Tristan Bridges

Associate Professor

Office Location

SSMS 3320

Specialization

the sociology of masculinities; the sociology of gender; the sociology of sexualities; the sociology of families; and gender theory.  All of my courses highlight contemporary issues of identity and inequality.

 

Education

Ph.D. University of Virginia

Bio

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.  Along with C.J. Pascoe, I am in the process of retheorizing “hybrid masculinities” in reference to a broad range of practices that share a patterned set of consequences associated with gender and sexual power and inequality. 

Presently, I am working on a book that attempts to reconsider how we theorize about men’s relationship with gender identity and inequality in the 21st century, tentatively entitled: Othering Other Men: Transformations in Gender and Inequality among Men. In addition to this work, I have several ongoing projects.  I am collecting interviews for a book-length project on American couples with “man caves” in their homes.  I am also collaborating with Tara Leigh Tober on a research project on mass shootings in America, producing a new dataset that will help us answer questions we have been unable to answer with existing data.  I am also collaborating on a project with Kristen Barber examining shifts in depictions of masculinity in contemporary men’s advertising. And I am just finishing revisions on the new edition of an introductory textbook in sociology with Michael Kimmel and Amy Aronson—Sociology NOW (third edition).

Publications

Pascoe, C.J. and Tristan Bridges. 2016. Exploring Masculinities: Identity, Inequality, Continuity, and Change. Cambridge: Oxford University Press.

Kristen Barber and Tristan Bridges. 2017. “Marketing Manhood in a ‘Post-Feminist’ Age.” Contexts 16(2): 38-43.

C.J. Pascoe and Tristan Bridges. 2017. “Fag Discourse in a Post-Homophobic Era.” Pp. 352-358 in Inequality in the 21st Century, edited by David B. Grusky and Jasmine Hill. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

Tristan Bridges and Tara Leigh Tober. 2016. “Mass Shootings and Masculinity.”  Pp. 507-512 in Focus on Social Problems: A Contemporary Reader, edited by Mindy Stombler and Amanda Jungels. New York: Oxford University Press.

Tristan Bridges and Melody L. Boyd. 2016. “On the Marriageability of Men.” Sociology Compass 10(1): 48-64.

Tristan Bridges. 2014. “A Very ‘Gay’ Straight?: Hybrid Masculinities, Sexual Aesthetics, and the Changing Relationship between Masculinity and Homophobia.” Gender & Society 28(1): 58-82.

Tristan Bridges and C.J. Pascoe. 2014. “Hybrid Masculinities: New Directions in the Sociology of Men and Masculinities.” Sociology Compass 8/3: 246-258.

Tristan Bridges. 2013. “Issues of Intimacy, Masculinity, and Ethnography.” Pp. 53-63 in Men, Masculinities, and Methodologies, edited by B. Pini and B. Pease. Palgrave Macmillan.

Tristan Bridges. 2010. “Men Just Weren’t Made to Do This: Performances of Drag at ‘Walk a Mile in Her Shoes’ Marches.” Gender & Society 24(1): 5-30.

Tristan Bridges. 2009. “Gender Capital and Male Bodybuilders.” Body & Society 15(1): 83-107.