Matthew B. Ezzell

“I’m in Control” : Compensatory Manhood in a Therapeutic Community

Based on participant observation and in-depth interviews, this article analyzes the ways that male residents in a drug treatment program signified a masculine self through compensatory manhood acts. I analyze four strategies of identity work that men used during group accountability sessions called “games”: (1) signifying masculinity through aggression; (2) subordinating women and nonconventional men; (3) calling others to account as men; and (4) “keeping your head”: managing emotions to (re)assert control. This article adds to our understanding of the ways that compensatory manhood acts are structured locally through interaction, highlighting ways that men’s interactions may be self-defeating and also reproduce inequality by reinforcing dominant ideologies of misogyny and homophobia. In addition, it speaks to the ways that masculine subjectivity is constructed against and through dominant narratives of addiction and treatment.

Sexual Scripts and the Sexual Behavior of Men and Women Who Use Pornography

Using data collected from 1,880 heterosexual men and women residing in the United States, this study investigated the associations among gender, pornography consumption, and 20 sexual behaviors observed in popular pornography. Acts were grouped according to whether participants reported engaging or being interested in trying specific sexual behaviors as the (a) aggressor (e.g., hairpulling, spanking, or choking), (b) target (e.g., being spanked or choked), or (c) uncommon and/or degrading sexual activity (e.g., male ejaculation in female partner’s mouth, anal sex, double penetration, and ass-to-mouth). Using sexual script theory, we hypothesized greater use of pornography would be associated with greater likelihood of both having engaged in and interest in engaging in these sexual behaviors. We further hypothesized gender differences consistent with pornographic sexual scripts that frequently portray men as aggressors and women as targets of aggression. Hierarchical multiple regressions revealed significant main effects for gender and pornography use on the three categories of sexual behavior but no significant interactions. Higher pornography use was associated with greater likelihood of both engaging and being interested in trying all categories of sexual behavior. Men were more likely than women to have engaged in aggressive and degrading/uncommon behaviors, and women were more likely than men to have engaged in target behaviors. However, men were more interested than women in trying all three categories of sexual behavior. Results provide partial support for sexual script theory; while higher pornography use increased interest and prior engagement in pornography-like sexual behavior, the increases in types of sexual behavior (aggressor, target, or uncommon/degrading) were not moderated by gender.

Getting the Story Right

Arising out of ethnographic research in seemingly “conservative social spaces” (396), the authors argue that feminism’s dual commitments to political and analytic aims can pose barriers to valid research. I found aspects of their arguments and suggestions to be critically engaged and practically useful. I did not find them to be new, nor did I find their discussion to deal adequately with issues of power and inequality. In the pages that follow, I’ll

Naked Aggression: The Meaning and Practice of Ejaculation on a Woman’s Face:

Based on in-depth interviews with 16 heterosexual men, this study focuses on participants’ meaning-making surrounding a common and controversial sexual act in pornography: ejaculation on a woman’s face (EOWF). We analyze the ways that male consumers decoded EOWF and the ways that EOWF, as a sexual script, was included in the men’s accounts of their sexual desires and practices. The majority of the men decoded EOWF through the preferred (encoded) meaning as an act of male dominance and sexual aggression and that they wanted to engage in it despite their general belief that women would not be interested in it.

Methodological Impression Management in Ethnographic Research

In this article, we contend that turning a sharp dramaturgical lens on the dynamics of fieldwork clarifies a number of longstanding ethical challenges in ethnography—challenges that have shifted and deepened in the new technological landscape in which ethnographers work. We encourage fieldworkers to adopt an intentional approach to what we call methodological impression management to navigate the research process more strategically. Drawing on our experiences conducting fieldwork in settings where some of our research participants had power over others (a women’s shelter and a substance abuse treatment program), we delineate the strategies we found useful for successful methodological impression management in complex settings and point to the dramaturgical underpinnings of their effectiveness. By bringing dramaturgical theory into direct conversation with the literature on ethnographic methods, we hope to illuminate a path through which ethnographers might make more deliberative methodological decisions and thoughtfully balance ethical responsibilities to their participants with their commitment to analytic rigor.

Erratum to: Pornography and the Male Sexual Script: An Analysis of Consumption and Sexual Relations

The article’s abstract also contains an error. In the last sentence in the first column, instead of: Results showed the more pornography a man watches, the more likely he was to use it during sex, requestparticular pornographic sex acts of his partner, deliberately conjure images of pornography during sex to maintain arousal, and have concerns over his own sexual performance and body image. It should read: Results showed the more pornography a man watches, the more likely he was to use it during sex, request particular pornographic sex acts of his partner, and deliberately conjure images of pornography during sex to maintain arousal.