Abstract

SILES, Alí. Male Academics and Social Distancing: Reflections on the Domestic, Work and Masculinity. Rev. interdiscip. estud. género Col. Méx. [online]. 2021, vol.7, e724.  Epub Sep 13, 2021. ISSN 2395-9185.  https://doi.org/10.24201/reg.v7i1.724.

This article discusses some findings of research on male academics and their experience of working under the enforced social distancing measures put in place after the COVID-19 outbreak. By analyzing the narratives of twenty male academics from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, UNAM working in different fields and posts within the university, this study sheds light on how “traditional” masculinities are produced and reproduced in academic work in line with social distancing measures, and on the gender relations structure that frames their daily lives as part of the university’s academic staff. The core argument is that confinement reveals the existence of “traditional” models of masculinity among academics who reproduce the domestic space as feminized and that can, simultaneously accommodate a reshaping of the domestic (through practices resemblant of so-called “new masculinities”) and promote reflexivity among men about their gender practices, identities, and relations.

Keywords : men; masculinity; housework; academic staff; social distancing; confinement.

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