Paper short abstract:

The paper examines ways in which socio-economically marginalised males in urban Timor-Leste coped with the political crisis of 2006-2008 as well as profound social and economic changes of the post-conflict era through their involvement in gangs, martial arts groups and ritual arts groups.

Paper long abstract:

As the violent political crisis of 2006 unfolded in the streets of Dili, Timor-Leste, gangs, martial arts groups and ritual arts groups soon took centre stage and played a key role in perpetuating the violence. For many of the young men involved, the groups were a vehicle to address their political and economic grievances in the post-conflict era. Based on my field research, I argue however that membership in the groups also serves to address other social issues as well. The masculine identities formed within and through the membership in these groups allow the young men to re-negotiate their position in the gendered hierarchies of Timor-Leste society. The identities created reflect the legacies of East Timorese tradition, Portuguese colonialism, Indonesian occupation and UN intervention but also of the impacts of the resistance struggle, urbanisation and globalisation.

The resultant hybrid identities combine social imaginings of the local and traditional as well as of the global and modern, allowing the young men to find expressions for their masculinities in a world where they are not able or willing to subscribe to traditional East Timorese expressions of masculinities nor able to access other hegemonic imaginings of masculinities, such as that of the modern, urban, white-collar professional or of the heroic resistance warrior from the independence struggle.

Paper short abstract:

This paper is based on PhD research among lower class men, who had perpetrated domestic violence. It shows the conflicts they experience between their own realities in which violence has become normalized, and the legislation that demands non-violence within the domestic sphere.

Paper long abstract:

This research shows how experiences of everyday violence create a process of normalization of violence. Normalization enables both the endurance of violence, as its reproduction. Violence has become a normal way of expressing anger and domination both in the domestic realm and outside of it. The violence committed against partners should not be seen in isolation of other forms of violence. This context in which violence is reproduced has become obscured by a discourse of 'machismo' that legitimizes male violence. Little attention is given to the processes behind this identity construction. Coping with everyday violence leads to the adherence of a dominant performance of masculinity, which is both cause and consequence of everyday violence.

Legislators, (non) governmental organizations, and popular media in the state of Quintana Roo, Mexico give increasing attention to domestic and sexual violence. The public is being informed about the unacceptability of such violence. Most attention goes out to women, and although the perpetrators of violence - men- can receive free psychological treatment, most attention they receive is repressive. Few efforts are undertaken to explore what meaning violence against women represents to them. Violence is considered to be generated by unequal gender relations and a 'macho', performance of masculinity. Women know they no longer have to accept the violent enforcement of male dominance, and they increasingly report domestic and sexual violence. The outside interference in male authority leaves men wondering how to 'do' masculinity without being able to enforce their dominant position within the household.

Paper short abstract:

This talk will discuss constructions of uncertain masculinities among male Hamas youths in the West Bank in a complex interplay of violence, political Islam, suffering and loss. It will highlight the importance of analyzing the body in such processes - both as agential and as victimized.

Paper long abstract:

In this talk, Dr. Malmström will discuss constructions of gender, embodiment and agency among male Hamas youths in the West Bank through the prism of violence. She will highlight the importance of analyzing the body in such processes - both as agential and as victimized. To be able to move away from the sensationalist Western media that often portray Middle Eastern Muslim men as 'violent', and as terrorists, we need to understand the motivations and the meanings of violence. This talk will discuss constructions of uncertain masculinities in a complex interplay of violence, political Islam, suffering and loss. The method of analysis is to use a discourse-centered approach and to use experience-near ethnography that begins with men's own practices and attends to how they understand themselves, how their bodies are involved, and how they live out norms and ideologies in their everyday lives. Thereby we are able to understand how men's realities and identities are interpreted, negotiated and constructed and how the body actively is involved in these processes. This approach is relevant since it is possible to analyze the singularity of experience, not only as a form of social interaction, but as linked to social structures and discourses, which implies negotiations of tensions, conflicts, and uncertainties.

Paper short abstract:

Based on Aslam’s book Gender based explosions: the nexus between Muslim masculinities, jihadist Islamism, and terrorism (forthcoming Feb/Mar 2012., UNU Press), the paper critically examines the crisis in Muslim masculinities in the age of terrorism-counter terrorism and Global Jihadist Movement (GJM).

Paper long abstract:

First colonized and now living under political oppression, experiencing peripatetic marginalization, feeling dejected, intimidated and humiliated, many Muslim men (in and outside Muslim countries) have no opportunities to prove themselves as "honourable" and/or practice "masculinity" in culturally prescribed ways. Troubled and troublesome, many Muslim men use militant jihadist networks as outlets to achieve self-actualization and heroism. Terrorist networks, acting as surrogates to national liberation and anti authoritarian/occupation movements, complicate these dynamics further. A crisis in Muslim masculinities becomes all the more evident when a gender lens is applied to study counter terrorism measures that are currently in place. While drawing upon theoretical contributions of Judith Butler and R W Connell, and an empirical investigation of Pakistani masculinities, Maleeha Aslam, the author of Gender based explosions: the nexus between Muslim masculinities, jihadist Islamism, and terrorism (- forthcoming Feb/Mar 2012., UNU Press: New York/Tokyo ), examines such issues in detail and documents voices of Muslim men. The author/presenter recommends, "gender" as that fundamental ground on which issues of regressive radicalism, literalism, militancy and terrorism will ultimately be effectively tackled.

