The EU, men and masculinities

Critical approaches on men and masculinities are relevant whether we are talking about EU politics as an amalgam of national and local politics, institutionally or geographically, or the international or transnational politics in or of the EU itself and its various constituent institutions and bodies. They are relevant in the analysis of political institutions, social movements and political actors, both individual and collective, as well as the very question of what counts as politics in the first place, seen as pervasive and not only formal politics in the public domain. Thus, politics is not just mainstream politics in the public domain; rather politics pervades gender ordering of and across societies.

Men and masculinities are just as gendered as women and femininities, individually and collectively: whether we are talking about party politicians, policy-makers, professionals, activists, supporters, clients, citizens, migrants or refugees, amongst many other political actors and groupings. This may seem obvious (to some), but is still frequently forgotten or obscured, in both mainstream and critical analyses. It is so much the case that political institutions and organisations – whether local, national, transnational or European – are often described in either gender-neutral or implicitly masculinised terms, into which women move or which affect women, albeit in differential ways. The centre, the One (as opposed to the presumed Other[s]), typically and easily remains undeconstructed. Likewise, the EU and its institutions and processes may appear, to many, as gender-neutral or implicitly masculinised.