This is the abstract presentation of Sagar Sachdeva, which was made as part of the 13th session of 10th Asia Pacific Conference on Reproductive and Sexual Health and Rights (#APCRSHR10 Virtual), on the theme of "Sexual and other forms of gender-based violence & SRHR in Asia and the Pacific".
Chair: Prof Thein Thein Htay, former Deputy Health Minister, Myanmar; and honorary Professor, University of Public Health, Myanmar and University of Oslo, Norway; and visiting Professor, SEISA University, Yokohama, Japan
Plenary Speaker: Sujata Tuladhar, Technical Specialist, Gender-based Violence, UNFPA Asia-Pacific | "Promising practices in addressing gender-based violence during COVID-19"
Abstract presenters
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* Sovananry Tuot | Gender-based violence experiences and sexual and reproductive health among female entertainment workers in Cambodia: a cross-sectional study
* Melania Hidayat | Rapid Assessment of the Gender-Based Violence During the Emergency Situation in Palu, Sigi and Donggala - Central Sulawesi
* Sagar Sachdeva | Re-Evaluating Masculinities for SRH and GBV Programming
* Ajay Kumar Singh | Does asserting Sexual and Reproductive Rights Prevents Married Women from Marital Rape: An Exploratory Study from India
Voice from the frontline: Prameswari Puspa Dewi, National Coordinator, KITASAMA (Koalisi Indonesia untuk Seksualitas dan Keberagaman/Indonesia Coalition for Sexuality and Diversity)
For more information on the session, please visit
www.bit.ly/apcrshr10virtual13
Official conference website: www.apcrshr10cambodia.org
Thanks
2. Research Question and Objectives
How are masculinities constituted and expressed by young college-going
men in urban Uttar Pradesh?
ā¢ To explore the intersections between gender, sexuality, caste, class
and religion in discussions on masculinities
ā¢ To probe the impact of social media (especially apps such as Facebook
and Whatsapp) on masculinities
ā¢ To explore the value of relationships such as friendships, love, marriage
and infidelity for men
ā¢ To probe menās perceptions around consent, sexual health,
contraception and violence
3. Research Design
ā¢ 3 locations ā Lucknow, Benaras and Aligarh
ā¢ Purposive Snowball Sampling ā over 80 young men (18-26 years)
ā¢ Diverse sample ā college-going men, working class men, men from
multiple castes and religions, men from LGBTQIA+ community
ā¢ Tools ā FGDs, IDIs and life history mapping
5. Theme 1: Intersectionalities
Gender Norms
āCourage, fortuitous,
physical strength, ability
to stand up against
anyone alone
āāfair skin vs. dark skinā
āSocialization of
competition among men
āMultiple, sometimes
contrasting behavioural
codes
āSense of alienation and
loss of selfhood among
young men
Caste
ā āThakur boys donāt walk like
this! Thakur men must eat a
lot.ā
ā Caste-based hierarchies
become more glaring in
schools and university
spaces
ā Challenges to lower caste
masculinities and limits to
upper caste masculinities in
the everyday
Masculine Spaces
āHousehold interpreted
as a āfeminine spaceā
āDifference in
masculinities and
femininities within the
household
āSocialization and
policing of masculinities
at the house, school
āContested masculinities
in universities; conflicts
and masculine violence
6. Theme 1: Intersectionalities
Religion and Nationalism
āThreats to the nation ā Muslim masculinities
āI donāt say that every Muslim is a terrorist, but
every terrorist is a Muslimā¦ā
āthere were bricks thrown at our house, bottles
of liquor were thrown at our house, and they
wrote āPakistan Murdabadā on our wallsā¦ā
āAssertion of Muslim identity ā Sense of
competition among men from different groups
āmasculinity is about being brave but in Hindu
religion it about beating up women and other
thingsā¦. but in our religion such things are
strictly bannedā¦.ā
Sexual Identity
āStrictly heteronormative socialization and
masculine hegemonies
ā..when I revealed my sexuality, that Iām bi,
since then they say that Iām becoming a hijra
(eunuch).ā
āVirility in the case of gay men becomes a
