A CONSTRUÇÃO DA IDENTIDADE MASCULINA NA PÓS-MODERNIDADE: NOVAS PERSPECTIVAS A PARTIR DO FRALDÁRIO MASCULINO

Resumo: O presente trabalho busca compreender e discutir a forma como o homem cisgênero tem construído a sua identidade, na época atual, denominada pós-moderna. Para problematizar esse processo, a pesquisa utilizou-se da lei de instalação de fraldários em banheiros masculinos, como meio de uma análise do contexto contemporâneo da formação identitária masculina e de novos modos de exercício da masculinidade, buscando, assim, mostrar um novo horizonte de possibilidades. O trabalho se articula teoricamente ao conceito de liquidez proposto por Zygmunt Bauman, destacando o conceito de sociedade líquida e o modo como ela influencia esse processo de construção da identidade masculina. Para tal fim, foi realizada uma revisão da literatura que apontou que há um processo de reformulação do conceito de masculinidade em curso e o fraldário no banheiro masculino indica a possibilidade de um novo exercício do masculino ao romper com a lógica machista e patriarcal.Palavras-chave: Masculinidade. Identidade. Pós-modernidade. Bauman. Abstract: This work aims to understand and discuss how the cisgender man lives his cultural identity in the present time, named as postmodern. To discuss this process, the research used the Brazilian law of installation of baby changing facilities in male bathrooms, as means to analyze the contemporary context of male identity formation and new ways of exercising masculinity, seeking a new horizon of possibilities for this process. Using as a theorical basis for this work, the “liquid society” concept, from “liquidity” concept by Zygmunt Bauman, is used to explain how it influences the construction process of male identity. In order to do this, a literature review was carried out. This indicated that there is an ongoing process of reviewing the concept of masculinity and the baby changing room in the men’s bathroom, by breaking with sexist and patriarchal logic, suggests the possibility of a new male ways of living.Keywords: Masculinity. Identity. Postmodernity. Bauman.

Mužskosť ako diskurzívna konštrukcia. Nemecké literárnovedné analýzy mužskosti v 21. storočí

The first studies which introduced the category of masculinity into German literary science in the context of contemporary interdisciplinary gender research, perceiving it as a social and cultural construct, were published shortly after the turn of the century. The paper lays out the basic theoretical approaches to masculinity in literary texts presented in relevant German literary works of the second decade of the 21st century. In contemporary literary analyses, it is not only a question of revealing masculine power structures in literary texts, but also of criticising one-sided and stereotypical constructs of male identity. Attention is focused on the combination of masculinity and emotionality, but also on the relationship between masculinity and fatherhood or on the literary reflections of the changes in the conventional status of man as a breadwinner, public actor and creative intellectual. Literary masculinities are understood as products of literary narratives.

‘Threads of Identity’: Uncovering the benefits and tensions found in the hand-sewn signature as a method of engagement to challenge stereotypes about embroidering with boys

This article describes a stitch-based research project that took place in 2016 in Manchester. It involved the Ahmed Iqbal Ullah Race Relations Archive, Burnage Academy for Boys and a professional embroiderer. Central to the enquiry is a signature cloth – a textile made up of hand-sewn autographs – used as a vehicle to explore young male identity and stereotypes about embroidery. The investigation signposts the flexibility of the signature that is utilized in the research to locate accessible activities and processes. In so doing, it formulates new avenues to access historical textile artefacts and illuminates their significance and contemporary relevance. The enquiry also outlines some of the tensions and dilemmas that permeate socially engaged practice(s) and offers new insights into the stitch-based collaborative/participatory process, in which the production of the tactile artefact is but one element; for alongside the stitch workshops a commemorative banner was a second outcome, made to memorialize a pupil killed in the school in a racially motivated crime in 1986. Shedding light on embroidery as a form of social engagement, the investigation also provides evidence of its applicability as an alternative, tactile means of communication. It similarly reveals and elucidates the dynamics inherent in this stitch-based community collaboration and draws attention to some of the planned and unexpected outcomes that emerge. The methodology offers a transparent model for those who may engage in similar practices and highlights its applicability to different audiences.

Gender, the Wars of Decolonization, and the Decline of Empires after 1945

During the post-1945 Wars of Decolonization, gender was often an issue of contestation. Colonial repression was based on a gender order that intersected with the constructed racial and social hierarchies in the colonies. The way imperial powers’ policies used and impacted gender relations to secure their rule must be taken into account in any study of the anticolonial struggle. The chapter argues that the Wars of Decolonization after 1945 were as much total wars as the First and Second World Wars. They, too, affected all areas of the economy, society, and culture. The struggle for liberation challenged the ideas of white manhood of the colonial powers and led to conflicts in the construction of male identity within the armies of the insurgents. One challenge was the fact that not only men, but also women actively participated in the struggle for national liberation, which undermined dominant ideas of the gender order and led to a reconsideration of gender relations during and after the conflicts.