Performing Hypermasculinity

Experiences with Confined Young Offenders

Bibliographic Data

ID2388188
AuthorsT T Bengtsson (0000-0002-4376-1198, University of Copenhagen, corresponding author)
Year2016
Volume19
Issue4
Pages410-428
Publication date2016-10-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueMen and Masculinities (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1097-184X • E-ISSN: 1552-6828
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/1097184x15595083
OpenAlexW2229766512
LanguageEN
Citations received27
References cited48

In this article, young people's hypermasculine performances of gender in a Danish institution for young offenders are analyzed. Through the ethnographic method of detailed observations of two situations of young people, one male and one female, entering an institution for young offenders, it is demonstrated that hypermasculinity is created as a collective frame of meaning creating both possibilities and restraints in concrete situations. Hypermasculinity is often discussed in relation to criminality as an intensification of hegemonic understandings of what constitutes a 'real man' and thus as part of male offender's identity formation. In this article, the relational analysis shows that hypermasculinity is not alone to be understood as the expression of the individual young person's performances but rather as the dominating institutional frame guiding all gender performances. The observed hypermasculine frame comprises notions of a real man based on performances of overt sexuality, the willingness to commit violence, and the limitation of subversive performances

Masculinity · Psychoanalysis · Gender Roles and Identity Studies · Historical Gender and Feminism Studies · Psychology · Social and Cultural Dynamics