Description

This penetrating analysis of the relationship between gender and nature proposes that masculinity is a technology that shapes both our engagement with the natural world and how we define freedom. Scholars of contemporary social theory and new materialisms have pointed out the increasingly porous boundaries between nature, technology, and human social relations. As the complexity of our ecosystems becomes more apparent, the line between nature and culture, human and nonhuman, and technology and bodies becomes less distinct. Yet contemporary masculinity studies has generally failed to acknowledge this new way of thinking. Extending the work of the Frankfurt School and Heidegger’s critique of modern technology to incorporate issues of gender, Steve Garlick reassesses the connections between masculinity, nature, and embodiment. Drawing on historical and contemporary case studies (on street riots, pornography, and masturbation), as well as new materialist theories of affect, biopolitics, and complexity, The Nature of Masculinity argues that the essence of technology is not in mechanical devices but in a particular relationship to natural forces. Within this framework, masculinity is best understood as a technology of embodiment that defines how humans interact with the natural world. It follows that freedom does not lie in the domination of nature but rather in fostering a new relation to it.