Masculinity and the home : a critical review and conceptual framework

There is growing interest in home and domesticity across geography and related disciplines. A key consideration of this work is the relationship between home, domesticity, and various identity categories, including gender, race, class, age, disability and sexuality. What is little developed, however, is knowledge of the shifting relationship(s) between masculinity and the home. In this paper, I critically review a small body of multi-disciplinary research on the intersections of masculinity and domesticity, offering some conceptual pointers for understanding and making further inquiries into the complex relationships between masculinity and the home. I argue that masculinity and domesticity are interrelational and co-constitutive. On this foundation I review literature on masculinity and the home across three interrelationships: hetero-masculine, bachelor and gay domesticities. This theoretically informed critical review thus provides conceptual insights both into the spatiality of masculine identity work and shifting meanings of home.