RESEARCH PROJECTS
Barber's book, Styling Masculinity: Gender, Class, and Inequality in the Men's Grooming Industry (Rutgers University Press), tackles popular assumptions around the "new man" as a sign of shifting gender relations. "New men" defy gender conventions and serve as popular examples of growing gender parity. Drawing from her ethnography at high-service men's salons, interviews with both clients and salon employees, and surveys of men who choose to invest significant time and money in their appearances, Barber answers questions about the social relations informing the production of a male consumer of beauty. She asks: How are men sold a masculine concept of beauty? What role do the mainly women beauty service workers play in the creation of the men’s grooming industry and a particular consumer experience? And with all of Barber's work: How are these processes shaped by power, and what can they teach about the everyday perpetuation of gender, race, class, and sexual inequalities? Under what conditions do moments of resistance emerge? Barber theorizes the "labor of consumption" to answer these questions, discussing how the organization of labor bolsters clients' white privilege and heteromasculine identities in ways that are salient in today’s political environment.
Barber talks to Rutgers University Press about Styling Masculinity: "Men's salons sell men beauty by not calling it beauty..." (here).
Barber's other publications analyze: 1) Men's participation in the feminist sexual assault protest events Take Back the Night and SlutWalk; and 2) How gender intersects with race and class to shape women's experiences of, options during, and rebuilding after Hurricane Katrina.
Her next book, with Dr. Kelsy Kretschmer, will focus on how progressive men’s college organizations shape gender, sexual, and race relations on campus. Tentatively titled, This is What a Feminist Looks Like: College Men, Activist Organizing, and Gender Equality in a Post-Feminist Age, this book will engage scholarly and popular discussions on feminist work , the politics of privilege, and bodily autonomy.
Barber talks to Rutgers University Press about Styling Masculinity: "Men's salons sell men beauty by not calling it beauty..." (here).
Barber's other publications analyze: 1) Men's participation in the feminist sexual assault protest events Take Back the Night and SlutWalk; and 2) How gender intersects with race and class to shape women's experiences of, options during, and rebuilding after Hurricane Katrina.
Her next book, with Dr. Kelsy Kretschmer, will focus on how progressive men’s college organizations shape gender, sexual, and race relations on campus. Tentatively titled, This is What a Feminist Looks Like: College Men, Activist Organizing, and Gender Equality in a Post-Feminist Age, this book will engage scholarly and popular discussions on feminist work , the politics of privilege, and bodily autonomy.
SELECT PUBLICATIONS
- Kristen Barber. Forthcoming. “The Labor of Consumption in Men’s Grooming—Or—What Does it Take to
Make Men Beautiful?” In Handbook of the Sociology of Body and Embodiment, edited by Natalie Boero and Kate Mason. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. - Kelsy Kretschmer and Kristen Barber. Forthcoming. “The ‘Man Question’ in Feminism.” In Different
Wavelengths II: Studies of the Contemporary U.S. Women’s Movement, edit by Jo Reger. London, U.K.: Routledge. - Chelsea Johnson and Kristen Barber. Forthcoming. “The Gender and Sexual Politics of Hair,” In A
Cultural History of Hair in the Modern Age, edited by Geraldine Biddle-Perry. London, U.K.: Bloomsbury Publishing. - Kristen Barber and Tristan Bridges. 2017. "Marketing Manhood in a 'Post-Feminist' Age." Contexts 16(2): 36-41.
- Kristen Barber. 2016. Styling Masculinity: Gender, Class, and Inequality in the Men's Grooming Industry. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
- Kelsy Kretschmer and Kristen Barber. 2016. "Men at the March: Feminist Movement Boundaries and Men's Participation in Take Back the Night and SlutWalk." Mobilization 21(3): 283-300.
- Kristen Barber. 2016. "'Men Wanted': Heterosexual Aesthetic Labor in the Masculinization of the Hair Salon." Gender & Society 30(4): 618-642.
- Kristen Barber and Timothy J. Haney. 2016. "The Experiential Gap in Disaster Research: Feminist Epistemology and the Contribution of Local Affected Researchers." Sociological Spectrum 36(2): 57-74.
- Shiloh Deitz and Kristen Barber. 2015. "Geographies of Inequalities: Urban Renewal and the Race, Gender, and Class of Post-Katrina New Orleans." Race, Gender & Class 134-159.
- Kristen Barber. 2015. "Styled Masculinity: Men’s Consumption of Salon Hair Care and the Construction of Difference." In Exploring Masculinities: Identity, Inequality, Continuity and Change, edited by C.J. Pascoe and Tristan Bridges. Cambridge, U.K.: Oxford University Press.
- Ronald E. Hallett and Kristen Barber. 2014. "Ethnographic Research in a Cyber Era." Journal of Contemporary Ethnography 43(3): 306-320.
- Kristen Barber and Kelsy Kretschmer. 2013. "Walking Like a Man?" Contexts 12(2): 40-45.
- Kristen Barber. 2008. "The Well-Coiffed Man: Class, Race, and Heterosexual Masculinity in the Hair Salon." Gender & Society 22(4): 55-476.
- Kristen Barber. 2006. "Sex and Power." In Introducing the New Sexuality Studies: Original Essays and Interviews, edited by Steven Seidman, Nancy Fischer, and Chet Meeks, 59-63. London, U.K.: Routledge.