The Men and the Boys

In recent years, questions about men and boys have aroused remarkable media interest, public concern and controversy. Across the world, health services are noticing the relevance of men's gender to problems as diverse as road accidents, diet and sexually transmitted disease. Teachers are increasingly preoccupied with the poor educational performance of boys, and criminologists have begun to explore why men and boys continue to dominate the crime statistics.In this timely new volume, Bob Connell - one of the world's leading authorities on masculinity - helps us to understand these developments, and make sense of the multiplying issues about men and boys. Five years on from the publication of his seminal study, Masculinities, Connell reflects on the growing social scientific research in this area. He assesses its strengths and weaknesses and explores its implications for contemporary problems from boys' education and men's health to international peacemaking.Written in a lively and accessible way, this book will be essential reading for all students of sociology, politics and gender studies, as well as anyone interested in the future of gender relations.

Table of Contents:
PART 1 EXAMINING MASCULINITIES 1 1 Debates about men, new research on masculinities 3 Issues about men and boys 3 The new social research on masculinity 6 Key conclusions of recent research 9 2 New directions in theory and research 15 Current debate: Concepts of gender and approaches to masculinity 16 The gender relations approach 23 Conceptualizing masculinities 29 Agenda for research 32 PART 2 GLOBALIZATION 37 3 Masculinities and globalization 39 The world gender order 40 The repositioning of men and the remaking of masculinities 43 Globalizing masculinities 46 Masculinity politics on a world scale 52 4 Globalization and men's bodies 57 Understanding men's bodies 57 Imperialism and men's bodies 60 Contemporary globalization and men's bodies 62 Implications for gender reform 65 PART 3 BODIES AND DESIRES 67 5 An iron man 69 Being a champion 70 Soft path, hard goal 74 The body and the self 76 Wanting to win: The ideology of competitive sport 80 Reflections 83 6 'I threw it like a girl': Some difficulties with male bodies 86 Looking at jelly: Adam Singer 87 Burning up the body: Tip Southern 94 Reflections 99 7 Man to man: Homosexual desire and practice among working-class men (written with M.D. Davis and G.W. Dowsett) 102 The working-class setting 104 The social framework of male-to-male sex 108 Sexual practice 114 Desire and identity 118 The HIV/AIDS epidemic 122 Reflections 126 PART 4 PRACTICALITIES 129 8 Cool guys, swots and wimps 131 Getting into trouble 133 Knowing where you stand 136 Over the hump 139 Dry sciences 141 Reading feminism 143 Reflections 145 9 Teaching the boys 148 Schools and gender 150 Schools as agents in the making of masculinities 155 Pupils as agents, school as setting 161 Educational strategies in work with boys 164 The process of change 172 10 Men's health 177 Research evidence on men's health 178 Sex differences in health 179 The health of specific groups of men 182 How some masculinizing practices damage bodies 184 Attempts to make men's bodies healthy 188 The 'cradle to grave' health disadvantage of men 192 Reflections 194 PART 5 CHANGING MASCULINITIES 197 11 The politics of change in masculinity 199 The historical moment 201 Men's interests 202 Purposes 205 A men's movement? 208 12 Arms and the man: The question of peace 212 Why war? 212 The problem of men and violence 213 Implications of masculinity research 216 Global patterns 220 Peace strategies and masculinities 223 Acknowledgments and sources 227 References 231 Index 247

About the Author :
R. W. Connell is Professor of Education at the University of Sydney.