A Brief Note On Masculinity And Femininity

However, True doesn’t only focus on the need of advocate for women and their gender identities. She is equally concerned about the traditional notion of masculinity understood as “capacity for reason, control, (and) power” . She clearly states the need of changing “(the) construction of masculinities” which will allow our boys and men to celebrate the new form of masculinity that is nonviolent. This idea has gained momentum in today’s world more than ever. Former President of the United States, Barack Obama states in his open letter that if we want to make our girls stronger and independent then there is a need to provide our boys with space to be vulnerable . There has been effort from many sides to redefine both masculinity and femininity.

The enormous number of examples and case studies provide an excellent insight on VAW from different dimensions and arenas. This book is very important in today’s context when the recent movements like metoo and time’s up have gained momentum across the world. It was not just women, but it was straight men and women, gays and everyone within the spectrum of these two genders coming forward and sharing their stories of being a victim. These movements have not just shown how widespread gender violence is but also helped us recognize the existence of it in all spheres of life and industries. I agree and understand some backlash against metoo as it was thought to be brooding ‘hostile opposing camps’ between the sexes which wasn’t what the powerful movement like metoo stood for. Having said that, some of the backlash against metoo has been as simple as it has been disappointing, as it illustrates one important thing that, society is accustomed to prioritizing reputations, power, and safety of men over women. An example to illustrate that can be Trump’s supporters taking his side by categorizing his derogatory remarks on women as ‘locker-room talks’. It is in this context that True’s feminist political approach seems extremely important as it highlights the very cause of VAW and gender-violence in general. If we want to create a world where no individual either man or woman has to come forward to say the words #metoo again, then we need to move beyond the approach of saving one person at a time, we need to bring substantial changes in our policies, institutions and gender relations as shown by many examples in the book. We need to understand what reinforces the existing gender inequality while implementing policies at the grassroot levels. The collection of gender segregated data by government, NGOs and INGOs is important for that. So is the