The Politics of Absent Men or Political Masculinities Without the Polis

Abstract

This chapter interrogates political masculinities as agents for change through the prism of absence, without the polis. Following an initial discussion of political masculinities in relation to, first, mainstream politics, and, then, feminism, possible changes in political masculinities formed through absence, and their implications for profeminist men's politics, are interrogated. Three main forms of absence are examined: absences by transnational/global processes, beyond the nation; technological absences, of virtuality and disembodiment in cyberspace; and bodily absences, as, for example, with ageing. These changes, and moreover their interconnections, are seen as creating new gender power structures, but also offering some signs of hope, with greater transnational connections, collaborations and indeed new subversive political masculinities.

The Routledge Handbook of the Politics of the #MeToo Movement

“…Men are an absence presence from #MeToo; generally absent from the speaking out, but all too present, in statements, allusions and effects. Men are the absent cause of #MeToo, who then become the object of talk, writing, allegation, accusation, and action: #MeToo stems from men's violences and abuse, from a collection of absent-present superordinates (Hearn, 1998b(Hearn, , 2020.…”

Evaluating the concept of political masculinity/ies: a simple idea or a case of too many ideas?

“…I approach this dialogue from long-term involvement in CSMM, along with sociology, organization studies, social policy, cultural studies and interdisciplinary gender studies. Despite that, it was not until the mid-2010s, prompted by the Political Masculinities Research Network, that I worked explicitly on the concept of political masculinities (Hearn, 2020). However, in retrospect, something like it has always been there, implicitly, from the late 1970s, with men and masculinities being recognized as political matters, hence the notion of 'political men' and 'man/men in politics' (Clark and Lange, 1979;Carver, 2004).…”