Reading Men Differently: Alternative Portrayals of Masculinity in Contemporary Young Adult Fiction

This study explored the nature and performance of masculinity as portrayed in three popular young adult novels: two novels featuring male protagonists and one featuring a female protagonist. Drawing on emerging theory and scholarship, researchers view masculinity, like femininity, as a gendered performance, socially scripted but amenable to change, rather than as a fixed set of biologically determined behaviors. In this study, particular attention was paid to the nature, deployment, and consequences of traditional, heterosexual masculinity(ies) evident in the content and in the stylistic details of the novels studied. The analysis suggests that these novels offered more complex renderings of boys' lives, addressed the effects of enforced hegemonic masculinity, and, with the female protagonist, disrupted the connection between males and the performance of masculinity. The study and analysis of these contemporary young adult novels would appear to offer potent sites for the exploration of masculinity for students and their teachers.