**4. How should we position ourselves towards "New Masculinities"?**

Presently, the work of teasing out new forms of masculinity presents itself as a political-ethical wager that requires there be criticism of the patriarchy and the existing gender order, and, as a consequence, criticism of masculinity and power relationships [3, 23]. We must recognize that that which today takes precedence in the political sphere, among non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the media, is a discussion of gender equality and rejection of male chauvinism, a discussion

<sup>7</sup> The "incel" (involuntarily celibate) movement is an online community that has brought together thousands of heterosexual men who consider themselves nonconformists and who are frustrated by their romantic and sexual propositions constantly being rejected by women. As a means of taking revenge, this group incites hate, rape, and violence towards women. Some of their more well-known members are Elliot Rodger, a 22-year-old American who in 2014 murdered six people on a university campus in Isla Vista, California before then killing himself. And Alek Minassian of Canada who in 2018, bearing the standard of Elliot Rodger, carried out a massacre in Toronto, Canada that took the lives of 10 people and injured 15 others. More information on these cases can be found at https://www.thecut.com/2018/04/incel-meaningrebellion-alex-minassian-elliot-rodger-reddit.html

<sup>8</sup> Using the slogan "Women are your enemy, men are under attack", the online community Men Going Their Own Way is a separatist organization headed by heterosexual men who consider themselves victims of feminism and seek to defend masculine/male supremacy by breaking affective/emotional ties with women, without, however, excluding the eventuality of sexual intercourse. This anti-feminist movement has a strong presence in countries such as Canada, the United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom. To learn more about the basis of the movement consult the book *Men Going Their Own Way: The Red Pill Anti-Feminism Survival Guide* (2019), by Charles River.

<sup>9</sup> The mythopoetic movement is inspired by Robert Bly's book *Iron Jhon* (1992), which serves as the ideological basis for this spiritual trend that seeks to recover the essential nucleus of masculinity by means of therapy, retreats, and male circles. This movement proliferated in the United States during the eighties and nineties.

appropriated not solely by institutions but rather by a great quantity of people who assume conditions are ever improving. However, it is an incoherent discussion that masks power inequalities and leaves intact patriarchal privileges and concessions thereto.

It is important to note that politically correct discourse on gender equality, of a neoliberal slant that promotes certain institutions, which entangles itself with discussions of renewed masculinity, lacks a political foundation if it does not examine and contend with the power structure, privileges, complicity, dominance, and pacts of/by hegemonic masculinity [1]. Therefore, it is important to expose sexism's new disguises and the strategies of "recycling cultural patriarchy" ([9], p. 102), the inequitable covering-up behind talk of gender equity or equality, as illustrated by contemporary violent and male chauvinist practices.

We can no longer afford to think that certain actions on the part of men like crying, involving themselves in caring for children, cooking, changing diapers, doing the dishes, doing laundry, using deodorant, or going to the doctor are indicative of some kind of "new masculinity". By assuming that any novel practices on the part of men server as guides for proclaiming that masculinity has been renewed for the better, we run the risk of depoliticizing the criticism of masculinity. Therefore, changes in certain habits and patterns of behaviors on the part of men can be deceiving in they do not involve redistribution of power, given that these changes can exist harmoniously with traditional and detrimental forms of masculinity.

This becomes clear if we stop to analyze the dearth of support for "neo", "retro", "light" and "metrosexual" forms of masculinity. According to Ivan García's [3] explanation in an interview:

*There is a very light, very superficial version of new masculinities, for example, a man who simply cries is labeled neo-masculine, it seems to me that exempting personal conduct from asking for the democratization of power, certainly does not lend support to the claim that one is a "new man". A man who today, in contrast to the past, changes diapers, but is the same sexist as ever towards his female colleagues, or is now more vain and moisturizes his skin, hence for some metrosexuality is a new masculinity (García, 2012, as cited in [3], p. 101, my translation).*

Interpreting actions and personal behavior, or patterns of consumption, as markers of a weakening of the structures, or as some radical and fundamental change within the masculinities, impedes continued work regarding matters invaluable to the feminist agenda. In this sense, as regards the transformations undergone by masculinity, questioning men's power at the individual as well as at the collective level becomes central in diverse spheres: individual, the family, the community, institutional, organizational, and structural [3]. Viewed in this light, it is impossible to laud these "new masculinities" that are devoid of anything truly new, but rather they have adjusted and restructured from current conditions by means of discussions and practices that are friendly towards hegemonic masculinity. Thus, much work remains pending.
