental Men is a substantial, and damning, sheaf of evidence; testa-
ment to an American society that has always been more complicated than its official
version. As the editors note, presidents from Washington to Bush have unashamedly
shed tears in public. Given the panorama of male sentiment on display in this book,
only a magazine as inextricably tied to the masculine public sphere as Time could
still be surprised by this.
JON PHELOUNG
Augustana College
Rock Island, Illinois
Taking Care of Men: Sexual Politics In The Public Mind. By Anthony McMahon,
Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1999, vii + 232 pages.
Reading Anthony McMahon’s new book reminds one of those pundits who say that
the new man is everywhere but he is nowhere to be found, at least not in discussions
of the most important aspects of real change. McMahon wrote this book because he
felt that “something was missing from most discussions about men and social
change: A serious recognition of the central role men’s material interests play in
their motivation to defend the gendered status quo” (p. vi). McMahon concludes that
just as women continue to take care of men, so too does the new rhetoric about men
and change (more rhetoric than change). Despite all the talk of SNAG’s (Sensitive
New Age Guys) and mass mediated discussions of the post-feminist era, we are still
439
BOOK REVIEWS
left with an arbitrary and unjust sexual division of domestic labour. Why? Because
underlying all of the rhetoric, men’s material interests present us with strong mater-
ial motivation to resist pro-equity change. While making his case, the author gives us
a broad analysis based in statistical data, interview transcripts, and media analysis
that take into consideration a variety of social, psychological, media, and cultural
theories made accessible to scholars in a variety of disciplines.
The book is divided into three parts. “Part One: The Interests of Men” contains
two chapters that serve to introduce readers from a variety of disciplines to the book.
The first discusses the traditional meaning of having a “wife” as part of the division
of labour and a male right. McMahon resists the temptation to develop a universal
human nature onto which to ground his analysis. Instead, he pursues a middle course
discussing the social construction of masculinity in relation to a struggle over inter-
ests that are historically and socially dependent. Here McMahon takes us to an
uncomfortable zone of analysis claiming that much of the silence in men’s studies
about the real reason for the sexual division of labour is something that any radical
feminist knew 30 years ago: that men benefit from the exploitation of women. The
second chapter begins to delve more deeply into this issue exploring the actual phys-
ical and bodily work that goes into nurturing and the daily reproducing of humans by
linking it to an analysis of some of the grand narratives (Marxism in particular) that
have guided social analysis. Here we see that Marxism’s (for example) favouring of
analysis of production over reproductive work is linked to the choices women have
had to make between less competitive caring labour and “competing with the boys
on their own terms” (p. 60). McMahon correctly points out that many of our most
precious social scientific theories have been directly linked to the effort to resist
changing men. Given the traditional place of most male academics and theorists (a
job, the old joke said, “requires a wife”), in the gendered division of labour, another
reason for the silence becomes clear. Importantly, the more we perpetuate the
female/male sameness versus difference debate, it allows us to avoid looking at the
really difficult questions such as why men resist change. Here we see that a very
important part of change will be a restructuring of the discourse to issues of a deeply
personal nature. McMahon’s detailed analysis of the sexual division of domestic
labour reinforces research arguing that men constitute a social and not a biological
