'Rejoicing in Hardness': Constructions of Masculinity in Ancient Egypt

After a period when historians avoided discussions of gender and sexuality, it has become an obsessively popular topic (as noted by Terry Eagleton). Much discussion about various issues has centred on women in Ancient Egypt, as if implying that the status of masculinity was a given. Where masculintity has been discussed, it has often been in subaltern context, as in the controversial readings of the tomb of Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep, and such examples can reveal the risks of projecting modern stereotypes onto ancient data. I will suggest how further consideration can also allow us to consider more widely how masculinity was constructed in terms of visual arts and literary works in, for example,  the Middle Kingdom.