MAKING MODERN MEN: HEGEMONIC MASCULINITIES IN ELITE BOYS’ SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN SINGAPORE

Abstract

Elite boys’ schools are masculinizing institutions that are renowned for producing national leaders. Since the institutionalization of national service in the 1960s, hegemonic masculinity in Singapore has been conventionally associated with rugged individualism and robust masculine identities. Yet, I contend that the constitutions of hegemonic masculinity are not static, but should be contextualized to contemporary forms and situated in specific social contexts. Using Connell’s (1987) concept of “hegemonic masculinity” and Demetriou’s (2001) “hybrid bloc” as underlying frameworks, this thesis interrogates how hegemonic masculinities are perpetuated in elite boys’ secondary schools in Singapore. I engaged in in-depth qualitative interviews with graduate students from two elite schools to uncover diverse and contested presentations of hegemonic masculinities. Specifically, I explore 2nd tier elite schools, where their development of pedagogical practices and programs have slightly different focuses from those at the top tier. My first finding suggests that the two schools promote a hybrid bloc of hegemonic masculinities comprising masculine and feminine characteristics that is fruitful in producing national leaders of the 21st century. However, my second finding reveals how most students do not fully conform to the hybrid bloc. That is, they reject the feminine qualities only to accede to the Western mode of hegemonic masculinity that valorizes qualities of power and aggression. As a result, subordinated students who fall outside the Western hegemony find themselves negotiating their masculinities through an avoidance of femininity and a recuperation of masculinities to portray a coherent identity of themselves – and to reclaim their hegemonic status.