Masculinity and affect: new possibilities, new agendas

Abstract

The aim of this special issue is to create a greater dialogue between affect studies and masculinity studies. The contributions to the issue explore how affect functions as non-discursive intensities that may enable new forms of gendered subjectivities that subvert core tenets of masculinity, as well as how affect may be channeled into masculinities that reaffirm hegemonic or normative gender constructs. In this introduction, we discuss how masculinity studies has approached men and emotions, outline theoretical approaches to affective masculinities that may help scholars rethink and destabilize masculinity, and discuss how affect and masculinity may be approached methodologically.