“My blood boiled”: Emotional metaphors and masculinity in Mexican men

Abstract

The principal aim of this communication is to describe and analyze metaphor as a narrative resource of emotional vocabulary used by men. Beside the relationship with mandates of masculinity. A qualitative ethnographic approach was used with in-depth interviews on family life and work experiences of men between age from 20 to 49 years, living with a heterosexual couple, with at least one child, being unemployed or having a recent unemployment period of time and residents of the metropolitan area of ​​Guadalajara, Mexico. Men enunciated metaphors more frequently than emotional labels. The metaphor sense of pleasure or displeasure are described, their relation with family and/or work experiences, but also linkage with some mandates of masculinity. A series of reflections on methodological and empirical aspects and questions are presented to continue the research on emotions and masculinities as a promising field of studies on the gender of men.

Keywords

• masculinity
• emotions
• metaphors
• Mexico