Men studying men. Ethnography as a political act

Abstract

Thinking, analyzing and reconstructing the modes of the so-called dominant masculinity in sports clubs requires a reflexive exercise. Primarily masculine spaces, with certain characteristics, peculiarities, ways of acting, living and thinking about relationships as aspects of a hegemonic identity, with its permissions and prohibitions. Inquiring about the various identities promotes the problematization of the privileges that arise from the performativity of a dominant masculinity. In this sense, I present ethnography as a political act and as a fundamental position in my research process, and with this I propose a theoretical perspective that allows me to know and problematize my possibilities as an ethnographer and the limits of masculinity. To do this, I collect data from the ethnographic fieldwork of my master's thesis aimed at analyzing the identity construction processes of individuals who are part of the Club Colón de San Carlos in relation to soccer and murga practices. Where in my bodily characteristics, of identity and dominant recognition, I believe a constant exercise of estrangement and reflexivity that allows an adequate distance with the object of study is opportune.