category.
“Part Two: The Revolving Door” contains three chapters that serve as the core of
the book. McMahon looks at the “stalled rhetoric” (p. 65) highlighting the ways in
which the so-called revolution in men has stalled. Here McMahon draws on social
scientific data showing that women still do the bulk of domestic activity and earn sig-
nificantly less than men earn. Who is it that takes parental leave? She whose income
is typically less and she who has maternity leave as opposed to he who likely has no
paternal leave. Whose career is set back by the mutual decision to have children and
who will be poorer for it if the partnership dissolves? She who typically made the
“choice” to take leave and remain home with the children for a period after birth.
McMahon mentions groups like the American Promise Keepers who perpetuate a
public discourse and a private practice of misogyny as well as a backlash against pro-
feminist men. The ability of such groups, who have a clear and vested interest in the
perpetuation of patriarchy, to capture media attention and public fascination is one
440
BOOK REVIEWS
more aspect of the effort of men to resist gender change in McMahon’s view. In this
media marketplace of images, the new man becomes just one more “stock image in
the cultural agenda” (p. 115). McMahon concludes this middle part of the book with a
thought-provoking analysis of the place of “new man” imagery in the cultural notion
that men need to be civilized by women. He posits that new man imagery is, in part,
another stage in the long history of making men fit for civilization.
“Part Three: The Blocked Door” takes us deeper into the most important contri-
bution of this book—its claim that men are employing a variety of strategies to avoid
open discussion of the real ways they benefit from patriarchal relations, not the least
of which is the amount of free time men have at their disposal in relation to their
spouse, especially after the birth of a child. After 20 years of promise, the real ques-
tion remains off the public agenda. Indeed it is hidden by discourses such as the per-
petuation of the difference versus sameness debate; myths of the ways in which
change hurts men psychologically or takes them from their essential masculine (read
biological) nature; the efforts of the Christian and conservative right to dominate
both women in the home and discourse on gender in public media. Each of these
provide remarkable vehicles for avoiding the biggest problem of all: The basic fact
that men benefit from the exploitation of women in material ways. For those of us
practising gender reform and change, we learn from this book that the personal is the
political for men as for women. If you want to know about the kind of world a man
wants to live in, look at the kind of domestic relations he perpetuates in his own
home. The home is where the heart is, and it is also at the core of real social change
for McMahon.
If I have one criticism of the book, it is that it needed to go further in an explo-
ration of strategies for dealing with the avoidance of the real issue for those inter-
ested in real change. Nonetheless, the book gives us much to think about including a
much-needed reassessment of our most cherished views about what the really impor-
tant issues are. For years I have been fighting the same battle as McMahon in my
sociology classes, often pointing to examples from my own domestic life. Men really
interested in changing the unjust and arbitrary gender order would do well to do the
same. This important book, which I recommend highly to educators, policymakers
and activists, will help us to look at the most important and deeply personal ques-
tions of all. In the meantime, much of the discourse on the new man that so fasci-
nates the public mind will continue to take care of men.
GERRY COULTER
Bishop’s University
Lennoxville, Quebec
Canada
441
Contributors
Katherine Allen is professor of family studies in the Department of Human Devel-

