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| 101 Part III Men Just as the two chapters in part 2 apply masculinities analysis to boys, the two chapters in this part are examples of the application of masculinities analysis to men, in the context of fatherhood and men as victims of sexual abuse. In the discussion of fatherhood in chapter 7, we have an explicitly all-male category that has drawn some gender analysis but not much of an explicit look at masculinities. Masculinities analysis would be particularly helpful, I argue, in understanding the economic and cultural barriers to involved, egalitarian fatherhood. It exposes how the construction of gender identity gets in the way of social change, comparable with the understanding that women experience work/family conflict to a far greater degree than men, because their work role conflicts with the traditional and even ongoing reconstruction of motherhood. Masculinities can help us uncover the structures of work and the cultures of work that not only benefit men but also barricade them at work instead of balancing work and family. So men simultaneously experience the positive and the negative. But most significantly, masculinities analysis might be useful toward further understanding and uncovering the relationship of men to care and how masculinity affects that relationship. If we are to change the way men behave (and if we really mean and support that change), then it means changing masculinity, in the sense of relation to self or identity and to others. It means incorporating a central commitment to care. If care is associated with women and masculinity is defined quintessentially as not being female, then men doing care is a liberatory act, but also one fraught with potential conflict (played out in custody battles, among other places). Masculinities analysis can help, then, to identify barriers and offer the hope of reconstruction, as indeed, reconstruction of fatherhood is ongoing toward a greater embrace of care. The dialogue about fatherhood has some parallels to boys and education. It is an area where we do engage in gender analysis to some extent. But akin to the dialogue about boys and education, very often we do so in an essentialist way, which leads to treating fathers differently in a way that reinforces 102 | hegemonic masculinity. And masculinity is not the only piece that limits fathers: a huge piece is economic, which is strongly but not exclusively linked to masculinity. In chapter 8 I explore, along with Ted Shaw, men and sexual abuse. We focus on men as victims of sexual assault as children. When we think about gender and sex in relation to sexual abuse, we think about girls and women as victims; men are invisible. Using masculinities analysis we examine our treatment of child sexual abuse and our consideration of the impact of these experiences on men as adults. When we study the data, we find a high rate of sexual assault for boys. If we ignore that, we fail to see those victims. In addition, this area is a place where we might benefit from a gender-specific approach. Similar to the analysis of education and boys, this does not mean that we ignore girls and women but rather that we look at boys and men in addition, and by doing so, we benefit both. Chapter 8 explores the invisibility of men as sexual victims and the implications of this invisibility. On the one hand, the issue links backs to boys, because it is critical to expose the extent to which boys are victims of child sexual abuse. The critical link to men is that the victimized boys become men and must construct their identity and self as men with this victimization as part of who they are. What happens to these boys as men? Because of the link for some men between childhood victimization and adult sexual offending, most often we understand and deal with adults as offenders. But the empirical data tell us that not all victims become victimizers. Our focus on helping adult victims requires a much broader scope, to support and assist those who may still be living with the scars of childhood harm. Our failure to identify and treat men when they are sexual victims is not limited to this scenario, since we also know that male rape is largely ignored, particularly when it occurs within prisons. Masculinities analysis can potentially be helpful to uncover and notice what we have hidden about men and sexuality. Feminists have long been justifiably concerned about and have focused on men’s...

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