In this book, sociologist Lynn Hortonexplores how the most dynamic sectors of the global economy—finance and technology—are shaping new forms of elite masculinity. She offers fresh insights into the often overlooked links between economic inequalities and the identity politics of gender and race. Through analysis of the lives and discourse of utra-visible male billionaires, Horton examines how extreme accumulations of wealth are both imbued with gendered celebrity and moral authority and harshly contested. She identifies the ways neoliberalism as an ideological project, advanced by elite-funded networks of think tanks and advocacy groups, draws on such masculinities to amplify and naturalize market-centered assumptions, values, and practices. Gender systems—relational and ranked constructs of masculinity/femininity—permeate neoliberal discourse of markets, the state, and the household. Horton also details the tensions and ties between technocratic elite masculinities which eschew open sexism and discrimination and rightwing populist mobilization of gendered and racialized anti-elite discourse.

Prizes

Winner of IPEG Book Prize 2023

In this latest addition to the ever-growing canon on men, masculinity, manhood, and men’s studies, Horton examines contemporary “elite masculinity,” which is largely shaped by two major sectors of the international economy: finance and technology. Employing the methodological approaches of content analysis and case study, she explores both self- and media representations of several highly visible billionaire men to more fully understand and explain how class and masculinity intersect with overall neoliberal ideology—both shaping and being shaped by it. The author further explores the roles that elite think tanks and advocacy groups play in this dynamic process. The result is a serious, sobering theoretical analysis of 21st-century “masculine” political economy…. [A]cademic researchers with specialties in these particular areas will find this a most provocative read. Recommended. Graduate students and faculty. * Choice Reviews *

Dr. Lynn Horton is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Chapman University. Her areas of research interest include development, gender Latin America, social movements, and qualitative research methods. Her books include Peasants in Arms, War and Peace in the Mountains of Nicaragua, Grassroots Struggles for Sustainability in Central America, and Women and Microfinance in the Global South.