Introduction: studying Australian masculinities

In recent years, questions about men and gender have aroused media interest, academic debate, and political controversy. In the United States two "Men's Movements" have gained large, if temporary, followings-one new-age therapeutic, the other right-wing evangelical. In Australia we have had explicit debates on men's violence and on boys' education, while subtexts about masculinity are not difficult to find in controversies about motor racing, gun control, the environment, and "political correctness." John Howard could not restrain himself from injecting masculinity politics even into the draft preamble to the Australian constitution.