“We are our fathers’ improved versions”: changing fatherhoods and hybrid masculinities in Cyprus
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: This article explores how fatherhood, masculinity, and the relationship between the two have been changing. It relies on data collected through interviews with 22 heterosexual couples with children under the age of seven, and 19 follow-up one-to-one interviews with the fathers to analyse men as men and as fathers, their practices, contemporary gender relations and social change in Cyprus – a unique context that is caught between tradition and modernity. Drawing on participants’ reflections on their own parental practices and those of their parents, the article highlights how the current generation of young fathers differs from the previous one. It utilizes the theoretical framework of hybrid masculinities and proposes the existence of a culturally specific hybrid masculinity that revolves around care – especially towards children – while simultaneously reproducing values and practices that contribute, often indirectly, to the perseverance of patriarchy and hegemonic masculinity. Relying on this, this study shows how fatherhood and masculinity are interdependent, while nonetheless changing in different ways and at a different pace, which it attributes to the specificities of the context that is changing in important ways, while, however, preserving some of its core traditional characteristics.
Source: Journal of Gender Studies
Authors: Andria Christofidou, Genovefa Zafeiridou
Language: English
Subfield: Demography
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W4410946997