"Am I Doing This Right?": A Qualitative Exploration of How College Men Make Meaning of Gendered Expectations. (December 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Foste, Zak; Davis, Tracy L.
• Is Part Of: Men and masculinities. Volume 21:Number 5(2018)
• Page Start: 583
• Page End: 602
• Publication Date: 2018-12
• Subjects: college -- hegemonic masculinity -- identity -- peer influence -- emotion; Men's studies -- Periodicals; Étude de genre; Étude sur les hommes; Homme; Identité masculine; Masculinité; Perception sociale; Recherche; Rôle selon le sexe; Ressource Internet (Descripteur de forme); Périodique électronique (Descripteur de forme); 305.3105
• DOI: 10.1177/1097184X17696188
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1097-184X

Abstract

Existing scholarship illustrates a rather consistent picture of how cisgender collegiate men understand what it means to be a man in college. Less is known, however, about how these college men make sense of such expectations. This qualitative study examined the ways in which meaning-making capacities influenced how participants made meaning and interacted with gendered expectations. Our results indicate a clear understanding of how participants define the external expectations of gender in college. How participants were influenced by these expectations was largely dependent on meaning-making capacities. We offer three developmental phases that capture how participants made sense of gendered expectations: passive constructions, reactionary constructions, and movement toward proactive constructions.