Concept Of Masculinity

Understanding Masculinity

‘Man up’ or ‘be a man’ are two phrases that every man hears interchangeably throughout his journey from boyhood to manhood. Apparently there is an arbitrary universal man who personifies masculinity of the highest order and every man is supposed to be his extension. Closer a man is to this figure more masculine he is. What is masculinity and how does it determine social structures and behavioural patterns of men?

The concept of masculinity is smoke-screened with ambiguous cultural definitions. There is no consensual definition of masculinity. Studies that emerged from late 1970s see it as a constantly evolving phenomenon which is predominantly characterised

However, there is no explanation of what makes a man or rather how puppy dog tails turn into big dog tails. Such is ambiguity and complexity when it comes to understand the relationship between masculinity and identity. Sociologists like Kimmel and Messner in their studies over understanding masculinity have highlighted the inefficacy and inadequacy of gender role theories in recognizing and determining male power and dominance.

Sigmund Freud in attempt to analyse factors determining the development of ‘manufactured masculinity’ produced the idea of continuity between the normal and neurotic mental life. This idea states that development of masculinity was constructed through long and conflict-ridden process. According to Freud a lot also depends on the early relationships of the boy with his parents. The vicissitudes of these relationships play significant role in development of ‘manufactured masculinity’.

Theories of post-structuralism, particularly by Michael Foucault, which were directed towards exploring dynamics of masculinity, linked the social action and power relations with the identity processes. However some of these theories had limited vision as they projected deterministic power relations ideologies and portrayed it as unchanging structure. Socially dominant forms of being a male (masculinities) can be seen to provide an acceptable means by which boys and men may express their gender and thus their sense

Young men in India grow in male dominated society where there is negligible to no interaction with the opposite sex. Men in India grow in an environment where they enjoy privileges limited to men, such as opportunity, power, autonomy and mobility while girls have to endure restrictions of their parents society from the time they join school to the time they get married and even beyond. In Indian families Sons are brought up to both perpetuate and condone gender hierarchies and are nurtured with a sense of entitlement. Such social construct becomes a breeding house for misdirected masculinities characterised by male dominance, objectification of women and aggressive behavioural