opment and faculty affiliate in the Women’ s Studies Program at Virginia Polytech-
nic Institute and State University. She is the past chair of the Virginia Tech Acad-
emy of Teaching Excellence and directs the Women’s Leadership Initiative of the
College of Human Resources and Education. She teaches courses and conducts
research in the areas of family diversity, human sexuality, and feminist family stud-
ies. She is the author of numerous articles and three books: Single Women/Family
Ties: Life Histories of Older Women; Women and Families: Feminist Reconstruc-
tions (co-authored with Kristine Baber); and Handbook of Family Diversity (co-
edited with David Demo and Mark Fine). ([email protected])
Scott T. Allison is professor of psychology at the University of Richmond, Virginia.

He received his Ph.D. in social psychology at the University of California, Santa
Barbara, in 1987. His research interests are in the areas of social cognition, inter-
group relations, social interdependence, and decision making. He and his colleagues
have published over 45 articles in professional journals and presented more than 65
papers at professional meetings. Allison is currently the webmaster of the Society of
Southeastern Social Psychologists. ([email protected])
James K. Beggan is an associate professor of psychology at the University of

Louisville in Kentucky. He received his Ph.D. in psychology from the University of
California, Santa Barbara. His research interests include the psychology of owner-
ship, self-enhancement, and decision-making. Recently, he has started a line of
research that examines psychological processes associated with medical decision-
making, including seeking cosmetic surgery and breast cancer rescreening. Beggan
regularly teaches courses in social psychology and research design. (james.beg-
[email protected])
Gerry Coulter is an associate professor of sociology and coordinator of the women’s

studies programme at Bishop’s University in Lennoxville, Quebec, Canada. (gcoul-
[email protected])
Kimberly Kay Danos received her Bachelor of Arts and Science with majors in
biology and Asian studies from Regis University in 1993. She continued her educa-
442
CONTRIBUTORS
tion at Kansas State University completing her Master of Science in counseling and
personnel services in 1997. Danos enhanced her graduate education with special
emphasis on counseling, biofeedback, and stress management. She was an active
member of the Kansas State University counseling services staff and research team
from 1995 to 1999. In 1999, Danos accepted a position with the Human Services
Planning Alliance in Des Moines, Iowa. She now focuses her research and work on
early childhood issues. Her research continues to encompass gender studies, applied
methods of biofeedback, effects of stress on brain development, the psychology of
poverty, and violent deviant behavior. ([email protected])
Roy Fish received his B.S. in psychology from Ohio State University. He is currently
a doctoral student in human development and family science at Ohio State University
and is a member of the American Men’s Studies Association. His research interests
include gender, marital satisfaction, and divorce. ([email protected])
Blye Frank is an associate professor in the Department of Education at Mount Saint

Vincent University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. In addition to teaching graduate
courses in research, he is head of the educational foundations programs and associate
chair of graduate studies in education. ([email protected])
Amanda Goldrick-Jones is an associate professor in the Centre for Academic Writ-

ing and women’s studies at the University of Winnipeg. A rhetorical critic with a
longstanding interest in gender issues and men’s relations with feminism, she sees
written communication as an effective way of conveying attitudes, values, and ideo-
logical differences. Her 1996 dissertation focused on Canada’s White Ribbon Cam-
paign against violence to women, and her published work has discussed this cam-
paign, Britain’s Achilles Heel magazine, and other profeminist projects. She has spent
time at the Changing Men Collection at Michigan State University and has visited pro-
feminist groups in North America, Britain, and Australia. Currently she is completing
a book entitled Men Who Believe in Feminism. ([email protected])
Perry Halkitis is a professor at New York University School of Education’s Depart-

ment of Applied Psychology and co-director of the Center for HIV/AIDS Educa-
tional Studies and Training. He is principal investigator of two major studies, the
Protease Inhibitor Longitudinal Life Study (Project PILLS) and the Club Drug
Men’s Health Study (Project BUMPS), both funded by the National Institute on
Drug Abuse. Project PILLS seeks to determine the impact of recreational drug use
on adherence to protease inhibitors among HIV positive men who have sex with
men. He is also co-prinicpal investigator for the Centers for Disease Control
Seropositive Urban Men’s Intervention Trial. ([email protected])
Mark A. Hurst is a licensed psychologist conducting private practice and consulta-

tion in Olympia, Washington. Raised in a family of boatbuilders, tugboaters, and
school teachers in the rural Pacific Northwest, he earned a master’s degree in clinical
psychology from Eastern Washington University and was awarded the doctorate by
Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. Dr. Hurst serves as adjunct faculty at the
443
CONTRIBUTORS
Evergreen State College, where he sponsors student-directed internships and creates

social psychology and men’s studies courses. His other projects address human
development and transition, media literacy, and film production about men’s inner
lives. ([email protected])
Stu Johnston works in the counseling service at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa.
He has worked as a counselor for five years and has been a member of AMSA for
three years. He has been married for 16 years and has a 10-year-old daughter.
Chi-Wei Lin, Ph.D. Kansas State University 1999, is director of the student counsel-
ing center and assistant professor in the College of Humanities and Education at
Chung Yuan Christian University. Lin’s clinical and research interests include per-
sonality disorders, anxiety disorders, at-risk youth, and voluntary services. (chi-
[email protected])
Jon Pheloung is an instructor of speech communication at Augustana College in

Rock Island, Illinois, where he teaches classes in political, economic, and social
aspects of communication. He is currently completing a dissertation on stardom and
its connection to contemporary cultural formations. ([email protected])
Andreas G. Philaretou, a native of Kyrenia, a small coastal city on the island of

