Intersecting Masculinities: The Role of Hegemonic Masculinity in Gender Based Violence Prevention Work

This research examines the validity and relatability of hegemonic masculinity in a contemporary academic and cultural context. There are an increasing number of initiatives that use workshops that aim to prevent gender-based violence. This research asks in what ways do such prevention programs engage young men in discussions of masculinity in order to tackle gender-based violence and what does this mean for the power relationship of hegemonic masculinity. To answer these questions the research draws on primary research consisting of observing nineteen workshops of a men and masculinities organization, interviews with nine of the facilitators and my own experiences of training to be a gender-based violence prevention workshop facilitator. The study identifies three key themes of deconstructing masculinity, remaking positive masculinity, and the pervasiveness of the structural power of hegemonic masculinity. This study concludes that while this organization takes participants on a journey of deconstructing and remaking masculinity, there is also an observable presence of dominant practices of hegemonic masculinity. This reformulation of hegemonic masculinity must include the positionality of identity and the greater visibility of dissenting masculinities. A new hegemonic masculinity must therefore incorporate the fluidity and changeability of hegemonic masculinities within a complex web of intersecting masculinities and identities. This idea is in need of more research.