Masculinities in a Global Era

Dr Joseph Gelfer is a masculinities researcher at Monash University, Australia. He is author of Numen, Old Men: Contemporary Masculine Spiritualities and the Problem of Patriarchy (Equinox Publishing, 2009) and editor of 2012: Decoding the Countercultural Apocalypse (Equinox Publishing, 2011). He is also founding and current editor of Journal of Men, Masculinities and Spirituality, an open access journal available at www.jmmsweb.org, and The Best of Journal of Men, Masculinities and Spirituality (Gorgias Press, 2010).

• Introduction.- Part 1: Theoretical Models: New Directions in Gender Role Conflict Research.- Will the Real Joseph Gelfer Please Stand Up: Multiple Masculinities and the Self.- Part 2: Masculinity and Stability.- Youthful Warrior Masculinities in Indonesia.- Men of Honor: Examining Individual Differences in Masculine Honor Beliefs.- "Men are Hard...Women are Soft": Muslin Men and the Construction of Masculine Identity.- Part 3: Masculinity Under Negotiation: Making the Global Bhadralok?: Bengali Men and the Transnational Middle Class in India.- Better Men?" Gendered Culturalized Citizenship in Male Emancipation Projects in the Netherlands.- Fluid Masculinities? Case Study of the Kingdom of Bahrain.- Masculinity in Ambiguity: Constructing Taiwanese Masculine Identities between Great Powers.- Historical Sediments of Competing Gender Models in Indigenous Guatemala.- Part 4: Sexuality: Hypospadias, the "Bathroom Panopticon" and Men's Psychological and Social Urinary Practices.- Cannibals and Ghosts: Forms of Capital, Immobility and Dependence Among Former Javanese Sex Workers in South Bali.- Transgender Identity and Acceptance in a Global Era: The Muxes of Juchitán.

In his introduction to this volume, editor Joseph Gelfer references the emerging literature in global masculinity, including Connell (1998), Pease and Pringle (2001), and Blazina and Shen-Miller’s (2011) International Psychology of Men. Given my lack of familiarity with this area, I approached Masculinities in a Global Era from the standpoint of one who is not a global masculinities scholar and is needier of an introduction than of an advanced course. With that perspective in mind, I don’t think it is unfair to say that this volume can be considered as “Global Masculinities II.” That is, most of the chapters seem to require the reader to have some degree of familiarity with scholarship in this field, as well as a deeper understanding of geography, international conflicts, and global political developments than most of us Americans have (sadly)...As a psychologist, I must add that this is quite unlike other multicultural works that I have encountered. It is a challenging and thought-provoking collection of loosely connected writings that will likely inspire reflection and revision of ideas. However, a reader will not complete this volume having acquired easily digestible information about clinical application or intervention principles...Masculinities in a Global Era is, however, likely to stimulate needed challenges to many entrenched ideas aboutgender, manhood, and masculinity. I would recommend it to folks in academia, qualitative researchers, and any thinking person wishing to understand thecritical relevance of the life experiences of men that have been underrecognized and underappreciated in most all previous men’s studies scholarship."Gary Brooks, PsycCRITIQUESJuly 28, 2014, Vol. 59, No. 30, Article 4