Modes of Masculinization in Academic Discourse

Commentary:

Academics are primarily heterosexual, upper middle class, middle-aged european and euro-american, and in this gender-caste the primary +masc traits are:

• autonomy, independence, self-reliance, freedom, mobility

• moderated aggressivity, dominant posturing and bids for dominance

• within established dominance hierarchies, expressions of fealty to superiors

• risk-taking, adventurousness

• abstraction, theoretical-formal rationality

• 'strong-mindedness' 'hard objectivity' , distancing from subject'

Projections of the masculine fantasies of the apical gender-caste, primarily a desire to emulate the fantasy ideal of working-class masculinity or of upper-class pre-modern masculinity appears mainly in deniable metaphorical usages around such themes as:

• physical strength and fighting power (including use, possession of weapons)

• sexual prowess and control of sex objects (including master-slave, rape)

• success in physically dangerous undertakings

• extreme wealth and economic power, direct domination of males and females