CGF Seminar - Why are we brothers? Male siblings and the masculine mystique of required affection.

Andreas Henriksson, post doc, Center for Gender Studies, Karlstad University 

Abstract: Many societies uphold a social requirement of affection between male siblings. Not rarely, it is the only socially required same-sex affection that men encounter besides filial love. However, how is this affection and its requirement understood? And how does it speak to the masculinity that brothers share? In this presentation, I draw on interviews with brothers in Namibia and Sweden, as well as cultural representations of brotherhood, to discuss loyalty, violence, collaboration, obedience and other forms through which brotherly love is lived and narrated. 

Bio: Andreas Henriksson is a post doc researcher at the Center for Gender Studies at Karlstad University. Andreas does research in Gender Studies, Social Theory and Sociological Theory. His current project is 'Familial brothers - masculinity, intimacy and belonging'. His research also covers singledom and dating practices. After his dissertation in 2014 Organising Intimacy - Exploring Heterosexual Singledoms at Swedish Singles Activities, he has published extensively in these research areas.