My research is broadly concerned with an important dynamic in the sociology of gender—while gender is subject to incredible variation and transformation, gender inequality has been shown to be much more durable. I have primarily examined this dynamic by studying shifts in the meanings and practices associated with masculinities.  I am particularly interested in the relationship between gender, sexuality and power with a focus on “hybrid” configurations of masculinity that operate in ways that both challenge and reproduce systems of inequality.

My work on “hybrid masculinities” is concerned with the revival and retheorization of a theoretical discussion that began among scholars studying shifts in masculinity at the end of the 20th century. Alongside a backlash against feminist change, countless examples began to emerge suggesting that masculinity was opening up. Building on interdisciplinary research and theory concerning the gender projects of young, cisgender, straight, white men, “hybrid masculinities” is a theoretical framework that provides new tools for making sense of contemporary gender and sexual inequality and unites findings from scholarship across sociology and other disciplines concerning questions of identity, inequality, and how we can interpret the meanings and consequences associated with shifts in masculinity. I continue to work on retheorizing “hybrid masculinities” in reference to a broad range of practices that share a patterned set of consequences associated with gender and sexual power and inequality.

Presently, I am working on a book that attempts to reconsider how we theorize about men’s relationship with gender identity and inequality in the 21st century. In addition to this work, I have several ongoing projects. I am collecting interviews for a book-length project on American couples with “man caves” in their homes.  I am also collaborating with Dr. Tara Leigh Tober on a research project on mass shootings in America, producing a new dataset that will help us answer questions we have been unable to answer with existing data. And, starting in 2020, with Dr. Kristen Barber and Dr. Joseph D. Nelson, I have started a term as Co-Editor of the journal, Men and Masculinities, which publishes interdisciplinary feminist scholarship on men and masculinities from around the world.

Selected Publications

Tristan Bridges. forthcoming. “White Masculine Privilege as Stigmatizing?: On (Anti)Feminist Men’s Constructions of White Men as Collectively Disadvantaged.” Signs.

Sarah Diefendorf and Tristan Bridges. forthcoming. “On the Enduring Relationship Between Masculinity and Homophobia.” Sexualities.

Tristan Bridges. 2019. “The Costs of Exclusionary Practices in Masculinities Studies.” Men and Masculinities 21(1): 16-33.

Tristan Bridges and Tara Leigh Tober. 2019. “Mass Shootings, Masculinity, and Gun Violence as Feminist Issues.” Pp. 498-505 in Feminist Frontiers, 10th edition, edited by Verta Taylor, Nancy Whittier, and Leila Rupp. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.

Tristan Bridges and Mignon R. Moore. 2018. “Young Women of Color and Shifting Sexual Identities.” Contexts 17(1): 86-88.

C.J. Pascoe and Tristan Bridges. 2016. Exploring Masculinities: Identity, Inequality, Continuity, and Change. Cambridge: Oxford University Press.

Tristan Bridges. 2014. “A Very ‘Gay’ Straight?: Hybrid Masculinities, Sexual Aesthetics, and the Changing Relationship between Masculinity and Homophobia.” Gender & Society 28(1): 58-82.

Tristan Bridges and C.J. Pascoe. 2014. “Hybrid Masculinities: New Directions in the Sociology of Men and Masculinities.” Sociology Compass 8/3: 246-258.

Tristan Bridges. 2010. “Men Just Weren’t Made to Do This: Performances of Drag at ‘Walk a Mile in Her Shoes’ Marches.” Gender & Society 24(1): 5-30.