negative ideal
āā¦people think that if someone is gay, then he
must very sexually active. That is not
necessarily true. Even straight people are
sexually active. But with gays, sex is really
associated with being gayā¦ā
āNon-heteronormative sexual expressions
normalized as āspecial friendshipsā
7. Theme 2: Relationships
Friendships
āAgency in choosing friends
āāthings that cannot be shared
with your family, can be shared
with your friendsā
āHomosociality, solidarities and
care networks among men
āāFriends will give you money
and bike to take your girlfriend
outā¦ you can ask your friends
for even a cigarette when you
donāt have money but not your
girlfriendā¦ā
Romantic Relations
ā From time pass to time
waste: stress in
developing relations with
girls, ātaking your
girlfriend outā, depression
and betrayal
ā Looking for male care
seekers and developing
ābromancesā
Marriage
āāYou can have girlfriends,
but donāt get married!ā
āChoice in marriage;
pressures and threat of
excommunication
āDecision to marry contingent
on employment status,
number of siblings (especially
female), age of household
elders
āImage of āwifeā and
āgirlfriendā
8. Theme 3: Sexualities
Sexual Practices
ā Initiation by older brother
(cousins in joint families);
seniors in schools
ā Visual Pornography; ragda;
saral salil
ā Sexual economies in the
neighbourhood ā āCD/mobile
shop ke bhaiyaā
ā Virility ā discussing positions,
pleasure and āmastiā; multiple
sexual relations
ā Threats - āif you donāt satisfy
your girl she will also ask what
kind of a man are you?ā
ā Non-heteronormativity
Safe Sex
ā Safety = not getting caught
and nobody finding out;
getting a safe place
ā Condoms emerged as the
primary modes of
contraception; limited
knowledge of others
ā āItās easier to buy when a
younger guy is at the
counterā¦ we go to medical
shops away from our
neighbourhoodā¦ā
Violence and Consent
āRejection and loss of
masculinities ā How do men
understand NO
āWho is the girl saying āNoā? ā
intersectionalities, hierarchies and
entitlements
āViolence as a
manifestation/reaction to threats
āāWhen hands move away from
the chest to your back, it means
she is indicating her consent and
pleasureā
āConsent understood as important
to ensure pleasure; understanding
consent in marriages
9. Theme 4: Media and Masculinities
Image-Building
ā āBeing tech-savvyā
ā āSwagā in profile pictures; āchocolate
boysā; caste-driven online selves
ā Non-heteronormative and āmetrosexualityā
ā āGetting what one cannot get in real lifeā
ā āMen mostly put pictures with bikes/cars,
or of some travel locations to show that
yes, even we can do all thisā¦ women are
more obsessed with their physical beautyā
ā Rajput, Jatt and Gujjar dominance ā
āsherā; āmardā; āasli swagā
Uses and Activities
ā Men reported getting personal phones
around 16-19 years of age; usage includes
communication, payments, bookings, etc.
ā Facebook, Whatsapp, Instagram,
Snapchat, TikTok, Musically, Saavn and
gaming apps such as PubG emerged as
major apps used by men
ā All-male groups; anonymity and privacy
determine the nature of content (for e.g.
amateur porn to blackmail videos)
10. Theme 5: Violence and Masculinities
Violence in Public Spaces
āāShowcasing your strengthā,
āAggressivenessā socialized as ideals
since pre-puberty
āViolence as āclash of male egosā ā
protecting your entitlements ā menās
experience of violence
āWhen someone doesn't agree with us or
doesn't do what we say then we get violent
with themā¦ā
āDealing with Rejection
āā¦there are so many boys who propose
girls and if they reject them they are
attacked by acid we keep reading this in
newspaper quite often because they cannot
accept rejection so they either try to kill
them or they try to spoil their face by acidā¦ā
Intimate-Partner Violence/ Marital
Violence
āViolence in domestic spaces from a sense
of entitlement to ābeing violentā -
socialized through norms around gender,
age, caste, religion
āmen should not hit women and they
generally don't. They only hit their wivesā¦ā
12. Perpetrators vs.
Partners - Who is the
āideal manā?
