Embodying emergent masculinities: Men engaging with reproductive and sexual health technologies in the Middle East and Mexico

Abstract

A B S T R A C TWe employ Raymond Williams's concept of "emergence" to capture new forms of embodied masculinities in the Middle East and Mexico, two sites marked by powerful local stereotypes of manliness. Men there are enacting "emergent masculinities"-living out new ways of being men in attempts to counter forms of manhood that they see as harmfully hegemonic. They do this partly through engagements with emergent health technologies, including assisted reproductive technologies for male infertility and pharmaceutical technologies for erectile dysfunction that today are reshaping sociopolitical and intimate realities. We argue that masculinities research within anthropology must account for these ongoing, embodied changes in men's enactments of masculinities over time on both individual and societal levels. Furthermore, we heed R. W. Connell's advice that reformulations of hegemonic masculinity theory must consider new comparative geographies, forms of masculine embodiment, and social dynamics of masculinity around the globe. [men, masculinity, emergent masculinities, male infertility, erectile dysfunction, assisted reproductive technology, Viagra, Middle East, Mexico] A nthropologists and gender theorists have long argued that gender is not a natural essence but is relationally performed in response to an individual's particular cultural and structural situation (Butler 1990;de Beauvoir 1975;Mead 2001; Ortner and Whitehead 1981). These claims grew out of attempts to understand women's subordinate status worldwide, and it is because of this interest that ethnographic investigations of gender have historically focused on women (Reiter 1975; Rosaldo and Lamphere 1974). In comparison, relatively few studies address the social construction of maleness and masculinity. For example, a 2006 review of the 157 existing ethnographies of gender and reproduction found that only one of these works, Birthing Fathers (Reed 2005), focused on men (Inhorn 2006). This is a problematic state of affairs, because excluding men from the study of gender suggests that their bodies, attitudes, and actions are both "natural" and "essential" (Gutmann 2007).To combat this imbalance, a growing body of anthropological work has focused a social constructionist lens on manhood, generating new understandings of local masculinities. Much of the seminal work in this area has come from Latin America and the Mediterranean region (Brandes 1981;

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“…Indeed, in many global sites, new forms of masculinity are becoming increasingly apparent (e.g., Ashcraft & Flores, 2003;Falabella, 1997;Thompson, 1985). These 'emergent masculinities', as we have called them (Inhorn, 2012;Inhorn & Wentzell, 2011), often involve new notions of conjugality, centred on love, commitment, nurturance and care: what we would describe as 'companionate responsibility'.…”

Crossing the border from boyhood to manhood: male youth experiences of crossing, loss, and structural violence as unaccompanied minors

“…Although much of the formalised living arrangements break down in urban settings, the focus on male value as representative of power is maintained, is embedded in national narratives of power, and is predicated on men's ability to demonstrate that they can continue to produce this encompassing power structure in new environments (Arizpe, 1988;Cornwall & Lindisfame 1994;Gonzalez,1996;Gutmann, 1996Gutmann, , 2003Inhorn & Wentzell, 2011;Irwin, 2003;R.L. Pérez, 2002;Tiano, 1994).…”

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