Feminism and men/masculinities scholarship: connections, disjunctions and possibilities

Abstract

This chapter reflects upon and extends my previous analyses of the relationship between contemporary Feminist and critical Men/Masculinities (MM) scholarship within the Gender/Sexuality field. These analyses considered the character of the relationship and/or highlighted the relationship by employing Feminist thought in discussion of particular questions of importance within MM studies. They attended to this relationship because MM studies makes central its debt and commitment to Feminist thinking.

The chapter concentrates on potentially dissonant theoretical directions between Feminist thought and pro-feminist MM scholarship. It is appropriate in the terms that MM scholarship sets for itself to consider the implications of a potential disjunctions between them for the present positioning and future directions of MM studies. This chapter offers a new conceptualisation of these disjunctions which is aimed at revealing not only potential hazards but, in parallel, some perhaps unexpected creative possibilities.