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ment, and education. This might include creating peer-led mentoring groups focused
on masculinity (Di Bianca et al., 2021) and could also take shape as living-learning
communities focused on masculinity, which have the potential to provide men with
the support they need to reject rigid gender expectations and develop a healthy identity
(Jessup-Anger et al., 2012).
Residential life departments should explore opportunities for reorientation to
communal living. Students who began their college experience during the pandemic
may have missed opportunities to develop interpersonal skills specifically related to
living in community, and addressing those gaps may prove beneficial to all students,
including men. By identifying the lingering effects of the pandemic, professional
staff can help creatively address gaps in social preparedness, navigating roommate
relationships, maneuvering parental relationships, and identifying role models. In
addition, engaging students in the reorientation process and seeking feedback might
assist staff in determining what traditions and experiences are worth bringing back to
a post-pandemic campus and what needs to change.
This study highlighted an opportunity to co-create meaningful dialogue with men
about gender assumptions, behavior, and expectations on campus. However, focusing
on how men have reconsidered masculinity on campus after the COVID-19 pandemic
should not detract from a focus on women and the challenges that the pandemic has
created for them. Continued research is needed regarding the effects-both short- and
long-term-of the pandemic on the overall college experience. While this study captured
a moment in time during the pandemic, longitudinal data would highlight the
effects that resocialization is having on long-term student development. In particular,
it is important to explore identities that co-exist and influence masculinity, including
race, ethnicity, cultural background, and sexual orientation. In many ways, the
pandemic shed light on the role of power and privilege associated with hegemonic
masculinity and traditional gender roles, and the effects of that aspect of the pandemic
response should be explored in further research to understand how it might be influencing
masculinity on campus.
CONCLUSION
The participants in this study described the challenges associated with socialization on
campus during the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent enhanced understanding
of themselves as men. Kimmel's (2008) Guyland provided a perspective on the tumultuous
transition period between adolescence and adulthood for the men in this study.
Analyzing data using Kimmel's Guyland as a framework allowed greater insight into
how aspects of the pandemic disrupted and then shaped the development of masculine
identities and influenced social re-entry. The participants in this study actually
occupied Guyland and were beginning to define their masculinity by interpreting their
experiences during the pandemic, including reflection on the expectations they have of
themselves and that they perceive others have of men.
Volume 49, No. 2 * 2023 43
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