`Blokes Don't Like That Sort of Thing'

Abstract

Research has demonstrated that gender is a barrier to men's participation in self-help groups. In this article I analyse how four men and seven women negotiate their identities as members of cancer self-help groups. Their accounts were transcribed and analysed using a synthetic approach to discursive psychology. Women's accounts were organized around the notion of receiving help whereas men appeared to resist this type of identity. I explore how men attended to the presentation of a masculine identity and focus on how men negotiated 'legitimately masculine' reasons to be engaged in self-help groups.