Masculine Capital, Homophobia and Homoerotism

Masculinity is a constantly changing collection of norms and meanings embedded in gender relations between men and women, and among men (Kimmel, 2005). Masculinity is composed of many masculinities, always struggling for power and dominance in inter- and intra-gender relations. In every society there is a hierarchy of masculinities with versions of being a man that are encouraged and others that are forbidden. Masculinity varies across time and cultures, and also different versions of masculinity can coexist within the same group. Masculinity is created through discourses and repeated performances in eeryday life, and as a social construct, it is always subject to change. Masculinity is something that men have to achieve through performances. Men construct their gender identities through tests and rites of passage to the "man's world", through the demonstration of male achievements such as the ability to protect and provide resources for the household (Gutmann, 1997; Borneman, 2010). These gender performances are usually part of male sociability in which a mans has to "become a man" through the rejection of the feminine world and homosexual practices. Hence, masculinity is constructed through the rejection of femininity and homosexual practices. Young men have to constantly demonstrate that they embrace "proper boyhood" through cultural resources such as social relations, sexual performances, humor, vioence, and physicality (Mannien et al., 2011). Boys and men come to know what it means to be a man in a particular culture by setting definintions in opposition to a set of others: racial minorities, sexual minorities, and above all, women (Kimmel, 2005).