By Kelly Roache
Three weeks into my summer in Hyderabad, I am still finding gender issues to be some of the most fascinating and perplexing aspects of the local culture. They are also what have affected my experience here the most personally. In particular, I am beginning to develop an oftentimes contradictory picture of what is considered “masculine” here. Whether downtown or in dirt alleys, men and boys alike can be seen walking together with their arms around each other, and similar displays of physical affection like a pat on the thigh are anything but taboo. Likewise, one of the staff members at the Institute with whom I have become close is an avid baker; he is unabashedly the first to admit it, perhaps in part because there is no fear of mocking from the other men, who would never think to poke fun at what is viewed here as a facet of personality. I try to contrast this with the flack I have seen guys take at home for having such an “inherently feminine” hobby. Here it is a point of pride, while there it can be one of shame.
At the same time, this liberal definition of masculinity is very much a new phenomenon amongst the youngest adult generation. My baker friend and I were discussing this when he shared a story with me about an older Protestant priest he knows who has little incentive to remodel his kitchen, despite his wife’s desire to do so, as only she spends time there. There is also, from my perspective at least, an attempt to balance out this unconventional definition of masculinity with public reassurances, such as how all of my male friends here call each other “boss” (think the Indian equivalent of “bro”). I imagine this is the sort of tension that will vanish within a generation, but at least for the moment, it is palpable.
Regarding the role and perception of women here, there is one issue in particular that comes to mind as a constant plague. The peculiar ritual of young men “catcalling” every moderately attractive female that walks by is not unique to India. Here, however, the brunt of the harassment is borne by white women. It is impossible for me to cross the street without constant honking and yelling from men stacked two or three deep on motorcycles, not to mention auto and bus drivers. From the moment you get here, you are taught to ignore any unfamiliar male who tries to speak with you, which is unfortunate. Usually the incidents are restricted to verbal harassment, although on occasion they can get physical, particularly in crowded spaces like the city buses. In speaking to my Indian friends about why white women in particular are singled out, they explained two theories, both of which touch on both racial and gender elements. First, there is a belief that colonial-era attitudes die hard and that white women are still associated with power and privilege. Whether the response of these men is one of jealousy for these perceived traits or a desire for them, I cannot say. The second explanation hinges on the observation that the targeting of Caucasian women has increased with access to the Internet from India, and thus pornography and Western films, both of which are often guilty of portraying white female characters as promiscuous. Either way, the resultant behavior makes it unwise to travel alone as a female tourist.
I have only been here three weeks, but it is clear that gender issues are not only on my mind, but on those of the Indian people themselves. Yesterday I saw a sidebar in a local newspaper on attempts by LGBT advocates to pass the equivalent of hate crimes legislation protecting Indian transvestites. Next to it was a small article on a national debate over whether to eliminate consent laws for minors between 16 and 18 years of age, for whom it is now illegal to engage in sexual intercourse. As India continues to develop and become a player in the global political and economic forum, I can only imagine that such discussions will intensify. I hope that, along with this, the issues of masculinity and harassment of foreign women will receive the attention they deserve.
Image courtesy of Kelly Roache.
A couple thoughts on masculinity:
1. I don’t know much about Indian history, and of course we should be careful about imposing western cultural/historical standards on non-western cultures, but in European history baking was a professional trade, the sort of thing one was apprenticed to do, which one belonged to a guild/union for, and which one did outside the home. And so it was a masculine thing to do, while cooking for one’s family or as a domestic servant was a feminine thing to do. Maybe in India being a professional baker is likewise more masculine than it might appear.
2. The U.S. is fairly idiosyncratic, in a global context, in how homophobia manifests itself in the culture. Many nonwestern countries in particular, which have a very different understanding of and history of the development of sexual identities, are far more accepting of male friends touching each other without that physicality carrying implications of homosexuality. In the U.S. and certain other western countries like the U.K., that touch is invariably seen as homoerotic (hence “no homo,” or hence the fact that after Oscar Wilde’s trial men on both sides of the Atlantic stopped walking arm-in-arm in the park—it was thenceforth a gay thing to do). Even as countries like India or, for example, China or Japan, confront the growth of western-style, sexual-object-choice-centered homosexuality in the culture (as opposed to a system of sexual identity based on gender identity… long complicated story), it seems to me as if the sense that a man can touch another man without being gay still persists in many nonwestern cultures in a way that it doesn’t in the U.S. I’d be interested to see how this will change with the advance of western-style LGBT civil rights legislation, particularly in India.
Thanks for the report!