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Researching Men, Masculinities and Law: on Sources, Methods and the ‘Man Question’

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 March 2015

Richard Collier
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Abstract

This paper, by Richard Collier, reviews the dominant methodological and theoretical approaches that have shaped socio-legal scholarship on masculinities and law to date. It presents a flavour of contemporary work in the field and, looking specifically to the concerns of the ALS/British Library/SLSA socio-legal training day on sources and methods in Law, Gender and Sexuality, considers selected issues around methods and sources involved in analysing masculinities and law. The paper suggests work in this area has drawn on a diverse range of archives and content and that there is considerable variation in how legal scholarship has sought to approach the topic of masculinity.

Keywords

gendersexualitylegal researchsocio-legal research
Type
Law, Gender and Sexuality: Sources and Methods in Socio-Legal Research
Information
Legal Information Management , Volume 15 , Issue 1 , March 2015 , pp. 19 - 24
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2015. Published by British and Irish Association of Law Librarians 

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References

Footnotes

1 Speech by UN Women Goodwill Ambassador Emma Watson at a special event for the HeForShe campaign, United Nations Headquarters, New York, 20 September 2014. http://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2014/9/emma-watson-gender-equality-is-your-issue-too

2 See for example Smart, Carol (1989) Feminism and the Power of Law London Routledge

3 See further Pini, Barbara and Pease, Bob (eds) (2013) Men, Masculinities, Methodologies London Palgrave Macmillan.

4 For an introduction and overview see for example Connell, R.W. (1995) Masculinities, Cambridge: PolityGoogle Scholar; Connell, R.W (2000) The Men and the Boys, Cambridge: PolicyGoogle Scholar; Connell, R.W., Hearn, Jeff and Kimmel, Michael (2004) (eds) The Handbook of Masculinity Studies London: SageGoogle Scholar; Adams, Rachel and Savran, David (2002) (eds), The Masculinity Studies Reader Oxford: Wiley BlackwellGoogle Scholar; Whitehead, Stephen (2002) Men and Masculinities: Key Themes and New Directions Cambridge: PolityGoogle Scholar, esp. Ch 1; Kahn, Jack S. (2009) An Introduction to Masculinities, Oxford: Wiley-BlackwellGoogle Scholar: Whitehead, Stephen and Barrett, Frank (2001) (eds.), The Masculinities Reader Cambridge: PolityGoogle Scholar: Kimmel, Michael and Messner, Michael (1997) Men's Lives, Allyn and BaconGoogle Scholar: Flood, Michael, et al. (eds). (2007) The International Encyclopaedia of Men and Masculinities, London, RoutledgeGoogle Scholar; Kimmell, Michael (2010) Misframing Men: The Politics of Contemporary Masculinities NY: Rutgers University PressGoogle Scholar. For a useful overview see Ashe, Fidelma (2007) The New Politics of Masculinity: Men, Power and Resistance London: Routledge.Google Scholar

5 As an example of an early text in the field see Collier, Richard (1995) Masculinity, Law and the Family London, Routledge.

6 Thornton, Margaret (2004) ‘Neoliberal Melancholia: The Case of Feminist Legal Scholarship’ 20 Australian Feminist Law Journal 7, at 15.

7 See for example Dowd, Nancy (2010) The Man Question: Male Subordination and Privilege New York, New York University PressCrossRefGoogle Scholar; Collier, Richard (2010) Men, Law and Gender: Essays on the ‘Man’ of Law London: RoutledgeGoogle Scholar; Fineman, Martha and Thomson, Michael (eds) (2014) Exploring Masculinities; Feminist Theory Reflections Farnham, AshgateGoogle Scholar; Collier, Richard (2010) Masculinities, Law and Personal Life: Towards a New Framework for Understanding Men, Law and Gender, Harvard Journal of Law and Gender 33(2), 431–477Google Scholar; McGinley, Ann C. (2013) ‘Introduction: Men, Masculinities, and Law: A Symposium on Multidimensional Masculinities Theory’ 13 Nev. L.J. 315.

8 See further below.

9 For example ‘Men, Masculinities and Law: A Symposium on Multidimensional Masculinities Theory’, Nevada Law Journal Special Issue 13(2), 2013Google Scholar; Rudy Cooper, Frank and McGinley, Anne C. (eds) (2012) Masculinities and the Law: A Multidimensional Approach New York, New York University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

10 There have, in addition to the books and edited collections on the topic cited above, been several symposia, conferences and special issues of journals dedicated to exploring the relationship between masculinities and law (for example, in the United States at Emory Law School 2009, Harvard Law School 2010, Nevada Law School 2011).

