30 years of masculinity research

What?  In this paper, I discussed the different approaches to measuring masculinity that had been used since the ‘feminist revolution’ of the 1960-70s.Why?  The way that we measure something tells us how people think about that thing.  And because we’re...

Hetero men’s expectations of women

It’s one of those everlasting questions: What qualities do (hetero) men want in a woman? In order to put this question in context, we compared men’s desired characteristics in a (female) romantic partner with their desired characteristics in a (female)...

The ambiguity of “hooking up”

When a  guy says that he “hooked up” with someone, what exactly does he mean?  Does it mean they had sex (and what does “sex” mean anyway)?  In order to find out, I interviewed 20 guys to find out how they used “hooking up” and how they understood...

Sexuality

During adolescence, most youth experience their first kiss, first relationship, and first sex (intercourse).  Instead of talking about adolescent sexuality as inherently risky, I tend to think about it as typical or “normative.”  After all, if most...

Essential thought and gender Abstract

This was a collaborative project with Susan Gelman (U Michigan), author of “The Essential Child.”What is essentialism?  Essentialism refers to the idea that a thing has an inherent or natural meaning/form/way of being.  Essentialism is the fundamental...