“I'm not a very manly man”: qualitative insights into young men's masculine subjectivity

During the last fifteen to twenty years interest has been growing in the study of masculinities. This article presents a discussion of material from in-depth interviews with two men who took part in a larger study of masculinity and health-related behavior. These two young men spontaneously referred to themselves during in-depth interviews as not being a manly man or a man's man. Consideration of what these men said provides interesting insights into the links between discourses of masculinity and subjective experiences of masculinityparticularly whether masculinity is perceived in binary or pluralistic terms. The experiences of these two young men give hope to young men who reject hegemonic masculinity but still desire to have a clear masculine identity.