"My Blood Boiled": Emotional Metaphors and Masculinity in Mexican Men

The principal aim of this article is to describe and analyze metaphor as a narrative resource of emotional vocabulary used by men, and to identify the relationship between mandates of masculinity and emotional metaphors. A qualitative ethnographic approach was used with in-depth interviews on family life and work experiences of men between age from 20 to 49 years, living with a heterosexual couple, with at least one child, being unemployed or having a recent unemployment period of time and residents of the metropolitan area of Guadalajara, Mexico. Men enunciated metaphors more frequently than emotional labels. The metaphor sense of pleasure or displeasure are described, their relation with family and/or work experiences, but also linkage with some mandates of masculinity. A series of reflections on methodological and empirical aspects and questions are presented to continue the research on emotions and masculinities as a promising field of studies on the gender of men.