[Commlist] Call for Chapter Proposals: Communication, Cultural Contradictions and the Crises of Masculinity: From Man-Shaming to Men Flaming

  CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: Chapter Proposals for/Communication, Cultural
  Contradictions and the Crises of Masculinity: From Man-Shaming to Men
  Flaming/

Christopher J Finlay,*(cfinlay /at/ lmu.edu)* <mailto:(cfinlay /at/ lmu.edu)>

_Book Overview_

/Communication, Cultural Contradictions and the Crises of Masculinity: 
From Man-Shaming to Men Flaming///(Christopher J. Finlay & Lawrence A. 
Wenner, Eds) aims to be a breakthrough volume of research that 
interrogates the tensions and dynamics of a communication landscape that 
is both expressive of the challenges of contemporary masculinity and 
readily critical of its toxicity and virulence. The decline, changing 
roles, and dysfunctional unmooring of men in diverse spheres of 
life—from school to the workplace to marriage and family—have driven 
worrisome rises in male alienation, addiction, and deaths of despair 
which collectively have had broad and lasting consequences across the 
social fabric. This volume builds on key work, such as Richard 
Reeves’/Of Boys and Men/and the research of others who have documented 
how boys and men have fallen behind girls and women in education and the 
professional workplace and who are increasingly alienated in their 
personal lives, to explore the communicative contexts and practices that 
shape how men express their frustrations with changing gender relations, 
how they seek purpose in light of women’s success and power, and how 
they generate community in response to changing gender norms.

Contributors to this volume will critically consider the communication 
of man-shaming and recontextualize what lies behind men flaming in 
response. In interrogating communication’s role in the contemporary 
climate for men and boys, research in this volume seeks to move beyond 
systematic “shaming” work in critical feminist and men’s studies. With 
much focus on "toxic" masculinity and the culture of anger and viral 
aggrievement, this work has at times been uncritically overgeneralized 
as heterosexual, conservative and white. We look for new work in this 
volume to move towards a more empathetic critical-cultural understanding 
of the challenges that increasingly unmoored boys and men have been 
facing and how they have communicated and sometimes lashed 
out/or///“flamed” in response.

This effort is framed by an opening chapter by the editors which 
situates the diverse crises of masculinity, considers their demographic 
contexts (including class, race, sexuality, age, and geographic region) 
and communicative contexts (including education, the workplace, the 
family, politics, and media) and poses the need to move beyond the 
“blame and shame” culture underlying broad brushstroke assessments of 
male toxicity to engage tactics of compassion and empathy embraced in 
feminist care ethics in ways that can be more broadly 
beneficial. Contributor chapters that follow fall into two sections to 
consider communicative articulations of “man-shaming” and “men-flaming.” 
Here, using diverse communicative perspectives, contributors “lift the 
hood” to more fully contextualize and interrogate communication that 
has, on one hand, systematically sought to “shame men” and, on the 
other, colors the way “men flame” in frustrated response to undefined 
and evolving cultural conditions in ways that are often dismissed only 
as toxic and viral aggrievement.

_Call for Chapter Proposals_

The editors seek 300 word abstracts for 7000 word chapters featuring 
original research focused on two areas at the nexus of/Communication, 
Cultural Contradictions and the Crises of Masculinity/: (1) Man-Shaming 
and (2) Men Flaming. We seek submissions from scholars situated in 
interpersonal, group, organizational, and political communication, 
rhetoric, media, cultural studies, gender studies, and ancillary areas 
across the critical humanities and social sciences.

Chapters in the "man-shaming" section can feature analyses of a variety 
of man-shaming strategies, including critiques of how the concept of 
male toxicity informs responses in popular and political culture to 
changing conditions for men, critical examinations of how researchers 
and journalists approach the manosphere and other digital expressions of 
male angst and anger, and studies that interrogate endemic communication 
strategies in organizations and educational settings that can defacto 
serve to devalue racialized heteromasculinity, particularly as paired 
with whiteness. Analytic strategies in the man-shaming section should 
reach beyond simply noting toxicity or retreading familiar 
"pre-ordained" blame game strategies to more critically consider the 
complex and hybrid nature of men’s responses to their challenges in 
evolving and sometimes contradictory arrangements. As part of this, 
chapter authors should explain how their work facilitates understanding 
and could aid in developing future strategies that would be beneficial 
across gender identities.

Chapters in the "men flaming" section should consider men's own 
communication about the state of their affairs in a variety of settings, 
from manosphere digital spaces and alt right politics to workplace, 
military, recreational, and educational settings. We especially welcome 
chapters that seek to problematize popular constructions of “angry white 
men” through examining the phenomenon as it is expressed by diverse 
communities, including, but not limited to class, race, sexuality, age 
and geographic region.

Abstracts, along with an email address and a 100 word short biography 
for each author, should be sent by November 1, 2024 
to*(christopher.finlay /at/ lmu.edu)* 
<mailto:(christopher.finlay /at/ lmu.edu)>and*(lawrence.wenner /at/ gmail.com)* 
<mailto:(lawrence.wenner /at/ gmail.com)>. Decisions on chapter acceptance will 
be communicated by November 15, 2024 with completed chapters due April 
15, 2025.


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