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Exploring masculinities

Gender issues at this seminar are all about men. Crossing the huge divide that has traditionally separated the sexes to look at the other side, masculinity is the focus of this two-day seminar in Delhi University that began on Tuesday.

The seminar, "Exploring Masculinities", organised by Aakar, a media trust, will travel across ten universities in South Asia. Bringing together academics from different parts of the world, the seminar is being attended by participants from the United States, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

"The seminar looks at two sorts of areas. It examines the relationship between men and women. But it also looks at men and men. Gender studies are not only women vis-à-vis men, but also men vis-à-vis men. Under relationship, it looks at issues of hierarchy, power and even violence," says Radhika Chopra of Delhi University's Department of Sociology.

And looking at violence from the way families "subverted" the whole role of men by sending their boys away during the militancy in Punjab, Dr. Chopra will be reading her paper on "Sent Away Boys" on Wednesday. Another paper that explores the theme of violence with communalism is "Togethering Contra Othering: Male Hindu-Muslim Inter-Relations In Proletarian Delhi" by Shankar Ramaswamy from the University of Chicago.

Going beyond just examining violence, the seminar will have a paper on Muslim national poetry and the idea of masculinity in its imagery. Apart from discussing papers, it will also screen documentary filmmaker Rahul Roy's "The City Beautiful".

— Mandira Nayar

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