Phallus Obsessed Masculinity

See Article Here

I found this article really interesting. I wanted to blog about hegemonic masculinity and I wanted to blog about how it still affects us today so I was looking for more current articles and I found this one from October about phallus obsessed toxic masculinity.

It goes over the description of several different types of masculinity but says that is it hard to but masculinity into one category because it's "strong, brave, power-hungry, in control, unemotional unless angry or in competition – is just an expression of one hegemonic metaphorical form: penis-obsessed and power-hungry phallic masculinity."

Phallic masculinity has been a way of representing masculinity for centuries. The phallic art form has existed since ancient Greece and even earlier than that. "Phallic masculinity underpins the social formation of patriarchy. Yet its early manifestations were not equated with the lust for power that defines it today. The earliest phallic objects, found in southern Germany, are some 28,000 years old."

I appreciated this article because it also went over testicular masculinity, seminal masculinity, and tender masculinity. Testicular masculinity is what it sounds like, as is seminal masculinity. They are all very similar the phallic masculinity. Tender masculinity is a way that masculinity is changing to be more tender and calm and welcoming. A masculinity that is catching up with the times. The final paragraph is a good place to end, "There’s an old adage that unless behaviour changes nothing changes. But unless the way we think changes, new behaviours tend to revert to type. New practices need new modes of representation, new ways of thinking. Constructing a more tender and adaptable form of masculinity is not a matter of winning, or of refusing to compete. Instead, we must learn to speak differently."