ABSTRACT
The reactionary subject formation is inherently cowardly because it exists only as a defence against the confrontation or irritation of anxiety. A subject formation exists when there is anxiety, that is, when a subject is confronted by anxiety. In any case, the various subject formations operate also through the figure of the ‘metrosexual,’ ‘hipster,’ and ‘bro.’ In each case there is what Bridges and Pascoe refer to as “selective borrowing” of nonhegemonic masculinities only to renew hegemonic discourse. The proliferation of gender identities only obscures, and in fact displaces, the fundamental problem of the inherent anxiety of gender itself. Sexual identity is a contradiction in terms because sex is not only irreducible to any identity, but it is in fact also disruptive of any identity.