11 See further Beasley, Chris (2008) ‘Rethinking Hegemonic Masculinity in a Globalising World’ Men and Masculinities 11(1), 86CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Elias, Juanita and Beasley, Chris (2009) ‘Hegemonic Masculinity and Globalization: Transnational Business Masculinities and Beyond’ Globalizations 6(2) 281–296CrossRefGoogle Scholar: Connell, Raewyn and Messerschmidt, James (2005) Hegemonic Masculinity: Rethinking the Concept Gender and Society 19(6) 829–859.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

12 For example Flood et al n 4.

13 Collier n 7.

14 Pini and Pease n 3.

15 See further discussion in Dowd n 7; Collier n 7.

16 Within this earlier feminist, and broadly, liberal-progressivist legal work undertaken during the 1970s and 1980s, the substance and practice of law in these fields tended to be seen as somehow ‘sexist’ in the way it reflected a particular masculine ideal or distinctive male world view; a view that, it was argued, could be challenged by women's increased entry into law.

17 In contrast to the above view, later feminists argued that law was itself a fundamentally andocentric, positivist discipline, in some accounts essentially patriarchal and oppressive in the way it historically effaced the specificities of women's distinctive experiences in its embodiment of this masculine world-view. See further discussion in Smart n 2.

18 Including a recognition of the open-ended and contradictory nature of how law can reproduce (or indeed challenge) patriarchal relations; how, for example, ideas of the ‘Woman’ of legal discourse are historically contingent. See further and generally Conaghan, Joanne (2013) Law and Gender OxfordOUP.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

19 See for example Collier, Richard and Sheldon, SallyFragmenting Fatherhood: A Socio-Legal Study Oxford: Hart 2008.Google Scholar

20 Thomson, Michael (2007) Endowed: Regulating the Male Sexed Body New York: Routledge.Google Scholar

21 Naffine, Ngarie (1990) Law and the Sexes: Explorations in Feminist Jurisprudence, Sydney: Allen and Unwin.Google Scholar

22 See for example COMAB (Coalition on Men and Boys) Man Made: Men, Masculinities and Equality in Public Policy London: COMAB 2009. Law has been pivotal in debates/policies around encouraging/ facilitating change within men's behaviour, with ideas about masculinity deployed in different ways at policy level.

23 On which see further Thornton, Margaret (2012) Privatizing the Public University: The Case of Law London: Routledge.Google Scholar

24 Collier, Richard and Sheldon, Sally (eds) (2006) Fathers Rights Activism and Legal Reform, Oxford: HartGoogle Scholar. See further and generally discussion in Hearn, Jeff and Pringle, Keith (2006) European Perspectives on Men and Masculinities Basingstoke: Palgrave MacmillanCrossRefGoogle Scholar, who suggest there is no single narrative of what is happening to men, masculinities and gender relations in Europe.

25 See for example GEXcel (2012) Work in Progress Report Volume XVI Proceedings from GEXcel Theme 9: Gendered Sexualed Transnationalisations, Deconstructing the Dominant: Transforming men, “centres” and knowledge/policy/practice 2011–2012 (edited by Hearn, Jeff and Birick, Alp), GEXcel Sweden 2010.

26 Including in centres specifically focused on the topic; for example, the Center for the Study of Men and Masculinities in the USA funded by the MacArthur Foundation: http://www.stonybrook.edu/commcms/csmm/

27 See for example http://menengage.org/

28 Connell, Raewyn (2007) Southern Theory Polity; R.W Connell ‘Globalization, Imperialism and Masculinities’ in Kimmel et al n 4.

29 See Hearn, Jeff, Bragojevic, Marina and Harrison, Katherine (2012) (eds) Rethinking Transnational Men LondonRoutledgeGoogle Scholar. In relation to the legal profession, Collier, Richard (2013) Rethinking Men and Masculinities in the Contemporary Legal Profession: The Example of Fatherhood, Transnational Business Masculinities and Work-Life Balance in Large Law Firms Nevada Law Journal 13, 101–130.Google Scholar

30 Campbell, Beatrix (2013) The End of Equality LondonSeagull Books.Google Scholar