Man of the House: Property, Patriarchy, and Masculine Dispossession in Evicted by Matthew Desmond

  • Unique Paper ID: 187555
  • PageNo: 5753-5760
  • Abstract:
  • Matthew Desmond's ethnographic study Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City (2016) illuminates the devastating effects of housing instability on America's urban poor, yet its gendered dimensions remain underexplored in scholarly discourse. This article examines how eviction operates as a site of masculine dispossession, systematically undermining working-class men's ability to fulfill traditional provider roles while simultaneously reinforcing patriarchal structures that harm both men and women. Through close analysis of Desmond's male subjects—particularly Scott, Lamar, and Ned—this study applies R.W. Connell's theory of hegemonic masculinity and Michael Kimmel's concept of "aggrieved entitlement" to reveal how eviction destabilizes masculine identity tied to property ownership, economic provision, and domestic authority. The article argues that eviction creates a crisis of working-class masculinity that manifests in three interrelated ways: the collapse of the provider role, the spatial displacement that severs men from domestic authority, and the transformation of masculine agency into what I term "dispossessive performance"—futile attempts to enact traditional masculine prerogatives without the economic foundation to sustain them. By examining eviction through the lens of critical masculinity studies, this analysis demonstrates how housing precarity exposes the fragility of hegemonic masculine ideals while revealing the material conditions necessary for their maintenance. Furthermore, it explores how racialized capitalism deliberately structures this dispossession differently across lines of race and class, creating what Kimberlé Crenshaw terms "intersectional" experiences of marginalization. This research contributes to conversations in gender studies, urban sociology, and poverty studies by centering the rarely examined relationship between housing instability and masculine identity formation, ultimately arguing that any comprehensive solution to the eviction crisis must address its gendered consequences.

Copyright & License

Copyright © 2026 Authors retain the copyright of this article. This article is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

BibTeX

@article{187555,
        author = {Dr.Anandhi M and Dr.P.Selvi},
        title = {Man of the House: Property, Patriarchy, and Masculine Dispossession in Evicted by Matthew Desmond},
        journal = {International Journal of Innovative Research in Technology},
        year = {2025},
        volume = {12},
        number = {6},
        pages = {5753-5760},
        issn = {2349-6002},
        url = {https://ijirt.org/article?manuscript=187555},
        abstract = {Matthew Desmond's ethnographic study Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City (2016) illuminates the devastating effects of housing instability on America's urban poor, yet its gendered dimensions remain underexplored in scholarly discourse. This article examines how eviction operates as a site of masculine dispossession, systematically undermining working-class men's ability to fulfill traditional provider roles while simultaneously reinforcing patriarchal structures that harm both men and women. Through close analysis of Desmond's male subjects—particularly Scott, Lamar, and Ned—this study applies R.W. Connell's theory of hegemonic masculinity and Michael Kimmel's concept of "aggrieved entitlement" to reveal how eviction destabilizes masculine identity tied to property ownership, economic provision, and domestic authority. The article argues that eviction creates a crisis of working-class masculinity that manifests in three interrelated ways: the collapse of the provider role, the spatial displacement that severs men from domestic authority, and the transformation of masculine agency into what I term "dispossessive performance"—futile attempts to enact traditional masculine prerogatives without the economic foundation to sustain them. By examining eviction through the lens of critical masculinity studies, this analysis demonstrates how housing precarity exposes the fragility of hegemonic masculine ideals while revealing the material conditions necessary for their maintenance. Furthermore, it explores how racialized capitalism deliberately structures this dispossession differently across lines of race and class, creating what Kimberlé Crenshaw terms "intersectional" experiences of marginalization. This research contributes to conversations in gender studies, urban sociology, and poverty studies by centering the rarely examined relationship between housing instability and masculine identity formation, ultimately arguing that any comprehensive solution to the eviction crisis must address its gendered consequences.},
        keywords = {masculinity studies, eviction, housing precarity, hegemonic masculinity, economic identity, intersectionality, urban poverty, patriarchy},
        month = {November},
        }

Cite This Article

M, D., & Dr.P.Selvi, (2025). Man of the House: Property, Patriarchy, and Masculine Dispossession in Evicted by Matthew Desmond. International Journal of Innovative Research in Technology (IJIRT), 12(6), 5753–5760.

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