Changing Concept of Masculinity: opportunities and threats

Abstract

Mascu linity refers to the socially fashioned but personified ways of being male. That is to say men gain knowledge of to be men and th is learning is expressed both in term of social structures as well as in the ways in which present themselves in everyday life. So , for example, the idea of men's work' and women's work ' relates to social stru cture whereas the ways in which men speak, behave, gesture, and interact with other men and women reflects the personification of masc ulinity. This is the idea that some ways of being a man are better than others. These ideas about gender are produced at specific sites and these might include educational system, customary laws and regul ations, the state and its mechani sm, the family, religious norms and sanctions, popular culture, and, the media. It is impotent to remember that in all societies there exist multiple ways of being a man, however, and that the dom inant modals of masculi nity are always under challenge from other pos ition. That is to say, masc ulinity is not a re lationship between man and women, but also between men. So there is a particular relationship heterosexual and homosexual mascu linity. Therefore, it is more proper to speak of ' masculinities' rather than ' masculinity.