From Getting Ahead to Getting Back on One's Feet: Performing Masculinity as a Self-help Reader. (October 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: McLean, Scott; Vermeylen, Laurie
• Is Part Of: Men and masculinities. Volume 22:Number 4(2019)
• Page Start: 716
• Page End: 737
• Publication Date: 2019-10
• Subjects: hegemonic masculinity -- culture -- identity -- media -- performativity; 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: 10.1177/1097184X17724188
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1097-184X

Abstract

Despite the fact that millions of men engage in self-help reading, there has been little scholarly research about the reception of self-help texts by male readers. We explore how men read self-help books through presenting the results of forty-five qualitative interviews with readers of books in the domains of career and financial success, health and well-being, and interpersonal relationships. Our interviewees expressed awareness of the stigmatized role of the male self-help reader and performed two patterns of masculinity, influenced by hegemonic ideals, within this context: the resourceful man getting ahead in life; and the wounded man getting back on his feet. A small proportion of our interviewees challenged conventional notions of masculinity, demonstrating the potential for men to read self-help books in diverse ways. Our findings shed important insight into how men read self-help books and into the performance of masculinity in the context of such reading.