ABSTRACT
This essay draws on Judith Butler’s potent analysis of melancholy gender and refused identification (1997a, 132–66) in an examination of some Australian academic literature concerning masculinities. Substantial attention is given to the work of R. W. Connell because certain aspects of Connell’s work have been used to shape a pedagogical discourse of masculinities, which is a recontextualizing discourse (after Bernstein 1996) generated by academic research about the experience of young men and boys in schools. This essay offers a critical conceptual analysis of aspects of this recontextualizing discourse. Further attention will be paid to the work of Wayne Martino, a major contributor to the discourse of masculinities. As a pedagogical discourse, the discourse of masculinities seeks to provide insights for educational intervention. Like Connell and others working from their positions as educational researchers, Martino’s work has developed great authority and offers educational imperatives for school-based work (see Martino, Lingard, and Mills 2004 or Martino and Pallotta-Chiarolli 2001, 2003 for recent iterations of the discourse of masculinities and its educational imperatives).
