Feminist Methodologies on Researching Black Masculinities

This paper draws on the implementation of intersectional feminist theorising as a method for researching Black masculinities. I offer content to this topic by drawing on Ahmed’s (2017) style to request engagement from the reader through executing an initial technique of questions and responses. This paper identifies and demonstrates through manipulating this technique, how discourse constructs our identities over time and space, leaving a legacy purposely reproduced to uphold normative constructions of self and global discriminations. I offer my application of Intersectionality as a contribution to this field on how intersectionality can be operationalised as a research methodology for the study of Black masculinities. This paper speaks to my question of hegemonic masculinity and gender performances in global politics. The paper grapples the various ‘sticking points’ of carrying out a postcolonial intersectional feminist project, questioning whether the adaptation to examine Jamaican and Jamaican diaspora Black men and their masculinities, appropriately answers the call to expand the approach of feminist scholarship (McCall 2005). I offer an expansion of this approach which reflects the marginalised racial identities of Black men whist acknowledging potential privileges (Woods 2010) of this gender. Whilst Black feminist theorists aim to address structural inequalities for women in global politics, at the intersection of gender, race and social class, little theory acknowledges how similar oppressions can impact marginalised men.