Date of Award

2024

Document Type

Honors Thesis (Open Access)

Department

Colby College. Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program

Advisor(s)

Sonja Thomas

Second Advisor

Laura Saltz

Abstract

This thesis examines what is at stake in the highly-racialized, -sexualized, and -gendered systems in which male Colby students craft self-concepts and how the college culture both rejects and replicates broader social notions of masculinity. I also analyze the theoretical threads that gave way to the field of masculinity studies and how such a discipline responds to contemporary claims of a “crisis of masculinity.” I then shift my focus to conduct a discourse analysis of “Sex Ed for Guys,” a TikTok account created by a group of male Colby students that offers a direct commentary on young men’s social and sexual subjectivity. My analysis of the TikTok is buttressed by primary source material from both student interviews and archival research, all of which help to frame my argument that the male-based forces fighting hegemonic masculinity can at the same time perpetuate it.

Keywords

Gender, hegemonic masculinity, discourse analysis, TikTok, Michael Kimmel

Share

COinS