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Imagined Masculinity: Body, Sexuality, and Family among Israeli Military Reserves
Author(s) -
Sion Liora,
BenAri Eyal
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
symbolic interaction
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.874
H-Index - 47
eISSN - 1533-8665
pISSN - 0195-6086
DOI - 10.1525/si.2009.32.1.21
Subject(s) - masculinity , human sexuality , gender studies , military service , duty , power (physics) , sociology , relation (database) , judaism , psychology , hegemonic masculinity , social psychology , political science , history , law , physics , archaeology , quantum mechanics , database , computer science
This article explores how middle‐class Jewish men on reserve duty in the Israel Defense Forces form a “proper” masculinity through humor and jokes. Reserve service creates a fruitful territory for researching four issues that have not been extensively studied in the literature on masculinities: the relation between gender and age, the periodic reaffirmation of masculinity along the life course, how women are perceived as sexual objects and how informal social pressure is placed on singles to marry and begin families, and how men not only are motivated by homophobia but use images of women and homosexuals to map and interpret power relations and competition between men.