Concept Of Hegemonic Masculinity

To most, the concept of hegemonic masculinity seems vague, but yet it still penetrates the lives of every individual in Western society. And while not everyone is aware of the term hegemonic masculinity, if you ask any child, youth, or adult what ‘being a man’ is, they would likely give similar stereo-typical descriptions of hegemonic masculinity. Hegemonic masculinity is defined as “the configuration of gender practice which [allows] the dominant position of men and the subordination of women” (Connell, 2005, p. 77). Thus, in our Western world, there already exists a defined way we see masculinity, through the concept of hegemonic masculinity. Our preconceived definition of masculinity, therefore, relies on constructed masculine traits

She explains that she does not want to be identified as more masculine or more feminine; instead, she likes to embrace all the gendered qualities about her. She even writes that embracing her entire personality makes her feel more beautiful and more of a woman than she has ever felt before. While she still describes her personality as “independent, strong, [and] confident” which is generally associated with masculinity, this does not limit her identity to just masculine (2013). In fact, she calls her style androgynous. Furthermore, another butch lesbian in this article, Sarah Friden, explains that by being a part of this project, she has come to realize that butch is more than “being like a man” (2013). She explains that before the photo shoot, her definition of butch was women with short hair who drive motorcycles, but all the women she met had girly and feminine aspects to their personality. Even a butch lesbian herself had a stereotypical definition of butch. Thus, the butch identity is being redefined to fit more inclusive, androgynous, and feminine

Evan Urquhart (2014), a masculine lesbian, explains her own struggle with her butch identity. On the one hand, butch seems outdated to her, but on the other, there lacks a better term to describe her identity. She explains that she feels left out in most definitions of woman because they don’t include her masculine traits in the definition. She prides herself with her ‘positive’ masculine traits she describes as “ambitious, logical, aggressive, strong, and highly competitive”, but does not associate with the typical feminine traits she describes as “silly, frivolous, dainty, weak, or overly emotional” (2014). As Evan Urquhart demonstrates, it is just as problematic to associate femininity with only negative traits as it is to associate masculinity with only negative traits. She explains that her problem with femininity is that we all – women included – are taught to distance ourselves from negative femininity. Even straight women pride themselves with masculinity because they don’t want to be seen as completely feminine: overly-emotional, crazy, psychotic, etc. Therefore, by including femininity into the definition of masculinity, new butch lesbians create an inclusive masculinity and reshape how we see both masculinity and