ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the increase in men's violence against women is the result of a breakdown and reconstruction of masculinity impairment of the institutional structures that support hegemonic masculinity. Hyper-masculinity exaggerates the toughness, violence and terror of hegemonic and marginalized masculinities. As men experience a sense of loss of dominance in social institutions such as the state, the economy and the family, they may resort to hyper-masculinity in an effort to restore their hegemonic influence. Rachel Luft uses the term 'disaster masculinity' to describe a form of hyper-masculinity that arose in a New Orleans volunteer community Hurricane Katrina. For Luft, disaster masculinity enabled the gendered violence that took place within the volunteer community and is marked by white colonial and neoliberal features, including "intimacy, racialized masculinity, authoritarianism, adventure, and paternalism". Some men resort to hyper-masculinity and gendered violence when they fear a loss of dominance in social structures such as the state, the economy, or the institution of family.
