Hegemonic Masculinity

Hegemonic masculinity is the concept of a culturally dominant and idealized form of manhood that legitimates the unequal relations between men and women and among men.

Definition

The configuration of gender practice that, in a given setting, embodies the currently accepted answer to the legitimacy of patriarchy and thereby sustains men's dominant position and the subordination of women and of other masculinities.

Scope

This topic examines the concept developed by Raewyn Connell and colleagues, which adapts Gramsci's notion of hegemony to gender. It treats the idea of a dominant pattern of masculinity that need not be the most common but functions as a normative ideal, its relation to subordinated and marginalized masculinities, the criticisms it attracted, and its 2005 reformulation. The treatment is descriptive.

Core questions

• How does a dominant ideal of masculinity legitimate gender inequality without most men fully embodying it?
• How do subordinated and marginalized masculinities relate to the hegemonic form?
• How should the concept be revised in light of criticism that it was applied too rigidly?

Key theories

Hegemony applied to gender

The adaptation of Gramsci's concept of hegemony, in which dominance is secured through cultural leadership and consent rather than force alone, to explain how a particular masculinity comes to define what is honored and normative.

Reformulation of the concept

Connell and Messerschmidt's revision retaining the ideas of multiple masculinities, hierarchy, and change, while discarding one-dimensional models, adding attention to the geography of masculinities and the agency of women, and a fuller account of embodiment.

History

The concept emerged in the early 1980s in Australian field research and was systematized in Connell's Masculinities (1995). After two decades of wide application and criticism, Connell and Messerschmidt's 2005 article 'Hegemonic Masculinity: Rethinking the Concept' offered an influential reformulation that has shaped subsequent debate.

Debates

Reification and rigidity

Whether hegemonic masculinity had been wrongly treated as a fixed set of traits or a single character type, a criticism that prompted its reformulation toward a more relational and dynamic account.

Key figures

• Raewyn Connell
• James Messerschmidt
• Antonio Gramsci

Seminal works

• connell2005
• connellmesser2005

Frequently asked questions

Does hegemonic masculinity describe how most men actually behave?

Not necessarily. It refers to a culturally idealized and dominant pattern that legitimates gender hierarchy; many men relate to it through complicity rather than full embodiment.