Abstract
Prior research shows that the social construction of gender evolves in relation to specific economic and social processes. This paper examines how the practice of DIY (do-it-yourself) making has become a productive frame for a collective of fathers in the U.S. to express masculinity, amidst increasingly precarious economics and shifting norms of gender and labor in the home. Drawing from a qualitative interview study with fathers (n=22) and visual analysis of DIY father blogs (n=29), we examine how DIY fatherhood was produced across the material and discursive practices of blogging. This paper contributes an empirical account of a contemporary phenomenon: the construction and performance of DIY practice as a category of fatherhood identity and domestic masculinity. Further, the paper describes how fathers engage in entrepreneurial thinking as a form of domestic male labor.