The Ethnographic Process of Gender Management: Doing the “Right” Masculinity With Wives of Professional Athletes

Abstract

In this reflexive account of a neglected aspect of cross-gender fieldwork, a male sociologist examines his use of the “right” masculinity in long-term fieldwork with wives of professional athletes. The gender and impression management strategy of “muted masculinity” was applied as a method to avoid the hegemonic masculinity these wives dislike. The ethnographic strategy is identified and examined by evaluating its characteristics and the part it played in developing collaborative relationships, conducting sequential interviews, establishing rapport and trust, becoming regarded as a male expert, and gaining acceptance into the wives’ private world. Although a male fieldworker’s gender can become a complicated issue in a female world, it is proposed that an outsider strategy can be constructed and applied in ways that benefit the fieldwork and the researched.