Masculinity as property : toward a new legal theory on the interaction between men, masculinities and law

This research project sought to utilize the notion of property to develop a new legal theory on the interaction between men, masculinities and law in order to clarify the nexus of law, gender and power. Accepting the feminist legal theory premise that law plays a role in women’s structural subordination, the project drew inspiration from Cheryl Harris’s seminal article "Whiteness as Property" in critical race theory, which analogizes whiteness and property. It asks whether and if so how Harris’s analogy can contribute to conceptualizing masculinity as property as well. The dissertation first builds the conceptual framework necessary to study men, masculinity and law and calls to further develop “critical legal masculinities studies” as a coherent and unified research agenda. It then explores the issue of positive action before the Court of Justice of the European Union. It shows where and how EU anti-discrimination law got aligned with men’s interests as a social group, offering individual men a legal tool to (unconsciously) enforce structural inequality. Next, the dissertation seeks to make sense of this by thinking about masculinity through the lens of property. It argues that masculinity functions as a resource, which allows individuals who can claim it to structure interpersonal relations and influence law in line with structural gendered dynamics of power. Finally, the dissertation makes a reverse move to think about property with the help of gender. It reimagines what property is and how it functions by bringing together socio-legal scholarship on property as social practice and gender performativity theory. It reveals that property and gender constitute interdependent regulatory tools that lead to repetitive and collectively recognized social practices which define who can do what. In this way, the conceptualization of masculinity as property developed in this dissertation proves useful in identifying where gendered power resides in law.