Directions for the Study of Masculinity: Beyond Toxicity, Experience, and Alienation

AuthorDylan A. Yaeger
PositionVisiting Scholar, Center for Changing Systems of Power at Stony Brook University
Pages81-113




The relationship between the law and masculinity has not been as thoroughly
examined as the relationship between the law and feminism or, more generally,
between the law and gender. Yet, the reach of masculinity stretches deep into the
      
on which the law founded both its substance and method. The struggle for formal
equality during the last half century sought the elimination of the masculinist bias,
but has only exposed the extent of the entrenchment. The popular idea is that the
law exists in a removed and exalted position where it sits in judgement of a pre-
existing and fully formed masculinity. Indeed, much of the internal coherence of
the law is premised on the integrity of the subject and the propagation of sexual

productive power and vacuously characterizes itself as a neutral arbiter. Today,
           
appears theoretically stagnant.
Part I of this paper distinguishes between masculinity studies and the men’s
      
       
help understand how that power manifests and is employed. Part III examines the
relationship between feminist legal theory and masculinity studies with a particular
focus on two areas where I view masculinity studies as having successfully employed
insights from feminist theory. Finally, Part IV considers four areas where I suggest
masculinity studies could better incorporate certain insights from feminist theory,
which would result in a more rigorous understanding of the relationship among power,
masculinity, and law, and point masculinity studies in a more nuanced direction. To
advance this critique, the paper analyzes underlying arguments that support the
power of law based in classic liberal political theory. It employs recurrent critiques
of the law, and of liberalism more generally, found in Feminist Legal Theory, Critical
Race Theory, Queer Theory, and Critical Legal Studies to reveal the law as always
already intertwined with masculinity.



© 2020 Dylan A. Yaeger, published by Sciendo.
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 License.
 
9 Br. J. Am. Leg. Studies (2020)

 

A. Law as a Technology of Sex............................................................
 ...................................
       
 .....................................................................................................

 ..

 ............................................................ 
 
 ..................................................................................
 ............................................................................

A. Power Analysis .............................................................................
 ...................................................................
 ................................................................ 
 ..........................................

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Directions for the Study of Masculinity:
Beyond Toxicity, Experience, and Alienation

           

    

         

 


     

           


          
      
                 

      
            


      
        
              
            
        
         

  
   




      
 See, e.g.


 
 in

 
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