Hombres y masculinidad ¿un cambio de modelo?

Abstract

In the last decades we have witnessed an important boost to research focusing on masculinities analysis. Far from being coincidental, this is due to two different reasons: A political one, related to the questioning of a society depicted exclusively in masculine terms; and a scientific other, related to the fact that, with femininity being questioned, Why should we not question masculinity? Both reasons have influenced the de-naturalization of a supposed universal masculinity and the proliferation of studies tending to reveal issues as: social ways of building men; power reproduction mechanisms engraved in bodies; unequal social models around the masculine issue, domination relationships between men and women, and between men themselves. This theoretical wondering around “the masculine” has been closely linked to social movements, specially feminisms and sexual liberation movements, which have played a central part in redefining women’s and men’s roles, and hence, in the quest of new alternatives to traditional models, also for men themselves. In the following pages we actually approach the notions of masculinity and masculinities, emphasizing their relational and changing character, as well as their different meanings.