Week 6 Reflection

This week’s readings discussed the field of Critical Men’s Studies, and brought mens’ perspectives into the conversation much more than readings we’ve done in the past. In their chapter, “The Gendered Terrain of Disaster: thinking about men and masculinities,” Elaine Enarson and Bob Pease explained, “most people think that gender simply refers to women and only in some cases to men. In other words, it is understood as an identity or an attribute of individuals rather than a set of practices involved in the reproduction of institutions and an attribute of social structures” (Enarson & Pease 2016:5). I was also especially intrigued by the author’s note in the second chapter, “Masculinism, Climate Change, and ‘Man-Made’ Disasters,” that, “only a small number of people in Western cultures do not eat meat and most of those who do eat meat are men” (Enarson & Pease 2016:29), since this was not something that I had previously given much thought, nor is it the first thing that comes to mind when thinking about climate disasters.

On Tuesday of this week, we watched several videos in class related to men's studies, masculinities, and toxic masculinity. I thought these were especially interesting and particularly reminded me of Tulane Campus Programming’s Speaker Event last semester with Antoni Porowski and Karamo Brown, who star in the Netflix hit series, Queer Eye (Disclaimer: I’m a HUGE fan). Throughout their conversation, Antoni and Karamo made very poignant nods at topics similar to what we’ve discussed in class this week, particularly paralleling that said by male athlete featured in one of the video clips we watched. In their discussion on campus, Antoni and Karamo talked about their identities as queer men, but also made a point to mention that in everything that a person does, all aspects and intersections of their personal identity are important, which I think is especially important and relevant to our conversations this week.

Some key terms from this week include disaster risk, hegemonic masculinity, and hypermasculinity. Disaster risk, is“a  function of social and physical vulnerabilities in the face of exposure to environmental, technological, biological and human-induced or purposive hazards” (Enarson and Pease 2016:3). Hegemonic masculinity, “promote[s]  an expectation that men enact control over themselves and other men, over women and over the environment” (Enarson & Pease 2016:24). Lastly, Encyclopaedia Britannica explains that hypermasculinity involves, “exaggerated forms of masculinity, virility, and physicality.”

Enarson, Elaine, and Pease, Bob, eds. 2016. Men, Masculinities and Disaster. London: Routledge.

Unknown. 2019. “Hypermasculinity.” Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved February 20, 2019 (https://www.britannica.com/topic/hypermasculinity).