8 | Men, Masculinities and Vulnerability

October 29
As the late Black feminist scholar bell hooks tells us, in order to end sexist, racist and hetero-normative oppression, we must recognize, name and begin to address male vulnerabilities to gendered violence, “If we cannot heal what we cannot feel, by supporting patriarchal culture that socializes men to deny feelings, we doom them to live in states of emotional numbness. We construct a culture where male pain can have no voice, where male hurt cannot be named or healed.”

The myriad ways men and boys are subject to gender and sexual violence in settings of ongoing conflict is increasingly recognized in international policy circles, albeit the challenges of transforming policy remains.  Through an examination of the silencing of conflict related sexual and gender based against men and boys (Schulz), we consider why this might be so, illuminating the intersections of gender, sexuality, and structural and institutional violence. Your role as policy makers and the lenses applied are entry points to the discussion of how masculinities are recognized or silenced in WPS agenda, and whether the WPS agenda should include masculinities and gender identities in its remit.

Content note:  SV

Readings (confirmed)

    1. Delphine Brun, A failure to address the vulnerability of men and boys, Noreweigan Refugee Council, 2021. (short piece)
    2. Schulz, Philipp. “The “ethical loneliness” of male sexual violence survivors in Northern Uganda: gendered reflections on silencing.” International Feminist Journal of Politics 20.4 (2018): 583-60.
    3. *Optional:  Forgiven, by Karen Jones, on The Moth (5 min podcast)
    4. Myrttinen, Henri, and Philipp Schulz. “Broadening the scope but reasserting male privilege? Potential patriarchal pitfalls of inclusive approaches to gender-based violence.” International Feminist Journal of Politics 25.3 (2023): 393-413.
    5. Laura Fraser, ‘Former soldier with PTSD who killed himself and his family were victims of ‘systemic failures’: witness‘ in CBC online new, 2020  and El Jones, ‘Remember, you are a lady‘ The Halifax examiner, 2017. (two short news articles, CN: racialized and domestic violence.

Presentation | Artist: Suzanne Opton  (Rebecca and Filip)

Further reading

  1. Kreft, Anne-Kathrin, and Mattias Agerberg. “Imperfect victims? Civilian men, vulnerability, and policy preferences.” American Political Science Review 118.1 (2024): 274-290.
  2. Asmawati, A., Duriesmith, D., Ismail, N. H., & Syah, S. F. (2024). Locating violence-resistant masculinities in sites of conflict. Peacebuilding, 1–18.
  3. Uehling, Greta Lynn. “Working through warfare in Ukraine: rethinking militarization in a Ukrainian theme café.” International Feminist Journal of Politics 22.3 (2020): 335-358.
  4. Duriesmith, D. (2019). Engaging or changing men? Understandings of masculinity and change in the new ‘men, peace and security’ agenda. Peacebuilding, 8(4), 418–431. https://doi.org/10.1080/21647259.2019.1687076
  5. Wright, Hannah. ““Masculinities perspectives”: advancing a radical Women, Peace and Security agenda?.” International Feminist Journal of Politics 22.5 (2020): 652-674.
  6. Eichler, Maya. “Militarized masculinities in international relations.” Brown J. World Aff. 21 (2014): 81.
  7. Quest, Hendrik, et al. “Interviews on masculinities in post-conflict contexts as a process of three translations.” Peacebuilding (2024): 1-20.
  8. Naomi Cahn, Fionnuala D. Ní Aoláin, and Dina Francesca Haynes, ‘Gender, Masculinities, and Transition in Conflicted Societies’, New England Law Review 44 (2009): 101–22; Kimberly
  9. Theidon, ‘Reconstructing Masculinities: The Disarmament, Demobilization, and Reintegration of Former Combatants in Colombia’, Human Rights Quarterly 31, no.1 (2009): 1–34.
  10. Brandon Hamber, ‘There Is a Crack in Everything: Problematising Masculinities, Peacebuilding and Transitional Justice’, Human Rights Review 17, no.1 (2016): 9–34.

 

Concepts

Masculinities  Ideas and expectations of what it means to be a man, shape roles, relationships and performances of gender;  intersect with race, class, ability, age, religion, sexuality; Not static; one can perform and embody multiple masculinities;  not confined to cisgendered men and boys; changes over time and place.  There are multiple ways of being an man and performing masculinity that changes in relation to who you interact with and where you are.

Hegemonic masculinity  Refers to the dominant form of masculinity that devalues alternate ways of being a man outside of the norm “… largely precludes alternatives and is buttressed by major forms of social and political power. It is normative in that men are taught they should aspire to and judge themselves by it, and state and society in turn judge and assess them against it”

Military Masculinity Refers to expectations of being a man within military units.  Masculinities inculcated, constructed, and performed in military and military-like institutions. Hyper masculinity is valorized and celebrated; Women and men can perform military masculinity.

Socialization. Processes of military and masculine socialization make certain masculinity acceptable, others not.  Hazing rituals, basic training, ways men treated when act outside military masculinity, feminized and demeaned / degraded / humiliation – veterans who desert, or suffer PTSD (cmon’ “man-up”).  Debates about women in combat, is she strong enough, man enough?

Militarized Masculinities – Masculinities which have been actively militarized, through one’s own volition and/or via outside actors (militias, right wing groups that take up arms to protect, ‘lone wolf’, incels)

Patriarchy   Systems of unequal relationships sustained by particular beliefs and attitudes which, all together, privilege certain forms of masculinity over all forms of femininity.  Ideas women too weak, sensitive, dull, vulnerable to make decisions, be a strong leader, work in a competitive workforce, travel alone.

Thwarted masculinities can be understood as the inability to sustain or properly take up a gendered subject position OR  “to be a real man” (such as head of household, provide and protect for their families), resulting in a crisis, real or imagined, of self-representation and/or social evaluation’

SGBV in wartime  Sexual violence refers to violence against a sexualized part of the body (this is interpreted differently by different social groups) and gender based violence on the basis of one’s gender, or their deviation from an expected gender norm (not being man enough).  Sexual violence can be used to punish a person because of their gender, but gender based violence is not only sexual. Sexual violence in war can be used as a form of power (to demoralized, humiliaty, render vulnerable or inferior), or socialization (when soldiers bond over participation in sexual violence) or opportunity (where they take advantage of the situation and feel entitled to a person’s body for sexual gratification.

Sex Selective Massacres, when men and boys are rounded up because perceived to be the aggressor and thus threat to enemy group and killed on mass, women and girls considered outline this logic – Srebeniza: evaluation, 9,000 men;  Rwanda, disproportionate number of women head of households; Uganda..

Ethical Loneliness:  the experience of being abandoned by humanity, compounded by the cruelty of wrongs not being heard. It is the result of multiple lapses on the part of human beings and political institutions that, in failing to listen well to survivors, deny them redress by negating their testimony and thwarting their claims for justice. (Stauffer 2015, 1)

 or Flim Waltz with Bashir.

Further reading
1. Henry, Marsha. “Problematizing military masculinity, intersectionality and male vulnerability in feminist critical military studies.” Critical Military Studies2 (2017): 182-199.