Anna Julia Cooper skrev den första boken i vad som i dag kallas den svarta feministiska traditionen, A voice from the south, år 1892. Hon utvecklar ett perspektiv på social ojämlikhet utifrån svarta kvinnors erfarenhet. Cooper erbjuder en kritisk genusanalys av rasproblemet och samtidigt en kritisk rasanalys av kvinnofrågan. Svarta kvinnor konfronteras med bägge problemen, och därför behövs en kritisk samhällsanalys som länkar samman olika maktdimensioner i stället för att ställa dem mot varandra. Cooper var engagerad i olika organisationer som verkade för social rättvisa, särskilt i utbildningsfrågor. Hennes texter spänner över en rad områden, såsom litteratur, ekonomi och kolonialism, teman som hon analyserar med utgångspunkt i frågor om ras, kön och klass. Coopers arbete visar hur denna typ av sociologiska analyser, som i dag ofta går under namnet intersektionalitet, har funnits sedan slutet av 1800-talet.

One of the most important questions for feminist research on men and masculinity concerns how men can change and become more affected by feminism and less engaged in sexism. Here, men who identify as feminist, pro-feminist or anti-sexist have been considered to be of particular interest. This article contributes to the emerging research on men’s engagement with feminism by analysing contemporary writing about gender relations, inequality and masculinity, more specifically books about men published in Sweden, 2004-2015. Focusing on lived-experience descriptions, the analysis shows how a range of emotions are central to the processes where men encounter and are becoming affected by feminism. The emotions identified include happy ones such as relief, but a more prominent place is given to negative emotions such as alienation, shame, frustration, as well as loss and mourning. Drawing on Ahmed’s model of emotions as bound up with encounters with others, the article highlights how men’s engagement with feminism is embedded within interpersonal relations with others, particularly women partners, men friends, and children.

Since its emergence in the late 1980s, research on men and masculinity has expanded considerably into an established area at the intersection of sociology, gender studies and related disciplines. There is now a wealth of empirical research but the theoretical debates have largely centred on Connell’s notion of hegemonic masculinity. This article focuses instead on the theoretical contribution of Jeff Hearn, arguably one of the central figures within critical studies on men and masculinities over the last few decades. The article identifies the main tenets of Hearn’s theoretical writing and tracks its development over time, and offers a critical discussion of Hearn’s theoretical position. The critique focuses on ambiguous treatments of central concepts and argues that tensions between perspectives such as materialist analysis, queer theory and intersectionality are not fully acknowledged in Hearn’s work.

This article explores different problematizations of young men in masculinity research. It looks at research on young men in school, young men and sports, and young men and violence, as well as the place of young men in more general discussions about masculinity. It is argued that four main problematizations can be identified in this research, depending on whether the focus is on the structure, the group, the experience, or the categorization. Differentiating between different problematizations, it is suggested, may be a helpful way of understanding key differences in research on, as well as in interventions directed at, young men. 

Kritisk forskning om män och maskuliniteter har vuxit fram som ett etablerat forskningsområde i skärningspunkten mellan sociologi, genusvetenskap och närliggande ämnen. Den här artikeln ger en överblick över centrala teoretiska och begreppsliga frågor inom maskulinitetsforskningen. Först klarläggs skillnaderna mellan de tre huvudsakliga sätten att definiera ”maskulinitet”, som utvecklats med inspiration från marxistisk feminism, radikalfeminism respektive queerteori. Frågor som diskuteras är relationen mellan män och maskulinitet, om det finns en maskulinitet eller flera, samt alternativa begrepp som ”mäns praktiker”. Därefter identifieras de viktigaste skillnaderna mellan Connells och Messerschmidts sätt att förstå det inflytelserika begreppet ”hegemonisk maskulinitet”. Slutligen diskuteras för- och nackdelar med några av de nya begrepp som kommit i omlopp på senare år, såsom ”toxisk maskulinitet” och ”inkluderande maskulinitet”.

Hip hop has grown into a worldwide genre of popular music inrecent decades. While the genre is often associated with sexism and homophobia, this article examines how masculinity is constructed in rap lyrics. It focuses on two central themes in contemporary configurations of masculinity: violence and parenting. The material consists of rap lyrics from 39 rap artists in Sweden during the last two decades. It is analysed from post structuralist and intersectional perspectives, with a discourse analysis combining broad thematic coding with close readings of selected extracts. The article shows how violence is both connected to class and racial dimensions of inequality, but simultenously shared as a gender norm across such differences. Violence is both reinforced as a norm of masculinity, but also called into question through various means, such as use of irony. The analysed lyrics contain descriptions of parent-child relations from the perspective of both positions. These narratives display a similar ambivalence; they simultenously hold fathers to task for perceived parenting failures and reinforce problematic patterns of masculine parenting. In sum, the article shows how violence and parenting are important loci for contemporary configurations of masculinity. The intersectional and poststructuralist theoretical perspectives, which have been relatively downplayed in studies on men and masculinity, enable attention to the ambivalences of gender discourses, which often contain elements of both reinforcement and subversion.

