Rethinking masculinity : A critical examination of the dynamics of masculinity in the context of an English prison

Abstract

There is a study of masculinity, constructed through relations between men, as men, within a prison for men in England. I base the study on a new, intersubjective method of observer/participant research that I devised and conducted while employed in the prison as a Probation Officer.

I incorporate myself, as a man, as a subject of my research on the basis that men construct masculinity intersubjectively, as men. I argue that men internalise masculinity to the extent that it is unquestionable within current frameworks of androcentric knowledge about men, as men. I take the view that this process of the intersubjective construction of masculinity between men can be brought to light only through a research process of intersubjective deconstruction between men.

Through my findings, I present a new paradigm of masculinity as manhood. I define masculinity as transcendental, heterosexual Heroism that is constructed in a clash between the Hero and the Villain, each of whom have equal status as men. I show that men internalise this mythology and construct each other and women within a Hero/Villain/Non-Man matrix of masculinity that overarches social divisions between men. If a man cannot be the Hero, it is better for him to be the Villain that the Non-Man, as the conventionality of offending by young men illustrates. The men's prison and the Criminal Justice System generate crime and masculinity in the same process, as a site where men enact masculinity through Hero/Villain/Non-Man dynamics.

I argue that the men's prison in England reflects the state of relations between men, as men, in England, because the prison contains a transient population of men who bring masculinity into it from wider society. It is therefore both a product and a producer of masculinity. The current men's prison and the Criminal Justice System as antithetical to regulating crime because their functions are to regulate masculinity within patriarchy and to institutionalise patriarchy within the state. The Villain and the Hero define each other as men, superior to the Non-Man and women, thus generating patriarchy. The Villain, through crime, legitimates the power of the Hero as the man in authority, thus institutionalising patriarchy within the state. I present a new model of masculinity and criminal and social justice.

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