The Paradox of Gender Reversal: Dance Hosts and the Pursuit of Gender Ideals in Contemporary China

This study examines the masculinity of Chinese male migrants who earn their living as “dance hosts.” Dance hosts partner middle-aged women in dance halls, sell experiences of intimacy and engage in ongoing romantic relationships with their female clients. This article seeks to capture an intimate and “up-close” portrait of (heterosexual) male dance hosting, and then further addresses dance hosts’ masculine subjectivity by examining the coping strategies they use to overcome the stigma attached to their profession and to assert their masculinity. Ultimately, the article argues that the process of masculine subjectivity formation in the case of male dance hosts is structured by dominant norms of Chinese masculinity. Although seemingly highly subversive, the relationship between dance hosts and clients in fact fulfils conventional gender ideals and encourages the perpetuation of traditional gender roles in China's patriarchal society. This work seeks to offer an understanding of traditional gender norms (or ideals) through the lens of normative Chinese masculinity within the context of a stigmatized occupation.

Evolution of Dada Uttam Kumar: Performing Masculinity and the Disillusioned Bhadralok Mahanayak in the 1970s’ Popular Melodramas

This essay focuses on a fragment of the Bengali superstar Uttam Kumar’s star text, the dada figure, to analyse the contours of melodramatic enunciations and masculinity that appear in the 1970s’ popular films. This decade is identified with the radical politics associated with the Naxal movement that erupted in varied expressions of rage and anger at institutional and systemic failures. Since Uttam typified a bhadralok masculine subjectivity, his evolution in domestic melodramas especially in male weepies from the period enables me to read the specifics of regional cinema and its response to social and political contexts of the times.

Chafing masculinity: Heterosexual violence and young men's shame

The role of shame in feminist activism has been debated lately, where scholars particularly have discussed whether shame could enable individuals with privileged positions, such as heterosexual men, to align with vulnerable groups or prevent them from political action. Drawing on written stories submitted to a feminist anti-violence campaign, this paper explores young men's shame of having been sexist or sexually violent. Through displaying shame, they distance themselves from problematic past violent or sexist actions, producing or reconstructing a respectable masculine subjectivity. In their narratives, the young men at times embrace and adopt a “chafing masculinity”, that is, an uncomfortable and troubling heteromasculine position. Drawing on these narratives, the paper discusses how shame – by exposing heterosexual men's uncontrolled discomfort and helping men to unlearn privilege – may be a politically progressive emotion and contribute to pro-feminist politics.

La penalización de los clientes como instrumento de lucha contra el sistema prostitucional: una cuestión de dignidad y derechos fundamentales (The Criminalization of Clients as an Instrument to Fight against the Prostitution System: a Matter of Dignity and Fundamental Rights)

La prostitución se debe analizar necesariamente desde una perspectiva de género, es decir, teniendo en mente las relaciones de poder que implica. Este acercamiento obliga a centrarse en la figura del hombre como sujeto de la prostitución y en la estrecha relación que existe entre el sistema prostitucional y la masculinidad hegemónica. Por consiguiente, es necesario penalizar al consumidor de prostitución e implementar políticas públicas para desactivar la demanda, al mismo tiempo que se revisa el modelo de subjetividad masculina que continúa sosteniendo el orden patriarcal. Prostitution must necessarily be analyzed from a gender perspective, that is, bearing in mind the power relations involved. This approach requires putting the focus on the figure of man as a subject of prostitution and in the close relationship that exists between the prostitution system and hegemonic masculinity. Consequently, its necessary to penalize the consumer of prostitution and to implement public policies to deactivate the demand. At the same time the need to revise the model of masculine subjectivity that continues sustaining the patriarchal order.

Rethinking Mormonism's Heavenly Mother

When feminists interrogate the symbolic realm of religion, they often expose much of theological discourse as an idealized projection of a masculine subjectivity. In response to androcentric theological discourse, some feminists’ approaches have reframed religion in support of feminine subjectivity. For example, Luce Irigaray experienced an important, constructive turn to religion in her writings in the 1980s and 1990s following her early criticism of phallogocentric Western philosophy. She argued provocatively:Monotheistic religions speak to us of God the Father and God made man; nothing is said of a God the Mother or of God made Woman, or even of God as a couple or couples. Not all the transcendental fancies, or ecstasies of every type, not all the quibbling over maternity and the neutrality (neuterness) of God, can succeed in erasing this one reality that determines identities, rights, symbols, and discourse.Elsewhere, she contends: “as long as woman lacks a divine made in her image she cannot establish her subjectivity or achieve a goal of her own. She lacks an ideal that would be her goal or path in becoming.” For Irigaray, “to become divine” means to become a subject, as opposed to being a term that defines the other. Fertility, motherhood, and female genealogies are central to Irigaray's divine woman as a way to establish female subjectivity.