How Men Become Socially Isolated

Focusing on Exclusion and Separation from Male Groups in Schools

Abstract

In recent years, the social isolation of men has become a social problem. Previous studies have only provided a linear explanation for this situation, based on sex-role theory, which states that men are easily isolated because their masculine roles constrain them. This paper aims to analyze in detail the process of social isolation （i.e., exclusion or separation from the group）, including interactions with others and independent choices of individual men, using Raewyn-Connell's theory of masculinity.

Life history interviews with four men who had experienced isolation in school revealed two processes of social isolation: the first is a process of ostracization and exclusion in the form of neglect and disregard when a man cannot participate in the conversational culture due to a disability. The second is a “self-isolation” process in which men who aim to join a superior male group but fail to do so consider themselves psychologically superior by differentiating themselves from superior men to cope with conflicts. As a result, they avoid relationships with other men. These results reveal a mechanism of men's social isolation that has not been clarified. The paper also clarifies the dynamics of the creation and maintenance of a hierarchy among men through interactions such as exclusion and separation.