Welcome to the Men's Club: Homosociality and the Maintenance of Hegemonic Masculinity

This work explores the multiple masculinities conceptualized in terms of sociality, a concept used to refer to nonsexual interpersonal attractions. Through male homosocial heterosexual interactions, hegemonic masculinity is maintained as the norm to which men are held accountable despite individual conceptualizations of masculinity that depart from that norm. When it is understood among heterosexual men in homosocial circles that masculinity means being emotionally detached & competitive & involves viewing women as sexual objects, their daily interactions help perpetuate a system that subordinates femininity & non-hegemonic masculinities. Non-hegemonic masculinities fail to influence structural gender arrangements significantly because their expression is either relegated to heterosocial settings or suppressed entirely.