On hegemonic masculinity and violence

This chapter presents to raise important issues about men and violence by Tony Jefferson and Steve Hall. The concept of 'hegemonic masculinity' appeared in the 1980s as a convergence of ideas from three main sources: women's political experience and research on gender hierarchy; gay men's political experience and theorizing of oppression; and empirical research with boys and men in locales such as schools and workplaces. Gender processes, and the groupings of men that arise in them, have multiple and sometimes divergent connections with violence. There is no such thing as 'the hegemonic masculinity thesis', outside of Hall's text. Hall sets up his own straw-man model of patriarchal violence, which he proceeds with some relish to refute. His presentation misses much of the complexity just noted because he drastically narrows what is taken into account as men's violence. One does not need to be a woolly New Age optimist to think that violence reduction and violence prevention are possible.