Men of Money

Book excerpt: In this book, sociologist Lynn Hortonexplores how the most dynamic sectors of the global economy—finance and technology—are shaping new forms of elite masculinity. She offers fresh insights into the often overlooked links between economic inequalities and the identity politics of gender and race. Through analysis of the lives and discourse of utra-visible male billionaires, Horton examines how extreme accumulations of wealth are both imbued with gendered celebrity and moral authority and harshly contested. She identifies the ways neoliberalism as an ideological project, advanced by elite-funded networks of think tanks and advocacy groups, draws on such masculinities to amplify and naturalize market-centered assumptions, values, and practices. Gender systems—relational and ranked constructs of masculinity/femininity—permeate neoliberal discourse of markets, the state, and the household. Horton also details the tensions and ties between technocratic elite masculinities which eschew open sexism and discrimination and rightwing populist mobilization of gendered and racialized anti-elite discourse.