From Hegemony to Inclusivity: Perspectives on Models of Masculinity by R.W. Connell and Greg Anderson

Abstract

Masculinity Studies developed in ‘dialogue’ with the feminist movement. By the 1970s, it gained momentum, drawing energy from the women’s liberation movement. The notion of gender being a derivative of biological sex was rejected by social scientists and thinkers, it emerged that gender is not a stable category, but is “performative”, dynamic, and relational to the temporal and spatial context. I have relied on Judith Butler’s Gender Trouble (1990) to elucidate this concept. The paper explores how ‘masculinity’ transformed from being a homogeneous concept into becoming ‘masculinities’, an idea that endorsed multiplicity and plurality. In the present article, R.W. Connell’s model of hegemonic masculinity and Greg Anderson’s theory of Inclusive masculinity have been explored to decipher the layers of masculine behaviour and chart its development in the field of masculinity studies.