Cyprus, earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in sociology from Virginia Tech
in Blacksburg, Virginia. He is currently a doctoral candidate at Virginia Tech. (aphi-
[email protected])
John M. Robertson, Ph.D., is a psychologist at University Counseling Services and

a member of the graduate faculty for the Department of Counseling and Educational
Psychology at Kansas State University. He also provides clinical services for South-
wind Counseling Services in Manhattan, Kansas. His professional interests focus on
issues related to the psychology of men, including relationships, emotionality, abuse,
gender-role transitions, and help-seeking behavior. ([email protected])
Lois A. West is an associate professor of sociology at Florida International Univer-

sity in Miami, Florida. She has a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Califor-
nia, Berkeley, and is author of Militant Labor in the Philippines and editor of Femi-
nist Nationalism. ([email protected])
Joyce Woodford, M.S., is a senior clinician at University Counseling Services,

Kansas State University. Her therapy and research interests are help-seeking, gender
differences, and issues of peace. Her work has included foci on women’s issues,
childhood abuse survival, and relationships. She also has an interest in the contempo-
rary subject of social interest through Adlerian Individual Psychology. She is com-
pleting a doctorate in clinical psychology at the Fielding Institute. ([email protected])
444
Acknowledgment of Reviewers
The following people served as reviewers for one or more manuscripts submitted to
The Journal of Men’s Studies during the 1999/2000-volume year. Their contribution
to the reviewing process is gratefully acknowledged.
Richard Benjamin Ian Harris James O’Neil

Stephen B. Boyd Kylo-Patrick Hart
Harry Brod Aminifu R. Harvey William Pollack
David Buchbinder Roy Hopkins
Lee E. Ross
D. Scott Campbell W. Brad Johnson
John CartaFalsa Jerome Schiele
Teresa Cooney Edward Kruk Michael Stevenson
Will H. Courtenay
Anthony Lanzillo Richard Tewksbury
William Doty Bogart Leashore
Jason Low Joanne Urschel
Martin Fiebert
Sam Femiano Wade Mackey Chris Whaley
Abby L. Ferber Kenneth Mazlen
Kory Floyd Todd Migliaccio
Mark Muesse
Robert Gurney
445
Index for Volume 9
THE JOURNAL OF MEN’S STUDIES
VOLUME 9 NUMBER 1 FALL 2000
ARTICLES
An Analysis of Stereotype Refutation in Playboy by an Editorial Voice:
The Advisor Hypothesis
JAMES K. BEGGAN, PATRICIA GAGNÉ, AND SCOTT T. ALLISON 1
"Looks Maketh the Man": The Female Gaze and the Construction of Masculinity
KEVIN GODDARD 23
Fathers’ Qualitative and Quantitative Involvement:
An Investigation of Attachment, Play, and Social Interactions
KERRY KAZURA 41
Representing Gay Men on American Television
KYLO-PATRICK R. HART 59
Behavioral Factors Associated with Disease, Injury, and Death among Men:
Evidence and Implications for Prevention
WILL H. COURTENAY 81
BOOK REVIEWS
Unlocking the Iron Gate: The Men’s Movement, Gender Politics,

and American Culture by Michael Schwalbe.
Reviewed by EDWARD READ BARTON 143
Ye Heart of a Man: The Domestic Life of Men in Colonial New England
by Lisa Wilson.
Reviewed by MARK E. KANN 145
The Decline of Males by Lionel Tiger.
Reviewed by DAVID J. ULBRICH 147
END MATTERS
Contributors 150
AMSA Call for Papers 152
VOLUME 9 NUMBER 2 WINTER 2001
ARTICLES
Lifestyle Factors Associated with the Sexual Assault of Men:
A Routine Activity Theory Analysis
RICHARD TEWKSBURY AND ELIZABETH EHRHARDT MUSTAINE 153
446
INDEX
Sex Between Men and Boys in Classical Greece:

