Een man in het nauw maakt rare sprongen

Abstract

Desperate men leed to desperate deeds. Masculinity in Arthur van Amerongen's posture To study the dynamics in the alleged ‘crisis of masculinity’ through a case-study, this contribution makes a posture analysis of columnist Arthur van Amerongen. By exploring his posture and the field that speaks from it, it becomes clear how mechanisms such as sexual nationalism, masculinnocence, and recurring anti-feminism tropes give shape to masculinity. Van Amerongen performs a victimized hegemonic white masculinity: he embodies the type of dominant masculinity, but claims to have lost the hegemonic position in the gender hierarchy. Coming from a heteronormative, phallogocentric worldview, he portrays a domination over white masculinity by third wave feminism that favours potentially dangerous cultural and religious diversity. When speaking of topics regarding boundaries, sex, gender, or other ethnicities, his posture is repeatedly ambiguous. This use of detours to attain masculinity underscores the professed shift in the gender hegemony.