Tristan Bridges

My research is broadly concerned with an important dynamic in the sociology of gender—while gender is subject to incredible variation and transformation, gender inequality has been shown to be much more durable. My research examines this dynamic by examining shifts in the meanings and practices associated with masculinity. I am particularly interested in the relationship between gender, sexuality and power with a focus on “hybrid” configurations of masculinity that operate in ways that challenge and reproduce systems of inequality.

My work on “hybrid masculinities” is concerned with the revival and retheorization of a theoretical discussion that began among scholars studying shifts in masculinity at the end of the 20th century. Alongside a backlash against feminist change, countless examples began to emerge suggesting that masculinity was opening up. Building on interdisciplinary research and theory concerning the gender projects of young, straight, white men, “hybrid masculinities” is a theoretical framework that provides new tools for making sense of contemporary gender and sexual inequality and unites findings from scholarship across the field–concerning questions of identity, inequality, and how we can interpret the meanings and consequences associated with shifts in masculinity.