Embodying emergent masculinities: Men engaging with reproductive and sexual health technologies in the Middle East and Mexico

Abstract

We employ Raymond Williams's concept of "emergence" to capture new forms of embodied masculinities in the Middle East and Mexico, two sites marked by powerful local stereotypes of manliness. Men there are enacting "emergent masculinities"-living out new ways of being men in attempts to counter forms of manhood that they see as harmfully hegemonic. They do this partly through engagements with emergent health technologies, including assisted reproductive technologies for male infertility and pharmaceutical technologies for erectile dysfunction that today are reshaping sociopolitical and intimate realities. We argue that masculinities research within anthropology must account for these ongoing, embodied changes in men's enactments of masculinities over time on both individual and societal levels. Furthermore, we heed R. W. Connell's advice that reformulations of hegemonic masculinity theory must consider new comparative geographies, forms of masculine embodiment, and social dynamics of masculinity around the globe. © 2011 by the American Anthropological Association.