Masculinities in Motion Latino Men and Violence in Kentucky

Interviews with Latino men in Kentucky underscore multiple ways in which men negotiate being a man in a setting in which they find increased work opportunities yet experience heightened feelings of vulnerability. This article examines how men construct masculinity in response to three interrelated factors: migration, women's behaviors, and peer pressure. These factors do not determine men's use of violence, yet situating them within men's lives allows us to better understand men's on-the-ground experiences as well as possible connections between men and violence. Findings contribute to an emerging group of studies that examine the destabilization of masculinity and its connections to men's use of violence against women. I suggest that the violence some Latino men use is symptomatic of men's perception that they are losing power within broader, sometimes unfamiliar systems of oppression outside the home at the same time as women are gaining power.