There have been little efforts to understand menās realities,
the constitution of masculinities and how they affect
people of all genders. We want to transform masculinities
without understanding them! How do we make āideal
menā?
Recommendations
ā¢ Programming to engage masculinities dynamically
ā¢ Undertaking a transformative approach to gender
which necessitates engaging all stakeholders
(including men and boys)
ā¢ More research, more innovative and intersectional
programmes!
13. Where the Boys Are:
Investigating
Intersectionalities
Interventions routinely address masculinities through the
lenses of gender, sexuality and sexual practices.
Recommendations
ā¢ Understanding the centrality of caste, religion,
employment, migration, urbanisation, etc.
ā¢ Caste, for instance, influences perceptions around
āideal bodiesā, āideal personalitiesā, āideal partnerā,
āideal peer groupsā, āideal safe spacesā, and much
more!
14. Higher Attrition Rates
and Lower
Participation Rates
ā Men can seldom associate to the conversations we
have inside curriculum spaces as their stories are not
integrated - except as perpetrators or changemakers.
ā Conversations are more often than not about male
privilege, which is important, but not sufficient.
Recommendations
ā¢ Being intersectional means that you have to hold both
privileges and vulnerabilities in a single conversation
ā¢ Identifying safe spaces we want to create for men to
share and reflect ā how would these look like if we
wish to make these inclusive and open?
15. āTeachingā Consent vs.
Addressing
Masculinities:
competition and
rejection?Concepts such as dhoka routinely come up in our
conversations with men and despite this, few interventions
talk to men about dealing with rejection
Consent is conveyed as a universal concept, without taking
into account menās differential valuation of the same
Recommendations
Sessions should integrate the idea of consent with
masculinities, competition and the impact of rejection on
menās sense of self.
Itās important to have conversations around dealing with
rejection.
16. Evaluating
methodologies of
working with Men and
Boysā Lack of comprehensive evaluation frameworks and
efficient indicators to measure work with boys and men
ā Lack of integration of gender transformative approach in
our evaluation systems
Recommendations
ā¢ Developing robust and contextualized monitoring indicators
through in-depth research and innovation
ā¢ Indicators that capture menās agency and negotiating
power with patriarchy
ā¢ Not tying monitoring indicators with programmatic
outcomes simply but rather developing indicators that
capture trajectories of change
17. Taking the research furtherā¦
Programming during a Pandemic: Impact
of COVID-19 on Men and Masculinities
18. Study Background
ā COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdown in India had caused intensive disruption in
development work happening across the country
ā Increased gender based violence (GBV) and gender based discrimination, including restrictions on
young womenās freedom and mobility, reduced access to sexual and reproductive health and rights
(SRHR), livelihood, and education
ā Increasing need to conduct evidence based research aimed at capturing the impact of COVID-19 and
the lockdown on young men and boys and their perception of masculinities
19. Research Objectives
1. To document the impact of COVID-19 and the lockdown in the lives of young men and
boys engaged as participants in developmental work and programmes
2. To document the impact of COVID-19 and the lockdown on developmental work and
programmes with young men and boys on issues related to gender, sexuality,
migration, employment, nutrition, health, sanitation and education.
3. To prepare a set of recommendations to enable effective intervention designs which
are cognisant of the multiple and interconnected realities of young men and boys.
20. Research Design ā Target Group
Target Group
Organizations working with young men and boys on issues of gender,
sexuality, livelihoods, migration, education, health.
Location: Uttar Pradesh, India
Methodology: In-depth Interviews with members of organizations