The Wikipedia article Masculinity has many underdeveloped sections. While it briefly touches on the social construction of gender, there is limited content to support these points. Reading the article, “‘Night to His Day’ The social construction of Gender” by Judith Lorber, would support and add depth to the Masculinity Wikipedia article. The section on the development of masculinity would benefit significantly from added content–mainly by references and citations added specifically the sub-topic title “The Social Construction of Masculinity” that address knowledge gaps and support the idea of gender as a social construction. Although there are multiple ways to be masculine in the world, the article is a bit misleading as it downplays representations of hegemonic masculinity or toxic masculinity. The article then goes on to discuss anything other than “normative” performances of gender as effiminate. For example, Lorber states, “Gendered social arrangments are justified by religion and cultural productions and backed by law, but the most powerful means of sustaining the moral hegemony of the dominant gender ideology is that the process is made invisible; any possible alternatives are virtually unthinkable” (356). Mostly, the Masculinity Wikipedia article potentially is part of the erasure of any performance of masculinity outside of hegemonic masculinity by using terms such a “normative” in juxtaposition to effeminacy. The comparison of normative masculinity and “effeminacy” masculinity, whether intentional or not, ultimately others all things outside of “normative” masculinity in the Wikipedia article and also generalizes gay men as a static identity. The language used in the article has the power to continue to uphold and participate in hegemonic masculinity. Furthermore, the subsection on hegemonic masculinity contains only one citation and is labeled confusing from Wikipedia.
Works Cited
Lorber, Judith. “‘Night to His Day’ The Social Construction of Gender.” Readings For Diversity and Social Justice, edited by Maurianne Adams et al., Fourth edition, Routledge, 2018, pp. 354–59.
