Two Challenges for Critical Studies on Men and Masculinities: The Hegemony of Men, and Trans(national) Patriarchies

This article provides a brief overview of Critical Studies on Men and Masculinities (CSMM), a broad sub-field of Feminist Studies, Gender Studies, and Women's Studies, and some of the tensions and contradictory processes there. The main body of the article explores two major contemporary challenges for CSMM. The first concerns the conceptual and political move from masculinities, and hegemonic masculinity, to the hegemony of men. The second addresses the move from the ethnographic moment to global and transnational processes, and specifically the transformations of patriarchy from the local and the national to the transnational, as summed up in the term trans(national)patriarchies. Characteristics features of such transpatriarchies are examined. Challenging both the relations of men and masculinities and the relations of local and transnational patriarchies are key tasks for CSMM.