ABSTRACT
In this chapter, I explore how these men reject traditional masculinity in their own masculinity projects. I reflect here on what these men allude to is a malediction of certain practices of masculinity and the shifts that have occurred in how masculinity is understood, enacted, and practised. I illustrate that while these men effectively know what constitutes masculinity within Australia, and how such masculinity is embedded within certain parts of their everyday lives, their resistance to such ideas paints a much more complicated picture. Here, I detail their responses to images of men and masculinity in historical and contemporary media, framed under what I term “pressures.” However, most of the pressures outlined by my participants suggest that these happen to other men, and not themselves, creating a lack of identification with not just the narratives of masculinity, but also the pressures and contradictions that these narratives embody. This is understood through a strong lack of identification with both traditional masculine narratives and new, contemporary urban masculinities. I argue that these men reside in a paradox of masculinity, where positive ideals about their identities are either considered traditionally masculine (such as capability) or non-masculine (such as working in an office).
