Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

“When the Hell Are You Going to Grow Up?”: a Life-Course Account of Hybrid Masculinities Among Incarcerated Men

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Journal of Developmental and Life-Course Criminology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

Recent life-course scholarship has argued that desistance from (rather than persistence in) crime is a marker of adulthood. In this article, I argue that a commitment to desistance is only one of many elements of the participants’ sense of adult masculinity, which is best understood by drawing on theoretical literature on “hybrid masculinities.” By linking life-course criminological literature with recent theoretical advancements in the sociology of gender, I connect two important, but as yet independent, strands of research.

Methods

Using the grounded theory approach to qualitative research, I performed inductive analyses of 24 in-depth interviews with adult men incarcerated at a state-run facility in the Northeastern USA.

Results

I argue that the participants construct hybrid masculinities that combine conventionally masculine traits (such as being a provider and protector) with conventionally feminine traits (such as loyalty, humility, and emotional expressiveness). These hybrid masculinities manifest through the participants’ reliance on intangible markers of adulthood, and they emerge gradually over the men’s life course. I further argue that the disruptions that incarceration poses to the men’s life course impede their ability to realize their hybrid masculinities fully.

Conclusion

The current research contributes to the burgeoning literature that attempts to correct the oversimplified portrayal of incarcerated men as singularly hypermasculine, and it also highlights how incarceration disrupts men’s life course, making it difficult for them to be the “hybrid” men that they wish to be.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. Because this article is part of a broader project exploring how men’s constructions of masculinity shape their pathways into and out of homelessness and/or prison, I also asked men about their experiences with homelessness.

  2. I also relied on handwritten transcription/fieldnotes for two interviews because of a voice recorder malfunction.

  3. Several men in this study were actively involved in the hypermasculine prison culture at the time of the interviews, and I therefore don’t aim to minimize the extent to which hypermasculinity is an important element of the participants’ prison lives. In fact, the men construct hybrid masculinities in response to prison hypermasculinity, a finding that I discuss elsewhere.

References

  1. Aday, R. H. (2006). Aging prisoners’ concerns toward dying in prison. OMEGA—Journal of Death and Dying, 52(3), 199–216.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Anderson, E. (2009). Inclusive masculinity. New York: Routledge Press.

    Google Scholar 

  3. Arnett, J. J. (1997). Young people’s conception of the transition to adulthood. Youth & Society, 29(1), 3–23.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Arxer, S. (2011). Hybrid masculine power: Rethinking the relationship between homosociality and hegemonic masculinity. Humanity and Society, 35(4), 390–422.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Barber, K. (2016). Styling masculinity. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  6. Blumstein, A., & Beck, A. J. (1999). Population growth in U.S. prisons, 1980–1996. Crime and Justice, 26, 17–61.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Bridges, T. (2010). “Men just weren’t made to do this”: The performances of drag at “walk a mile in her shoes” marches. Gender & Society, 24(1), 5–30.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Bridges, T., & Pascoe, C. J. (2014). Hybrid masculinities: New directions in the sociology of men and masculinities. Sociological Compass, 8(3), 246–258.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Bridges, T., & Pascoe, C. J. (2018). On the elasticity of gender hegemony: Why hybrid masculinities fail to undermine gender and sexual inequality. In J. Messerschmidt, P. Y. Martin, M. Messner, & R. Connell (Eds.), Gender Reckonings. New York: NYU Press.

    Google Scholar 

  10. Butler-Kisber, L., & Poldma, T. (2010). The power of visual approaches in qualitative inquiry: The use of collage making and concept mapping in experiential research. Journal of Research Practice, 6(2), 18.

    Google Scholar 

  11. Carlsson, C. (2013). Masculinities, persistence, and desistance. Criminology, 51(3), 661–693.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Chung, H. L., Little, M., & Steinberg, L. (2005). The transition to adulthood for adolescents in the juvenile justice system: A developmental perspective. In D. W. Osgood, E. M. Foster, C. Flanagan, & G. R. Ruth (Eds.), On your own without a net: The transition to adulthood for vulnerable populations.

