Representations and Practices of Masculinity

The object of this research refers to the social process responsible for the production of representations of gender and masculinity as factors that define the social construction of identity among a group of men between the ages of 17 and 33 in the city of Natal, located in northeastern Brazil. Similarly, this research aims to discover how this process interferes with the perception of the world, social practices, and daily actions carried out by these young men. The research points to the paradox present in the contradictions, conflicts, questions, and conservatism existing in the informants' discourses and behaviors, concerning the fragilities of a society based on principles of patriarchal tradition, of naturalization of behaviors, feelings, and sexual desires confronted by recent theoretical contrasts that point to the need to see sex, gender, and sexuality as historical and sociocultural realities beyond essentialist and universalizing theories of human sexual behavior.