Authors examine how interrogating hegemonic gender roles can enhance recruitment, training, and engagement practices for residence life staff in leadership positions. Under specific focus are issues of gendered expectations of the men as paraprofessional role, dynamics in supervision, recruitment and training of staff, and bystander intervention…

At a young age, men begin examining and collecting societal messages about masculinity. As as a result of interpreting these messages, young men modify their behavior based on these societal expectations. This is what the author refers to as "regulating masculinity." The regulation of young men's masculinity takes many forms and can crop…

Carol Ryrie Brink's "Baby Island" (1998/1937) draws directly from Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe (2007/1719) but revises the prototypical castaway novel by depicting two young girls who not only ensure their own survival but also mother four babies while cast away. Preceded by Crusoe-themed toys such as tea sets and paper dolls that…

The concept of gender stereotypes permeates the lives of youth in the United States. This article provides background information and rationale for incorporating gender stereotype analysis into family and consumer sciences (FCS) coursework. The critical analysis of gender stereotypes includes numerous activities and assessments that encourage…

To help students critique sex/gender norms, sexuality educators should address men's anal pleasure. Men's anal receptivity blurs accepted binaries like male/female, masculine/feminine, and straight/queer. By suppressing men's receptivity, the taboo against men's anal pleasure helps legitimize hegemonic sex/gender beliefs--and the sexism,…

Data from a sociological study conducted in Novosibirsk show that in this Russian population the "real man" is expected to pursue victory, risk, struggle, leadership, and success. In addition, however, there is also a natural masculinity in which there is no rigid framework of the image of the "real man." Moreover, natural…

Why might intelligent, assertive females overlook sweet, caring guys, choosing instead to date males whose traditional masculinity makes them popular with other powerful males but who treat females and "weaker" males poorly? This lesson provides a structure for, reflection on, and critique of contemporary gender stereotypes. Students…

Education reform continues around the globe, though questioned and critiqued in relation to goals of democratizing educational decision-making. Newspapers are one site of contestation and negotiation where struggles over global reform discourses are contextualized in "obvious" and "natural" local language. In this article, I…

All good stories should have a beginning, a middle, and an end. The related pair of articles that earned the author a place in this Special Section, "Masculine Instrumentality and Feminine Expressiveness: Their Relationships with Sex Role Attitudes and Behaviors" (Spence & Helmreich, 1980) and "Instrumental and Expressive…

This paper draws on research on masculinities to examine poetry as a socially and culturally gendered genre. Situated in the context of the current "crisis" around boys' underachievement in school, attention is drawn to the problematic understanding of poetry as an unsuitable genre for boys. Attention is further drawn to the way in which poetry,…

Controversy currently exists on whether boys are in crises and, if so, what to do about it. Research is reviewed that indicates that boys have problems that affect their emotional and interpersonal functioning. Psychoeducational and preventive programs for boys are recommended as a call to action in schools. Thematic areas for boys' programming…

The biological basis for differences between the sexes has become increasingly clear in recent years. The nature-nurture debate has made way for the view that the individual is a product of the interaction between genes and environment. For the world of school leadership this means that instead of arguing about them, we should acknowledge the…

O'Neil (2008) defines male gender role conflict (GRC) as a psychological state in which the socialized male gender role has negative consequences for the person or others. Building on this, many now realize that the mechanisms through which these negative consequences occur, rather than being global, are instead contextual. That is, different men…

The teaching of young children has long been dominated by women. This global phenomenon is firmly rooted in issues relating to economic development, urbanisation, the position of women in society, cultural definitions of masculinity and the value of children and childcare. There have been expressions of concern by the media, by government…

This article focuses on the call for more male teachers as role models in elementary schools and treats it as a manifestation of "recuperative masculinity politics" ( Lingard & Douglas, 1999). Attention is drawn to the problematic gap between neo-liberal educational policy-related discussions about male teacher shortage in elementary schools and…