Preface and introduction
Abstract
The first of our tenth-anniversary issues of New Male Studies: An International Journal examines practical and theoretical aspects of the male experience from boyhood through manhood. The issue commences with Jerome Teelucksingh’s brief essay on “the boy wound”, which considers “experiences of abuse, hurt, neglect and hate resulting in a painful stage of incompleteness” that complicate a boy’s “transition into manhood.” Two referreed articles follow including Steve Moxon’s examination of “male heterogeneity and female choice in human mating” and a qualitative study by Jane Ogden and Annie Patterson that reviews men’s experience of difficult relationships with women. These are followed by three articles examining the impact on males of theories explaining masculine expression. In the first, Gerard Nicol discusses “critical gender theory,” from a political policy perspective. In the second, Tim Goldich investigates whether masculinity “needs redefining" and finally Rick Bradford reviews Louise Liddon and John Barry’s Perspectives in Male Psychology: An Introduction, that perhaps provides an “improved understanding” of masculinity, questioned earlier by Goldich. The issue concludes with another thought provioking photo essay by Jan Andersen titled “Forever Young,”
Author Biography
Dr Gouws is a Professor of English at Springfield College in Massachusetts, U.S.A. and a Lecturer in English at the University of Connecticut, Storrs, U.S.A. He has resident status in Australia, and lives in Canberra for several months of the year, working with Australian colleagues in the fields of male health and male studies. He serves on the editorial board of The International Journal of Family Research and Policy and on the advisory board of The Foundation for Male Studies. His recent publications include Manhood and Mettle in George Eliot Adam Bede and The Mill on the Floss: Male Characters Negotiating Victorian Material Culture, The Confidential Clerk. (Centre for Victorian Studies, Jadavpur University, India) and Oriental Interiors: Identities, Performance, Space. (John Potvin, Ed.)
