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Masculinities, Social Exclusion and Prospects for Change: Reflections from Promundo’s Work in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Abstract
The contribution of Gary Barker, Marcos Nascimento, Christine Ricardo, Marianna Olinger and Marcio
Segundo on the work of Instituto Promundo, an NGO addressing precisely this interface between policy and practice in its work in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The starting point for Promundo’s work has been the six million men ‘missing’ from the Brazilian population mostly as a result of death in traffic accidents and homicide, the vast majority of the latter being gun-related and mostly occurring in low-income, urban areas in Brazil. Barker and colleagues describe their efforts to amplify the voices of resistance from young men who were challenging these norms of violent masculinity and embracing gender-equitable ways of being a man. Recognizing the challenge of broadening beyond individual-level change to challenging the community
conditions that fuel men’s violence, Promundo is working to stimulate and sustain community activism, in part by allying with youth-led social justice work and linking this with policy analysis and advocacy in relevant social, public health and public security policies. Barker and colleagues conclude that work with men on masculinities and violence is about developing a ‘gender literacy’ not only among individuals at the community level, but also among a cohort of partner civil society organizations and policy makers who
understand that gender justice and social justice are indissolubly linked.
... Spiller (2010) reports the Sundanese perception of 'misbehaving men' as 'cute' squirrels (p. 34, unlike their common American representation as 'rats'; see also Lentz 2017; or Hall 2011, on 'naughty boy' expectations for men in Jamaica; Barker et al. 2011, similarly for men in Brazil). ...
... The authors also describe hypersexuality similar to what Local women attribute to loggers. 40 Barker et al. (2011 ) report men's awareness of this attraction: ...
... One of the most inspiring examples is that of the Brazilian NGO Promundo, whose Program H works in low-income communities in Rio to engage young men in developing alternative non-violent, non-abusive models of masculinity. 22 Equally inspiring is the work of South African NGO SONKE, which mobilizes men to contest models of masculinity that condone the abuse of women and that has fostered a plurality of engagements from grassroots organizing to national media campaigns. 23 These initiatives are underpinned by the recognition of the costs of conventional models of manhood for everyone-men as well as women. ...
Emma Watson’s speech at the United Nations in September 2014 captured a rising wave of recognition that gender inequality can no longer be regarded as a women’s issue. Watson’s call for men’s engagement in ending gender inequality echoed core tenets of the gender agenda in development: gender is about the socially constituted relations between women and men, and addressing discrimination against women means addressing men’s enjoyment of privilege, as well as creating a more equitable basis for social relations. In this article, I analyze the emergence of current agendas of women and girls’ empowerment and of what has come to be called engaging men and boys in the field of international development. I examine some of the contours of this field and explore feminist critiques and reservations. I end by looking at what might be gained in freeing ourselves of the strictures of a binary understanding of gender and finding common cause in creating a world that is more just, fair, and equal for us all.
... One possibility -the central argument of this paper -is that people are only receptive to abstract messages of gender equality when they have first-hand disconfirming evidence of gender stereotypes (through exposure to flexibility in gender divisions of labour). Such synergies are also recorded by research in Brazil and Uganda (Barker et al., 2011;Underwood et al., 2011). Without first-hand evidence, abstract egalitarian messages may be unpersuasive. ...
... It has often been noted that work on masculinities can inadvertently naturalise gender binaries by associating 'masculinities' exclusively with 'men', thus reinforcing patriarchal norms. There is also a danger, pointed out by Barker et al. (2011), of creating false dichotomies between, say, violent and non-violent men, and thus failing to recognise the complexity of positions that people may take up. ...
This article discusses how male Angolan war veterans navigated the sudden shift from the rigours of military discipline to life in a civilian society they no longer recognised, where money had become a dominant social value. Based on a year of participant observation and interviews with war veterans in the city of Huambo, it traces their life histories and their post-war struggles to develop the necessary creativity and initiative to make a profit in a disordered, war-torn economy, where masculine status and authority had come to depend crucially on monetary income. I analyse their reaction to the crumbling of the relative certainties of the patriarchal orders of both pre-war society and military life, and the associated anxieties around living up to a senior masculine archetype of the wise, authoritative provider whilst attempting to ensure that their wives’ behaviour conformed to the family model that accompanies this archetype.
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