University of Huddersfield Repository Wolfman, Gregory Male femininities? The redefinition of men within neoliberalism Original Citation Wolfman, Gregory (2019) Male femininities? The redefinition of men within neoliberalism. Doctoral thesis, University of Huddersfield. This version is available at http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/id/eprint/35360/ The University Repository is a digital collection of the research output of the University, available on Open Access. Copyright and Moral Rights for the items on this site are retained by the individual author and/or other copyright owners. Users may access full items free of charge; copies of full text items generally can be reproduced, displayed or performed and given to third parties in any format or medium for personal research or study, educational or not-for-profit purposes without prior permission or charge, provided: • The authors, title and full bibliographic details is credited in any copy; • A hyperlink and/or URL is included for the original metadata page; and • The content is not changed in any way. For more information, including our policy and submission procedure, please contact the Repository Team at: [email protected]. http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/ Male femininities? The redefinition of men within neoliberalism Gregory Wolfman A thesis submitted to the University of Huddersfield in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Huddersfield September 2019 0 Table of contents Table of contents........................................................................................................................... 1 Acknowledgements....................................................................................................................... 5 Abstract ......................................................................................................................................... 6 1 “A more subtle kind of masculine”? .......................................................................................... 8 Men, masculinity, and me ......................................................................................................... 8 1.1 Male femininities? ............................................................................................................ 10 1.2 Chapter overview .............................................................................................................. 15 2 Critical literature review: Masculine, feminine, neoliberal subjects ....................................... 16 2.1 Introduction: Gendered and neoliberal subjectivities ....................................................... 16 2.2 Femininities ...................................................................................................................... 18 2.3 Men ................................................................................................................................... 23 2.4 Gendered capitalisms and neoliberal patriarchies ............................................................ 28 2.5 Male femininities .............................................................................................................. 34 2.6 Chapter summary .............................................................................................................. 39 3 Methodology: Researching masculinities in a neoliberal framework ...................................... 40 3.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 40 3.2 Ontology and epistemology .............................................................................................. 41 3.3 Data collection .................................................................................................................. 46 3.4 Discursive method(s) for data analysis ............................................................................. 61 3.5 Chapter summary .............................................................................................................. 66 4 Recuperating masculinity in the hangout sitcom ..................................................................... 67 4.1 Culture, sitcom and critical discourse analysis ................................................................. 68 4.2 The postfeminist male singleton ....................................................................................... 73 4.3 The douchebag .................................................................................................................. 77 1 4.4 The househusband ............................................................................................................ 83 4.5 Chapter summary .............................................................................................................. 87 5 Disavowing masculinity with interpretative repertoires .......................................................... 89 5.1 Interpretative repertoires ................................................................................................... 89 5.2 Examples with and without sitcoms ................................................................................. 91 5.3 Chapter summary .............................................................................................................. 95 6 Advanced masculinity, and geographical and temporal conflict ............................................. 97 6.1 Northern towns ................................................................................................................. 99 6.2 The foreign other ............................................................................................................ 105 6.3 Rural geek to urban nerd ................................................................................................. 110 6.4 Flamboyance and sociality ............................................................................................. 115 6.5 Chapter summary ............................................................................................................ 120 7 Outsider masculinity, nerds, geeks, and effeminacy.............................................................. 121 7.1 Feminine boys done good ............................................................................................... 122 7.2 Nerd boys done good ...................................................................................................... 133 7.3 Embracing femininity ..................................................................................................... 140 7.4 Chapter summary ............................................................................................................ 148 8 Individualism and the (ir)relevance of gender discourse ....................................................... 149 8.1 What expectations? ......................................................................................................... 150 8.2 Interpreting expectations ................................................................................................ 158 8.3 Ignoring expectations ...................................................................................................... 164 8.4 Chapter summary ............................................................................................................ 171 9 Male femininities, neoliberal masculinities and hollow femininity ....................................... 173 9.1 Rejecting masculinity ..................................................................................................... 174 9.2 Feminisation of labour .................................................................................................... 179 9.3 Masculine geography ...................................................................................................... 185 9.4 Hollow femininity ........................................................................................................... 192 9.5 Chapter summary ............................................................................................................ 198 2 10 Conclusion: Neoliberal men ................................................................................................ 199 10.1 Reflecting on the research ............................................................................................ 199 10.2 Further research ............................................................................................................ 205 10.3 Male femininities? ........................................................................................................ 207 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................. 208 Appendices ............................................................................................................................... 223 Appendix 1 – List of participants ......................................................................................... 223 Appendix 2 – Advertising for recruitment ............................................................................ 225 Appendix 3 – Ethics approval ............................................................................................... 227 Appendix 4 – Focus group and interview design ................................................................. 229 Appendix 5 – Glossary ........................................................................................................