ANT350

GENDER AND SOCIETY

ASSIGNMENT #2

Prepared for
Dr. Seuty Sabur
ANT350: Gender and Society
Department of Economics and Social Sciences
BRAC University
Fall, 2017

Prepared by
Name ID
Kuntola Sharmin 13205005

ANT350
Sention:1
Date: 5 November 2017

1
 Masculinity & hegemonic Masculinity
Rumana Manzur, faculty of Dhaka University and a foreign student of University of British
Colombia, was married to Sayeed Hasan and is mother of a daughter. During her visit to
Bangladesh in 2011 she was brutally attacked by her husband, who opposed her return to Canada,
where he suspected her having an extra marital affair with another man. The attack left Manzur
blind and with a disfigured face. From Manzur's statement, she has been facing domestic violence
for years and her husband has also threatened to pour acid on her and murder her. In Hasan's
statement he complained that Manzur has left her child in his care in Bangladesh whereas she went
to persue her studies. Hasan's another complain was that manzur was in a relationship in Canada
with a Iranian man and he had to play the role of a mother to his daughter. He claimed he cannot
show the authority of a husband with his wife.
This incident of Manzur is only one example of domestic violence in Bangladesh. Women has been
facing torture and abuse in the name of 'HUSBAN'S AUTHORITY' everyday in Bangladesh. Even
the news reporters who reported Manzur's tragic incident covered the story in such way that it was
her mistake to go abroad leaving her daughter with her son and to achieve her dream. Sadly, in this
patriarchal social system most people even justified Hasan's statement blaming Rumana Manzur for
provoking Hasan to attack her.
From Hasan's statement we can clearly see the unequal framework of gender and the patriarchal
culture of Bangladesh. His account reflected a man's attitude that, by virtue of of being a husband,
he has the right to control his wife's life and to punish her if she fails to meet his sexual and
emotional needs. Not only that, the unequal gender system also established the believe that if a
woman priorities her education over her maternal responsibilities she can easily be shamed as a
woman. This toxic masculine gender system has gave male the power to control over a female's life.
With Connell's hegemonic masculine idea and with the help of Butler's performative theory we can
state that Bangladeshi cultural norms upholds and reproduces hegemonic norms, physical violence
against spouse and by showing violence towards women men show their hyper masculine identity.
With the help of Butler's theory we can see how the violence acts of men are shaped by large
structural inequalities.
South Asian culture has shaped up in such way that from birth we know male and female has
completely different roles in society. We have different colors selected for male and female child,
different toys selected for each gender. And if mistakenly any male child is different from the social
selected role he is labeled as hijra, gay, half ladies and many more. As if by choosing female toys

2
or by being more interested in clothes or certain television shows lesses his masculinity and makes
him feminine. This toxic behavior of our culture has provoked many domestic violence toward
women and bully the ones who are less masculine in the eyes of society.
The social reaction to a boy and a girl child makes the boy to grow as hyper- masculine person who
can do whatever they want and on the other hand, forbids girl to do almost every regular thing that a
male does. A boy is a boy not because of his anatomy, but because he was constantly taught to be
so.
Masculinity is the idea that a man is the opposite of a woman, that certain symbols and behaviors
are given to both genders to demonstrate this difference. If we just look at the regular example that
we see everyday around us we can understand that huge differences between a man and a woman.
For an example, a woman is not allowed to stay out at night, if she does that she will be shamed by
the society or worse, she will become a victim of rape and sadly even if she becomes the victim, no
the rapist but the victim will be blamed for staying out late.
Men do not cry, men fight, men earns, men are masculine are simple rules give a surprisingly
consistent meaning to manhood almost all over the world. Men complete on these criteria and
receive various socioeconomic rewards within patriarchal system. As per Connell's 'Hegemonic
Masculinity' framework, a number of characteristics are encouraged in men. Such as- violnce,
emotional restrain, courage, toughness, risk taking, adventurous and thrilling, competitiveness an
success, these hegemonic masculinity framework provides the understanding of what make a man a
complete male.
The capitalist mode of production and the media system by marketing clothing, guidelines for men,
exploits the idea of masculinity and makes women to see as an object of pleasure. The market of
turning men masculine is at it's peak but it is also true that this system is not only bad for women it
is also bringing a darker expression of masculinity, giving rise to the notion of 'toxic masculinity'. It
advocates strict punishment for less masculine men by comparing their behavior with women and
use violence to maintain this status.
When it comes to how bad toxic masculinity is for women, we can easily say that it is dangerous.
As it is, masculinity feeds off subjugating women as a suppressed gender and make men the
bourgeoisie gender of the society. Not only in regular life, there are example of a woman like
Benzir Bhutto electing as the prime minister of Pakistan and the masculine elite gender of Pakistan
not accepting that only because she was a woman.
The reason I chose Rumana Manzur's incident to demonstrate the hegemonic masculinity and toxic
masculinity is because even though she was well educated and financially stable she had to be a

3
victim of domestic violence and to justify the crime how her husband Hasan pulled out the 'Male'
card. All around the world sexual assault, domestic violence, terrorism has worked as a product of
toxic masculinity. In absence of avenues for advocating social changes, violent ecpression of
masculinity could easily surface. This is why it is very important to understand these facts to
advance the idea for rooting out the toxic masculine mentality.

4
References:
1. https://globalnews.ca/news/124136/rumana-manzur-beaten-blinded-by-husband-2/
2. https://www.thedailybeast.com/muslim-honor-crimes-rumana-monzur-allegedly-mauled-by-
her-husband
3. http://www.thedailystar.net/news-detail-190178
4. http://www.thedailystar.net/news-detail-190903