Researchers have deemed
medicalisation a 'gendered' theory, yet the incorporation of men and masculinity
in medicalisation literature is sparse.
Recently, however, medicalisation
scholarship has begun studying men. This burgeoning literature heavily
emphasises sexuality and is beginning to focus on medicalised masculinities in
which traits associated with masculinity are deemed a health risk. Such
research has demonstrated how masculinities shape men's lived experiences of
health, but how does health itself shape masculinity?
I explore this question
using the case of infertility. Through thirty in-depth interviews, I find that
men use medicine as a way to achieve rather than diminish their sense of
masculinity in the feminised context of reproduction. By perpetuating the
stereotype that infertility is a woman's problem, the medical establishment has
caused men to not necessarily see themselves as infertile. Additionally, even
if men do claim the infertility status, they do not perceive it as negative.
The legitimating effects of medicalisation objectify the ailment and separate
its connection with sexuality. In centring men's voices, the study not only
reveals men as active players in the reproductive process, but also
incorporates them into understandings of medicalisation.
Purchase full article at: http://goo.gl/zRgzYu
By: Bell AV1.
- 1Department of Sociology, University of Delaware, USA.
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