Abstract

This article examines a brief humorous exchange in which a man is asked what he calls a woman who pays her own bills, mows the lawn, rakes leaves, cleans gutters, weeds, gardens, performs home repairs, lifts heavy objects, and manages moving tasks. His answer, “fellow bro”, appears casual, comic, and perhaps even complimentary. Yet sociologically, the statement reveals a dense set of assumptions about gender, labour, competence, and masculine recognition in contemporary life. The woman is not simply described as independent, capable, self-sufficient, or competent; rather, her competence is translated into masculinized terms, and she is recognized through symbolic incorporation into brotherhood. Drawing on the doing-gender tradition (West & Zimmerman, 1987), the theory of hegemonic masculinity and its reformulations (Connell, 1995; Connell & Messerschmidt, 2005; Messerschmidt, 2018), the literatures on precarious manhood (Vandello & Bosson, 2013) and hybrid and inclusive masculinities (Bridges & Pascoe, 2014; Anderson & McCormack, 2018), this article argues that the phrase “fellow bro” illustrates a persistent feature of contemporary masculinity: even as women increasingly perform tasks historically coded as masculine, the cultural grammar through which such competence is recognized often remains organized around masculinity as the privileged sign of autonomy, strength, utility, and practical authority. The joke is therefore not trivial. It reveals the social construction of masculinity as a relational category, sustained through everyday speech, domestic divisions of labour, symbolic boundary work, and the reclassification of women who cross gendered expectations.

Keywords: Masculinity; gender boundary work; domestic labour; symbolic recognition; hegemonic masculinity; gender performativity; contemporary masculinity

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Suggested Citation

Itulua-Abumere, F. (2026). “Fellow Bro”: Domestic Competence, Gender Boundary Work, and the Social Construction of Contemporary Masculinity. International Fusion Centre for Business & Education. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20835052

Author: Flourish Itulua-Abumere
Affiliation: International Fusion Centre for Business & Education
Corresponding Author: flourish.abumere@ifcbe.ca
Publication Date: June 24, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20835052