Pills, Power and Performativity: Negotiating Masculinity in the Emergence of Male Contraceptive Technology

Abstract

As we prepare for a new contraceptive revolution centering the male reproductive body, little is known about 21st century men's interest in pursuing hormonal technology. This paper sets out to understand what male hormonal contraception (MHC) means for the performance of masculinity. Specifically, I seek to understand how contraceptive technology might contribute to the emergence and transformation of different masculine identities, and whether these identities will function to enhance or denounce the technology's cultural feasibility and widespread assimilation. Amid the heavily quantitative nature of literature on this topic, I conduct semi-structured interviews to form a more intimate understanding of this relationship. Through thematic analysis, this project reveals a typology of three analytic figures which surface in response to the future existence of MHC: the 'responsible, caring man', the 'lazy man', and the 'independent, heterosexual man'. The ways in which these identities conflict, complement, and interact with each other indicate how masculinities are being negotiated upon a shifting contraceptive landscape. The conclusions derived from my analyses are twofold: Firstly, that the cultural feasibility of MHC in western contexts will simultaneously demand and induce a destabilisation of conventionalised gender performances. Secondly, that the masculinities which emerge from this new frontier of contraception are complex, multiple and fluid. The investigation ends by looking at the wider implications of my findings for policy and practice. Keywords: Contraceptive technology, masculine identities, gender performativity

Keywords

• contraceptive technology
• masculine identities
• gender performativity