Rotman Management – April 2019

104 / Rotman Management Spring 20 19

what it means to be heterosexual, you find that they don’t

necessarily have a language for these things. And when they

do enact romantic behaviour — for instance, if they are seen

being tender or caring — they are often mocked by their

peers for not being masculine enough. As adults, we need

to help shift these norms.

How is social media affecting all of this?

On the one hand, social media is amplifying all of these

negative affects. When someone uses an emasculating in-

sult against Trump or a Trump supporter uses one against

someone else, the message spreads quickly and gets ampli-

fied. However, at the same time, social media is having a

secondary effect that is more positive: It is providing infor-

mation to young people about alternative ‘ways of being’

in this world. For the first time ever, young people have

almost as much access to information as adults; there

aren’t really any gatekeepers anymore. If a young person

is seeking, say, resources around homophobia or what it

means to be masculine, they can go online and quickly find

things like the Good Men Project or the White Ribbon

Campaign, where they will learn that not everyone acts in

these problematic ways. They can quickly learn that there

are other ways for them to behave, and that there are re-

sources out there to show them how to do that.

Given all of the above, what does a ‘real man’ look like

today?

At the moment we have competing visions of what a real

man looks like, and those visions — at least in the U.S. —

have played out on the political stage, where they are epito-

mized by President Barack Obama and President Trump.

Obama personified a new way to be a man: He was calm,

self-assured, thoughtful, intellectual and gentle. Then, with

Trump, we have seen a harkening back to an outdated form

of masculinity that was all about bluster and bravado and

dominance — putting people down and being very antago-

nistic. Basically, we have these two visions of masculinity

competing for America’s soul. That’s the scary moment in

which we find ourselves, and I think it’s part of what’s fuel-

ing the political rancor we see at the moment.

Are you hopeful that things will get better?

I am an optimist and I believe that humans are, by nature,

good; but the truth is, I think things are going to get worse

before they get better. I do think we will end up in a place

where we embrace a variety of gendered expressions that

can reflect the whole of humanity. But it will take some

time and plenty of effort from all of us.

C.J. Pascoe is an Associate Professor of Sociology, the David and Nancy

Petrone Faculty Scholar and Director of Undergraduate Studies at the

University of Oregon. She is the author of Dude, You’re a Fag: Masculin-

ity and Sexuality in High School (University of California Press, 2007)

and co-author of Exploring Masculinity: Identity, Inequality, Continuity

and Change (Oxford University Press, 2016). Her paper, “The Gender of

Trumpism: Who Is A Real Man?” is available on her website: cjpascoe.com

President Obama personified a new way to be a man: calm,

self-assured, thoughtful, intellectual and gentle.