3. & 4. September 2021
Online Conference

Welcome Address: M3 Introduction

Spoken Word - Poetry 
By Anamika Joshi und Angshuman Sarma

The power of the Spoken word – as an intrinsic facet of Performing Masculinities, looks to open the topic and reveal the theme to the audience. This Performance Poetry juxtaposes a female spoken word artist with a male performer.
 

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Talk about Masculinity and Power

Keynote Addresses: 

Male Domination under Pressure: Change and Persistence of Hegemonic Masculinity
By Michael Meuser

Thirty years ago, the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu noted that male domination no longer asserts itself in a self-evident mode. It still exists, but is increasingly questioned and perceived as threatened. It is something that has to be defended or justified. The talk pursues the question of to what extent and in what way the ideal of hegemonic masculinity has lost its self-evident legitimacy on the one hand, but remains present and effective as an orientation pattern on the other, and in some cases is deliberately attempted to be restored. Furthermore, it asks whether new positions of masculinity are emerging beyond hegemonic masculinity.


Men Behind Bars: Patriotic Masculinity in the Age of Colonial Incarceration
By Sumathi Ramaswamy

Focusing on images of incarceration of three men—Khudiram Bose, Bhagat Singh, and Mahatma Gandhi—all of whom spent various amounts of time in what the most globally famous among them referred to as “His Majesty’s hotels,” this essay will look at how the colonial jail or prison is visualized as a space for the production of a particular kind of masculinity that I refer to as patriotic. In such prints, the patriotic prisoner of the colonial state is pictured as the most manly of men, refusing to give in to the inevitable abjection and emasculation that incarceration meant under British rule in India. Sometimes stoic, at other times steely, and at still others smiling even in the face of inevitable death, these men show what it took for “real” men to turn sites of terror and everyday humiliation into spaces of mastery and triumph. As the colonial prison is aestheticized through the work of mass-produced art, such prints also helped serve a new nationalist imperative that “jail going” was a patriotic duty—and one to be undertaken with pleasure—of all good men
 

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Becoming a Problem - A Text Concert
By Susanne Sachsse 

If you're not a woman, you're either a man - or you become a problem (Paul B. Preciado). 
In an online text concert, Susanne Sachsse presents “testosterone-based, voluntary intoxication protocols“,  „body-essay“,  „somato-political fiction“, and „a theory of the self, or self-theory“ of Paul B. Preciado. 

The taxonomy of sexual and gender difference collapses. A proposal for political resistance and action. Testosterone not to become a man, but to add a "molecular prosthesis" to his transgender body. Transition as a revolutionary act. In the beginning: the dildo. A tool of resistance against the prevailing order: as a machine, it knows neither man nor woman, but only body orifices. 

Narratives of transition. The testosterone inspired transformation of one's body and stories of social change. Susanne Sachsse collages Paul B. Preciado’s texts from An Apartment on Uranus, Testo Junkie and Contrasexual Manifesto and presents them in a form of a text concert.
 

Masculinity & Power -  A Panel Discussion 
Moderator: Urvashi Butalia  
Speakers: Madhavi Menon, Anindya Hajra, Meena Kandasamy, Romit Chowdhury, Dr. Sharful Islam Khan 

Stand up comedy
By Shreyas Manohar

Until Day 2! 

My Body, My Gender - explorations through movement
A Workshop
By Mandeep Raikhy

Where does the notion of gender locate itself in the body? Is there any tension between the gender you have constructed for yourself and the gender that is being prescribed to you?  How does masculinity play itself out in a moment of contact with another body? Is it possible for us to allow our bodies the space to resist and disrupt acquired notions of gender?

The workshop will engage the participants in an embodied dialogue about masculinity and enable them to explore their relationship of notion of gender through the body, their own body in particular. The workshop will open up several questions around masculinity through movement scores, improvisational explorations and discussion. 

