Nurturing Masculinities

Abstract

The conversations overall demonstrated a considerable degree of uncertainty among men about their role in nurturing care. Many men continue to be subject to inexpressive norms, although this is stronger for some men. Nonetheless, there was considerable ambiguity among the men about their involvement in nurturing because dominant definitions of caring equate it with femininity. For these men at least, their experiences suggest that dominant definitions of masculinity are the antithesis of dominant definitions of caring because dominant masculinities are defined in opposition to femininity. Being ‘soft’, intimate, and sensitive is said to go against dominant norms, conventions, identities, or innate dispositions for men. Some men claim that men have different ways of dealing with emotions, whereas others define these emotional differences as a problem for men. Though emotionally expressive care norms have exerted a strong influence on contemporary Irish masculinities they are not so ascendant among men to permit them to easily embrace primary caring. Many men are greatly apprehensive about how to be men in an expressive way, but different men react to these norms and negotiate masculinities in different ways. The fact that masculinity is stereotypically defined to be emotionally inexpressive has implications for men’s involvement in nurturing care, and the topic of men’s emotionality was a major theme in the conversations.