Caring masculinities and the politics of feminist representation in the Portuguese media

Sofia José Santos^1,2*Júlia Garraio²Bárbara Janiques³

• ¹Faculty of Economics, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal
• ²Center for Social Studies, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal
• ³Faculty of Arts and Humanities, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal

The focus on masculinities as a means to tackle patriarchy has gained sigjnficant attention in recent decades. Scholars have increasingly shed light on concepts such as "hegemonic masculinity", "toxic masculinities", and, more recently, "caring masculinities". While "hegemonic masculinity" embodies the legitimation of patriarchy (Connell 2005) and toxic masculinity encompasses its socially destructive aspects (Kupers 2005), "caring masculinities" are typically associated with traditional femininities and non-violent practices (Elliot 2016). As such, they offer a potential entry point -not without challenges or ambivalences -for deconstructing patriarchy and the gender-based violence that it perpetautes. The construction and validation of patriarchy have always been closely tied to representations of traditional ideals of masculinity and femininity. Similarly, dismantling patriarchy and gender-based violence is intrinsically connected to representations that foster and uphold gender equality. Given their capacity to create and validate specific representations, media text play a crucial role in shaping, challenging, and reinforcing gender norms and roles. By producing powerful, mobilizing gendered scripts and narratives, media can serve as a transformative tool for either maintaining or disrupting established gender hierarchies. This article focuses on TV advertisements in Portugal to analyze the portrayal of "caring masculinities" and explore how these representations challenge traditional ideals of masculinity. From a collection of 1,602 videos corresponding to TV advertisements for the ten most promoted brands on Portuguese TV in 2015, 247 ads were selected for their alignment with themes of fatherhood, domestic work, and caregiving. Using quantitative content analysis to examine this final corpus of 1602 videos, this article explores how caring masculinities are represented and negotiated, and discusses how the presence of caring masculinities and their practices, which tend to showcase alternative models of "being a man", challenge or coopt notions of hegemonic and toxic masculinities -cornerstones of patriarchy and gender-based violence.