Paper short abstract:

With this paper I would like to present my research on profeminist men’s engagement in Spain with a specific reference to the shifts in imagining and practicing “new masculinities” among men’s activist for gender equality.

Paper long abstract:

In contemporary Spain, profeminist men's engagement appears to be active, although very fragmented and low in numbers, by the end of the 1980s and becomes more visible and structured at the turn of the millenium. Profeminism is a peculiar kind of activism, different from oppositional social movements and/or identity political claims: in profeminist politics its actors propose social change starting from themselves, i.e, masculinity/ies, therefore locating the focus of their socio-political critique on their own practices and believes. With this paper I would like to present my research on profeminist men's engagement in Spain with a specific reference to the shifts in imagining and practicing "new masculinities" among men's activist for gender equality. The common use of the term "new masculinities" seems to create an affirmative common discourse on an activist level, affecting also the policy and the institutional contexts. What does the reference to "new masculinities" contains in terms of utopias and realities in performing masculinities? Can this be considered a figuration that mobilizes men towards changing their daily practices? Drawing upon my ethnographic fieldwork s conducted among the members of the movement Hombres por la Igualdad in Spain, my presentation will address the questions of the potential and the limits within the framing of "new masculinities".