Body Politics Rethinking Gender and Masculinity

Book excerpt: The research on men and masculinities traces back to the women’s and gay liberation movements that challenged existing understandings of gender and power. This proposes to look into gender as socially constructed than what was earlier thought to be biological. As a logical extension of Feminism, Masculinity Studies looks into sex/gender as a discursive social construct and tries to understand them through theoretical hermeneutics. Instead of considering masculinity to be ‘natural character type’, ‘a behavioural average’ or ‘a norm’, the focus should be given to the process through which the gendered bodies perform. In this regard, sex/gender is not fixed, instead is in a continuous flux; thus, masculinity should be recognised as a gender presentation that is continuously transforming and evolving. This volume, Body Politics: Rethinking Gender and Masculinity will engage with the current developments in the field of Masculinity Studies and will try to diversify the issues of gender and masculinity.