Paper short abstract:

In Pentecostal churches attended by converts of African or Latin-American origin in Brussels, interrogations about how to be a “good man of God” are frequent. These interrogations are shaped by the migratory experience lived by the large majority of followers and the religious guidance delivered by churches to help them cope with their new gender context.

Paper long abstract:

Pentecostal men in Brussels are, for the large majority, also migrants. This transnational event - the migration - is understood here as a kind of personal crisis provoked by a more or less radical changes of cultural and territorial references. In most cases, the geographical shift men face calls their way "to be a man" into question. According to several testimonials, their capacity in the role of breadwinner is undermined by women's privilege in the European economical order. In this uncomfortable position, where they experience a kind of vulnerability, religious speech provides assurance and self-esteem by affirming men as head of their religious space and chief of their household unit. Close to a model of hegemonic masculinity in the sexual division of domestic tasks, in the recognition of formal authority to men, or in an exclusive focus on young women as the purity "capital" of churches, the Pentecostal masculinity also reveals significant ruptures with the patriarchal model of masculinity. Religious discourse regularly value domestic implication, sensibilities and softness, which are encouraged as valorised masculine characteristics. Interlocutors speak about "being a gallant men" or "having a [good] heart" to legitimate the supportive way they act in their household, a lexical field that opens the debate about this type of alternative masculinity. By illustrating this paradoxical shift of definition of the man's self (by testimonies, predication, interaction, debates or conflicts), we will see how Pentecostal affiliation opens up possibilities for men to cope with the numerous gender changes provoked by their migratory experience.

Paper short abstract:

Displacement following the Somali civil war has caused changes in Somali gender and family relations, often described as more difficult for the men. The paper explores negotiations of respectable and ‘failed’ masculinities, focusing on encounters with the welfare state and community involvement.

Paper long abstract:

Following years of civil war, many Somalis are displaced in Western countries as refugees or family re-unified persons. This situation has caused multiple losses of social position and upheavals in gender relations. Although both men and women are subject to these changes, Somalis describe the situations of men as more difficult. Taking departure in multi-sited fieldwork in Copenhagen, Somaliland and London, this paper explores how Somalis negotiate respectable masculinity in the Diaspora, arguing that men's difficulties are articulated as a transfer of male authority to the welfare state, reflecting female empowerment and male misrecognition. However, the focus on men's loss can also be understood as processes of positioning and of re-instituting a 'traditional' gender baseline in which the positions of respectable versus failed masculinity are established. Finally, the paper argues that Somali men negotiate and enact respectable masculinity through associational and community involvement, creating alternative social spaces of recognition.

Paper short abstract:

Chinese migrants lives’ in Tokyo are transient and heavily network dependent, despite often opening up “Chinatown” like spaces that are common sites men spend time carousing. Based on fieldwork in Ikebukuro, I will show how masculine performances take on new meanings in transient migrant lives.

Paper long abstract:

Strong masculine friendships are a significant part of Chinese sociality. In the migrant context this takes on even greater meaning as other forms of institutionalised togetherness are eroded. Chinese migrants lives' in Tokyo are transient and heavily network dependent, despite being the largest group of non-nationals and often opening up "Chinatown" like spaces. Ikebukuro, one such space, is a common site for Chinese men to spend time consuming Chinese products and carousing at night. Based on over 18 months fieldwork in Ikebukuro, I will show how masculine friendships and performances take on new meanings in highly transient migrant lives. Rather than long lasting friendship, or "community," Chinese men in Ikebukuro seek ecstatic moments of conviviality in the pool halls, Chinese restaurants and karaoke bars of this space. Whilst this is not markedly different from masculine sociality in other parts of the Chinese speaking world, interviews with these men in private elicit a sense of change in this mode of friendship. Seen as fleeting and temporary, these networks are described as a quick fix for the loneliness found in migrant life. At the same time, it still depends on the rhetoric of "xiongdi" (brotherhood/mateship) to provide a satisfying affect. This shows the paradoxical need to cite older gendered ways of performing "togetherness" despite the perceived changes occurring in this form of sociality.

Paper short abstract:

Sexual and love relationships with tourist women lead Cuban men to enact contradictory models of masculinity. A situated understanding of the affective, moral and pragmatic concerns informing such enactments sheds light on the transformations of masculinities that tourism engenders.

