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Abstract
This article explores how young novice monks, studying at a Buddhist monastic school in a rural province of northern Thailand, come to understand their developing masculinities. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in 2021, the article considers the plural forms of masculinity that novice monks are exposed to. In line with dominant strands of theory in gender studies, masculinity here is understood as taking on several potential forms. Forms adhering to normative understandings of how masculinity should be expressed are examined, with a focus on monastic masculinity as it has been described in Buddhist contexts, alongside local Thai lay-masculinities. By examining how novice monks interpret idealized archetypes conforming to each of these masculine forms, the article argues for the value of analyzing youth masculinities in light of normative frameworks.
Contributor Notes
Benjamin Theobald is an anthropologist of education, ethics, and youth. Having completed his PhD at UCL in 2023, his research considers the relationship between individuals and educational institutions, exploring the ways their respective projects of subject formation interact and conflict. More recently, he has been writing on youth protest movements in Thailand, investigating the strategies adolescent activists employ in subverting establishment ideals, and looking at how these strategies might also constitute attempts to seek novel forms of meaning and joy.