AustLit

Potter is concerned with analysing how representations of masculinity draw upon 'multiple masculine discourses present within a culture at any given time', in ways which ultimately support the dominant configuration of hegemonic masculinity (p.28). He looks at two Australian realist fictions for young adults, Boys of Blood and Bone (Metzenthen) and Burning Eddy (Gardner), arguing that they are 'constrained by elements of the normative and to some extent mythic Australian masculinity' in ways that reinforce Australian masculinist traditions (p.34). Potter contends that both texts maintain and perpetuate patriarchal systems of dominance and oppression by constructing the notion of masculinity at the expense of women's subordination. However, he makes the point that Gardner's use of hybridization introduces the possibility of challenging masculine biased discourses by privileging an alternative sexuality that is a 'hybrid of masculine and feminine traits' (p.33).