This volume explores which relations produce or maintain masculinities and certain gendered systems of power and the consequences of these gender constructions that further gender research. To understand the meanings of masculinity/masculinities and relationalities as critical concepts in gender studies it takes a wide theoretical grip that spans over several research fields. From a feminist perspective, it critically investigates masculinities as relationally constructed by scrutinizing which relations construct masculinity within a certain gendered system of power, such as the nation, the family, or the workplace, and explores how this is done. 'In relation to what?' is hence, in spite of its almost vulgar rhetorical simplicity, an important question in investigating and problematizing gender.

Inhalt

Introduction: Masculinity/masculinities and relationality, Anneli Häyrén and Helena Wahlström Henriksson.- Exploring the relationality of fatherhood: John Irving's The Cider House Rules, Helena Wahlström Henriksson.- Doing (oppressive) gender via men's relations with children, Keith Pringle.-  Making friends: Construction of change, masculine positions and friendships among former drug users, Klara Goedecke.- Constructions of masculinity, construction of context: Relational processes in everyday work, Anneli Häyrén.- (Re)doing men in museum exhibitions? Masculinities and the democratization of heritage in South Africa, Cecilia Rodéhn.- Fear and love: Masculinities and emotions in autobiographies by Swedish politicians, Margaretha Fahlgren.