Single man - typological approach from the perspective of sociocultural gender

Abstract

The research results presented below are a part of a larger project aimed at describing the situation of single people in Poland. The research was carried out using a qualitative strategy. This article focuses on men living without a partner, either permanently or temporarily. The perspective of socioculturalgender was taken under consideration when designing the research. It was an essential tool of data analysis, its interpretation, and reduction. In the first part of this article the adopted theoretical concepts and research assumptions are presented. The notions determining the research design were introduced in the following order: the definition of a single person, in the synthetic depiction, and S.L. Bem’s concept of a socioculturalgender. A model of a single man popularized by the media is also referred to. The second part contains the characteristics of a methodological research project complying with the above assumptions. The part reporting on the findings includes reconstructed definitions of a single man delivered by the men analyzed, who represented various types of socioculturalgender. The object of the description is also an interpretation of the situation of being single from the perspective of choice and satisfaction with this alternative form of conjugal and family life. The definitions of masculinity and femininity characteristic for the type of socioculturalgender presented by the objects of study as well as preferences concerning one’s potential partner are also presented. At the final stage men’s topology, formed on the basis of sociocultural gender and complying with successively described categories of analysis, is presented.