ANTHRO 120S: Contested Virilities: Ethnographies/Anthropology of Manhood and Masculinity in the Digital Age

Course Description

What is to be a "virile" man in the current digital age? Is masculinity in a crisis today, as "virility" is contested by feminism, Queer lifestyles, and social change? For some, masculinity is associated with social toxicity as much as it is with physical strength, domination, and power, but can it also be related to vulnerability? What is fragile masculinity? While some cultures tie virility more with (sexual and industrial) productivity, warfare, and spiritual power, others identify it with stoicism, dignity, and charismatic leadership. How do current forms of manhood deal with myriad socio-political challenges when these connections break up and reveal fragility? How does socio-cultural anthropology approach manliness and manhood in these turbulent times? From underground fighting clubs to active baGlefronts and their aftermaths, to the fitness hype of gym bros to dating apps, this course situates virility and its anxieties as a cultural terrain where ideals of productivity, strength, morality, and belonging are continually produced, tested, and reworked. The purpose of this course is to make the participants familiar not only with ethnographic works and social concepts compiled from academic research on men and masculinity. But it also prompts us to critically engage with cultural critiques, polemics, and ways of seeing of the virile formations, their contestations, and social rebounds, such as in new queer media spaces, stand-up stages, tech world's bromance in the Silicon Valley, and the deep corners of Manosphere's incel networking, among others. In this exploration, this course exposes us not only to the forms of hypermasculinity or male chauvinism from machismo to exclusionary androphilia, but also to male coping mechanisms and their failures in the presence of loss and loneliness, ableism, social defeat, and cancel culture. By collecting together, we will ethnographically interact with a wide range of materials, including but not limited to artistic performances, manifestos, podcasts, comics, graphic novels, social media memes and posts, memoirs, novels, films, and documentaries to explore how virility is contested, transmuted, dissolved, and remade. Guest lecturers and speakers may also join based on their availability.