Alternative Masculinities in South Asia

  • Ranjan Poudyal
Volume 31 Number 2
Published: May 1, 2000
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1759-5436.2000.mp31002010.x
Summaries Masculinity and its impact on gender relations and the institutionalisation of power exercised by men have been critically commented upon on by activists and academics working on issues related to gender relations. The failure of the early ‘developmentalist’ approach to population control programmes, the increase in violence against women, and the HIV/AIDS pandemic has pushed to the fore, amongst others issue, the question of male sexuality and male culture. The Save the Children (UK) South and Central Asia Regional Office and UNICEF Regional Office for South Asia is proposing to make a series of films on masculinities, which deconstructs and reconstructs patriarchy within South Asia. The film‐making project involves the production of films on masculinities by male film‐makers from India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan, within their own countries. This film‐making project, is intended to increase and extend the impact of SCF's and UNICEF's country programmes in tackling the problems of increasing violence against girls. The intent is to try and explore the broad patterns of masculinities without ignoring the particularities of each category of men (in terms of class, caste, sexual preference, etc.). The way men negotiate between duties and dreams, dominance and love, anxiety and pleasure, power and insecurity are the kernels around which the stories are to be constructed.
From Issue: Vol. 31 No. 2 (2000) | Men, Masculinities and Development: Politics, Policies and Practice