Thomas Johansson - Bending Bodies, Volume 2: Moulding Masculinities

Moulding Masculinities, Volume 2

Edited by
Sren Erv and Thomas Johansson

First published 2003 by Ashgate Publishing

Reissued 2018 by Routledge
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Copyright Sren Erv and Thomas Johansson 2003

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The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this reprint but points out that some imperfections in the original copies may be apparent.

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A Library of Congress record exists under LC control number: 2004616037

ISBN 13:978-1-138-72012-1 (hbk)
ISBN 13:978-1-315-19396-0 (ebk)

We would like to thank the authors for trusting us with their material. The financial support we have received from "The Nordic Summer University" has allowed most of the contributors to meet at different conferences and enabled their papers to be proofread. Also thanks to Sidsel Erv0 for technical assistance. And finally we praise the eminent work by our "proofreader" Rictor Norton, without whom this task would have been less manageable and the result less successful,

The article by Michael Kimmel was earlier published in Michigan Quarterly Review, vol. 33, no, 1, Winter 1994.

The article by Arto Tiihonen was earlier published in International Review for Sociology of Sport, vol. 29, no. 1, 1994.

(for both volumes)

Hans Bonde , Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Deptartment of Sports Science, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

Mikael Carleheden , Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, University of rebro, Sweden.

R. W. Connell , Professor of Education, Faculty of Education, University of Sydney, Australia.

Stephan W. Cremer , Ph.D., Department of Health Service of the City of Utrecht, Netherlands.

Claes Ekenstam , Ph.D., Associate Professor at the Department of the History of Ideas and Education, University of Gteborg, Sweden.

Seren Erv , M.A. in Film and History, Department of Film and Media Studies, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

Lena Eskilsson , Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of the History of Science and Ideas, University of Ume, Sweden.

Katrine Fangen , Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, University of Oslo, Norway.

Jeff Hearn , Professor of Sociology, Department of Sociology, bo Akademi University, Finland.

lipo Heln , Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, University of Helsinki, Finland.

ystein Gullvg Holter , Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, University of Oslo, Norway.

Ella Johansson , Ph.D., Associate Professor, Nordeuropa-Institut, Humboldt-Universitt zu Berlin, Germany.

Thomas Johansson , Ph.D., Professor, Department of Social Work, University of Gothenburg, Sweden.

Michael S. Kimmel , Professor in Sociology, State University of New York at Stony Brook, USA. <103321.1076@compuserve.com>

Christian KuUberg , Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Social Science, University of rebro, Sweden.

Martti Lahti , Chair, Department of Communication and Media Design, Laurea Polytechnic, Vantaa, Finland,

Philip Laiander , Ph.D., Associate Professor, SoRAD, University of Stockholm, Sweden.

Jrgen Lorentzen , Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Gender Studies, University of Oslo, Norway.

Mairtin Mac an Ghaill , Ph.D., Professor, Department of Education, University of Sheffield, England.

Paul Mcllvenny , Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Languages and Intercultural Studies, Aalborg University, Denmark,

Ulf Mellstrm , Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Technique and Social Change, University of Linkping, Sweden.

Michael Meuser , Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, University of Bremen.

Wilhelm von Rosen , Dr. Phii. in History from the University of Copenhagen, Senior Researcher at the National Archives of Denmark.

Victor Jeleniewski Seidler , Professor of Social Theory, Department of Sociology, Goldsmiths College, University of London, England,

Juha Siltala , Ph.D., Professor, Department of History, University of Helsinki, Finland.

Klaus Theweleit , Dr.Phil., freelance lecturer and author in Freiburg, Germany.

Arto Tiihonen , Ph.D., Department of Social Sciences of Sport, University of Jyvskyl, Finland.

Helena Wahlstrm , Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of English, Gvle University College, Sweden.

Geir A. ygarden , Ph.D., Department of Sociology, University of Uppsala, Sweden.

VICTOR JELENIEWSKI SEIDLER

Why has it become so important to focus upon men's relationships with their bodies as we approach the new millennium? Is it because for many people it becomes a time to think of new beginnings and for critical thinking in relation to men and masculinities this has come to mean thinking in new ways about men's diverse relationships with their bodies? It is clear that much contemporary exploration in the visual arts concerns testing the boundaries of bodies and refusing the distinction so crucial to an Enlightenment vision of modernity, between nature and culture, through treating the body as machine.

There seems to be a pervasive desire within contemporary culture to test the limits against which we can re/invent ourselves in relation to the new technologies that seem to potentially transform the reach of human senses. Unsure of the Utopian dreams for social and political emancipation which have governed so much of European thought of the last two centuries, people now seem able to trust only in themselves and the work they can do on their own bodies. There is a conviction that if people can remake their bodies, then they can recreate themselves. At some level this can seem to continue a secularized Protestant inheritance that informs modernity, for it can grow out of an unease and uncertainty in relation to the body, which Max Weber in The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism connects to an inherited sense that natures are evil. This has a particular resonance for men who can be left to feel that they must constantly prove themselves. It often makes it difficult for men to sit quietly with themselves, for they constantly have to move into an arena of action, for only here can they prove that they are not "good for nothing," as their parents might have accused them of being.