„Masculinity is a behavioural response to particular conditions
and situations in which men participate, different types of masculinity
exist in school, the Youth group, the street, the family and the
workplace. In other words, men do masculinity according to the social
situation in which they find themselves.” (Messerschmidt 1993: 81, 83,
in Spindler 2006: 83/84). Hegemonic masculinity (R. Connell,
1995) is the normative ideal of masculinity that men are supposed to
aim for and women are supposed to want. Characteristics associated with
hegemonic masculinity are aggressiveness, strength, drive, ambition,
and self-reliance as well as whiteness, health, heterosexuality.
Hegemonic and marginalised forms of masculinity are generated by
competition and cause each other.
Femininity refers to
qualities and behaviors judged by a particular culture to be ideally
associated with or especially appropriate to women and girls.
Femininity principally refers to social acquired traits and secondary
sex characteritics. In Western culture femininity has traditionally
included features such as gentleness and patience. In patriarchal
cultures femininity and women are regarded as “the other” and
subordinate, while male values define the norms.
The perpetual
existence of intersexuals/hermaphrodites or societies with more genders
than only men and women show, that Gender binarity is a social
construction and gender itself is a field of permanent changes and
fights.
Connell, R.W. (1995): Masculinities, Cambridge
Messerschmidt, J. W. (1993): Masculinities and Crime. Maryland
Spindler, S. (2006): Corpus delicti. Männlichkeit, Rassismus und Kriminalisierung im Alltag von jugendlichen Migranten, Münster
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Glossary