ABSTRACT
This chapter shows how contemporary heterosexual masculinities are built upon an array of symbolic models and are enacted through men's ongoing appropriation of different features. It also explores the idea of plurality that lies right at the centre and not at the margins of the hetero-normative definition of masculinity, which may contribute to our understanding of contemporary processes of differentiation and the many-sided building-up of identities among the so-called mainstream dominant group. The chapter explains that it is important to deconstruct the idea of a homogeneous dominant masculinity, normally associated with a man who is heterosexual and a breadwinner. It also focuses on data from a qualitative study on 'Family Life from the Male Perspective' in Portuguese society. The making of the modern family prevailed as a major sociological concern from the time of Durkheim's theorizations to those of Parsons on the connection between modernization and the institutionalization of a gender differentiated conjugal family.
