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Mobile masculinities: performances of remasculation

Angela Gracia B. Cruz (Department of Marketing, Monash Business School, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia)
Margo Buchanan-Oliver (Department of Marketing, University of Auckland Business School, Auckland, New Zealand)

European Journal of Marketing

ISSN: 0309-0566

Article publication date: 11 July 2017

709

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to explore how marketplace-enabled performances help reconstitute masculinity in the context of transnational mobility.

Design/methodology/approach

Grounded in consumer acculturation theory, this paper draws on theories of gender performance to inform a hermeneutic analysis of depth interviews with skilled migrant men.

Findings

To navigate experiences of emasculation, participants performed three remasculation strategies: status-based hypermasculinity, localised masculinity and flexible masculinity.

Research limitations/implications

This study offers insights for the design of migrant settlement policy. Further research should investigate the remasculation strategies of low resource migrant men.

Originality/value

This paper makes two contributions to theories of gendered acculturation. First, while studies of acculturation as a gendered performance have shown how marketplace resources support the gendered identity projects of female migrants and the children of migrants, this paper provides the missing perspective of skilled migrant men. Beyond acting as “resistant” cultural gatekeepers of their family members’ gendered acculturation practices, first-generation migrant men emerge as creative, agentic and skilled negotiators of countervailing gender regimes. Second, transnationally dispersed families, migrant communities and country of origin networks emerge not only as acculturating agents which transmit gender regimes but also as audiences which enable the staging of remasculating performances.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

The authors sincerely thank Associate Professor Domen Bajde and the two anonymous reviewers for their constructive feedback on earlier drafts of this paper.

Citation

Cruz, A.G.B. and Buchanan-Oliver, M. (2017), "Mobile masculinities: performances of remasculation", European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 51 No. 7/8, pp. 1374-1395. https://doi.org/10.1108/EJM-04-2016-0199

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2017, Emerald Publishing Limited

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