Next issue – 52 (1/2026) - manliness/un-manliness/anti-manliness

Submission deadline: 30 January, 2025

The critique of patriarchy, prevalent in contemporary humanistic discourses, has relegated the notion of masculinity to the status of a historical anachronism identified with most of the dramas of the contemporary world, from corporate-military imperialism to objectification of women to environmental devastation. Fuelled by constantly reproduced media stereotypes, masculinity/manliness has become synonymous with innate aggression, programmatic dominance, perpetual competition, ubiquitous rationalism, and the relentless need for optimisation and efficiency legitimised by the measurable successes of the Western model of socio-technological existence. And when views that challenge masculine identity built on these stereotypes come to the fore, the identity in question is almost immediately perceived in terms of a new collocation - a crisis of masculinity and of manliness.

In this context, the question arises as to what crisis we are really talking about and whether the somewhat apocalyptic tone of this colloquialism does not herald the demise of the historical concept of manliness inasmuch as it proclaims the birth of its new versions and variations inspired, for instance, by feminist and gender studies, not to mention the output of men's studies itself? Will the separation of masculinity/manliness from patriarchy - if at all possible - not be an act of ultimate liberation from the yoke of a system historically created by its own victims? And if so, will we still be able to talk about the (however radically redefined) concept of masculinity/manliness without falling into the trap of a new stereotyping supported by new paradigms of anti-patriarchal correctness? Won't the disintegration of traditional masculine identity complicate, or even question, the sense of the use of the concept itself, forcing us to create a new nomenclature, or perhaps even a new language along the lines of the second-wave concept of écriture féminine?

Yet the corrosion of historical canons of masculinity which we are, after all, already witnessing today, is not taking place in an academic vacuum. Non-patriarchal models of masculinity/manliness remain highly controversial not only among representatives of traditionally conservative circles, but also among supporters of all forms of gender liberalisation, which is of course hardly surprising. Redefinition of the socio-existential contours of any gender inevitably entails a redefinition of almost all social relations and the very communities built within these contours. Also those communities for whom more traditional forms of social coexistence constitute a consciously chosen component of their identity.

As a critical take on the issues outlined above, we invite submissions inspired by the following:

• cultural constructs of masculinity/manliness
• masculinities beyond patriarchy
• masculinism / feminism
• masculinity/manliness in non-heteronormative discourses
• representations of masculinity/manliness in cinema/literature/art
• male bodies - canons of beauty and ugliness
• crises of masculinity/manliness / crisis of a man
• masculinity/manliness as performance
• spaces of masculinity/manliness
• faces of (un)manliness / anti-manliness
• language(s) of masculinity/manliness
• masculinity in education
• masculinity/manliness in non-Western cultures
• chauvinism, sexism, misogyny
• masculinity in the context of the Anthropo- and Capitalocene
• psychoanalysis of masculinity

Articles, including all required metadata, should be submitted through the OJS system by 30 January, 2025, in accordance with all the guidelines available in the “About” and “Authors’ guidelines” sections.