The Crisis of Masculinity for Gendered Democracies: Before, During, and After Trump

Abstract

The mobilized masculinity of democracies today is often presented as either a natural way for men to respond to the economic and political challenges of globalization or as a return to the patriarchal style of politics of the past. This article argues instead for an understanding of liberal democracy itself as gendered, being the collective masculinity of brotherhoods representing rivalrous nations. The first great transition from patriarchies and monarchies to brotherhoods and democracies is not being unmade now but facing a second transition to a different understanding of gender and power. This normative rise of a partnership model in families and politics is incomplete and highly contested everywhere. In the United States, it has become a partisan conflict expressed in gender terms. The Republican defense of the brotherhood state and its exclusive version of national good is countered by a newer but increasingly institutionalized vision of democracies as representing women and men equally. By more explicitly demasculinizing family headship and political leadership, social justice movements and the Democratic Party symbolically resist the restoration of gender norms privileging breadwinners and brotherhoods.

Intersectionality and coalitions in social movement research—A survey and outlook

“…While it is quite clear that race, ethnicity, and nationality matter in right-wing and racist movements, gender and class matter just as much. This becomes quite obviously when racists claim that white men are victims of reverse discrimination (or affirmative action) (Schroer, 2008) and other core gains of the civil rights and gender equality movements (Ferree, 2020). White men who feel victimized and disadvantaged by social change-which according to their perspective benefited women, migrants, and ethnic minority men-assert their superiority vis-a-vis these groups (Ferber, 2000;Hughey, 2012).…”

“…Third, it is important to understand nationalist and populist mobilizations, which attack and seek to 'undo' intersectionality (Dursun, 2019;Ferree, 2020;Kuhar & Paternotte, 2017;Verloo & Paternotte, 2018). Fourth, the systematic study of the (failed) efforts to achieve political intersectionality would benefit from a focus on specific temporary and spatial contexts and/or organizationally bounded networks.…”

Intersectionality at the Macro Level: Social Theory as Practice (Chapter prepared for Routledge Handbook of Intersectionality, Kathy Davis and Helma Lutz, editors).

“…Here, the focus is on how interlocking systems of oppression shape different forms of capitalism and at the same time exceed the desires for capital accumulation (Pulido 2016). The relational dynamics of superiority/inferiority and insider/outsider attributed to families (and clans, nations, races and other claims about imagined communities) run through these systems for exercising and legitimating power (Peterson 2010, Collins 2001, Ferree 2020.…”

Revisiting Election Predictions

“…In September 2020, we published a special issue of Sociological Forum entitled “Foresight in 2020: Race and Gender in the Upcoming Election.” The issue authors used their sociological eye to make some predictions about the role race and gender would play in the 2020 elections (Fields and Newman 2020; Gonzalez‐Sobrino 2020; Hughey 2020; Lee and Hosam 2020; Martin 2020; Marx Ferree 2020; Mora and Paschel 2020; Perrin and Ifantunji 2020; Rosino 2020; Sekou 2020).…”