Disrupting academic narratives of working-class masculinity as deficit: young marginalised men rejecting patriarchal fatherhood

This article critiques how academic scholarship has too often framed working-class and marginalised young men through a deficit lens – positioning them as emotionally limited, regressive or inherently resistant to gender equality. Such portrayals risk reinforcing epistemic injustice by excluding these young men as credible narrators of their social worlds. In response, we call for more generative approaches to understanding masculinity on the margins. Drawing on biographical interviews with working-class and/or migrant young adult men in Australia and the UK, we explore how participants reflect on and respond to patriarchal fatherhood (characterised by male dominance, emotional distance and reinforcement of traditional gender hierarchies). Contrary to assumptions of intergenerational reproduction, these men demonstrate emotional reflexivity and often seek to resist or reconfigure harmful masculine norms. We situate our analysis within longer traditions of critical youth studies and scholarship on Black masculinities, both of which provide crucial guidance for developing more situated, generous and accountable portrayals of young men. In doing so, we contribute to a growing body of work seeking to rethink masculinities beyond the binary of progress and backlash.