{"id":9562,"date":"2026-10-30T13:39:57","date_gmt":"2026-10-30T17:39:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mhc\/?post_type=tribe_events&#038;p=9562"},"modified":"2026-10-30T13:41:47","modified_gmt":"2026-10-30T17:41:47","slug":"posing-in-bondage-a-phenomenological-investigation-into-the-male-loneliness-epidemic","status":"publish","type":"tribe_events","link":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mhc\/event\/posing-in-bondage-a-phenomenological-investigation-into-the-male-loneliness-epidemic\/","title":{"rendered":"Posing in Bondage: A Phenomenological Investigation into the Male Loneliness Epidemic"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><strong>Posing in Bondage: A Phenomenological Investigation into the Male Loneliness Epidemic<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>A presentation by McGillicuddy Humanities Center Undergraduate Fellow <strong>Wyatt Perron<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><u>Date<\/u>: Thursday, December 3, 2026<\/p>\n<p><u>Time<\/u>: 5:00-6:00pm<\/p>\n<p><u>Location<\/u>: Virtue Room, The Maples 217<\/p>\n<p>With the discussion surrounding male loneliness on the rise, it&#8217;s important to take the time to ask why. Why are we suddenly talking about it, and why does this loneliness so often result in violence against women? When a society raises boys to believe that the world is \u201ctheirs,\u201d they grow to expect love, intimacy, and connection to happen unearned. This entitlement collides with another framework men are raised within: the fear of weakness, especially emotional weakness. Together, these forces create a disastrous effect, leaving us with emotionally vacant men who crave connection but refuse vulnerability. Men are raised to be strong, emotionless, and stoic. Entangled in these cultural expectations, they remain waiting, posing in bondage, expecting connectedness and love they never worked for or learned to nurture. The phrase \u201cposing in bondage,\u201d coined by Japanese Breakfast, means waiting to be seen and loved while trapped in ropes of one\u2019s own making. The ties that bind these men are clear: an ouroboros of feeling entitled to connection and yet fearing vulnerability, which feeds both loneliness and violence. The knots are clearly seen; what remains is to learn how to cut them. Using the works of Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Simone de Beauvoir, Linda Mart\u00edn Alcoff, Elizabeth Grosz, Laura Bates, and Bell Hooks, this paper embarks on an exploration of the processes of both masculinization and feminization, ultimately concluding that if we are to ever untie these knots that bind, we must start by rejecting the entirety of our current gendered norms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Posing in Bondage: A Phenomenological Investigation into the Male Loneliness Epidemic A presentation by McGillicuddy Humanities Center Undergraduate Fellow Wyatt Perron &nbsp; Date: Thursday, December 3, 2026 Time: 5:00-6:00pm Location: [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2578,"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_tribe_events_status":"","_tribe_events_status_reason":"","_tribe_events_is_hybrid":"","_tribe_events_is_virtual":"","_tribe_events_virtual_video_source":"","_tribe_events_virtual_embed_video":"","_tribe_events_virtual_linked_button_text":"","_tribe_events_virtual_linked_button":"","_tribe_events_virtual_show_embed_at":"","_tribe_events_virtual_show_embed_to":[],"_tribe_events_virtual_show_on_event":"","_tribe_events_virtual_show_on_views":"","_tribe_events_virtual_url":"","footnotes":""},"tags":[],"tribe_events_cat":[],"class_list":["post-9562","tribe_events","type-tribe_events","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Posing in Bondage: A Phenomenological Investigation into the Male Loneliness Epidemic - Clement and Linda McGillicuddy Humanities Center - University of Maine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mhc\/event\/posing-in-bondage-a-phenomenological-investigation-into-the-male-loneliness-epidemic\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Posing in Bondage: A Phenomenological Investigation into the Male Loneliness Epidemic - Clement and Linda McGillicuddy Humanities Center - University of Maine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Posing in Bondage: A Phenomenological Investigation into the Male Loneliness Epidemic A presentation by McGillicuddy Humanities Center Undergraduate Fellow Wyatt Perron &nbsp; 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