Evaluating the concept of political masculinity/ies: a simple idea or a case of too many ideas?

This article critically interrogates and evaluates the concept of political masculinities, as part of enhancing dialogue between Political Science and Critical Studies on Men and Masculinities. It discusses: what counts as masculinity, what counts as political, and how they connect? The connections are all too clear in mainstream politics, not least in populist, authoritarian, ethno-nationalist, and militaristic politics, but also in democratic, socialist, and various activist politics. The evaluation of the concept of political masculinities is conducted in three main ways: how does the concept add to, complement or contradict existing and established external concepts and theories; how is the concept constructed internally, with what structure, elements, and interrelations; and how can the application of the concept be possibly extended into fields beyond those usually recognized and labelled explicitly as specifically political fields, including the politics of the everyday, and the politics of multiple global crises?