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Cultures of Intoxication pp 211–235Cite as

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Masculinities and Intoxication: Notes Towards a Co-constitutive Approach

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Abstract

This chapter explores some of the theoretical resources available for approaching masculinities and intoxication as co-constituted. Following a review of social constructionist accounts of masculinities and intoxication, the chapter considers recent scholarly work on gender and drugs that goes beyond ‘drug, set and setting’, ‘drunken comportment’ and ‘hegemonic masculinity’, and beyond recent calls for greater engagement with ‘intersectionality’. Influenced by feminist science studies and science and technology studies, this work attempts to acknowledge materiality in the production of drug realities without treating it as determining, and to analyse masculinities and drug effects, including intoxication, as emerging from, and contingent on, the collective activity of diverse human and non-human elements.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    For recent comprehensive reviews of the literature on gender, alcohol and other drug use, and intoxication, see Hunt and Antin (2019), Hunt, Antin, Bjønness, and Ettorre (2016), and Hunt and Asmussen Frank (2016).

  2. 2.

    Reviewing the extensive feminist literature debating the merits of intersectionality is beyond the scope of this chapter (for recent examples, see Carastathis, 2014; Cooper, 2016 and Nash, 2017). The intention here is to draw a parallel between some recent developments in feminist work and those occurring in the drug field (see below).

  3. 3.

    See Keane (2017, p. 10) on the limitations of the ‘turn’ metaphor.

  4. 4.

    Gomart’s analysis of Becker could also be applied to the theorising of drug action in MacAndrew and Edgerton (1969), Marshall (1979b) and a range of other social constructionist accounts.

  5. 5.

    It is worth noting that Reid et al. (2007) endorse an orthodox theory of drug action. A positive linear relationship between levels of ecstasy use and levels of aggressive and violent behaviour, ‘levels of serotonin’ and ‘alcohol-induced aggression’, mediated by ‘low self-control’, are all central to their account.

  6. 6.

    In conventional medical usage, Viagra and Cialis are drugs for the treatment of erectile dysfunction in men.

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Acknowledgements

This chapter draws on the intellectual work associated with a project funded by the Australian Research Council (DP18010036). The project has been based in two institutions over time: the National Drug Research Institute, Curtin University, and the Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society, La Trobe University. The National Drug Research Institute is supported by core funding from the Australian government under the Drug and Alcohol Program and also receives significant funding from Curtin University. I am extremely grateful to Adrian Farrugia, Suzanne Fraser, Helen Keane, Kane Race and Fiona Hutton for helpful comments on an earlier version.

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    David Moore

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    Fiona Hutton

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Moore, D. (2020). Masculinities and Intoxication: Notes Towards a Co-constitutive Approach. In: Hutton, F. (eds) Cultures of Intoxication. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-35284-4_10

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