How to Engage Young People in Gender / Masculinity Discussions
A Workshop 
By Glocal Film

A film seminar by Glocal Films on how to engage young people in gender / masculinity discussions. (90 Mins., registration necessary, number of attendees - max. 25 on first-come-first-serve basis) 

Contents: 

• An introduction to the use of film and participatory video methods as a teaching tool in the classroom.  
• What is participatory video?  
• How to use the method as a learner centered teaching tool?
• Basic tricks and tips – short practical exercises 
• How does making a film enhance media critical thinking? 
• Presentation of some film examples of the series followed by a Q&A.  
• Demonstrating how to engage young people in gender discussions and brainstorm film ideas with the audience of this seminar. 

What Makes a Man?
A Workshop on Masculinities 
By Florian Fischer 
(By registration only)
 
What makes a man and how? What is 'typcially' male, what is not? Where does masculinity inspire us and where does it limit us? What can be „toxic“ about masculinity? And what does this have to do with sexism and feminism?

As men* we have learnt to act, react and perceive ourselves and others in certain ways. This workshop is an offer for people socialised as men who want to critically examine their own self and the topic of masculinity. Through conversations, input & exercises, we will reflect on our personal experiences, perceptions and patterns of behaviour as men* as well as the social conditions of masculinity.
 
 
 

Panel Discussion:
Moderator:Namita Bhandare
Speakers: Ravish Kumar, Sania Farooqui, Nadika Nadja, Alka Dhupkar.  

Masculinity in the Media examines verbal and body language in the news media, both online and offline. There is an atmosphere of competitive intimidation and we often see it inTV news channels and talk shows attempting to get ahead in the race for larger audiences and TRPs. What happens in the newsrooms and studios is often reflected on the streets and even in our homes. This section will analyse and understand the prevalent situation in the media and attempt to devise strategies to address the issue.

Even as the conversation around gender-based violence has acquired some nuance and visibility in both academic and popular media, there is relatively less discussion on the parallel rise of certain aggressive forms of masculinity. This toxic masculinity is sometimes expressed as physically violent pushback, sometimes in language used to talk about women, minority sexualities, religious minorities and marginalised castes. The project will explore the different strands of discursive - and material - masculinity that limit and at times overtake the effort to achieve a more gender-just and equitable society.

Wrapping up day 1 & 
Moving on to Day 2 

Destabilizing Gender and Sexuality through Dance
A Presentation 
By Mandeep Raikhy
 
Is gender an ongoing performance that we all engage with continually? Is movement central to this performance of gender? Can dance loosen the nuts and bolts of gender and allow it to become playfully unstable? Can dance become a way for us to challenge singular perspectives on gender and sexuality? Can dance become a political device that allows us to destabilize existing notions of gender and sexuality?
 
The presentation will open up several questions around gender, sexuality and performance by examining two dance works, a male ant has straight antennae and Queen-size, choreographed by the speaker in 2013 and 2016 respectively. 
 
 

Gaming & Masculinity
A Talk Session
ByAnokhi Shah 


Anokhi Shah will present an overview of the gaming landscape and a brief history of its evolution into the games we see today. The session will focus on how a predominantly male industry with very high youth engagement can be used as a tool for reframing gender identities and its potential to build empathy for its users in an innovative lived experience environment. 30 minutes presentation, followed by 15 minutes Q&A 
 

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Talk: Fikri Anıl Altıntaşand Esha Aurora in Conversation regarding Performing Masculinity. The interactive conversation shall  encompass perspectives and contexts of gender performance;Topic of Honor of ascribed non-white masculinity, Gender-based violence and the concepts of Orientalism in masculinity. 

Panel Discussion: Performing Masculinity in Contemporary South Asian Cinema with: Mostofa Sarwar Farooki (Bangladesh), Rubaiyat Hossain (Bangladesh), Devashish Makhija (India),Tillotama Shome (India) moderated by Meenakshi Shedde.

Standup Comedy by Aditi Mittal

Until we meet again!