Primates occupy a liminal space between humans and animals. On the Caribbean island of St. Kitts, translocated vervet monkeys (Chlorocebus aethiops sabaeus) are respected creatures, yet they cause problems. Vervets regularly consume crops on farms and are considered “pests”; still, Kittitians express empathy and understanding for them based largely on the monkeys' display of human-like behaviours. Using data from interviews with 64 Kittitian farmers, we deconstruct the symbolism of the vervet monkey in St. Kitts and analyse how farmers give the monkeys identities that are meaningful only within human social expectations. Our findings reveal that Kittitian farmers consider monkeys to be clever and emotive, displaying complex intentions such as revenge and remorse. Yet, crop-foraging behaviour is a regular and negative experience for the majority of farmers in this study, and the monkeys' presence itself is a constant reminder of the multitude of challenges farmers face in a newly adopted tourism economy that no longer prioritises agriculture. Our results reveal that while vervet crop consumption is a significant problem in St. Kitts, it is the monkeys' boundary-crossing status that drives the growing mentality that “the monkey problem” is completely out of control.

We examine both gay and straight men's constructions of masculinity using 358 self-descriptive dating profiles from Match.com of ''men seeking men'' and ''men seeking women'' in eight southern US metropolitan areas. In addition to the men's specific references to gender and gendered performances, we discuss three broad topics of the men's self-descriptions including personality, leisure, and work. This analysis reveals the ideal characteristics these men used to construct their own masculine identities and masculinity in relation to femininity. Although examples of conformity and nonconformity existed across both gay and straight men, we found that gay men constructed their own identities in keeping with the codes of historically heteronormative masculinities as fluently, and sometimes more so, than straight men. We explore the most prominent nuances between gay and straight men's paths to claiming ''masculine capital,'' straight men's greater leeway to temporarily distance themselves from masculine dominance, and the influence of hierarchies within masculinity on straight and gay men's constructions of femininity. Downloaded from Since its start in 1995, Match.com has become one of the most popular dating websites in the United States, serving millions, and now in twenty-four countries (Match.com andBailey 2009-2010). While user displays are limited by the website's uniform template, each person may provide information about his or her individual background, beliefs, values, personality characteristics, and ideal relationships, creating a rich source of freely available data for empirical studies of gender and sexuality.Framed by Connell's (2005) concepts of hegemonic masculinity and the patriarchal dividend, and Anderson's (2009) concepts of orthodox masculinities and masculine capital, our qualitative analysis of 358 Match.com dating profiles of self-identified gay and straight men examines how these men construct masculinities in their online gender performances. We explore nuances between gay and straight men's paths to claiming masculine capital, straight men's greater leeway to claim and temporarily distance themselves from masculine dominance, and the influence of gay men's lower position within the hierarchy of masculinity on their constructions of femininity.We focus our analysis on young adult men (age twenty-six to thirty), who lived and worked in eight southern US metropolitan cities. Specifically, we examine the ways in which these men describe, in the open-ended sections of their dating profiles, their (1) personality and demeanor; (2) leisure activities and interests; (3) occupation, career ambitions, and/or educational goals; and (4) constructions of gender through their own identities as well as their ideal dating partners and relationships. Furthermore, we explore how their descriptions signal notions of power, status, and legitimacy in a social gender order structured by a system of patriarchy.A masculine capital framework provides us a way to examine these masculine self-presentations as well...

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