Was it Education for Citizenship or Child Abuse?
ENID BLOCH 183
Marginalizing the Battered Male
TODD A. MIGLIACCIO 205
Black, and Navy Too: How African-American Sailors of the Vietnam Era
Asserted Manhood through Black Power Militancy
HERMAN GRAHAM, III 227
Close Emotional Relationships with Women versus Men: A Qualitative Study
of 56 Heterosexual Men Living in an Inner-city Neighborhood
LYNNE I. WAGNER-RAPHAEL, DAVID WYATT SEAL, AND ANKE A. EHRHARDT
Gender Role Conflicted Men’s Poor Parental Attachment and Separation/
Individuation Difficulties: Knights without Armor in a Savage Land
CHRISTOPHER BLAZINA 243
Teaching Men’s Studies in Religion at an All-women’s College
J. MICHAEL CLARK AND THE STUDENTS IN RS 220/WS 221 257
BOOK REVIEWS
Performance Anxieties: Re-producing Masculinity by David Buchbinder.

Reviewed by WHITNEY G. HARRIS 267
A Republic of Men: The American Founders, Gendered Language, and Patriarchal
Politics by Mark E. Kann.
Reviewed by ANTHONY AVERY 285
Masculinities and Identities by David Buchbinder.
Reviewed by J. MICHAEL CRUZ 286
Legacy: A Conversation with Dad by Ross E. Gray and Claire M. Gray.
Reviewed by SAM FEMIANO 288
The Rites of Men: Manhood, Politics, and the Culture of Sport
by Varda Burstyn.
Reviewed by BRANDON L BERRY 289
Great Mirrors Shattered by John Whittier Treat.
Reviewed by AARON JACOBSON 291
The Challenge of Same-Sex Marriage: Federalist Principles and Constitutional
Protections by Mark Strasser.
Reviewed by JACK STUART 293
END MATTERS
Contributors 295
447
INDEX
VOLUME 9 NUMBER 3 SPRING 2001
ARTICLES

ANDREAS G. PHILARETOU AND KATHERINE R. ALLEN 301
Pessimism, Paralysis, and Possibility: Crisis-Points in Profeminism
AMANDA GOLDRICK-JONES 323
The Playboy Rabbit is Soft, Furry, and Cute: Is This Really the Symbol
of Masculine Dominance of Women?
JAMES K. BEGGAN AND SCOTT T. ALLISON 341
Negotiating Masculinities in American Drinking Subcultures
LOIS A. WEST
The (Un)Emotional Male: Physiological, Verbal, and Written Correlates
of Expressiveness
JOHN M. ROBERTSON, CHI-WEI LIN, JOYCE WOODFORD,
KIMBERLY K. DANOS, AND MARK A. HURST 371
An Exploration of Perceptions of Masculinity among Gay Men Living
with HIV
PERRY N. HALKITIS 393
BOOK REVIEWS
Reflections on Anger: Women and Men in a Changing Society by Christa Reiser.

Reviewed by ROY FISH 413
Treating Emotional Disorder in Gay Men by Martin Kantor.
Reviewed by BLYE FRANK 431
Body Image: Understanding Body Dissatisfaction in Men, Women and Children by
Sarah Grogan.
Reviewed by STU JOHNSON 433
Sentimental Men: Masculinity and the Politics of Affect in American Culture edited
by Mary Chapman and Glenn Hendler.
Reviewed by JON PHELOUNG 435
Taking Care of Men: Sexual Politics In The Public Mind
by Anthony McMahon.
Reviewed by GERRY COULTER 437
END MATTERS
Contributors 442
Acknowledgment of Reviewers 445
Index for Volume 9 446
448
“A heroic work.”*
THE MEN AND THE BOYS
R. W. Connell
“Connell is the most fertile, astute and
influential analyst of the myriad and messy
meanings of masculinities on the planet.
The Men and the Boys boldly extends the
scope, depth and power of the foundational
work he laid in Masculinities to address the
most urgent and difficult questions about
global gender and injustice of our time.”
—*Judith Stacey, author of Brave New Families
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The Men’s Studies Press invites scholars to submit empirical and theoretical articles
for its new men’s health journal, the International Journal of Men’s Health, which
will be launched in the winter of 2002. The International Journal of Men’s Health
(ISSN: 1532-6306) will publish peer-reviewed papers addressing all aspects of
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are encouraged. Original interdisciplinary research and studies that analyze
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The International Journal of Men’s Health is intended for teachers, students, and
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medicine, and public health and whose interest is in or whose research examines
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public health workers, social workers, and sociologists will find the International
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Along with regular articles (approximately 6,000 to 8,000 words), the International
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Article in The Journal of Men s Studies · April 2001

