"Healthy masculinities are mosaics": Commentary on Di Bianca and Mahalik (2022)

Abstract

In this commentary on "A Relational-Cultural Framework for Promoting Healthy Masculinities" (Di Bianca & Mahalik, 2022), I suggest that healthy masculinities may benefit from considering other factors than hegemonic masculinity. Borrowing the concept of mosaic masculinities, I argue that many men do not view hegemonic masculinity as an aspirational ideal. They create other ideals for themselves by using elements of hegemonic masculinity that they value and that they can attain. Some men may create mosaics of ideals that they use as north stars to guide who they would like to be and how they would like others to view them. To illustrate this point, I cite and discuss research on African American men's masculinities, and use the concept of intersectionality to discuss why and how this approach to promoting healthy masculinities may be advantageous. I argue that integrating the concept of manhood would also add important texture to the ideals that men have. This alternative perspective also is relationally constructed and it centers a more heterogeneous array of cultural factors that give masculinities meaning and that shape the implications of masculinities for health and well-being. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).