SW 3703: Gender Violence in Global Perspectives

SW 3703: Gender Violence in Global Perspectives Session 4 / 12 Feb 2008

“I’ll make a MAN out of you”

Session plan • Masculinity: Introduction • Video: I am a man • Masculinity: Discussion (Videos, Group discussions) • Masculinity and violence • Masculinity and media • Women’s issues or gender issues?

Feedback • Average score for last class session: 4.2/5 • Confusion about sex and gender • Definition of VAW/GBV… which one are we following in this class?

As boys go, I wasn’t much. I mean, I tried to be a boy and spent many childhood hours pummeling my hardly formed ego with failure at Cowboys and Indians, baseball, football, lying and sneaking out of the house. When our neighborhood gang raided a neighbor’s pear tree, I was the only one who got sick from the purloined fruit. I also failed at setting fire to our garage, an art at which any five-year old boy should be adept. I was, however, the neighborhood champion of getting beat up. “That Julius can take it, man,” the boys used to say, almost in admiration, after I emerged from another battle, tears brimming in my eyes but refusing to fall. - Julius Lester, 1973 (Being a Boy)

Masculinity Masculinity defines how boys/men should behave, dress, appear; what attitudes and qualities they should have, how they should be treated… Bhasin (2004)

Masculinity • Biological determinism and patriarchy (male violence or men’s violence?) • Are masculinity and femininity biological or social concepts? • Hegemonic masculinity • What does it mean to “be a man”?

Masculinity & violenceTough guise – J. Katz

Masculinity and the media

Women’s issues / Gender issues?Do women’s issues / gender issues matter to men?If yes, how do they matter?Why should/should not they matter?Are these issues global?

For every woman who is tired of acting weak when she knows she is strong, there is a man who is tired of appearing strong when he feels vulnerable. For every woman who is tired of acting dumb, there is a man who is burdened with the constant expectation of "knowing everything." For every woman who is tired of being called "an emotional female," there is a man who is denied the right to weep and to be gentle. For every woman who is called unfeminine when she competes, there is a man for whom competition is the only way to prove his masculinity. For every woman who is tired of being a sex object, there is a man who must worry about his potency. For every woman who feels "tied down" by her children, there is a man who is denied the full pleasures of shared parenthood. For every woman who is denied meaningful employment or equal pay, there is a man who must bear full financial responsibility for another human being. For every woman who was not taught the intricacies of an automobile, there is a man who was not taught the satisfactions of cooking. For every woman who takes a step toward her own liberation, there is a man who finds the way to freedom has been made a little easier. Nancy Smith

SW 3703: Gender Violence in Global Perspectives