James K. Beggan Scott T. Allison

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Reconstructing Masculinity and Sexuality

Pessimism, Paralysis, and Possibility: Crisis-Points in Profeminism

Negotiating Masculinities in American Drinking Subcultures

An Exploration of Perceptions of Masculinity among Gay Men

Reflections on Anger: Women and Men in a Changing Society

Treating Emotional Disorder in Gay Men by Martin Kantor.

Body Image: Understanding Body Dissatisfaction in Men, Women

Taking Care of Men: Sexual Politics In The Public Mind

Acknowledgment of Reviewers 445

Index for Volume 9 446

This paper attempts to synthesize general issues pertaining to

Key Words: masculinity, male sexuality, essentialism, con-

In this paper, we argue that contemporary men need to negotiate a reconstruction of

DECONSTRUCTION AND RECONSTRUCTION

To illustrate the deconstruction process, consider the following analogy. Deconstruc-

SEXUALITY AND POWER

Essentialist ideology has accorded considerable power to human sexuality, thereby

PERSPECTIVES ON HUMAN SEXUALITY

The essentialist view on research and theorizing about sexuality in Euro-American

THE BIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE

THE HISTORICAL, SOCIAL, AND CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE

MASCULINITY FROM A HISTORICAL, SOCIAL,

Masculinity ought to be viewed from a historical, social, and cultural perspective

[T]here is a constantly recurring notion that real manhood is differ-

Viewing masculinity as an achieved state (Brod, 1987; Gilbert, 1993; Gilmore

THE PROPAGATORS OF MASCULINE IDEOLOGY

Masculinity tends to be activated through a continuous group activity subject to the

[m]any societies have evolved elaborate rituals and rites of

Men in many cultures wage daily battle to prove to themselves and

Having deconstructed essentialist masculinity from a social constructionist perspec-

selective collection of the organizing principle elements of masculinity (Clatter-

MALE HEALTH CONSEQUENCES:

Abiding by the premises of traditional masculinity may prove hazardous to men’s

RECONSTRUCTING PERSONAL NARRATIVES

Abiding by the premises of existing sexual narratives is inherently limiting because

herself at the center of attention. He or she is, in effect, engaged in a process of

Listening to White [a key figure in the development and therapeu-

Most narrative therapists expose subjugated dominant discourses, such as essen-

What feeds the problem of male sexual anxiety? The essen-

The construction of preferred sexual stories almost always goes hand-in-hand

That is, societies construct the “lenses” [such as sexual lenses]

We are suggesting creating and establishing a less oppressing reality, namely an

work. New York: Basic.

Money, J. (1990). Agenda and credenda of the Kinsey scale. In D. P. McWhirter, S.

Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.

Legacy: A Conversation with Dad

Available at quality bookstores or at www.mensstudies.com

Has men’s anti-sexist or profeminist activism been following

Key Words: rhetoric of profeminism/pro-feminism, profemi-

THE EARLY 1970s:

… a response to feminism. Women were developing, and as they

BRITAIN IN THE ’70s:

… was not challenging sexism…. The belief that in changing our-

criticism, and the projects soon “ground to a halt” (p. 9).

AMERICAN PROFEMINISM IN THE 1970s AND ’80s:

. . . there has never before been an organized national movement

zation. The National Organization for Women was represented . . .” (Anti-Sexist,

Terms like “excitement,” “unity/unified,” “strength,” “spirit,” and “purpose” evoke