Masculinities and Risk Desire: towards a new conceptual framework

This paper develops and presents a conceptual framework for understanding how masculinities are negotiated through the lens of Risk Desire (RD): valorisation or resistance against various forms of risk. Drawing together literatures from sociology, psychology, and gender studies, as well as two case-studies from the author's past embedded research, a RD framework is presented that articulates how different masculinities influence and are reciprocally influenced by risk. The analysis considers cultural norms, contextual socialisation, and psychological factors, and how these vary across contexts, and intersect with identities such as age, class and socioeconomic status. By integrating theoretical insights with empirical findings from past men and masculinities and identity-risk research, this work frames risk as an object of desire: operating in parallel and connection with masculine identity negotiation, but not as a sole demonstrator of masculine status as many works suggest, presenting a new conceptual direction to underpin future research in public health, criminology, and organisational behaviour interconnected with varied masculine gender identities, displays, performances, and sense-makings. Implications for further directions and research in this area using the RD framework are discussed.