What Does Masculinity Mean?

Abstract

In Germany, there has been an ongoing discussion about the boys’ crisis in education, which is linked to the call for more masculinity through male role models so as to positively influence boys. In this article, I explore the conceptions of masculinity of young people in Germany and elaborate on the influence of education and educational institutions on notions of masculinity. To do this, I focus on two in-depth case studies, a boy and a girl who are both aged 16, which I analyze using the documentary method. The cases show that education is to be understood as a gender regime that takes an active part in the production of a binary masculinity. At the same time, they also show that education has the potential to transform masculinity.