Virility/Blunt Ways

Anthropology of Masculinity

How does a man become a male?This issue may lead us to tread on uncharted and treacherous ground if it is true as Simone de Beauvoir argued that it was impossible for a man to write a book on masculinity.

In his usual provocative style, La Cecla engages in such a daunting endeavour by looking at how the issue has been addressed in different cultures societies and historical epochs. Contrary to what queer and transgender theories maintain, the author argues that gender identity is not a matter of individual choice, but precedes the birth of the individual. As well as rejecting the male-chauvinism, the author offers the readers a view of masculinity, which is neither caricaturistic nor demonizing. Masculinity is the outcome of a long-term process of cultural construction, which not only exists independently of the individual's sexual preferences, but also plays a fundamental role in the constitution of society as a whole. By drawing from the recent debated within anthropology and from the great tradition of Foucault and Levinas, Franco La Cecla takes issue with the politically correct depictions that consider masculinity inherently evil, violent and oppressive.

Franco La Cecla (Palermo 1950), is an anthropologist. He has taught at Berkeley, Paris, Venice, Bologna e Milan. He has written extensively on the anthropology of everyday life. He is the author of Mente locale, Non è cosa, Saperci fare e L'Ape, antropologia su tre ruote also published by elèuthera.