Ineffective Masculinity

Abstract

Advancing literature on Cuban–American relations through an analysis grounded in hegemonic and relational, or “subordinate” masculinities, this work explores representations of Cuban male leaders in the US media. Using ethnographic content analysis to examine 763 articles on Cuba from 1959 to 2010 in Time and Newsweek, data reveal narratives of ineffective masculinity as articulated through emergent themes and images that portray Cuban men involved in the revolutionary or political process as (a) simultaneously hypermasculine, that is, motivated by anger, violence, or idealism and (b) hypomasculine or displaying inadequacies in either their professional efforts and/or their physical characteristics. The findings supported by ineffective masculinity add to the literature by recognizing that these male leaders are deemed deficient; however, this deficiency does not rely on tropes of femininity. It is through this analysis that one may recognize the ways in which representations of Cuban male leaders may relate but differ from portraits of other nonwhite men. These findings might reasonably pave the way for possible variations in portrayals of “ineffective masculinity” and hegemonic masculinity where future research may question what role the trope ineffective masculinity may have on the maintenance of racial inequalities and ideologies especially of men of color in international relations with the United States.