The Major Agendas for Western Masculinity Studies

The study of masculinities appeared in the 1980s as a response to the influence of New Feminism and women’s history. This article provides an overview of the history of masculinities, focusing on 5 agendas developed by masculinity studies: 1, the historical re-approaches to make ordinary men visible, in response to the establishment of women’s history; 2, changes of dominant masculinity with periodization; 3, historical cases revealing multiple masculinities as advocated by R. W. Connell; 4, the crisis of masculinity in historical writings, which prompted the revitalization of men’s studies; and 5, men’s studies from the perspectives of performity and fluidity, focusing on behavior subjectivity rather than structure, and analysing its characteristics and limitations.