Legitimation as linchpin: On Raewyn Connell’s changing conceptualization of ‘hegemonic masculinity’

The concept of hegemonic masculinity maintains a distinctive status within the social sciences and humanities. Yet there never has been an examination of Connell’s changing conceptualizationof the term throughout her scholarship, and specifically when and why she integrated ‘legitimation’ into her definition of hegemonic masculinity. The authors address this oversight by providing a detailed retrospective on the concept from its embryonic conceptualizations to its eventual reformulation. Within this historical assessment, the authors further consider Connell’s broader feminist theory of gender and how legitimation of the hegemonic masculinity/emphasized femininity relationship is central to that theory. The concepts of hegemonic masculinity and emphasized femininity and the theory in which they areembedded developed in tandem over time. The paper emphasizes that during this dual development, legitimation of unequal gender relations became the theoretical linchpin for conceptualizing hegemonic masculinity and eventually its relationship to emphasized femininity as a part of Connell’s larger gender theory. The paper also demonstrates that over time Connell progressively changed the meaning of hegemonic masculinity in significant ways and concludes with a discussion of recent ‘legitimation processes’ that have appeared in the literature, and how each contributes unique ways of conceptualizing the legitimation of unequal gender relations.