December 14, 2011
To all the Aussie men out there that think the 'tough guy' act works – we have news for you. Rather than using aggressive body language or words, you should get in touch with your emotions.
Research conducted at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania examined the way mixed martial arts competitors managed confidence during a fight. The sociologist study, led by Dr Christian A. Vaccaro, showed that these men have unique ways of managing fear that actually allow them to exhibit confidence.
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Dr Vaccaro claims this ability to exude confidence is through "managing emotional manhood" – an interactional strategy where men successfully manage their fear in contact sports. To achieve this, men suppress negative emotions such as empathy, shame and pain in favour of confidence and pride, signalling assurance of their masculinity.
"Putting on a convincing manhood act requires more than using language and the body; it also requires emotion work. By suppressing fear, empathy, pain, and shame and evoking confidence and pride, males signify their alleged possession of masculine selves," Vaccaro said.
"By signifying masculine selves through evoking fear and shame in others, such men are likely to more easily secure others' deference and accrue rewards and status. Managing emotional manhood, whether it occurs in a locker room or boardroom, at home or the Oval Office, likely plays a key role in maintaining unequal social arrangements."
Vaccaro's research included two years of fieldwork and interviews with more than 100 mixed martial arts fighters, analysing how they managed fear and adopted intimidating personas to evoke fear in opponents.
"We conceptualize this process as 'managing emotional manhood,' which refers to emotion management that signifies, in the dramaturgical sense, masculine selves," Vaccaro said.
"Whereas most scholarship on gendered emotion work focuses on how women manage emotions at work and home in ways that reinforce their subordination, we show how men do emotion work aimed at facilitating domination," he continued.
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