Medicalized Masculinities

When medicalization—the characterization of human traits in terms of disease and ailment—first appeared as a concept in the 1970s, most social science gender scholarship focused on female or genderless bodies. The work on men, health, and medicine was scant and tended to depict masculinity as intrinsically damaging to men's health. Medicalized Masculinities considers how these threads in scholarship failed to consider the male body adequately and presents cutting-edge research into the definition and regulation of masculinity by medicine. Renowned health and gender studies experts examine medicalized conditions such as balding, aging, and other dimensions of the life cycle in the tradition of the sociology of health and gender.

Are men truly marked by their personality to fall victim to coronary heart disease (CHD)? Far from being immutable, medical categorizations of men prone to heart attacks rely heavily on cultural stereotypes of masculinity. So argues this book, which explores the social construction of one of men's major health problems in modern American medicine. Elianne Riska traces the course of sociological and gender theory on men and masculinities and argues that we must look beyond the middle-class male paradigm to consider the nuances of race, class, and sexual orientation. Applying a sociology-of-knowledge framework to the scientific literature on high CHD rates among men, the author examines various personality theories that have been deployed over time. Her genealogical approach traces the scientific discovery of and the measurement techniques for mapping at-risk personality types: Type A, the 'hardy man, ' and the John Henry or 'race man.' The book analyzes the three psychological categories and argues that they each describe a category of men who occupy specific social positions. Using data on men's high death rates from CHD, the author illuminates contemporary thinking on how changes in the economic and social order influence men's health.

The Routledge International Handbook of Masculinity Studies provides a contemporary critical and scholarly overview of theorizing and research on masculinities as well as emerging ideas and areas of study that are likely to shape research and understanding of gender and men in the future. The forty-eight chapters of the handbook take an interdisciplinary approach to a range of topics on men and masculinities related to identity, sex, sexuality, culture, aesthetics, technology and pressing social issues. The handbook’s transnational lens acknowledges both the localities and global character of masculinity. A clear message in the book is the need for intersectional theorizing in dialogue with feminist, queer and sexuality studies in making sense of men and masculinities. Written in a clear and direct style, the handbook will appeal to students, teachers and researchers in the social sciences and humanities, as well as professionals, practitioners and activists.

Aging Men, Masculinities and Modern Medicine explores the multiple socio-historical contexts surrounding men’s aging bodies in modern medicine from a global perspective. The first of its kind, it investigates the interrelated aspects of aging, masculinities and biomedicine, allowing for a timely reconsideration of the conceptualisation of aging men within the recent explosion of social science studies on men’s health and biotechnologies including anti-aging perspectives. This book discusses both healthy and diseased states of aging men in medical practices, bringing together theoretical and empirical conceptualisations. Divided into four parts it covers: Historical epistemology of aging, bodies and masculinity and the way in which the social sciences have theorised the aging body and gender. Material practices and processes by which biotechnology, medical assemblages and men’s aging bodies relate to concepts of health and illness. Aging experience and its impact upon male sexuality and identity. The importance of men’s roles and identities in care-giving situations and medical practices. Highlighting how aging men’s bodies serve as trajectories for understanding wider issues of masculinity, and the way in which men’s social status and men’s roles are made in medical cultures, this innovative volume offers a multidisciplinary dialogue between sociology of health and illness, anthropology of the body and gender studies.

Based on empirical research and data, this book provides an interdisciplinary exploration of the links between men, health policy, gender and masculinity.

This book brings together a collection of case studies that explore the relationship between health and masculinity. It covers various topics related to health, such as mental health, sexual health, eating disorders and coronavirus, and offers health-based perspectives on issues such as migration and gender identity, as these relate to masculinities. In exploring these themes, this book addresses a wide range of communicative contexts, including online forums, interviews, advertising, sex education materials, migrant integration classes, and suicide notes. This book will appeal to linguists interested in health and gender (particularly masculinities), as well as scholars in fields such as psychology, media studies, cultural studies, and other humanities and social science disciplines with a focus on discourse.

Written by leading experts in the area, this volume investigates the ways in which emerging masculinities theory in law could inform feminist legal theory in particular and law in general. As many of the chapters in this collection illustrate, law is constantly in a dynamic interaction with masculinities: it has both influenced existing masculinities and has been influenced by those masculinities. The contributions focus feminist and critical theoretical attention on masculinities and consider the implications of masculinities theory for law and legal theory.

Men drink too much alcohol, eat unhealthy food and avoid going to the doctors until they are seriously ill. Indeed, some say being masculine is bad for men's health. But is the situation so simple? This deeply engaging book explores both the psychological and sociological factors that affect men and their health. It investigates how notions of 'maleness' impact on the individual's approach to health and take-up of services, and provides clear foundations for best practice in care. Part 1 of the book explores and sets the theoretical scene. It asks why disparate fields have not previously been brought together and what theoretical frameworks could be utilised to assist in this process. Parts 2 and 3 consider empirical work in relation to men, health and illness, providing critical rather than simply descriptive accounts. Bringing together an international collection of contributors, Men, Masculinities and Health provides fresh ideas for practice; creating a fertile terrain for future debate that will excite all those interested in gender issues.