Love, Fear and Disgust: Deconstructing Masculinities and Affective Embodiment in Pregnancy Guides for Men

Edgley, Alison; Roberts, Julie

Abstract

© The Author(s) 2021. Employing a material discursive approach, this article deconstructs advice within published guides to pregnancy and birth written by men for men. We deconstruct the representation of feelings and emotions in men during this period rejecting essentialist and social constructionist views of gendered emotionality. We find the texts are saturated with emotional advice, which is ambivalent and resorts to forms of essentialism that obscure male vulnerabilities and leave male forms of power intact. While men can expect to feel love, fear, and disgust, the case for male calm and stoicism is reconstructed, threatening dire consequences if he fails. Our study makes a unique contribution to our understanding of the affective assemblage that accompanies men who are now expected to care during pregnancy, labor, and birth. Men are constructed as having an embodied experience that cannot be admitted to, ensuring that hegemonic masculine understandings reinforce gendered constructions of care, caring and emotions during pregnancy, labor and birth.

Citation

Edgley, A., & Roberts, J. (2021). Love, Fear and Disgust: Deconstructing Masculinities and Affective Embodiment in Pregnancy Guides for Men. Men and Masculinities, 24(4), 652-670. https://doi.org/10.1177/1097184X21990711

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Sep 25, 2020
• Online Publication Date: Feb 3, 2021
• Publication Date: Oct 1, 2021
• Deposit Date: Sep 28, 2020
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 3, 2021
• Journal: Men and Masculinities
• Print ISSN: 1097-184X
• Electronic ISSN: 1552-6828
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 24
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 652-670
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1097184X21990711
• Keywords: Material Discursive; Embodiment; Affect; Hegemonic Masculinity; Pregnancy and childbirth guides; Fatherhood; Feeling; Emotion
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/4932325
• Publisher URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1097184X21990711
• Additional Information: Accepted for publication in Men and Masculinities.; ; .; Edgley A, Roberts J., Love, Fear and Disgust: Deconstructing Masculinities and Affective Embodiment in Pregnancy Guides for Men, Men and Masculinities. (Journal Volume Number and Issue Number) pp. xx-xx. Copyright © 2021 (Copyright Holder). DOI: 10.1177/1097184X21990711