Masculinity and the Body Languages of Catholicism

What are the body languages Catholics use to express masculine devotion? In this interview with Prof. Alyssa Maldonado-Estrada about her recent book, Lifeblood of the Parish, the subject is Brooklyn, New York and its Italian Catholic parish of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. Yearly the community celebrates San Paolino di Nola with a festival that culminates with the carrying of the giglio — a seventy-foot (21m) tall, four-ton tower. In her analysis, masculinity, devotion, and even Catholicism itself are made through labor and the process of “doing the work” from counting money to painting statues, getting tattoos, or lifting the giglio. By refocusing our attention on the embodied labor of masculinization and devotion, Prof. Maldonado-Estrada challenges what kinds of discourses and practices are most revealing for discussions of gender and piety. Need a preview? Try this!