“I’m in Control”

Abstract

Based on participant observation and in-depth interviews, this article analyzes the ways that male residents in a drug treatment program signified a masculine self through compensatory manhood acts. I analyze four strategies of identity work that men used during group accountability sessions called “games”: (1) signifying masculinity through aggression; (2) subordinating women and nonconventional men; (3) calling others to account as men; and (4) “keeping your head”: managing emotions to (re)assert control. This article adds to our understanding of the ways that compensatory manhood acts are structured locally through interaction, highlighting ways that men’s interactions may be self-defeating and also reproduce inequality by reinforcing dominant ideologies of misogyny and homophobia. In addition, it speaks to the ways that masculine subjectivity is constructed against and through dominant narratives of addiction and treatment.