DILEMMAS OF MASCULINITY: A Study of College Youth

by Mirra Komarovsky ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 26, 1976

The new feminism of the last decade has brought forth a flood of writings and research on women--and now, belatedly, on men. Professor Komarovsky (sociology, Barnard) focuses on some of the salient strains in contemporary masculine roles. She has a fine awareness of the theoretical location and importance of her work, but her research site was seriously limited. The study is based on a random stratified sample of 62 seniors from a male Ivy League college who were examined between 1969 and 1970. Their responses show how far the traditional male conceptions of masculinity and femininity have been eroded in groups of this kind. Since new conceptions are still evolving, the men in the study experienced considerable ambivalence and strain as they tried to cope with the multiple transitions they were living through. All of this makes the work a provocative exploratory study, but its theoretical competence is nearly buried by the overly-detailed recounting of the research findings. An essay struggling to escape from a technical research report.

Pub Date: July 26, 1976

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Norton

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1976

Categories: NONFICTION