Call for essays for edited collection – Toxic Masculinity: Men, Meaning and the Media – edited by Mark McGlashan and John Mercer
Toxic masculinity has become an increasingly popular label across the media, popular and political discourse used to describe a range of behaviours and performances of masculinity that cause harm not only to men themselves, but also to those around them. Whilst the related concept of hegemonic masculinity (e.g. heterosexual, male, physically and socially powerful, cf. Connell 1995) has been a focus of research for some time, toxic masculinity is a term that, whilst becoming ubiquitous, is used much less precisely. Typically, toxic masculinity is associated with a range of socially and culturally unacceptable expressions of masculinity including those that rely on, amongst other things, sexist, racist, and homophobic stereotypes.
In recent years celebrities and pundits have developed media profiles questioning contemporary masculinity including Martin Daubney, Grayson Perry with his book and TV series The Descent of Man (2016), and Robert Webb in his How Not to be A Boy (2017), which examines how aspects of domestic violence, physical/emotional abuse, and addiction are related to performances of masculinity.
However, there is a notable lack of academic work that interrogates ‘toxic masculinity’ as a linguistic and cultural phenomenon. This collection, the first of its kind, will address this absence in critical literature. The edited collection – part of the Routledge series Masculinity, Sex and Popular Culture and emerging from the work of the MASCNET research network – will bring together scholars across disciplines to explore the ways in which toxic masculinity is constructed, configured and represented in society.
We welcome proposals for essays that might address:
- Representations of toxic masculinities in the media (print and television)
- Men and toxic masculinities in social media and online contexts
- The connection between toxic masculinity and violence against women and girls
- Ethnographic work on toxic masculinities
- Toxic masculinities and intersectionality
- Toxic masculinity and…
- Business
- Criminology and law
- Language
- Politics and (online) protest (e.g. #metoo, #timesup)
- Psychology
Please send proposals of 300 words including a title, abstract and contact details to John.Mercer@bcu.ac.uk and Mark.McGlashan@bcu.ac.uk by November 1st 2019
Find out more about our network by visiting http://www.mascnet.org
Screening Sex 