Paper long abstract:

Experiences of sexual and love relationships with tourist women lead Cuban men to articulate and act upon different - often contradictory - models of masculinity. When gossiping among peers, for instance, it is common to brag about one's sexual conquests and 'macho' exploits with tourist women. In contrast to this, when interacting with foreigners the tendency is to insist on the allegiance to a romantic lover ideal. Intimate experiences with tourist partners also lead to reassess, by way of comparison, relationships with Cuban women, in which the men's wealth is portrayed as the key for accessing (just) sex. These contradictory enactments of masculinity generate mistrust, suspicion, and accusations of deception, leading tourists and Cubans alike to question the morality and truthfulness of each other's engagement. In counterpoint to such reductive readings, which tend to reify gender relationships, the approach adopted here advocates a more situated and multilayered understanding of Cuban men's affective, moral, and pragmatic concerns as they move in and out of the world of tourism. When seen in this light, important dimensions of their paradoxical enactments of masculinities can be highlighted and explained. What emerges is that in struggling to respond to competing demands and aspirations, Cuban men's purposeful alignments as 'breadwinners', 'sex machines', and 'romantic lovers' afford different relational possibilities and expressions of masculinity. By taking seriously these possibilities, the paper illuminates the transformations of masculinities that tourism engenders, assessing its potential to amplify and subvert (stereo)-typical configurations of 'being a men' in present day Cuba.

Paper short abstract:

In this paper I consider how gendered, sexualized and racialized gazes affect heterosexual Brazilian men’s styles of masculinities in transnational scenarios undergoing rapid transformation. I take as reference the experiences of men engaged in intensely erotized relationships with European women, formed in touristic towns in the Northeast of Brazil and in migratory contexts in Spanish cities.

Paper long abstract:

Brazil, like other Latin American and Caribbean countries with a colonial past marked by slavery, has been the object of gendered, sexualized and racialized gazes, updated in the new global order. In this paper, based on multi-sited ethnography carried out over 36 months, I consider how these views affect heterosexual Brazilian men's styles of masculinities in transnational scenarios undergoing rapid transformation. I take as reference the experiences of men engaged in erotized relationships with European women, formed in touristic towns in the Northeast of Brazil and in migratory contexts in Spain. Young men perceived as embodying (black) "Brazilian masculinity", mainly connected to music and to bodily performances, attract European women´s attentions. While these relationships are appreciated by Brazilian men as means of obtaining an array of material and symbolic benefits, including marriage, they also threaten their sense of masculinity. In the frame of the tensions provoked by shifting power balances that, in diverse aspects, favor the women, these relationships turn into an arena where masculinities are re-configured either by intensifying masculine dominance and violence or by enacting an alternative style of masculinity, supposedly more "European", that albeit hypersexualized, is connected to domesticity and child-rearing and performed by men who have no stable jobs and earn much less than their European wives. Analyzing these reformulations, I argue that they are constrained by the intersections between gender and a racialized ethnicity, that affect these men's possibilities of incorporating new defining elements of masculinity.

Paper short abstract:

This paper examines changes in the notions of desirability in Cuban gender relations in the post-Soviet period, focusing on the emerging role that wealth is playing in relation to men’s attractiveness in particular. Of special interest are the ways in which men draw on distinct notions of masculinity as a way to cope with women’s growing demands.

Paper long abstract:

In post-Soviet Havana, wealth has emerged as a new factor in terms of which women assess a man's desirability as a potential partner. Women expect men to provide material support, court them via costly outings and sport expensive outfits as a testimony of their material resources. Such changes in Cuban gender relations relate endemically to the larger transformations in Cuba's political and economic context in the post-Soviet period. The fall of the Eastern European and Soviet state socialisms seriously diminished the Cuban state's ability to provide social services to its population. Both the remittances generated via transnational kin ties, as well as the recent liberalistic changes in Cuba's labor politics have intensified the disparities of wealth that were less poignant in the Soviet period. Moreover, Cuba's dependence on tourism as a source of national income has brought about changes to the possibilities for social mobility available for Cubans via the promises of migration and affluence that relationships embraced with foreigners can offer. While these factors bring changes to the lives of all Cubans, this paper focuses on the gendered consequences of such large-scale transformations, experienced by Cubans as the increasing intertwining of wealth and desirability, especially when it comes to men's attractiveness. In trying to cope with such increasing demands from women, men draw on local notions of masculinity that include elements both of machismo as well as responsible manhood; thereby at times complying and at times resisting women's expectations on them.

Paper short abstract:

Drawing on my 24-month ethnographic research of karaoke bar hostesses and male clients in the Chinese urban sex industry, this paper seeks to fill this lacuna and enlighten the kind of entrepreneurial masculinity prevalent in the globalizing era of China through an ethnographic and historical analysis. Through tracing the historic evolution of masculinity in China from literati to entrepreneurial masculinity, I argue that the entrepreneurial masculinity in postsocialist China resurrects and reclaims masculine power to overcome the emasculated and castrated masculinity during the Communist era, and goes hand in and hand with female subjugation and male’s political resistance of the state.

Paper long abstract:

Drawing on my 24-month ethnographic research of karaoke bar hostesses and male clients in the Chinese urban sex industry, this paper seeks to fill this lacuna and enlighten the kind of entrepreneurial masculinity prevalent in the globalizing era of China through an ethnographic and historical analysis. Through tracing the historic evolution of masculinity in China from literati to entrepreneurial masculinity, I argue that the entrepreneurial masculinity in postsocialist China resurrects and reclaims masculine power to overcome the emasculated and castrated masculinity during the Communist era, and goes hand in and hand with female subjugation and male's political resistance of the state.