    Google Scholar 

  13. Connell, R. W. (2002). On hegemonic masculinity and violence: Response to Jefferson and Hall. Theoretical Criminology, 6(1), 89–99.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Crewe, B. (2014). Not looking hard enough: Masculinity, emotion, and prison research. Qualitative Inquiry, 20(4), 392–403.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Crewe, B., Warr, J., & Bennett, P. (2014). The emotional geography of prison life. Theoretical Criminology, 18(1), 56–74.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Diefendorf, S. (2015). After the wedding night: Sexual abstinence and masculinities over the life course. Gender & Society, 29(5), 647–669.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Elder Jr., G. H. (1994). Time, human agency, and the life course: Perspectives on the life course. Social Psychology Quarterly, 57(1), 4–15.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Ezzell, M. B. (2012). “I’m in control”: Compensatory manhood in a therapeutic community. Gender & Society, 26(2), 190–215.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Fader, J. J. (2013). Falling back: Incarceration and transitions to adulthood among urban youth. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  20. Fefferman, A. M., & Upadhyay, U. (2018). Hybrid masculinity and young men’s circumscribed engagement in contraceptive management. Gender & Society, 32(3), 371–394.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Foster, E. M., Flanagan, C., Osgood, D. W., & Ruth, G. R. (2005). The transition to adulthood for vulnerable youth and families: Common themes and future directions. In D. W. Osgood, E. M. Foster, C. Flanagan, & G. R. Ruth (Eds.), On your own without a net: The transition to adulthood for vulnerable populations. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago.

    Google Scholar 

  22. Furstenberg Jr., F. F. (2010). On a new schedule: Transitions to adulthood and family change. The Future of Children, 20(1), 67–87.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Furstenberg, F. F., Kennedy, S., McCloyd, V. G., Rumbaut, R. G., & Settersten, R. A. (2004). Becoming an adult: The changing nature of early adulthood. Contexts, 3(3), 33–41.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Glaser, B., & Strauss, A. (1967). The discovery of grounded theory: Strategies for qualitative research. Chicago: Aldine.

    Google Scholar 

  25. Gorga, A. (2017). “Kinda like a man and a woman thing”: The construction and reification of gender hegemony in a women’s prison. Social Currents, 4(5), 413–428.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. Haney, C. (2011). The perversions of prison: On the origins of hypermasculinity and sexual violence in confinement. American Criminal Law Review, 48(1), 121–142.

    Google Scholar 

  27. Hearn, J. (1995). Imaging the aging of men. In M. Featherstone & A. Wernick (Eds.), Images of Aging: Cultural Respresentations of Late Life. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  28. Man, C. D., & Cronan, J. P. (2001). Forecasting sexual abuse in prison: The prison subculture of masculinity as a backdrop for deliberate indifference. Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology, 92(1), 127–186.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. Massoglia, M., & Uggen, C. (2010). Settling down and aging out: Toward an interactionist theory of desistance and the transition to adulthood. American Journal of Sociology, 116(2), 543–582.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  30. Maycock, M. (2018). Introduction. In M. Maycock & K. Hunt (Eds.), New perspectives on prison masculinity. Palgrave Macmillan.

  31. Pfaffendorf, J. (2017). Sensitive cowboys: Privileged young men and the mobilization of hybrid masculinities in a therapeutic boarding school. Gender & Society, 31(2), 197–222.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  32. Randles, J. (2018). “Manning up” to be a good father: Hybrid fatherhood, masculinity, and U.S. responsible fatherhood policy. Gender & Society, 32(4), 516–539.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  33. Randolph, A., Swan, H., & Rowe, K. D. (2018). “That $ hit ain’t gangsta”: Symbolic boundary making in an online urban gossip community. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 47(5), 609–639.

    Google Scholar 

  34. Ricciardelli, R., Maier, K., & Hannah-Moffat, K. (2015). Strategic masculinities: Vulnerabilities, risk, and the production of prison masculinities. Theoretical Criminology, 19(4), 1–23.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  35. Sabo, D., Kupers, T. A., & London, W. (2001). Prison masculinities. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University.

    Google Scholar 

  36. Schlosser, J. A. (2008). Issues in interviewing inmates: Navigating the methodological landmines of prison research. Qualitative Inquiry, 14(8), 1500–1525.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  37. Settersten, R. A. (2003). Age structuring and the rhythm of the life course. In J. Mortimer & M. J. Shanahan (Eds.), Handbook of the life course. Boston, MA: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  38. Spector-Mersel, G. (2006). Never-aging stories: Western hegemonic masculinity scripts. Journal of Gender Studies, 15(1), 67–82.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  39. Sykes, G. (1958). The society of captives: A study of maximum security prison. Princeton University Press.

  40. Ward, J. (2015). Not gay: Sex between straight white men. New York: New York University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Alex Sinha as well as the editors and three anonymous reviewers at the Journal of Developmental and Life-Course Criminology for their valuable feedback on earlier drafts of this manuscript.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, Southern Connecticut State University, New Haven, CT, USA

    Janani Umamaheswar

Authors
  1. Janani Umamaheswar
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Janani Umamaheswar.

Additional information

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Umamaheswar, J. “When the Hell Are You Going to Grow Up?”: a Life-Course Account of Hybrid Masculinities Among Incarcerated Men. J Dev Life Course Criminology 6, 127–151 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40865-020-00137-5

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40865-020-00137-5

Keywords

Search

Navigation