What Is Hegemonic Masculinity?

Connell describes hegemonic masculinity as normative, the most exemplary way of being a man, and a position which all other men relate to, which legitimized male domination over women (Connell 832).Military drafting is a discursive practice—a product of hegemonic masculinity, in which uses male conscripts body’s to reproduce ‘maleness’ based on a heteronormative framework in order to maintain its regime. Although hegemonic masculinity cannot be achieved, it continues to produce “tension between what culture wants the male body to be and what the body is or wants to become” (Reeser 101). A thorough analysis of the law aims to prove that the drafting law forces male conscript to practice hegemonic masculinity through promotion of exclusivity

From this quote, it is incontestable that since hegemonic masculinity subordinates other types of masculinities (Connell 846), a new regime of power will form in resistance—i.e. intersex. Continuing from the argument above, since to practice hegemonic masculinity (normative and exemplary type of masculinity) is to pursue at becoming an exemplary heterosexual male, anything that deviates from hegemonic masculinity such as sexual orientation other than heterosexuality, effeminate qualities, etc. is considered a subordinate. In addition, the existence of such resistance—i.e. the intersex not only disrupts the heteronormative ‘truth’ constructed through apparatus such as medical institutions in consolidating the male/female sex as binary opposition of truth, but poses members to question the male/female body and their essentiality. Moreover, in the case of the intersex, their existence presents society with not only an alternative body, but also threatens the heteronormative narrative of bodies as ‘natural’ embodiment of sex, acknowledging that ‘sex’ is merely social construct and the body is just an ‘inscriptive surface’ for masculinity, culture, and discourse to inscript and reinscript and assert its power as mentioned by Reeser (Reeser 91). Hence, the intersex are marginalised and asserted as a medical condition. An intersex, by definition describes a medical condition of individuals whose exterior genitalia does not synchronise with interior (chromosomes, hormones, internal sex organs). During the sex differentiation phase, their genitalia did not fully formed ‘correctly’ leading to formation of an ambiguous genitalia (American Accreditation Healthcare Commission). A close reading of the military drafting law suggests that intersex are not considered ‘male’ because even though their chromosomes are of the male sex, their genitalia does not correspond. Therefore