How World War I Put Boys on Bikes
The first modern bicycles were for adults. Ads for boys’ bikes drew from, and fed into, a changing vision of boyhood during World War I.
What Kind of Work is “Masculine”?
What's the fate of "masculinity" in a world where it’s hard for many men to achieve personal success? It's a question we asked in the 1930s, too.
What Father’s Day Jokes Really Mean
Comic strip dads give us some sociological clues into how views surrounding masculinity and fatherhood have changed.
How Magazines Created a New Culture of Manhood
Middle-class American manhood changed in the mid-twentieth century. And the new ideal of masculine consumption was captured by men’s magazines.
Ernst Röhm, The Highest-Ranking Gay Nazi
Ernst Röhm, the highest-ranking gay Nazi, presents an interesting study in the construction and containment of masculinity by the right.
How Mr. Coffee Made Coffee Manly
Mr. Coffee, the first electric-drip coffee machine for home use, debuted in 1972, forever changing the way Americans made coffee.
When Dieting Was Only For Men
Today, we tend to assume dieting is for women, but in the 1860s, it was a masculine pursuit.
The Checkered History of Colleges, Unions, and Scabs
In the early twentieth-century, some aristocratic college men were eager to prove their masculinity by working as strikebreakers.
Goodbye to the Barbershop?
The decline of barbershops is not a sign of a disintegrating culture of manhood, but rather a transformation of masculinity.
This Side of Paradise: How Christian and Goth Men View Their Sexualities
Christian and Goth men both transgress typical notions of masculine sexuality, but how they go about it differ greatly.