The masculine—feminine dichotomy (grounded in the male—female divide) is a potent
metaphorical source for the creation of difference in a context like the village I have
studied. It is not, in and of itself, neither more nor less essencialistic than any other
principle of distinction if one accepts that both the sexed body and the gendered
individual are the result of processes of historical and cultural construction. That is why
I do not use notions such as (sexual or gender) ‘role’: these do not seem to have
explanatory value since they imply a false dichotomy between body and individual, sex
and gender. The conflation between ‘male’, ‘men’ and ‘masculinity’ — which is one of
the premises for the use of those notions — should not be taken for granted but
analysed.
Masculinity and femininity are not juxtaposable to men and women respectively:
they are metaphors of power and capacity for action and agency, therefore accessible to
both men and women. If it were not so, one could not possibly talk about several
masculinities or transformations in gender relations. The moving and contingent
character of the relation between masculinity, men and power becomes clear when one
analyses ethnographies that pay particular attention to dialogue and conflict between
hegemonic masculinities and subordinate ones; to individual variability in masculine
identity; or to changes that take place in a single individual’s masculine identity along
the life cycle or according to situations of interaction.