Men at life's work : structural transformation, inertial heteronormativity, and crisis

This chapter advances scholarship by considering men who attempt to do heteromasculinity differently, examining the possibilities and problems faced in relation to entangled socioeconomic and spatial structures. In doing so, this chapter attends to life’s work in crisis, underscoring the collusion of various imaginings of crisis. All of the definitions of “crisis” assembled above come into play in this discussion, inflecting each other. A crisis can be a change, turning point, or critical occasion. This can be a structural or personal experience, signifying instability in cultural, social, and economic processes, impelling change and adjustment, or creating an emotional upheaval in an individual’s life. At times, these interpenetrate. Here I am interested in the layering of different crises: a personal crisis; an “ontoformative gender crisis,” especially its characterization as a so-called (but contested) crisis of masculinity (Connell 2005); and the added influence of the ongoing crisis in global economic and financial processes. I am concerned with how these come together in Peter’s life’s work, in which crises of gender, masculinity, and work are interrelated, structurally and individually. Before exploring this case study, I begin with some contextual and conceptual definitions.