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The Man with Two Brains: Hegemonic masculine subjectivity and the discursive construction of the unreasonable penis-self

2001; Routledge; Volume: 10; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/09589230120053274

1465-3869

Annie Potts,

Military history and social perspectives

Hegemonic masculine sexual subjectivity is constituted via the inside/outside dichotomy in ways that perpetuate the distancing of men from the sexual actions of their bodies. This occurs through the metaphorical exteriorisation of male sexual corporeality: the penis comes to represent the man, to stand in for/up for him as a separate entity, a 'self' with its own will outside the man's conscious control. This 'penis-brain', culturally invested with a primal 'carnal' intelligence, operates in contrast to, and thereby resists, the man's rational cerebral thought. This paper presents a discursive analysis of the production of male heterosexual subjectivity as exteriorised, using as texts extracts from popular media material, and transcripts from interviews with men and women on notions of heterosexual health, safer sex practices, and male sexuality. It examines how men may employ the concept of the irrational penis-self as an alibi, or excuse, for the enactment of coercive and riskier heterosexual behaviours.