PERFORMANCE ANXIETIES: UNDOING SEXIST MASCULINITIES AMONG COLLEGE MEN.

Given heterosexuality's prominent and potentially noxious role in the construction of masculinity during young adulthood, it is important to examine when and how men resist masculinity projects predicated on the sexual objectification and subordination of women. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 44 college men, and 16 focus groups with 87 additional men and women students, this article examines the multidimensional social processes that constrain and enable men as they attempt to resist sexist conventions of masculinity and heterosexuality. A theory of gender as structure--a multidimensional entity whose impact extends to all levels of social life--is used to investigate complexity and contradictions in men's gendered sexual subjectivities, including why they engage in sexist thinking and behavior despite, in many ways, not personally desiring to do so. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]