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PEER audio paper

11.12.2023

Fear of weakness

Songs to agitate the man

By Morten Poulsen

Abstract

In the audio-paper Fear of Weakness: Songs to Agitate the Man, artist Morten Poulsen builds on his project Boys Will Be… (2022), in which he met with young cis-men to have conversations about vulnerability, intimacy and masculine norms. In the end of these meetings, Morten recorded the men giggling, and these recordings were then presented as a sound installation. Listening back to these recordings, and informed by both sound and gender studies, Morten explores the deficiencies of masculinity norms and the fear of being exposed as non-masculine. How might the sound of giggling cultivate a softening of hardened spaces, and encourage a reflection on the way that men relate to each other? How might the sound of giggling men serve as a noise in the patriarchal system?

Keywords

Masculinity

listening

Giggle

Weakness

Patriarchy

Bibliography

Bourdieu, Pierre. (2002) Masculine Domination. Translated from french by Richard Nice. London: Stanford University Press.

Cremin, Ciara. (2021) The Future is Feminine. London: Bloomsbury Academic.

Gabbay. Alex. (2020) Beyond Men and Masculinity. London: Monkey and Me Films.

Gilligan, Carol, and Naomi Snider. (2018) Why Does The Patriarchy Persist? United States of America: Polity Press.

Halberstram, Jack. (1998) Female Masculinity. United States of America: Duke University Press.

Anderson, Eric. (2009) Inclusive Masculinity: The Changing Nature of Masculinities. New York: Routledge.

Morrow, William. (2019) ‘Criminality and Antidemocratic Trends: A Study of Prison Inmates’, in Adorno, T.W., Frenkel-Brunswik, E., Levinson, D.J. and Nevitt Sanford, R. (eds.) The Authoritarian Personality. London: Verso.

Poulsen, Morten. Boys Will Be… (2022). www.morten-poulsen.dk/boys-will-be

Way, Niobe. (2011) Deep Secrets: Boys’ Friendships And The Crisis Of Connection. London: Harvard University Press.

11. december 2023

https://doi.org/10.48233/04

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