Power and Resistance: Homeless Men Negotiating Masculinity

Abstract

Hegemonic masculinity conceptualizes power from a modernist perspective that precludes a theoretically cohesive explanation of resistance. From this perspective, men are assumed to possess the power to construct masculinity in a manner that not only maintains hegemonic dominance over women and subordinate men, but convinces these groups to be complicit in their own subordination. However, homeless men are commonly believed to be powerless and, therefore, unable to enact normative or ideal (or hegemonic) masculinity. In order to explore theoretical assumptions about power within gender relations, the present research employs a Foucauldian informed perspective on power to examine homeless men’s constructions of masculinity. The findings suggest that although the men’s attitudes and behaviors are to some degree influenced by masculinity norms, varying individual interpretations of norms and interactional specific goals are also highly influential. The men’s choices to comply or resist masculinity norms were not consistent but contextually specific. That resistance was a normative aspect of the men’s construction of masculinities suggests that a Foucauldian informed perspective on power relations may more accurately capture the complexities of the construction of masculinities, and the co-constitutive nature of power relations in general.