Sociological theory is a central part of the sociology discipline, and courses on sociological theory are found on all levels of university teaching in sociology at Swedish universities. However, while sociologists have successfully uncovered power structures in various domains of social life, we have been more reluctant to examine our own teaching practices. In particular, sociological theory has been pinpointed as an area where men’s dominance often perseveres. This is in stark contrast to international research on exclusion and inclusion in processes of canon formation, which shows how there have always been important sociological theorists who have not been white men, but that they have been more or less written out of history. Drawing on such international research on inclusion and exclusion in the construction of sociological theory, as well as on norm-critical pedagogy, and on a mapping of the curriculum at one of Sweden’s universities, this article identifies key aspects in the quest for a more inclusive curriculum.

Research on men who have been violent against women has often shown how these men justify or excuse their violence, minimize their responsibility, as well as construct dominant forms of masculinity. However, as attitudes in support of intimate partner violence are declining around the world, we might expect perpetrators to become less self-righteous and more self-critical about their violence. This article reports data from a qualitative interview study with 14 young partner-violent men in Sweden. While our participants sometimes downplayed their responsibility, more often they condemned violence in intimate relationships, and reflected upon the place of violence in their lives. This included experiences of domestic violence as children, as well as their processes of moving away from violence. Drawing on feminist readings of phenomenology, particularly Heidegger, we suggest that phenomenological conceptualizations of embodiment, consciousness and practice are helpful in understanding the experiences of partner-violent men.

Male Peer Support Theory (MPST) is one of the few principal theories about masculinity and men’s violence against women. The theory foregrounds the role of social networks in encouraging violence. This article offers a critical discussion of MPST, particularly the assumption that social networks primarily support violence. Drawing on a qualitative study of young men perpetrators in Sweden, we suggest that the concept of response is better suited than support in capturing the diversity of social network responses to violence. In our data, there were few stories about unmitigated pro-abuse support. Instead, we found responses that unequivocally condemned violence, as well as ambiguous and transformative responses. We suggest that such responses be understood in relation to changing attitudes concerning violence.

Queer criminology has primarily focused on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people as victims and perpetrators of crime, as well as on the criminalization of non-heterosexual practices. In this article, we contribute to the emerging discussions on how queer theory can be used in relation to criminological research by exploring desistance processes from a queer temporality perspective. Desistance research emphasizes how and why individuals cease offending and is often guided by a teleology in which individuals are expected to mature and develop new, non-criminal identities. Work on queer temporality, in contrast, has developed thinking that destabilizes chronology and troubles normative life trajectories. In this article, we draw on queer temporality perspectives, particularly the concepts of chrononormativity and afterwardsness, in analysing narratives of young men who have used sexual violence against women partners in Sweden. We demonstrate how criminal identities may develop in retrospect, after desisting, and that identity and behaviour may not necessarily go together.

This chapter discusses different historical and contemporary approaches to men, masculinity and intimate partner violence. We present radical feminism and its analysis of men’s violence as an effect of patriarchal society, as well as a contribution to its upholding. We then discuss socialist feminist contributions to understanding masculinity and violence where the emphasis instead lies on diversity, historical change and situated action. Next, we turn to ‘accounts research’, which deconstructs how men talk about, explain and justify their violence, and to psychosocial criminology, which instead stresses the psychological history of the perpetrator, albeit within the context of structural inequality. We also consider what we call social network approaches, particularly male peer support theory, which foregrounds the role of the relational setting as a mediator between social structure and individual action. Finally, we discuss intersectional perspectives, which foreground the interconnectedness of different forms of social inequality, such as gender, sexuality, race and class. We conclude by suggesting the need for more dialogue between on the one hand research on gender and violence and on the other contemporary developments within interdisciplinary feminist theory.

Feminist scholars have often pointed out that violence is a central tenet of hegemonic masculinity. Due to fundamental changes in gender relations in many Western societies – including increased gender equality and reduced homophobia – masculinity scholars have lately debated whether men’s embracing of ‘inclusive’ values actually results in increased gender equality or if we rather are seeing the emergence of ‘hybrid masculinities’ that incorporate progressive elements while continuing to uphold patriarchal relations and thereby creating new hierarchies between men. Sweden is a case in point as it is considered to be one of the most gender-equal societies. Based on oral and written stories from violent young men, this chapter advocates a poststructuralist and posthumanist approach, where gender equality is seen as a process that deterritorialises masculinity and intimate partner violence, while it territorialises the partner-violent man either as an ethnic Other or as a historical Other. We suggest that young men can combine ‘orthodox’ and ‘inclusive’ practices so that new hierarchies are produced, but not necessarily in novel or strategic ways as argued by the ‘hybridity’ thesis.

Researchers focusing on fathers’ violence and perpetrator programmes have expressed growing interest in the question of change. Yet, there has been little dialogue in relation to feminist affect theories on change. Drawing on the narratives of eight fathers in Iceland who had been violent against their female partner and/or children, we suggest that attending to comfort and discomfort is central to understanding violent fathers’ process of change. Inspired by feminist theories of affective dissonance, the analysis shows that, on the one hand, fathers avoided dealing with uncomfortable emotions, conversations, and situations in diverse ways, for example, by leaning on women’s emotional labour. On the other hand, the fathers also attempted to deal with discomfort, and this was often as part of their decision to seek help, turn to self-reflection, or hold themselves accountable. By foregrounding discomfort in these narratives, this paper provides insights into the possibilities of and hindrances to fathers’ change from perpetrating domestic violence.