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Staff Profile

Dr Chris Haywood

Reader in Critical Masculinity Studies

  • Telephone: +44 (0) 191 208 6570
  • Address: Room 2.7
    Media and Cultural Studies
    School of Arts and Cultures
    Armstrong Building
    Newcastle University
    Queen Victoria Road
    Newcastle upon Tyne
    NE1 7RU
Background

Introduction

Chris Haywood is a Reader in Critical Masculinity Studies. He has been Director of Research, Director of Teaching and Learning and Director of Postgraduate Studies. He is interested in exploring how different conceptual deployments of masculinity shape what we know and are able to know about gender and sexuality. His previous work has included examining different dating practices, including speed dating, online dating, holiday romance, anonymous sex and mobile romance. Alongside this, his research interests include cultural analyses of schooling and education, with an emphasis on the interplay between gender, generation and 'Race' /ethnicity. His current research explores the hidden world of sex clubs. Traditionally called swingers’ clubs, it is estimated that each year in the UK, over a million men and women visit these clubs for anonymous sex. His book, “Sex Club: Recreational Sex, Fantasies and Cultures of Desire” (2022, Palgrave), explores sex club cultures through themes such as power and erotic hierarchies, hypersexualized black bodies, ‘sexually insatiable women’, queer heterosexualities, trans desires, and spaces of non-consent in dangerous, high-risk spaces.

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Research

The Research Tent: Exploring and Supporting the Swinger Community

This research involves setting up a research tent at a swingers festival and distributing a questionnaire. The information collected looked at understanding the general demographic profile, relationship status, time spent in the community and a range of information on sexual practices.


Exploring the strategic management of UK sex clubs and the commercial viability of sexual health interventions.

The project aims to understand the relationship between the commercial environment of sex clubs and the viability of implementing sexual health interventions. The project is a response to heterosexual communities becoming the dominant source of HIV transmission and the potential for clubs to contribute to the current rise in Monkeypox and other sexual infections such as Super Gonorrhoea. In addition, the project aims to identify, understand and develop potential solutions to commercial enterprises' challenges when managing high-risk sex on their premises. Since 2005 the UK has witnessed an unprecedented rise in sex clubs. In 2003 there were around two sex clubs, whilst in 2022 there are now at least forty-one clubs.  These are not strip clubs, lap dancing clubs, or brothels; these are clubs that men and women visit to have (mostly anonymous) casual sex. Each year sex clubs, traditionally called swingers clubs, are visited by over one million people in the UK. Until now (Haywood 2022a), there has been no systematic research on sex clubs. Instead, existing work tends to focus on clubs that are marketed to Gay/ Lesbian / Kink or Fetish communities. Furthermore, research has indicated (Haywood 2022b) that sex clubs are places for high-risk sex between cis and trans men and women, men and men and women and women. Such risky sex forms part of the culture of the sex club experience, with very few clubs promoting healthy sexual practices. 


Men Masculinity and Dating

Contemporary dating practices, such as online dating, speed dating and mobile romance are emerging alongside more traditional dating practices, such as family and friend introductions, meetings in bars and clubs and encounters in everyday social life. Although studies are beginning to identify the transformational potential of these contemporary dating practices for women, Lesbian and Gay communities and young people (see for example, Harcourt, 2005; Gomez, 2010; Bauermeister et al., 2012), there is relatively less research that explores how heterosexual men are responding to these changes. This project responds to the need for research that provides more empirically grounded data on heterosexual men’s identities and subjectivities (Hockey et al, 2007; Mooney-Somers and Ussher, 2010).At present, we remain highly dependent upon media narratives that offer contradictory accounts of men’s responses to contemporary dating practices. On one hand, such narratives are claiming that that new forms of dating are providing men with the opportunity to be more caring and sensitive (Hilton, 2011; Burke, 2012). On the other, such accounts are suggesting that there is a ‘menaissance’ – a cultural moment where ‘post-sensitive’ men are responding to change by drawing upon traditional masculine tropes such as emotional stoicism and toughness (Haddow, 2010; Fitzgerald, 2012). Furthermore, despite the increasing availability of dating advice in magazines and on television, radio and the internet, very little guidance and support is available for heterosexual men to help them navigate the social, emotional, health and physical risks associated with contemporary dating practices. This project responds to a current absence in the field to explain the relationships between, men, masculinity and dating.

 


Teaching

Undergraduate Teaching

In the past, I have led modules on Social Research Methods, Contemporary Social Issues and Advanced Social and Cultural Theory. At present, I lead on:   

 

MCH 2071 Sex, Sexuality and Desire 

MCH 3073 & MCH 3072 Research Dissertation

MCH 8058 Methodologies

 

Postgraduate Teaching

I contribute to the following modules: 

 

M.A Media Analysis 

M.A Methodologies

I also supervise 5 Master's students each year. 

 

Postgraduate Research Students 

Dana Bogova

Manoj Wickrama Waduralalage

Quynh Tran

Nick Jensen

 



Publications